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Phở Chay / Vegetarian Phở Noodle Soup

Everyone loves phở but if you are a vegetarian, you are missing out on a national treasure. Buddhist temples have been making vegetarian phở for a long time. This is a fruit based broth with phở seasoning that has a remarkable resemblance to the beef version. Vegetarian phở is also much quicker and easier to make for those days where standing over a bubbling pot for hours is not on the schedule. Enjoy this healthy and delicious phở anytime of the day.

This recipe is rated easy and takes approximately 1.5 hours to make.

Ingredients:

1 large carrot

1 daikon

1 asian pear

1 casava

1 bartlett pear (American)

1 fuji apple

1 yellow onion

1 chayote

1 leek

Vegetarian soup base (can be found in Asian markets)

1 package of pho dac biet seasoning

1 package of fresh pho noodles (flat vermicelli) / Dry pho noodles if the fresh version is not available

1 tablespoon of rock sugar

Soy sauce

Sugar

Sea Salt

Ground pepper

Assortment of mock beef and ham or tofu depending on your preference.

1 lime

1 lb of bean sprouts

A few stalks of basil

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Directions

Prepare the broth:

In a 5.5 quarts capacity pot, add 12 cups of water, 1 teaspoon of sea salt and 1 tablespoon of rock sugar. Boil the water.

Peel the chayote, radish, carrot and casava. Cut them into large chunks.

Rinse the pears and apples. Cut them into large chunks.

Add the fruit to the stock and add 1 package of phở seasoning (in a mesh container).

Boil the stock for at least 1 hour. Continue to add water as the liquid will evaporate during the process. After 1 hour, remove the fruit and reserve the liquid.

Strain the liquid for impurities.

Season with 1 tablespoon of vegetarian soup base, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of sugar and ½ teaspoon of sea salt.

Cut 1 stalk of leek into 3 parts and discard the bottom stem portion. Reserve the middle and white parts. Add the middle part to the stock and let the broth simmer while you prepare the noodles and toppings.

Prepare the noodles:

Boil a pot of water (enough to immerse the noodles). When the water is bubbling, add the fresh noodles and turn off the heat. The fresh noodles will be cook within minutes. Check for noodles consistency to be al dente. Drain and rinse with cold water. If you are using dry noodles, the noodles will take much longer to cook.

Prepare the toppings:

Thinly dice the white part of the leek and cut up the mock ham.

Heat a pan with 1 teaspoon of oil and add 1 tablespoon of diced leek. Add the mock beefsteak and fry until crispy. Remove from the pan.

Heat the pan with 1 teaspoon of oil and 1 tablespoon of diced leek. Add the mock ham. Season with ½ a teaspoon of soy sauce, ½ teaspoon of sugar and ½ teaspoon of vegetarian soup seasoning and ½ a teaspoon of ground black pepper.

Optional: You can add firm tofu to the soup and season the tofu like the ham above. You can also add fried tofu to the soup if you do not like the mock meat. You can add any other vegetables that you like as well such as mushrooms, etc.

Plate and serve:

Add a handful of noodles to the bottom of the bowl. Ad your choice of toppings. Add the broth and serve with a side of bean sprouts, basil and lime.

For more recipes, visit our EAT page or Recipe Index.

Authors: Susan Tran and Chau Hoang

Words for Thought

Published by La Vie Partagée

Tomorrow is a new start.

Source: Unknown

Meal Kit Company Review: Purple Carrot

Published by hoanth01

Being professionals in today’s busy world, it is hard to have a home cook meal which includes figuring out what you want to eat and then buying all the ingredients. The current offerings from various companies address this issue by curating recipes and sending all the ingredients in the appropriate portion straight to your home each week. In this series, we tested out a few of the companies to give you our take on each offering. First up is Purple Carrot which is a vegan meal kit company curated by former New York Times columnist and cookbook author Mark Bittman.

Source: Purple Carrot

Company: The Purple Carrot

Website: https://thepurplecarrot.com

Theme: Plant based recipes (Vegan) delivered to your home weekly. From the company’s website:

“Our meal kits are delivered right to your door, on the day of your choice. Our state-of-the-art packaging guarantees freshness and our ingredients are of the highest possible quality, often organic, always non-GMO, and ethically sourced.”

Price:

This is a weekly subscription for meal kit. You can preview the 3 recipes available for the following week and elect to skip the week that you do not want the kit.

$68 – Feeds 2 People / 3 Times a Week

$74 – Feeds 4 People / 2 Times a Week

Source: Purple Carrot

La Vie Partagée’s Assessment

Delivery: The box comes packaged well with large ice packs. As with all delivery service, there are a lot of packaging waste.

Required Culinary Skill: Medium – We found that the recipes require the cook to know basic knife and baking skills.

Additional Tools: The majority of the recipes required:

Baking sheet
Food processor

Recipe Variety: Recipes tends to veer toward Indian, Japanese, Korean, Mediterranean inspired. From this grouping, there is a very strong influence from Indian cuisine which may not be for everyone.

Cooking Instruction: Poor – The instruction is sectioned into 4 steps with pictures. However, within each “step”, there is about 3 to 4 additional steps. The ingredients are not easily identified. Even for experienced cooks, we had to read the recipe a few times and highlight where the ingredients are in the instructions. Furthermore, some steps didn’t add much to the recipe. For example, you would heat the oven just to warm a part of a dish. If you cook it at the same time, you wouldn’t have to waste energy by turning the oven on.

Taste: Bland – Vegetarian or Vegan food tends to be bland if the seasoning is not more aggressive. We find that all the dishes have come out bland or often time the seasoning is only salt and pepper. We needed to augment the ingredients including boiling ingredients in vegetable stock instead of water and adding more seasonings from the pantry. This could be difficult for beginners who do not have a larger understanding of various cuisines’ taste profiles.

Ingredients: High quality – The ingredients in each box have been of high quality. We do like that the service gives you an opportunity to try various vegetables that are in season.

The reasons that you would choose this meal based delivery service:

Healthier option than the other services
Increase vegetable intakes into your diet
Great for those with health issue or dairy restriction (except if you are gluten restricted as the recipes have a lot of carbs)

Conclusion: This service is ideal for those that would like to adopt a more plant based diet and struggle to figure out how to start. However, this service is only for those who has more than basic cook skills. The recipes will need enhancement but that will require some knowledge of the various cuisine profiles. There are multiple steps and most dishes have taken more than 30 minutes to complete. For those that are not adventurous or do not want to spend a lot of time prepping, you should stay clear of this.

Look out for the next meal kit review of Blue Apron and Plated coming soon.

Author: Thai-Anh Hoang

Featured Photo: Purple Carrot

Vietnamese Caramel Flan

Published by La Vie Partagée

One of my favorite dessert growing up is my mother’s flan. My mother’s version is creamy and fluffy. Her trick is to steam the flan instead of the traditional baking method. This method only takes 15 minutes to cook and the flan comes out perfect every time. This is an easy and elegant dessert for anytime of the day. Impress your guests at the next dinner party with this make ahead dessert.

This dessert is rated easy and takes 30 minutes to prepare and another hour to chill in the fridge before serving. This recipe makes approximately 5 servings.

Ingredients

6 large eggs

2 cups of whole milk

1 lime

18 tablespoons of sugar (8 for the batter and 10 for the caramel)

5 oven proof baking cups

Steamer that fits 5 baking cups

Directions

Make the egg batter:

Crack 6 eggs into a mixing bowl.

Using a whisk, slowly stir to break up the eggs. Don’t beat it hard and fast as it will add air bubbles to the batter. This changes the batter consistency.

Slowly whisk in 2 cups of whole milk.

Add 8 tablespoons of sugar, stir and set aside.

Make the caramel:

In a pan heated on medium high, add 10 tablespoons of sugar and 6 tablespoons of water. Stir continuously.

When the sugar mixture bubbles, squeeze half a lime into the caramel mixture. This will prevent the caramel from burning.

Keep stirring. Remove from the heat when the caramel turns dark brown nearing black. Be careful when making caramel because the sugar can easily burn and it is very hot.

Put 1 tablespoon of caramel in the bottom of the baking cup and distribute evenly to form a layer.

Strain the egg mixture through a sieve and distribute the batter evenly between the 5 baking cups.

Cover the baking cups with lids to prevent the steam from ruining the egg mixture. Steam the flan for 15 minutes. Don’t steam the flan beyond 15 minutes!

The water should be bubbling and steaming when you put the cups in the steamer.

When the flan is finished steaming after 15 minutes.

You can check if the flan is done when you insert a knife and it comes out clean. Remove the flan from the steamer and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

To serve:

Run the knife along the edge of the cup. Put a plate on top and flip the plate/flan over. The flan should fall out with the caramel spilling out over the top.

Enjoy this wonderful and easy dessert.

For more recipes, visit our EAT page or Recipe Index.

Authors: Susan Tran and Chau Hoang

Words for Thought

Published by La Vie Partagée

Source: theberry.com

Best of Target: Nate Berkus Affordable Office Decor

Published by La Vie Partagée

We spend so much of our lives at the office so why not infuse it with some glamour and personality. Lucky for us, there is a way to jazz up the workplace with affordable finds from Target. Target came out with the spring collection from Nate Berkus and we want it all. These are our picks for the best items to revitalize your work space today.

(L) Mid-Century Inspired Metal Desk Lamp $ 49.99 (R) Brushed Gold Task Lamp $45.99

Tabletop File with 5 pc Hanging Files $12.99 and File Folders $5.99

(L) Hammered Pencil Gold Cup $6.99 (R) Faceted Tape Measure $7.99

(R) Bird Shaped Tape Dispenser $13.99

Stainless Steel Scissors $16.99

Limited Edition Swingline 747 Stapler

Magnetic Chalkboard $9.99

Clipboard $9.99

You can find these items at Target online store.

For related posts, visit our DESIGN page.

Author: Chau Hoang

Bánh Mì Series: Pickled Daikon and Carrots

Published by La Vie Partagée

When you think of Vietnamese sandwiches or banh mi, you can always see the colorful pickled daikon and carrots on top of these sandwiches. The pickles give a nice hint of tartness and a crunch in contrast to the fattiness of the various meats in the banh mi. There are two versions of the pickled daikon and carrots: one as a side dish and one for the sandwich. The sandwich version is a bit saltier than the side dish version in order to stand up to the various cold cuts. Learn how to make this easy accompaniment to jazz up your sandwich today.

This recipe is rated easy and takes 15 minutes to prepare. The pickling process takes at least 24 hours.

Ingredients

1 large Daikon radish

2 large carrots

½ cup of distilled white vinegar

4 tablespoons of salt

1 cup of sugar

3 cups of water

1 large air tight container

Directions

Peel the carrots and daikon radish. Using a grater, shred them into thin long strips.

Season the vegetables with 2 tablespoons of salt.

Fill up the bowl with water and soak the vegetables for 10 minutes with cold water. This will help keep the vegetables crisp.

In another bowl, combine 1 cup of sugar, ½ cup of vinegar, 3 cups of water and 2 tablespoons of salt. Mix well.

Fill the vegetables with the brining liquid in a pickling container.

Let the vegetables pickle for at least 24 hours before serving. Store the container in the fridge.

Try our other related bánh mì recipes:

Bánh Mì Xíu Mại or Meatballs Sandwich

Vietnamese Mayonnaise

For more recipes, visit our EAT page or Recipe Index.

Authors: Henry Nguyen and Chau Hoang

Words for Thought

Published by La Vie Partagée

Source: Pinterest

Hotel Review: Pilgrimage Village Resort (Hue, Vietnam)

Published by La Vie Partagée

Hue is Vietnam’s most historically significant city located in the central region of the country. Between 1802 and 1945, Hue was the imperial city under the Nguyen dynasty. The city is well known for historical sites such as the imperial city, the royal tombs and numerous temples. The city is still very rural compared to HCMC, Hanoi and nearby DaNang as most of the city was heavily damaged during the Vietnam War. The government continues to make progress to restore the city to its former glory but the process is slow. Hue does not have world class accommodations that have been springing up all over the major tourist cities in Vietnam. However, there is one resort in Hue that is worth checking out.

Pilgrimage Village is an oasis on the outskirt of city center that provides a retreat from a hot and humid day of sightseeing. It is one of the few high end hotel catering to luxury jet setters. La Vie Partagee has stayed at this resort over the past few years and we are ready to provide our assessment. We have stayed at a deluxe room and a bungalow at our two previous visits.

Website: http://www.pilgrimagevillage.com/

Address: 130 Minh mạng, Thủy Xuân, tp. Huế, Thừa Thiên Huế, Vietnam (+84 54 3885 461)

Hotel Class: Classified as 4.5 stars across multiple booking sites

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Positives:

The resort is a step back into the bygone era with a fusion of old, colonial architecture with modern convenience.
Central Hue can be congested, dusty and heavily populated at times. The resort provides a reprieve from the bustle at the heart of the city.
The rooms are spacious and tastefully decorated with Hue’s style furniture. The rooms have outdoor seating space such as a veranda for your personal enjoyment.
There is a shuttle bus to/from central Hue at pre-arranged times.
The resort is well situated in between many tourist destinations around Hue.
The grounds contain swimming pools, fitness, spa and a yoga center in a lush, green environment.
Breakfast is over abundant in options to suit all types of palates.
There is morning yoga for guests.
The hotel is designed for maximum relaxation and it will be hard for you to venture out.

Negatives:

The resort is situated in the Hue suburb and will require a taxi to get to your destinations. It is approximately 15-20 minutes outside of central Hue. You are also very limited in your activities and eating options due to the location.
During the busy seasons, the hotel can be crowded with tour groups.
Depending on your accommodation, some of the rooms are starting to feel “dated”.
Food and drinks are expensive and not up to our expectation for a city that is known as “the best foodie destination in Vietnam”.
Staff’s English is limited and can be an issue for foreigners.
There is a lack of privacy in the bungalow as there are no doors to the bathroom. Even as a couple, you may want something more than a curtain separating the toilet from the rest of the room.

Final Hotel Assessment:

For our hotel’s reviews, we will provide ratings based on the following criteria:

1 (Terrible) to 5 (Excellent)

Overall Rating: 4

Cleanliness: 5 – The Pilgrimage hotel is spotless inside and out.

Reviews of hotels from various sources (i.e. Trip Advisors, Bookings.com, and Expedia.com) are accurately reflecting the current condition of the accommodation: 5 – The Hotel gets rave reviews from various booking sites. The comments regarding improvements are in line with La Vie Partagee’s experience during our stay.

Hotel room descriptions are the same as the booking information: 4 – Based on our experience, the rooms’ descriptions are mostly accurate. The official websites and booking sites showcase the public spaces in its true form. The hotel rooms and suites are starting to feel “dated” and are in need of maintenance and improvement. The official pictures are a few years old and in some cases; do not accurately reflect the condition of the rooms.

The official photos:

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La Vie Partagee photos:

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Check in Process: 4 – Customer Service can be really slow as it took us over 20 minutes to check in. However, the welcome staff and receptionists are warm and courteous. The porter will welcome you when your car pulls up to the driveway. They will take your bags and walk you down the path to the reception pavilion where you will be treated with refreshment while you wait for check in. After the paperwork has been completed, the staff will give you a tour of the facilities and make sure that you are happy with the accommodations. Overall, the process was much slower than we’ve expected.

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Staff’s ability to speak English: 3 – We find that the reception staff is able to articulate in English and only a few of the hotel staff can speak understandable English.

Food/Beverage Service: 3 –Food is an issue at the resort. The choices are limited and not up to our expectations for a luxury resort. The drinks and food are expensive and choices outside the hotel are limited unless you take a 15 minute trip into central Hue. We did find the breakfast to be a pleasant surprise and a wonderful value if it’s included in the booking. Depending where you book the hotel and at what prices, the room rate can include breakfast. Otherwise, breakfast is expensive.

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Issue resolution from management: N/A – We had no issue when we stayed at the resort.

Customer Service: 4 – The staff is friendly but not intrusive.

Spa: N/A – We did not use the spa during our stay. We did visit the spa facility and noted that it is a top notch facility. Other guests have provided positive feedback. There is also morning yoga available to the guests.

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Helpful Hints:

This is a secluded, old Hue style resort in the suburbs. You will need access to transportation for everything.
Book your accommodation to include breakfast otherwise it can be expensive.
Make sure to stock up on waters, drinks, fruits and snacks as the resort is not walking distance to a nearby store.

Others:

If you are interested in visiting a temple, Duc Son Temple and Orphanage is walking distance from the resort. The nuns have done a truly inspirational job of raising orphans over the year. They also run a vegetarian restaurant, Tinh Tam (tel+0906404629), to teach the children hospitality. You can support them buy eating at the temple-run vegetarian restaurant. Orphans’ Future Alliance, a non-profit based in the US, provide these orphans by paying for their education expenses. Please note that the editors of La Vie Partagee are also involved in Orphans’ Future Alliance.

*Disclaimer: The authors stayed at the resort on two separate occasions on their own expenses, but did receive an upgrade on the second visit to a bungalow.

For related articles, visit the TRAVEL page.

Authors: Thai-Anh Hoang and Chau Hoang

Featured Photo: Pilgrimage Village

Bánh Mì Series: Meatballs / Xíu Mại

Published by La Vie Partagée

I am excited to introduce a new recipe series to our readers: Banh Mi or Vietnamese Sandwhiches. My co-author, Hung Nguyen, has been making Vietnamese sandwiches in Texas at his family owned bakery for years. In this new series, we will reinterpret the bakery’s recipes for our readers. The first recipe will be for a banh mi xíu mại or meatball sandwich. The juicy meatballs paired with a crunchy baguette is a mashup of flavors and texture. This recipe is very easy and I hope you enjoy eating it as much as we do.

This recipe is rated easy and takes approximately 30 minutes to prepare.

Ingredients:

1 lb. of ground pork or your choice of ground meat

1 yellow onion

10 cloves of garlic

1 tablespoon corn starch

⅓ cup of coconut soda

2 cups of low sodium chicken broth

¼ teaspoon of baking powder

½ cup of ketchup

3 tablespoons of unsalted softened butter

Olive oil

Sugar

Ground black pepper

Sea salt

*Garlic is not pictured

Directions:

In a food processor, mince 6 cloves of garlic.

Add 1 lb of ground pork, 1 teaspoon of ground black pepper, ½ teaspoon of sea salt, 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1 tablespoon of corn starch, ¼ teaspoon of baking powder, ⅓ cup of coconut soda and 3 tablespoons of softened unsalted butter.

Pulse until the meat mixture becomes paste-like. Empty the meat mixture into a bowl.

Finely diced ¼ of a large onion or approximately 1 cup of diced onion. Add to the meat mixture and mix well.

Cut ¼ large onion into large pieces, approximately the size of a clove of garlic.

Minced 4 cloves of garlic. Line a pan with oil on high heat. Brown the garlic and onions.

Add ½ cup of ketchup and stir to incorporate with the garlic and onions.

Add 2 cups of low sodium chicken broth. Let the broth comes to a boil and then lower the heat to medium.

Shape the meat paste into 1 inch balls and place the meatballs into the broth. Let the meatballs simmer in the broth for approximately 15 minutes. The meatballs will absorb the sauce as they cook.

A technique to form the proper meatball is shown below. A trick is to oil your left hand and then form the meatballs like the video. Vietnamese meatball paste is stickier than the normal American meatballs.

Turn off the heat and serve with bread. You can either put the meatballs on the bread like a sandwhich and pour some sauce over it or serve it with bread on the side.

Try our other related bánh mì recipes:

Vietnamese Mayonnaise

Pickled Carrots and Daikon Radish

For more recipes, visit our EAT page or Recipe Index.

Latest Posts

Ingredients:

Directions

Prepare the broth:

Prepare the noodles:

Prepare the toppings:

Plate and serve:

Authors: Susan Tran and Chau Hoang

La Vie Partagée’s Assessment

Author: Thai-Anh Hoang

Ingredients

Directions

Make the egg batter:

Make the caramel:

To serve:

Authors: Susan Tran and Chau Hoang

Author: Chau Hoang

Ingredients

Directions

Authors: Henry Nguyen and Chau Hoang

Positives:

Negatives:

Final Hotel Assessment:

Overall Rating: 4

Helpful Hints:

Others:

Authors: Thai-Anh Hoang and Chau Hoang

Ingredients:

Directions:

Authors: Hung Nguyen and Chau Hoang