Notes about Recipes in this book

• Roasted chile paste

  • jctomas on February 03, 2013

    Add bean paste when you add the sugar, wine and soy sauce - it's not mentioned in the recipe.

  • mikevanallen on November 17, 2018

    We add this to most stir fries. It's known as Spicy Asian Goodness in our family.

• Fried rice

  • Waderu on November 10, 2013

    Used brown basmati rice. Used diced maple glaze roasted carrots and turnips. It was delish.

  • Waderu on March 31, 2014

    made it again - this time with sweet potato and pineapple roasted in jerk seasoning the night before

  • Ileana on October 29, 2021

    This was so easy and so good. Subbed green cabbage for the bok choy because that's what I had on hand.

• Beef bavette with tomatoes and thick-cut potatoes

  • DKennedy on August 22, 2015

    P. 143, made this tonight adding 1 small onion, a red pepper and 1 tomato. Otherwise, followed the recipe. This was way too salty. WAY!!!! Really disappointing because the flavor was great other than that. If I make it again, and I might, cut down the Oyster sauce to 1/2 teaspoon and fish sauce to 1 Tablespoon. Maybe also add in some sake or rice wine vinegar to offset the other flavors.

• Grilled pork chops with sweet lemongrass marinade

  • DKennedy on November 28, 2012

    Easy and delicious. Would make a great stir fry marinade if you cut the meat into bite size pieces.

  • TrishaCP on August 14, 2018

    I used thin cut pork chops and was only able to do about a 30 minute marinade at room temperature, but these are packed with flavor.

• Peanut sauce

  • mgwalter on October 12, 2014

    The actual recipe calls for "vegetarian stir fry sauce" not "vegetarian oyster sauce". I know what the latter is, but have no idea about the former. Lee Kum Kim has a vegetarian mushroom flavored stir fry sauce - might that be what thus recipe is calling for?

  • sosayi on September 18, 2018

    Really delicious and quite easy to make. Regarding the note on the vegetarian stir fry sauce, I just used regular oyster sauce, as I didn't have it and not much was called for in the recipe. I also subbed a brown rice miso for the red miso, which I don't think had enough funky flavor. I ended up adding some fish sauce (and actually a bit more lemon for balance) and that seemed to work well.

• Braised branzino with tomatoes and pickled mustard greens

  • runoutofshelves on March 09, 2017

    I had my eye on this recipe thumbing through the book and it did not disappoint. I used snapper because I could not find the other options - sea bass, or barramundi and it tasted great. It's a lovely soupy, aromatic, simple dish for a hot summer night.

• Roasted eggplant and leek salad

  • runoutofshelves on May 30, 2017

    This was delicious. I finally bothered to go to a farmers market and got beautiful little baby leeks, and then I got inspired and actually made the chilli sauce from scratch, which is full of shallots and garlic and sichuan peppercorns cause he said it runs circles round the commercial product, then you mix that with soy sauce and other stuff to make a spicy soy sauce, and it is pungent and wonderful. Vietnamese and Chinese feasts are a bit much work this time of the week, but they are so yummy!

• Halibut vermicelli with dill and pineapple-anchovy sauce

  • sosayi on May 29, 2018

    Weeknight friendly, this dish explodes with flavor. The pineapple anchovy sauce is made in the blender and used to dress the noodles and top the fish. It calls for a thicker, special fish sauce, but I just added whole anchovies with regular fish sauce and that seemed to work just fine. I used thicker black rice noodles, which looked quite pretty with the sauce and fish and still cooked in 4-5 minutes. Phan's directions on rinsing the noodles in cold, then hot, then cold water again worked amazingly well for making the noodles not stick/clump together. Halibut fillets are quickly cooked on the stove-top in their marinade (that you only need to marinate for 5-10 minutes in advance). Roughly chopped dill and scallions (it calls for only white/light green parts, but I used the whole thing) are added at the end of the fish cooking to wilt/cook lightly. Top with chopped peanuts and done! We'll make this again for sure... absolutely delicious.

• Chicken satay with peanut sauce

  • sosayi on September 18, 2018

    Absolutely delicious chicken satay recipe. Don't be alarmed by EYB's ingredient list, it includes the ingredients for the satay marinade, the peanut sauce, AND a roasted chile paste. I was easily able to make the satay marinade and the peanut sauce in under an hour (with loads of sauce leftover that I'll freeze for another go). The roasted chile paste was close enough to a black bean chile sauce that I already had, so I just subbed that. Really great depth of flavors that made my husband actually enjoy chicken (which is rare). I ended up grilling whole chicken thighs, rather than cutting and skewering them, as it was for dinner and not an appetizer and was really happy with that choice.

• Grilled five-spice chicken with tamarind sauce

  • Suphada on March 10, 2021

    Recipe located on p164. This recipe is great. Make sure to add sugar and fish sauce to warm tamarind - it comes together much better. Made this with bone in thighs.

• Shaking beef (Bo luc lac)

  • Stephenn31 on October 09, 2023

    Delicious. The butter adds a nice richness, and the garlic right at the end isn't overpowering. Definitely add some fresh lime juice at the end to cut the richness.

• Boston Globe by T. Susan Chang

  ...the book was battered and splattered, its minuscule, hard-to-read type flecked with oil droplets, like a thousand tiny badges of courage....But I can’t stop thinking about that lemongrass shrimp.

  Full review

• Serious Eats

  ...this is a restaurant cookbook at its core. There is much page-turning and sauce-making necessary to complete many of the recipes. Plan on devoting quite a bit of time...and you won't regret it.

  Full review

• Seattle Weekly

  Phan contends that at his restaurants, he simply serves Vietnamese family-style food. And in this book, he shows you how you can make this food at home.

  Full review

• Epicurious

  Interview with author Charles Phan.

  Full review