The best Vietnamese Restaurants in Toronto (part 2)

Last week I introduced to you the first three Vietnamese restaurants in my favorite list. This week I will walk you through some other options which not only suit my taste but also have got a lot of good reviews on the Internet. They are Peach garden, Pho dau bo, and Lac Vien Pho & Café

1.    Peach Garden:

 

Peach Garden restaurants are easy to identified by the image of a peach on the sign. It has three locations in Toronto so it’s very easy for you to pick up the nearest one to your home. The most popular one might be the one near Gerrard Square. They have a massive menu including both Vietnamese and Thailand cuisine but the best here is rice dishes and Pho. They are tasty, cheap, and super filling

Address: 1018 Gerrard E, Toronto, ON M4M 1Z3

Phone: (416) 916-6432

Some more reviews: http://www.yelp.ca/biz/com-tam-dao-vien-peach-garden-restaurant-toronto-2

2.    Pho dau bo

Pho Dau Bo was voted one of the best Vietnamese Restaurants in GTA. The one in Hamilton was voted Hamilton’s Number One Vietnamese Restaurant by the readers of View magazine. They serve a stunning Pho and variety of other dishes. Also, staff is very helpful and friendly.

Address: 2437 Finch Ave W, Toronto, ON

Phone: (416) 749-9943

Official Website: http://www.pho-daubo.ca/

3.    Lac Vien Pho & Café

This is a rare place in GTA serving Vietnamese Food in Northern Style. You can find Bun Cha and Pho Hanoi here with a very nice and professional staff. Also what I like from this place is that it’s decorated in a very elegant and warm style.

Address: 141 CartWright Avenue M6A 1V4

Phone: (647) 344-7933

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lac-Vien-pho-cafe/146721915375195

So I hope my recommendation can help you in choosing a Vietnamese Restaurant in Toronto which suit your taste and comfortable for your transit. Our long Canadian winter is about to finish so it’s the right time for you to hang out with your friends and family and remember to stop by a Vietnamese restaurant to enjoy some tasty and healthy dishes in “ a very Vietnamese style”!

The best Vietnamese Restaurants in Toronto (part 1)

 

Hello my dear friends, hope you guys have a wonderful week. This week I am going to introduce you the best Vietnamese Restaurants in GTA (Great Toronto Area). After 10 weeks getting to know a lot about Vietnamese food, now is the time for us to go out and try some amazing dishes prepared by the best Vietnamese chefs.

1.    Pho Hung

Pho Hung has been famous for Pho lovers for a long time. It is located in the heart of Chinatown for many years with longer opening hours compared to other restaurant. They have an extensive vegetarian menu which varies from Pho to all vermicelli dishes and Vietnamese spring rolls.

http://phohung.ca/menu3.html

Some must-ordered dishes can be Pho and Vietnamese pancakes (banh xeo)

Address: 350 Spadina Ave Toronto, Ontario M5T 2G4

(416) 593-4274

Official website: http://phohung.ca/

2.    Hanoi 3 seasons

When introduced about northern style Vietnamese food, I mentioned a lot about something called the taste of Hanoi. Here is the restaurant where you can try the original taste of North Vietnamese dishes. A must-tried dish is fresh shrimp rolls (Goi cuon) which is absolutely delicious and affordable

Address: 1135 Queen St E Toronto, ON M4M 1K9 – (416) 469-3010

588 Gerrard St. East – (416) 463-9940

Official Website: http://www.hanoi3seasons.com/

3.    Golden Turtle

Golden Turtle is one of the restaurants taking top spot in Vietnamese restaurant choices where you can find cheap and delicious food. The special dish you can find from here is spring rolls. Moreover, in the summer, the side patio fills up quickly with locals washing down a plate of vermicelli with a bottle of Tiger beer. Not too bad for a day hanging out with your friends!

Address: 125 Ossington Ave Toronto, Ontario M6J 2Z6

(416) 531-1601

More reviews at urbandspoon.com and ourfaves.com

So here are the first three options for you when you feel like having something yummy, fresh and healthy like Vietnamese food in GTA. Leave your feedback in the comment space for me how far you like it. We are going to look at other option for the best Vietnamese Restaurant in Toronto next week!

How to make famous Vietnamese dishes: Spring Rolls recipe

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If you are a huge fan of Vietnamese food, I’m sure spring rolls have to be on your favorite list. A lot of people think spring rolls are the same everywhere but today I will introduce a popular and original recipe in order to see how different and fresh Vietnamese spring rolls are

What do you need?

For mixture:

·      1 lb ground pork or chicken

·      1 package glass noodle (vermicelli noodle), soaked in hot water for 20 minutes, drained and cut into 2-inche pieces

·      2 eggs

·      Minced green onion and white onion

·      2 cloves garlic, grounded

·      1.4 cup grated carrot

·      1.4 cup grated potato

·      ½ cup bean sprouts

·      ¼ cup chopped mushroom

·      20 rice papers

·      Oil (for frying)

For dipping sauce:

·      3 table spoons rice wine vinegar

·      ¼ fish sauce

·      ½ teaspoon sugar

·      2 drops lemon

·      Chopped garlic

Now let's do it!

·      Combine all ingredients and oil in a big bowl ( except wrap papers J )

·      On your chopping board, place a rice paper, soak 3 seconds in warm water and fill with a couple of mixture

·      Fold sides in, the start rolling spring roll at the mixture side

·      Heat oil over medium-high heat in a big pan

·      Fry rolls, turning frequently until cooked and turn golden

·      For the sauce, combine all ingredients in a bowl, add more sugar or fish sauce or lemon as your wish

Serve with dipping sauce and rice noodle if you want. Now you can enjoy a healthy and tastety dish with my simple recipe for Vietnamese Spring Rolls!  

How to make famous Vietnamese dishes: Pho recipe

Do you know there are more than 6 millions searches on Google every month all over the world for the key word “Pho”? Today I will introduce you an easy-to-follow Pho _a famous Vietnamese dishes.

All you need:

For the broth:

-       4 lbs Oxtails or ribs

-       3 pieces of ginger, unpeeled

-       1 halved and unpeeled white onion

-       1/3 cup fish sauce

-       5 whole cloves

-       Cinnamon stick

-       1 teaspoon fennel seeds

-       Bay leaves

For the garnish:

-       1 lbs rice noodles

-       2 bunches of sliced thin scallions

-       ½ cup cilantro leaves, roughly chopped

-       Mung bean sprouts

-       3 large limes

-       Chili paste

-       ¾ lbs filet mignon

Directions:

-       Put the oxtails in a big pot with water to cover the bones around 4 inches. Start boiling and lower the heat to a rapid simmer

-       Put ginger and onion halves on a baking sheet and char them under the broiler until they get blackened. Rinse the onion and ginger under water and add them into the simmering broth

-       Add 1 tablespoon salt and fish sauce

-       Put cloves, cinnamon stick and star anise (optional) in a small skillet and toast them on top of a stove with medium heat. Put the toasted spices and fennel seed in a small square of double thick cheesecloth and tie it. Add the spice bundle and the bay leaves to the broth

-       After 4 hours, take the spice bundle, onion, bay leaves and ginger out from the pot. Remove oxtails and put aside. Take the meat from the bones and set aside. You can return the bones to the broth if you want. Wait for another hour.

-       Meanwhile, soak noodle in warm water for 15 minutes and arrange all the herbs. Boil noodle after soaking until tender but firm

-       After 1 hour, taste the broth and add more fish sauce and salt if you wish

Serving:

- Divide the noodles among the bowls as your wish. Arrange all the slices of raw fillet and pieces of cooked oxtail meat over the noodle. Ladle the broth over all. Serve immediately along with the platters of garnish

So here is the Pho recipe for all of food lovers who love to attempt to make home-made Vietnamese Food with the restaurant taste! Good luck to all of you and leave the comments to me!

Everything about noodles in Vietnamese Cuisine

When people mention Vietnamese Cuisine, they always think about “Pho”. Pho is considered not only the national dish but also the “cuisine ambassador” which helps people all over the world know more about Vietnamese cuisine. Although Pho is so well-known and beloved everywhere, there are much more delicious noodle soups and in this post i am going to introduce everything about noodles in Vietnamese Cuisine.

Vietnamese food boasts a huge variety of noodle soups; each has a distinct flavor and influences. The noodles are available in both term of fresh and dry form. From different kind of rice and cooking method, Vietnamese have created a wide range of noodles:
1.    Bánh phở: fresh flat rice noodles which is used to make well-known dish: Pho
2.    Bún: thin rice vermicelli nooldes
3.    Bánh canh: thick noodles made from the mixture of rice flour and tapioca flour ( quite similar to Udon)
4.    Cellophane noodles: thin glass noodles
5.    Mì: wheat flour noodles, can be either yellow or white
6.    Bánh đa đỏ: red noodles, very popular in Hai Phong province, mixed with crab
7.    Bánh đa: rice cracker





From these different noodles, Vietnamese people have created delicious food in both hot noodles soups and dry noodle dishes

Hot Noodles Soups:
 
-    Bun Bo Hue: this is also called spicy noodle soup which was originated from the royal city of hue in central Vietnam. The dish contains beef bones, shrimp paste, lemongrass and dried chilies which give the broth a tasty and distinctive flavor. It usually is served with mint leaves, bean spourts, and lime wedges.
-    Banh canh: as mentioned before, banh canh is the tapioca noodle soup with very simple broth. It often includes pork, crab, chicken, shrimp and onions sprinkled on top
-    Bun rieu: a very famous dish in HaNoi_the capital of Vietnam. The noodle is made of thin rice noodles and topped with crab and shrimp paste, served in tomato soup with bean sprouts, prawn paste, herbs and chunks of tomato.
-    Hu Tieu: a noodle soup which was brought to Vietnam by way of Chinese immigrants. The noodles usually contains egg noodles with BBQ pork, shrimp and eggs.
-    Bun Thang: thin rice vermicelli noodles with shredded chicken meat, fried egg, steam prok cake and sliced sausages.

Dry Noodles Dishes:

 
-    Bánh hỏi: extremely thin rice vermicelli woven into intricate bundles, it is topped with chopped scallions and meat
-    Bún đậu mắm tôm: delicious dish contain fried tofu served with shrimp paste
-    Bún thịt nướng: a cold noodle dish with grilled pork and lots of vegetables and herbs
-    Bánh cuốn: steamed rice noodle rolls, served with minced pork and wood ear mushroom and Vietnamese pork sausage

After getting through everything about noodles in Vietnamese Cuisine, we understand why traditional Vietnamese cooking is greatly admired for its creativity, fresh ingredients, minimal use of oil, and reliance on variety of herbs and vegetables. With the balance between fresh herbs, meats and noodles, Vietnamese food is considered one of the healthiest cuisines worldwide.

Famous Vietnamese Chefs

1. Christine Ha

Christine Ha, a Vietnamese-American chef and writer from Houston Texas is the first blind winner of the third season of MasterChef in 2012. In 1999, she started losing her vision and became almost blind by 2007.

Ha is as known as a famous chef but in fact she finished her business degree from University of Texas and Master of fine art degree for creative fiction in the creative writing program in 2012.  She reveived the poetry prize from the Scissor Tale Review and was the finalist in Creative Nonfiction MFA contest in 2010.

Ha has never been to any cooking course but she have had a large followers on her food blog. In Master Chef 2012, Ha won 7 times in 19 episodes of the competition in term of individual and team challenges. Finally, Ha was pronounced the winner of the competition with the prizes including $250,000 and the MasterChef trophy. She is the first blind winner of this competition.

2. Luke Nguyen

Luke Nguyen, a Vietnamese-Australian chef, is famous for being the host of well-known television series “Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam”. This is the series about food documentary along Vietnam. Also, he is known as the owner of a restaurant in Sydney named Red Lantern and author of lots of cooking books.

Luke Nguyen was invited as a guess chef in MasterChef Australia and currently is considered MasterChef Vietnam.

3. Hung Huynh

Hung Huynh is the winner of 2007 Top Chef. He was born in Vietnam and raised in Massachusetts. His career started in a Vietnamese restaurant belong to his immigrant parent. Hung completed his degree in Culinary Institute of America. In the moment, he has opened an Asian restaurant with the EMM Group in America.