Taste of Vietnam: Helene's Wok Noodles

Taste of Vietnam: Helene's Wok Noodles

Made by Brandon Nguyen 

I wanted to make something special; something different and unique. I decided to try chef Helene An's wok noodles with stir-fried vegetables, a recipe she shares with us in Ăn: To Eat, and also a featured dish that has been a menu item at her restaurant, Crustacean Beverly Hills. 

Bok choy is a spinach-like vegetable.

I have stir-fried before when I made fried rice. The process is the same with the noodles; it is nothing more than pouring canola oil into a wok and stirring in the vegetables. This was great review. Helene An says that "this preparation will work with any vegetable; feel free to try it with your favorites" (An, Helene & Jacqueline 143). I was amused to find out because this gives me a chance to experiment. I got to work with bok choy (right) and snow peas, vegetables that were new to me. 

I had a little bit of help from my mom. Okay, I had a lot of help from my mom, but you cannot just hop into a kitchen and expect to be Gordon Ramsay. Cooking is something that takes time and practice, and learning from my mom really helps me. 

Snow peas are not easy to cut!

No fingers were cut when shaving the carrots.

The snow peas (left) were difficult for me to cut. I became afraid of the big, sharp knife I was using. This is when my mom really stepped in. She cut all the snow peas. However, having experience with doing it for the fried rice, I managed to shave and grate the carrots (right).

Garlic is added before anything else.

Before putting in any vegetables, I added cloves of garlic to the oil (left), told by Helene An that, "As in Italian cooking, where the garlic and onions are added first to help flavor broth, in stir-frying we do the same, adding shallots, garlic, onion, and ginger first" (An, Helene & Jacqueline 34). Garlic is an aromatic, and helps enhance the flavor of any dish. The trick is to constantly stir and flip the garlic so that it does not burn. 

Next, now that the vegetables are all dry, I tossed in the vegetables, occasionally stirring them so that they fully cook. When the vegetables are cooked, I added the noodles, which have been soaked in warm water.

The final touch is the sauce, which consists of oyster sauce, soy sauce, sugar, and chili paste (bottom-right). The sauce is what gives this dish flavor. It is savory, yet with the chili paste, gives a spicy kick. The dish comes to life as I pour the special sauce over the hot noodles. I am finished!

Flavor comes from the sauces.

I may have overestimated myself. Stir-frying noodles is not the same as frying rice. My mom's assistance really changed the outcome of this dish. Without her, this would have been a major flop, and my post would have been about me failing. My advice to you? Have someone experienced by your side when you are cooking. They can act as your guide, and their advice will help you grow as a novice. I guess my mom and I make a great team.

This dish was definitely something else. It was simplistic yet sophisticated. I like how it was non-traditional. That really gave me a chance to play around with different flavors and ingredients. What can I say? This dish truly broke boundaries! I learned that following four easy steps from a book cannot help you become a better cook. They are only there for reference. Cooking is not revolved around a book teaching you the right or wrong ways. What challenges you as a cook? How can you overcome that challenge? 

Works Cited: 

An, Helene, and Jacqueline An. Ăn: to Eat: Recipes and Stories from a Vietnamese Family Kitchen. Running Press, 2016.