Visitors
in My Tho city can easily try this local specialty since it’s almost
everywhere, from street vendors to small and big restaurants.
My Tho rice noodles. © Photo of Vanhoamientay.com
Rice – the ingredient
Rice
noodles is also a name of the dish and the main ingredient. People can call it
“rice noodle threads” or “rice noodles sheets” as the ingredient and call it
“bowl/dish of rice noodles” as the name. There is a traditional village in Hoi
Gia, My Phong town, where supplies most of rice noodles not only to restaurants
in My Tho city but also to Ho Chi Minh city and other provinces near by.
To
make fresh rice noodles, first we need to grind rice grain with water then
steam the flour to make thick sheets (years ago people only could make round
sheets but nowadays they can do rectangular ones to maximize the utility).
Cooked sheets would be sun dried within a day, then julienne cut. The final
product is dried-coat threads and ready to be served. Usually, people get the
process done around 2pm to pack and get them delivered the next early morning.
Seafood noodles. © Photo of Hotdeal
Common noodles. © Photo of Hellostar
Plentiful ways to
cook
People
cook rice noodles in a big and deep pot divided into 2 parts: one for the broth
and one for the blanching water. A handful of rice noodles in a big net spoon
would be blanched, drained then poured into a bowl with fresh bean sprouts,
oiled dried shrimps, a piece of ribs, some slices of boiled pork and pork liver
(shrimps and quail eggs are optional), a pinch of chive leaves then pour the
broth over the noodles. The broth is mainly slow-cooked with pork and bones,
dried squids, and dried shrimps.
In
general, a bowl of My Tho rice noodles is cooked that way but some real
restaurants always have their own cooking tips to make their bowls more
special. Diners might add soy sauce, fresh chili, lime, or more bean sprouts to
taste.
Sun-dried rice sheets then julienne cut.
The
dish has some variations, such as dried bowl (broth in separate bowl and
noodles would be slightly different marinated), seafood bowl, fish bowl, or
vegan bowl.
The
special characteristic of My Tho rice noodles lays on typical cooking method
and fresh noodles from grade-A jasmine rice (Go Cat area, My Phong and other
towns near by Rice Market). This type of noodles is also used in other family
dishes like noodles with beef balls (also has blanched bean sprouts, beef
balls, spice leaves, and broth). Diners add fish sauce, chili sauce and
grounded fresh chili to taste.
Pho,
the most common Vietnamese dish, is made with this type of noodles, too. Pho’s
broth is from beef bone and depending on types of meat that people would call
it rare beef, tendon, or flank steak pho. Diners can relish their bowl with
fish sauce or hoisin sauce and chili sauce. The side vegetables dish includes
bean sprout, basil, ngo gai, rau om, a quarter of lime, and chili. It is a
version of real pho of the North but it’s better called “beef rice-noodles”.
Moreover,
they also have stewed beef rice noodles and sautéed beef rice noodles, which is
quite delicious because of the thick robust broth.
Another
dish should be counted is stir-fried rice noodles; without broth.
Writer: Ngoc
Hung
Translator: Thu
Pham