Beef Noodle Soup

It's been raining on and off in NY lately. Coupled with the surreal and emotional feels of being stuck indoors, my soul and belly have been calling out for comfort foods. This Beef Noodle Soup, the last family recipe I worked on before leaving for NY, is something I've been craving. As much as I don't have access to these ingredients to recreate this recipe now, just being able to share this brings me a lot of comfort, as I recall the familiar flavors and my family members who taught this to me.

If my internal struggle with meat consumption wasn't already at a height, it was exacerbated by the moment I decided to make this recipe - the day after Lunar New Year. Auntie Wat, a couple of my cousins, and I showed up at the "Old House," my family's home in Santa Ana, CA, with all the ingredients to make a huge pot of Beef Noodle Soup, enough to make at least 40 servings (typical giant portions for my giant family). Auntie Bay, who lives at the Old House, was visibly upset and explained that we weren't allowed to eat beef during the week following Lunar New Year. As New Year is believed to be a time to extend the bounty of goodwill to all creatures on earth, abstaining from meat consumption is a way to honor the animals that give themselves for our food. This was a tradition my grandmother modified by restricting beef consumption and taught to her children.

Feeling bad that I'd gone through the trouble to buy all the groceries, Auntie Wat and Auntie Soy prodded with Bay to allow us to cook it. She relented, but not without warning me that I was causing my grandmother to turn in her grave (sorry, Grandma!). In Ancestor Worship customs, honoring the wishes of your elders, even as they are deceased, dictates your karma and fortune in your current life. While my oldest aunties, now in their 80s, still abide by these customs, my father and his younger siblings who are in their 60s do not. And here I am, another generation removed, and I am just learning about my family's belief systems and practices.

Beyond the religious implications of this dish, there is also an interesting migratory story inherent to it. Although I think of Beef Noodle Soup as a staple family dish, it wasn't something my family made until immigrating to the US. While living in Cambodia, they rarely consumed beef. This dish was adopted after living in close proximity to Little Saigon, where Auntie Wat learned it from her immigration sponsor - a Chinese man who probably learned and adapted it from traditional phó recipes.

It's interesting to see how migration across geographies has led to an evolution of ingredients used for cooking and the types of dishes created by my family. When I think of how this Beef Noodle Soup came to me, I imagine this fast-forward lineage playing out before my eyes. First, phó is created in the early 1900s in Northern Vietnam, as a cross-pollination of Chinese (the rice noodles) & French (the boeuf) influence. It then travels to the South of Vietnam and takes on more complex evolutions, with more spices and herbs added. From there, it crosses land and sea to arrive on the shores of America, brought over by refugees in a mass post-war exodus. In the city of Westminster, a Vietnamese immigrant hub, my family was introduced to this bowl of comfort, learning how to cook it from friends and relatives. Years later, by the weathered hands of my aunties, this warm and delicious broth filled with noodles landed on my table for me to "chau" down on. And now...after some time in the kitchen with my aunties, I am able share it with you.

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Ingredients

1 pack of wide, flat rice noodles (preferably pre-cooked Lucky K.T. Co brand)

1 lb oxtail

3 lb beef shank center cut bone in

1 lb beef bone

1.5 lb flank beef

1 ln beef leg tendon

1 lb of beef tripe

1 tsp MSG

1 tbsp chicken bouillon powder

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

3 tbsp fish sauce

4 kaffir lime leaves

1 1-inch piece of galangal, thinly sliced

2 yellow onions, peeled & halved

2 star anise

3 lemongrass stalks, tied into a bundle

For garnish:

Cilantro

Green onions

Sawtooth coriander

Bean sprouts

Fried garlic

Black pepper

Chili sauce

Instructions

1. Roast onions and galangal in oven for 15-20 mins at 400 degrees (until onions are charred on the edges)

2. Par-boil the meat and bones (except for tripe) for 10-15 mins, until the scum rises to the surface. This is to clean the meat and help keep your broth clear. Discard water.

3. Separate out the different cuts. Cut the meat off the bones from the beef shank, keeping the bones for your broth.

4. Fill a large pot with 4 quarts of water. Add roasted onions, galangal, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass bundle, sugar, MSG, fish sauce, and chicken bouillon powder. Add bones, oxtail, flank beef and bring to a boil. Reduce to a low boil and cook covered for 2 hours. After 2 hours, remove the flank beef. Once cool, slice flank beef into 1/4” pieces, and set aside.

5. Meanwhile, in 3 separate pots, you are going to boil (covered) at varying lengths of time:

• Beef shank meat - 1.5 hrs (Keep broth and add to main pot)

• Beef leg tendon - 1 hour (Keep broth and add to main pot)

• Beef tripe - 10 mins (Discard broth)

6. When ready, remove tripe, leg tendon, and shank meat. Slice into bite sized (about 1/4”) pieces and set aside. (Remember to cut across the grain).

7. Pour the broth from your shank meat and leg tendon into your main pot, and cook at a low boil for another 2 hours.

8. Taste test your broth and salt as needed (about 2 tbsp).

9. Once broth is ready, boil your rice noodles. The pre-cooked ones from Lucky KT only take about 2 mins.

10. To prepare each serving, add rice noodles into a bowl with sliced shank, tendon, and flank meat no top. Fill and cover with broth.

11. Garnish with your choice of toppings - bean sprouts, minced sawtooth coriander, cilantro, green onions, black pepper, and/or chili sauce.

12. Serve and Chau down!

Tips:

You can use any rice noodle you prefer. My family uses either a thin phó noodle or the flat, wide noodles I'm referencing here. I personally prefer the flat, wide noodles, specifically the Lucky K.T. brand sold freshly cooked in Asian markets.

Cleaning your beef leg tendon properly: Remove any dirt and hair. Rub salt and vinegar on the leg tendon and let it sit for 10 mins to remove any funky odor.

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Recipe Courtesy of: Auntie Wat

Photographed above: Auntie Wat, her husband, and children at a Thai refugee camp. Circa 1980.

Auntie Wat is the 2nd oldest of my father's siblings. She suffered a stroke a couple years ago, which paralyzed her left arm and has greatly limited her overall mobility. Although she's in a wheelchair now and unable to cook, this recipe is largely inspired by her. She arguably used to make the best Beef Noodle Soup in my family. During this cooking experience, she accompanied me to the market and made some recommendations to the recipe, as my Auntie Soy and I cooked.

When the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia, families, friends and neighbors were separated in an attempt to break apart traditional kinships and create an authoritative advantage for the Communist regime. Auntie Wat experienced this, as they separated her from two of her children when they forced the entire country into agricultural labor camps. The Khmer Rouge purposely tried to segregate children from adults, as the youth were more susceptible to their brainwashing techniques. After two months of being separated, Auntie Wat snuck into the children's camp while the Communist soldiers were on lunch / off guard, and took my cousins back with her. I'm not sure of all the details, but I do know she was lucky enough to get away with this and to reunite her family before escaping to Thailand and eventually immigrating to the US. Had she not succeeded in doing so, two of my cousins could have been part of thousands of children who were orphaned after the Khmer Rouge.

One of these cousins, nicknamed Coke, was with us the day we cooked this recipe. He carried Auntie Wat out of the car into her wheelchair and pushed her around the market. In a very full circle manner that is characteristic of the reciprocal expectations of children and parents in our culture, Coke is Auntie Wat's main caretaker and is beautifully repaying the sacrifices and hardships born by his mother. As much as I wish I could've cooked with Auntie Wat when she was still physically able to, I am so grateful that I had this time with her, Auntie Soy, and my cousins to learn this recipe.

I am continuously reminded of why this cookbook project is so meaningful. With every recipe learned, every cooking experience encountered, and every story unearthed, it feels like I'm peeling back layers of of an onion.