The food: Vietnamese Noodles

Where to find it:  The Lunch Lady, 23 Hoang Sa St., District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

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Sous chefs. You’ve seen them tucked away in a leaky corner of a kitchen simmering your favorite au jus. You’ve smelled the teasing pre-meal scents of their cooking waft out of the kitchen doors. You’ve heard them chopping stocks of onions in the late afternoon shift to the point of “2:20 tears.” But have you heard of  them?

In Vietnam I interviewed and filmed with Ho Chi Minh City’s Nguyen Thi Thanh (aka the “Lunch Lady”). Made famous by Anthony Bourdain’s TV show, No Reservations, Ms. Thanh has a smile and food that will charm any hungry traveler, and she certainly charmed yours truly. However, I will write about her scrumptious food at a later date.

Today, I focus on the woman you see in the above and below pictures: the sous chef. The second-in-command of the kitchen. The first mate of food. The right hand man (or woman). “Sous“ in French means “under” or “sub,” so a sous chef literally translates to an “under chef.”

The term “under chef” hardly does the sous chef job justice. Any good chef and gourmand knows that a great taste comes from the warriors of the kitchen: the sous chef, the aboyeur, the chef de partie, even the garbage boy. So, I dedicate today’s post to the sous chefs in the world like the woman in the pictures for today’s #FoodFriday.

Daily you’ll find Ms. Thanh’s sous chef churning vats of pho broth and peeling pounds of shrimp hour after hour. When Ms. Thanh needs to take a break from preparing meals, her sous chef steps up to the cooking station without fail. She is the tenacity behind terrific taste.

On this particular day the sous chef whipped up the meal of the day: Hu Tiu Nam Vang. “Hu Tiu” means “noodle soup” and “Nam Vang” is a place in Cambodia. The sous chef draws inspiration from her regional roots near Cambodia to create this soup.

First, she starts with a pork broth, a base many Vietnamese dishes use. Then she adds sliced and minced pork to add more punch to the hearty flavor. Of course, I’ve mentioned before that Vietnamese food is all about balance. The sous chef knows to temper the strong pork flavors with fresh spring onion, prawn, quail egg and rice vermicelli noodle.

In the end she uses skills she’s honed day-in and day-out as a prep cook and sous chef. She brings together ingredients she knows intimately into the food we see pictured above. We might see the results of her labors, but we rarely see her: the hero sous chef.

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On the topic of thanking the unsung heroes. I’d like to give a big shout out to my wonderful post-production team of the international food documentary series we’re tirelessly editing at the moment. You guys are the inspiration behind a story that’ll hopefully inspire others to explore, taste and understand other cultures. If you’re a (documentary/trailer) editor who is interested in joining the editing team at Longa Productions, then please send an email to [email protected] asking that you’d like to learn more.

Also, I’d like to overwhelmingly thank the below people (and dozens of others who have wished to remain anonymous) for their help during the filming of the documentary series. You guys rock.

Brunei
Diwakar Thiru

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Cambodia
Johnny the Tuk Tuk Dude

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Hong Kong
Hans Wang

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Philippines
Doyzkie Buenaviaje
Edd Buenaviaje
Jacqueline Tolosa-Guzman
Ryan Guzman
Ed Javarez
Mark Anthony Tindog
Lilymae Becera Uy
Rechel Nario

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Malaysia
Dian Bato
Steve Bernard
Mark Booth
Luke Kenny Doo
Linda Tan
Baweng Tajang
The Tan Family
The Tajang Family

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Singapore
Dev Chandan
Kamil Haque
David Liu
John Loh
Yu-Kym Charlene Loh
Paul Foster
Valentina Rafaela Soliano
Lai Wei Wei

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United States
Christine Chan
Brendan Field
Jon Khaykin
Emily Pietro
Steven Matthew Sterrett
Brian L Tan “BLT”
Wilfredo Valle

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Vietnam
Doug Barber
Jimmy Hayes
Ha Le
Charlie Ta
Koala Tree

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You guys all make the world smaller and a legit place to explore.

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