Soda Sua Hot Ga (Vietnamese Condensed Milk Egg Soda)

Blame it on the indulgence of Thanksgiving feast, but the next day when I set about boiling leftover turkey bones to make broth for Bun Mang Ga Tay (Vietnamese Rice Vermicelli Noodle Soup with Bamboo Shoots and Turkey), I thought of how refreshing a glass of Soda Sua Hot Ga (Vietnamese Condensed Milk Egg Soda) would be with the bowl of hot soup.

Light, fizzy, and slightly creamy, a Vietnamese egg soda is reminiscent of an Italian egg cream, although the latter doesn't even have eggs. If you balk at ingesting raw eggs though, then this drink isn't for you.

It's not a complicated recipe, just club soda, condensed milk, and an egg yolk. Pureed until fizzy and poured over ice. Perfect for a hot summer's day, or to contrast with a hot bowl of Vietnamese noodle soup.

I realized I hadn't had a soda sua hot ga since January 2009, when I ordered one at Pho Filet Vietnamese Restaurant - South El Monte, and cousin Q's older brother's new wife had never heard of such a thing before. I meant to make one at home to shoot for the blog, but you know how long it takes me to get around to anything. So better late than never.

Goi Bap Cai Chay (Vietnamese Vegetarian Cabbage Salad)

To balance out the carbs and meat in my Bo Kho (Vietnamese Beef Stew) Pot Pie, I made a simple Goi Bap Cai Chay (Vietnamese Vegetarian Cabbage Salad). Cabbage, a carrot, and an onion, tossed with some Vietnamese fish sauce. Actually, it's not that much different from my recipe for Goi Ga Bap Cai (Vietnamese Chicken Salad with Cabbage).

I used soy-marinated wheat gluten puffs which gave it a nice savoriness, but you can easily leave that out if you wish. I realized in looking at these pictures that I didn't add a handful of chopped herbs like I usually do. Must not have had any on hand. The vegetables are pantry staples and can keep for quite a while so even without the herbs, the red onion and carrot added plenty of color. If you want this to be truly vegetarian, you can easily replace the fish sauce with vegetarian fish sauce.

Bo Kho (Vietnamese Beef Stew) Pot Pie

I don't know why it didn't occur to me sooner to make a Bo Kho (Vietnamese Beef Stew) Pot Pie. I mean, I made Ca Ri Ga (Vietnamese Chicken Curry) Pot Pie years ago so you'd figure this would already be in my radar, but nope.

My first attempt was to modify my Bo Kho (Vietnamese Beef Stew) recipe by pureeing the lemongrass and thickening the broth, but the result was too thick, not enough gravy, and the bits of lemongrass were too jarring. So I scooped the stew out of the pie shell, added water, and tried again. Still wasn't quite what I wanted.

Why was I trying to fix what wasn't broken? Remembering the beef stew with puff pastry at Hot Stuff Cafe - San Gabriel, I decided to keep the filling as much of a stew as possible. So I started over again with my usual Vietnamese beef stew recipe, but this time, halving the recipe and using only cubed beef, no bones. I did add a bit more flour than usual for a thicker gravy, but the biggest difference was the puff pastry crust. Delicious gravy-laden beef stew with flaky crust. Finally, it was perfect.

Now, the simplest thing to do is make a big batch of my Vietnamese beef stew, spoon some in individual servings and top with puff pastry. If you have some stoneware bowls, this is perfect for everyone to have their own Vietnamese beef stew pot pie. But you can also make a bigger pie portion and top it with a whole puff pastry shell like I did for Thanksgiving dinner.