January: Phở Gà (Part 2)

Pictured as actually my second serving of phở gà, given that the four of us were too hungry, yet very present, to take a picture of the first. 

The Process

Cooking Playlist - Summer Healing Session: You Matter

I started cooking at noon, after a slow morning of processing the daunting task of cooking like my mother. Yes, I have cooked some of my mother's recipes before, but this would be my first attempt at a noodle soup. When cooking Vietnamese noodle soups like a Vietnamese mom, there are many factors to consider: the time commitment, the intention, the attention, the expertise ("little bit of this, little bit of that"), and the love ... cooking factors that I have little experience with as a full-time and child-less school administrator. However, I dedicated the whole day to the task; I had everything but the expertise on my tool belt.

You may have read about my experience with cooking the dish through my annotated Google Doc in the previous post, so I will share some highlights through images and explanations.

Andrew was amused with my perturbed reaction to handling a full "walking" chicken. There's something disturbing about handling the loose neck that I am not quite used to. I had to remove the head, since it would be too time consuming to clean anyway, and I had to break its legs to have the entire chicken fit in the stockpot, like so:

The chicken may have put up a fight, but I was able to eventually drown it -- with minimal broth splashes and burns on my part. 

My mother suggested that I toast the yellow onion, ginger, and star anise on top of foil over a lit stove, but I recalled my childhood memories of burning star anise without the foil and directly over the fire to ignite the flavor. I took the liberty of politely defying my mother's written directions by engaging in this nostalgic act. Suggestion: Use large, wooden, unpolished cooking chopsticks for this, not dining chopsticks. 

After adding the toasted onion, ginger, and star anise, I let the broth simmer for a couple hours until our guests arrived, which allowed the broth to soak up the flavor of the chicken bones and various spices. (Yes, mom, I got rid of the layer of fat after I took this picture.)

The Product

(See photo of phở gà above!)

I have thoroughly thought out how I would like to capture the memory of serving these meals, and I have chosen to audio record the experience from my phone. I chose this medium because 1) it feels less awkward for me (and possibly my guests) to engage in a natural free-flowing conversation without worrying about appearances in front of a pointed phone or camera, 2) I hope it allows the audience to use the dialogue, sounds, and their imagination to envision what the meal looks and feels like, and 3) it allows me to cherish the memory on various commutes, providing me a gateway to transition from work to home (or vice versa), or a point of affirmation in the middle of a busy day.  

  

Post-Production

It's been two weeks since I made phở gà for Andrew, Rabiah, and Danielle. The following thoughts and feelings from my first dinner still warm up my spirit:

• Our conversation about embracing progress alongside with finding content with just being.
• Our conversation about the privilege of being able to focus on our developing our holistic selves in light of our mothers' ability to make do of their situations. 
• My soul feeling whole after being able to serve folks I love with good food. 

I am looking forward to my next adventure, in which I will be cooking bò kho with my February boo-boys/BooTrinity -- Robert and Ken.