Her very popular soup, bún dò (red noodles), is a combination of banana leaf wrapped-sausage, cubes of congealed pork blood, morning glory greens, shrimp paste, snails, and tofu, for which she charges about 75 cents per bowl.
More than 50 friends and relatives gathered in the banquet room at Dae Dong, a Korean restaurant, feasting on red bean pastries, glass rice noodles and barbecued beef.
I particularly liked munatoo ($4), six pasta-like pockets filled with ground beef, onions and an array of seasonings and topped with yogurt and tomato sauce; a peppy, tomato-based red chicken noodle soup ($2.50) alive with vibrant spices, and the Russian salad, which was the Dali Lama of egg salads with its eggs, cooked potatoes, chicken, peas and mayonnaise.
They're served with impossible-to-manage long noodles (as if a single goes-forever noodle is wound into your broth); the sweeter dumplings such as the red bean have less finesse than the savories.
Merchandise from Conran's will include the 98-inch-diameter red wool Noodles rug by Nani Marquina ($1,436, marked down from $3,590) and the bright orange lacquer Poldo Como dresser ($3,246, reduced from $4,995), above; Artemide's offerings include the Tolomeo desk lamp ($175, originally $355) and the steel-and-aluminum Creonte floor lamp ($350, marked down from $890).
The cake (actually made with a type of radish) is traditionally cut into cubes and stir-fried with egg noodles, chilli, red pepper, bean sprouts and eggs, but I just sear it in oil.
Recommended dishes: Tom yum soup, tom khar, tofu soup, hoi joh, spring rolls, crispy duck, beef or fish with chili sauce, chicken with sweet-spicy sauce, Thai boat, red curry, spicy noodles, egg noodles.
WHAT WE LIKE: Fresh vegetable rolls, chicken satay, tom yum goong (shrimp) soup, tom kha gai (chicken) soup, green papaya salad, chiang mai noodle (red curry with egg noodles), drunken noodles, char-grilled salmon with tamarind sauce, green curry with shrimp, red curry with chicken.
We stopped for a feast of the popular and populist pho, a bowl of spicy, beefy broth designed as a make-it-yourself meal — we added to taste and whim fresh bean sprouts, minced hot red peppers, rice noodles, tiny fried onions, bits of salty preserved cabbage, and the essential, colorful and crisp tangle of herbs.
