FRAGRANT leaves or rau thom refer to herbs served alongside dishes when dining at a Vietnamese restaurant. Inexpensive and plentiful in Vietnamese markets, the use of fresh herbs is an ode to the country’s rich culinary heritage where cooks strive to find balance in taste and texture by adding minty, peppery, grassy, lemony and spicy sweet accents to uplift the flavour of dishes. Examples are mint, coriander leaves, spring onion, basil, fish mint, sawtooth coriander, rice paddy herb and Vietnamese coriander (better known as daun kesum locally).
Vietnamese desserts to end your meal with at Song Ngu. They bring their own unique flavour profile in enhancing the taste of dishes such as beef pho or even bahn xeo (cripsy crepe with meat, shrimp and bean sprouts). Take the quintessential beef pho, for example – an iconic soup dish that has gained popularity globally as a healthy and fresh-flavoured dish which is incomplete without herbs.
The pronounced meaty flavour in pho makes it a satisfying meal, but those who shy away from beef will be delighted to learn that the chicken version is an option at Song Ngu at New Ocean World Fine Food City, a lifestyle food mall located in Section 19, Petaling Jaya. At Song Ngu, Vietnamese cooks throw in plenty of kampung chicken bones and parts into the stock, which is simmered for up to five hours. Star anise, coriander seeds, cloves, cardamom and cinnamon as well as lemongrass, ginger and yellow onions build layers of flavour as the soup ta.