Why is Vietnamese Crepe (Banh Xeo) a popular street food?

Vietnamese Crepe (Banh Xeo)

Vietnamese Crepe (Banh Xeo)

Let us take a deeper culture dive into Vietnamese Cuisine and explore what “Vietnamese Crepe,” also refer as Banh Xeo. This dish is a widely popular street food cuisine in Vietnam! Banh Xeo is originally from in the southern region, but many other parts throw their unique twist to the crepe by adding eggs, squid, taro, and yellow beans.

Banh Xeo can be identified at Vietnamese restaurant as a yellow crepe or taco shaped entrée. The outer shell is made out of rice flour, water, and turmeric powder to give the different yellow distinguish color. The crepe is cooked in a pan with high temperature to create the outer crispy and crunchy texture. The vegetables and meat inside the Banh Xeo are often pork, shrimp, green onions, and bean sprouts. Banh Xeo is then served with a side of green vegetables often lettuce, mint, cucumber, pickled carrots. The proper way of eating Banh Xeo is cutting into bite size pieces and wrapping the crepe around with lettuce pieces. It then dipped into fish sauces with a squirt of chili sauces to add that extra sweet, salty, and spicy flavor. Watch Out! The entire meal can be a messy process to eat and required to have lots of napkins on the side!

What Is Pho? (Vietnamese Noodle Soup)

Beef Sliced and Beef Meatballs Pho Noodle Soup

Beef Sliced and Beef Meatballs

Pho (pronounced Fuh) is a traditional Vietnamese cuisine consisting of broth (chicken, or beef), rice noodles, herbs, and meat.  The cuisine is widely known Vietnamese dish that is served at all Vietnamese restaurant! Pho is a widely popular soup for curing hangovers or a perfect comfort food on a raining weather day. Pho is a traditional Vietnamese street food in the originated in the Hanoi. But now you will probably see if at every street corner in Vietnam.

When you order pho, there many different kinds of pho noodle soups. We’ll just keep it short and simple with two kinds of noodle soups you’ll see at all Vietnamese restaurants. Thinly sliced beef and chicken pho. Another name for chicken pho is chicken noodle soup. When the waiter brings out the soup, the noodle soup is accompanying with a dish of garnishes. The garnishes are typically bean sprouts, basil, limes, peppers, and green onions.

At every pho restaurant, you will see next to your table two crucial sauces to add into your soup. One of the red sauces is Sriracha. Sriracha adds that extra added kick of spice into the soup. The other dark brown looking sauce is hosin sauce. Plum Sauce adds the sweet flavor to accompany the Sriracha.

The ingredients and preparation for pho is a long grueling process. Each process takes tremendous amounts of preparation and different amounts of spices into the broth. A variety of spices is added into the slow cooking process that takes about 8-10 hours to cook. The broth is cooked with the bones of the meat to get the extra beefy flavors. The spices added to the broth are typically cinnamon, roasted ginger, cloves, star anise, roasted onions, black cardamom.

The typical pho noodle soup is served with white rice noodles, and different cuts of meats. ( Steak, flank, brisket, lean flank).  Also, Depending on the restaurant’s menu offering to their customers. Other types of beef parts like tendons, tripe, and meatballs are added into the soup for that extra beefiness.

Chicken Pho is just the same as the beef noodle soup, but with chicken! It is often known as chicken noodle soup at some restaurants. Shredded white chicken breast is substituted for the meat in chicken pho and green onions to top the dish off.

I hope this guide is helpful in explaining what pho noodle soup is and what to look for when going into a restaurant.

January Specials

We welcome this month’s menu special items: No substitution on the items below

 

  • Seafood Udon Noodle Soup $10.50

  • Beef Udon Noodle Soup $9.50

  • Vegetable Soup served with Roll of French bread $8.75

  • Clam Chowder served with a roll of French bread $8.75

  • Grilled Pork Spring Rolls $6.50

To kick off with the 2017 New Year

To kick off with the 2017 New Year; Le Paradis has decided to re brand ourselves from the restaurant and bakery. We believe by separating our two unique offers; thus would allow us to organize and offer more focus on what we provide to customers. We would like to welcome La Patisseries as our second brand for the bakery section of the restaurant. We will be launching very soon La Patisseries own website and social media for  customers to follow.

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