This may sound like discount Vietnamese food or like poor alternatives but they’re not. Authentic Vietnamese food relies on adherence to the traditional recipe. As long as you capture the resulting dish, the culinary technique or technology used to get there doesn’t matter so much. Here’s how you shop Vietnamese ingredients in Toronto.
Steamed fish.
Vietnam is primarily a coastal country with bountiful seafood. You may not see much seafood utilized in pho or banh mi but steamed fish and fish sauce are staples. Tagged with leafy greens or steamed rice and you’ve got a simple Vietnamese-inspired dish ready to eat. While Vietnam may prefer basa, tilapia, or snakehead, you can also use salmon or halibut as a replacement.
Don’t compromise.
If you can’t find what you want and they don’t have it in the back, go to another market. Ingredients that are tough-to-find still need to be found. Look for brand-name products, such as Three Crabs fish sauce, Marukan rice vinegar as a dipping sauce, and Maggi Seasoning for a meaty flavor. These condiments or sauces, along with classic Vietnamese spices and herbs, are an excellent add to your pantry.
Pressure-cook stocks and stews.
24-hour pho broths may work in a Toronto Vietnamese restaurant and yes, they’re absolutely delicious but they aren’t always ideal for home. Instead, use a pressure cooker to prepare a chicken stock or vegetable stock to use as a base for Vietnamese soup or pho. In particular, Vietnam pho is a flexible, dynamic dish which can be modified with a range of different ingredients. If you want to be adventurous, play with what you put in your broth.
Rice crackers and puff pastries.
If you’re preparing a Vietnamese dinner from home, you can save yourself some time by using store-bought rice crackers and puff pastries. It takes time to make dough and create pastries like ‘banh pa te so’. Homemade rice crackers can also be tedious to prepare from scratch, with such little impact that it’s not worth it for most families. Consider buying these from the store!
For freshly prepared, authentic Vietnamese food in Toronto, visit Toronto Pho. See your favourite East Asian foods and maybe one or two you might not expect!
