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Noodle House brings a taste of home all the way from Vietnam

By Elizabeth W. Jernigan 7 months ago

With a history as rich as the broth it is known for, pho comes from mid-1880s cuisine in Northern Vietnam by way of Chinese and French influences. Primarily made with rice noodles and spices popular of the period in China, the slow-cooked soup took hold in Vietnam as French cuisine popularized eating red meat.

For Ly Hoa, bringing those historical and cultural influences to life in Ardmore is a dream come true. “It’s really important for a community to have diversity,” she said. Hoa is the descendant of many generations of pho and coffee shopkeepers from her home country of

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Chinese takeout recipes you can make at home

By Elizabeth W. Jernigan 8 months ago

You’ll find various lists of the “top 10 most-ordered” foods for take-out Chinese, menu items such as orange chicken, pot stickers and wonton soup. Most aren’t easy to prepare at home, which is one reason, over and above global pandemics, why woks at Chinese restaurants are busy always.

But a couple of very popular Chinese restaurant menu items are easy to make at home — and might be better for it. But for a couple of special ingredients (such as toasted sesame seed oil or sweet soy sauce, increasingly available at mainline groceries), they are hot and sour soup and

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At Abandon Izakaya in Seminole, a chef’s table series with a big following finds a home

By Elizabeth W. Jernigan 8 months ago

SEMINOLE — For the past several years, the team behind Abandon Izakaya built a solid underground following for their private chef’s dinners.

It started, as most whimsical supper clubs do, with a love of food and hospitality. Owners Mitch Beardsley and Chanse Chanthalansy first met as students at Pinellas Park High School and were longtime friends when they got the idea for a joint chef’s table series.

The duo started throwing private dinner events for friends, family and the occasional foodie-in-the-know. Held at a 12-person chef’s table, the pair would switch off hosting the meals at their respective homes. The

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Chinese home cooking comes to Redondo

By Elizabeth W. Jernigan 11 months ago

Jiayuan Dumpling House ‘s Linda Shi. Photo by JP Cordero

Over the course of culinary history, there are ideas that are recreated again and again. Every culture has some version of meat roasted over a fire, whether they call it barbecue, kebab, shashlik, yakitori, or something else. Similarly, once people come up with the idea of dough, it’s a natural thing to wrap it around meat or vegetables. Bake it and you have turnovers, steam it for tamales, fry it for samosas or empanadas, boil it and call it a stuffed dumpling.

Chinese dumplings have been trending for the last

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