GoGo noodles

Although the cooking suggestions say to cook the noodles in the bowl I normally boil instant rice noodles in the pot (especially rice vermicelli). I usually use a hot water dispenser for cup and bowl noodles but the temperature of the water isn’t thaaat hot to begin with so it doesn’t cook rice noodles very thoroughly. So instead of waiting for the water to boil and then waiting for the noodles to cook in the bowl, I get it done faster in the pot. However, I thought I’d follow the directions this time to see what happens. Surprisingly, the texture of the noodles turned out pretty good and ended up cooking all the way through. I wanted to make lunch a little more substantial so I added some shrimp. I sliced the shrimp in half length-wise (I figured it would cook faster and all the way through this way) and dropped them in the bowl to cook with the noodles. And tada! it worked! A little cilantro and lunch was ready. The soup is light, a little sour with hints of lemongrass…mmm…and fried onions. Overall the Thai flavor was light but still tasty.

Today was a sad day. I don’t often meet a noodle that I don’t like….but unfortunately, I met one today. Excited to try somen for the first time and intrigued by the word “fresh” on the label, I had high hopes for this noodle. When I opened the lid, I was delightfully surprised to find a vacuumed sealed package of what looked like rice noodles (so this is what they meant by “fresh”!) and a seasoning packet. As soon as the hot water hit the seasoning, the savory scent of bonito wafted up my nostrils. The noodles turned out tasting like mushy rubberbands which was a bummer because the soup was pretty tasty. The flavor of the broth was on the milder side as with most bonito soups and had hints of seaweed and green onion. The huge bowl is misleading because the actual serving size of the noodles are teeny! Even for me! Bit of a disappointment…perhaps it was user error?

This is the best bun bo hue ever. And good bun bo hue is so hard to find because, first, there aren’t a lot of restaurants that serve this and second, there aren’t a lot of restaurants that make this well. We were first introduced to this place by a good friend. He sold us on the fact that this restaurant only served 1 item on the menu. We figured the food must be good to open a restaurant for just one item. So there are 2 food items on the menu and sometimes 3. You can order regular bun bo hue or bun bo hue with ngau pin (cow penis). They sometimes serve pho and it’s on a while supplies last basis. I love everything about the bun bo hue here….the broth is full of complex flavors, spicy and has a clean, fresh taste. The noodles are soft and chewy.

Bun Bo Hue An Nam
740 Story Road
San Jose, CA 95122
(408) 993-1211

Raw and cooked Shanghainese noodles.






I’m not even sure how to describe the flavor of this. No idea what’s in the sauce. As I was getting ready for work this morning I ran into anthony’s mother rummaging through the pantry looking for the other jar of Chinese spaghetti sauce. Chinese spaghetti sauce? I didn’t realize there was such a thing. I guess it shouldn’t have surprised me…it kind of makes sense…why not? Spaghetti did originate from China after all, why not have sauce to go with it? When I got home from work I walked into the kitchen and found the sauce simmering on the stove. I think she added ground pork to the sauce but not sure because I was too excited to try Chinese spaghetti that I forgot to ask her. She instructed me to top the Shanghainese noodles with the sauce, bean sprouts, green onions and sambal olek if I wanted spice. The noodles were perfect, kind of like mini udon. How do I describe the sauce? It was like spaghetti bolognes without the tomatoes and a little spicy. There were bits of soy and other stuff that I couldn’t figure out. The flavor was very concentrated so the green onions and bean sprouts balanced it out and added another dimension of texture. If you can find a jar of Chinese spaghetti sauce in your local asian foods market, I would recommend trying it. Why not?

Okay, don’t laugh but this was my attempt to make Laotian rice noodle soup. I realize now that the noodles are a wee bit thicker than it’s supposed to be….but considering that this was my second time making the noodles from scratch, I was happy that these turned out edible. The ingredients (rice flour, tapioca starch and boiling water) are simple but making the noodles are a challenge. Aside from not cutting the noodles the right size, I don’t think I kneaded the dough for as long as I should have because the texture was a little off. Despite the sub par noodles, the broth came out pretty tasty and was also simple to make. I started by adding a whole stew chicken to a pot of water. If you don’t have a stew chicken, you can use thigh meat. Then ginger, a stalk of lemongrass goes in the pot and some salt. A neat little trick that I learned is to pound the stalk of lemongrass to release the aromas and tie into a knot before you add to the stock. Bring the liquid to a boil and simmer for 2-3 hours. The longer the better. So simple but soo good.

I was pleasantly surprised by the extra care that was taken in packaging the noodles. I like that it came in a protective tray because the noodles are very delicate but it makes me feel bad because it seems wasteful. Protective but not environmentally friendly. Not soon after the noodles moved from the pot to the bowl, they were quick to soak up the broth so it’s okay to use extra water. I tasted some spices (like star of anise or was it five spice) but there was a total absence of abalone and chicken flavor. The texture of the ho fun was soft and slurpy which I enjoyed a lot. I wish I had some abalone and chicken to add but all I had was cilantro.

*Product of China

Sister, this is my first blog about udon so I dedicate this to you. Unfortunately, Chikara hot & spicy brand noodles were not great. Anthony complained that there wasn’t enough msg which I sort of agree with. Also, to my disappointment, the soup was not hot & spicy as the package claims. I rate udon by how soft and chewy the noodles are and despite the fact that I cooked the noodles for about 15 minutes, they still didn’t turn out as soft and chewy as I prefer. Even though I doctored these noodles up it was still OK….edible…but nothing to write home about. The truth is that I have yet to find really good instant udon except for this one time when I bought a package at a random asian grocery store, the problem is that I can’t remember the name of the brand OR the store I bought it from. Oh well, my quest continues for the best instant udon noodles.

The toppings I added were onion, cooked cabbage, chilis, daikon and a raw egg. I don’t usually add raw eggs to instant noodles but since the noodles were cooking for so long, the soup was hot enough to cook the egg.

*Product of Japan

After a shitty day at work, I was ecstatic to come home to one of my most favorite noodle dishes ever!! Anthony’s mother made Soto Ayam…mmmMMmm. It’s always such a special treat and is so delicious. Soto Ayam is an Indonesian chicken noodle soup that’s usually made with vermicelli rice noodles….but it’s so much better with bean thread (or cellophane) noodles. The reason why I love-love Soto Ayam so much is because it’s served with so many goodies. Soto Ayam is most often served with shredded chicken (but not tonight), hard boiled eggs (quail eggs are better!) slices of fried potatoes, fried shrimp chips and lots of veggies. The soup has an intense and savory flavor with a hint of sour because of the tomatoes, think of chicken soup on crack. Shredded cabbage and bean sprouts add texture and crunch. The fresh flavor of the basil and cilantro rounds out the dish. The fried potatoes and egg make this a hearty and substantial meal. A squeeze of fresh lemon is a must to add extra zing to the soup.


These are the bean thread noodles in it’s raw and cooked form. Oriental King seems to be the most popular brand in my neck of the woods. The wonderful thing about this noodle is that it absorbs the soup or sauce it’s in…at a rapid rate…so you have to eat fast! which shouldn’t be a problem…for me anyway. I also really enjoy the slippery, smooth texture, the chewiness, and the airiness of the noodles. Bean thread noodles are very easy to make: soak the noodles in hot water and give them a quick boil. The noodles are quite delicate, so be careful to not over cook or you’ll end up with a starchy pot of water.

Leave no noodle behind….I went from empty to full in 10 minutes.

There isn’t a distinct flavor that comes to mind when eating these noodles and it wasn’t very spicy. I decided to use only half of the palm oil because I just read in an article about how much saturated fat is in palm oil – about 50%! Not like eating a packet of instant noodles a week is any better for you – with or without the palm oil. But it made me feel a little better. Overall, these noodles were only okay, not bad but not great. Maybe because I didn’t use all of the oil??

I didn’t have much to add except for cilantro and my usual green onions.

*Product of Japan

I was very curious to taste these noodles and wondered how the flavor of bun rieu would translate to instant form.

Very interesting to find that there were 4 seasoning packets. Soup base, fried garlic, dehydrated veggies and the big one is the oil and bits of crab meat (i think).

Can you see the lumps of crab meat?

I had some cabbage and half a tomato in the crisper. I would say that this flavor was not as delicious as the picture appears. It tastes nothing like fresh Bun Rieu, which is a Vietnamese tomato crab noodle soup. The dominant flavor of this soup was sour with a hint of shrimp. Didn’t taste like crab at all.

*Product of Vietnam