What is a Vietnamese sausage? What is the meat actually made of? When someone says ‘Vietnamese sausage’, a person could be referring to any number of a half-dozen sausages. Usually, what is meant by a Vietnamese sausage is cha lua, or sometimes called gio lua. This is Vietnam’s most common sausage, made from a pork predominantly and usually wrapped in banana leaves. Sliced Vietnamese sausage can be served in several different ways, provided on its’ own, given over banh cuon, and/or can be garnished with fried shallots.

The meat in Vietnamese sausage is a recipe of lean pork, potato starch, garlic, ground black pepper, and sauce. Although the sausage has recently found its way into Thai cuisine, it’s Vietnamese all the way from the use of fish sauce to the way the pork is prepared. The pork is usually pounded until it becomes a paste. When assembling this type of sausage, the pork is not chopped or grounded in any way. Doing so would make the meat fibrous, dry, and crumbly. Pounding it down, this keeps it wet, moistened, and ready to be purposed in a sausage.

Read more: What is Vietnamese Sausage – see it here!

In certain varieties of pho, you will find something called tripe. Many Torontonians may not necessarily know what tripe is. Tripe has been used in a variety of cultural cuisines for centuries. Tripe is the stomach lining of various farm animals. It is edible when prepared correctly, usually coming from cattle and sheep among other animals.

There are also subsets of different types of tripe. For example, beef tripe is prepared from the muscle wall of a cow’s stomach. There’s also tripe coming from the stomachs of sheep, deer, antelopes, giraffes, and other animals. Depending on the part of the world, you can make tripe from almost any animal. In Spanish cuisine, there’s a particular culture around several tripe dishes.

In English culture, you will have washed tripe a lot of the time. This is where the stomach’s been cleaned, the fat’s been trimmed, and it is then boiled and bleached which gives it a white color. Dressed tripe was a very popular dish among the UK working classes for decades. Although people eating tripe regularly has gone down significantly, tripe is still eaten by some including holding down heavy popularity in France and Italy among other parts of the world.

Read more: Tripe in Vietnamese Pho, Most Don’t Know What It Is – Here’s a Breakdown!

Pad thai is a stir fry rice noodle dish that’s been served as a street food for decades in Vietnam and all across Asia. It is such an integral part of cuisine in this part of the world that you’d find it tough trying to find a restaurant that doesn’t serve it.

When we use pad thai in Vietnam cooking, we use it a little differently than in other cultures sometimes incorporating elements of Vietnamese cuisine such as fish sauce and dried shrimp. Normally, pad thai is made from rehydrating dried rice noodles. These are then stir fried with a variety of ingredients including eggs to start with.

After a pad thai has its eggs and rice noodles all prepped, from there, this is where creativity comes into play. Chopped firm tofu is usually added in, although a chef can use other protein sources. Flavor-wise, there’s at least a dozen ingredients you can use to spice it up. Fish sauce, tamarind pulp, dried shrimp, garlic, red chili peppers, and palm sugar are some favourites to get the pad thai done right. In some cases, pad thai is served with chopped roasted peanuts and served with wedges of lime.

Read more: In Vietnam Cooking, What is Pad Thai Made From – see the Answer!

Egg noodles are extremely common in Vietnamese cuisine and used most commonly in stir fry meals. Though many Westerners may be unfamiliar with egg noodles, they’re used in various cuisines across Asian and in some cultures more than any pasta is.

As pasta’s most common to Canadians, we thought it would be interesting to look at the differences between egg noodles and pasta. Like pasta, egg noodles are carb-heavy and the nutrition is similar when comparing the two. Pasta is usually made from a dough derived from wheat, eggs, and water. Alternatively, egg noodles work from a similar base however employ more egg. Thereby, the texture of egg noodles differs and allows them to hold heavy creamy sauces or butter-based sauces.

Nutritious-wise, egg noodles and pasta are virtually identical. 100 grams of dry pasta contain 75 grams of carbs while the same amount of egg noodles contains 71 grams of carbs. Egg noodles are however a little lighter in weight. 100 grams of each contain roughly 3 grams of fiber. The difficulty with egg noodles is that, like pasta, they add carbs. When you eat, you need to be careful of this as too many carbs can lead to chronic health problems which is not what we want. For this reason, as you’ll notice, egg noodles in Vietnamese cooking are used sparingly.

Read more: Why Egg Noodles in Vietnamese Cuisine? See the Differences with Egg v. Pasta

Vegetarian Vietnamese pho is a customized version of the popular dish that’s landed in households from Vietnam all the way to Canada.

Although pho is very nutritious and healthy regardless of what meat is in it, we understand more people are switching to a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle. Answering the call, there are many ways to customize pho according to the veggies you want to have in it. Here are just some of the most popular vegetables in pho, absolutely perfect for a vegetarian version of the dish.

Carrots

Carrots are an excellent choice for a veggie pho because of their taste and nutritional background. In carrots, you have plenty of vitamin A, antioxidants, and other nutrients. They’re very rich in minerals, fibers, and other vitamins as well.

Read more: What Does An All Vegetarian Pho Look Like – See a List of Common Veggies to Add!

Broth is everything when it comes to pho. Most Vietnamese families, when they think of pho, naturally what comes to mind is beef broth. So much of pho is made from beef-based broth. Regardless of what meat or spices are used, it is the prototype for the dish.

There are several different ways to create beef broth for pho. For example, some prefer leaving the fat intact and skimming the bone afterwards while others make their broth only after eliminating the fat. Although many top chefs and cooks in making a beef broth will pre-roast bones with the mindset that it will create a deeper broth, most Vietnamese chefs will do no roasting and instead, parboil to arrive at a cleaner, healthier end-result.

Read more: See Everything That Goes Into Creating The Perfect Vietnamese Beef Broth