San Francisco-Style Vietnamese American Garlic Noodles Recipe (2024)

I’ve been using my meat tenderizing mallet for smashing garlic lately. Turns it into a creamy paste. Does a great job and I’ll use it with this recipe.

I keep a large bulb of garlic, roots intact, in a small vase (one that held a hyacinth bulb purchased at Aldi works well). Use the tall green shoots from the garlic instead of scallions to add flavor and greenery to any number of dishes. The roots that grow swirl in a lovely pattern in the bottom of the vase, and the bulb will continue to produce shoots for weeks.

As a Vietnamese immigrant whose parents owned a restaurant for decades in Denver, I would like to add another essential condiment/sauce in the canon of Vietnamese cooking called Maggi. My family makes this dish using Maggi and not fish sauce. Just thought I'd offer this up as another way to make these yummy noodles. Maggi, in its iconic curvaceous dark brown bottle, is not made of soy but wheat protein. You will often that tangy saltiness in Vietnamese sandwiches.

YiaYia, a mortar and pestle crushes the garlic, releasing its flavors and oils, but a food processor just cuts it up finely, and the hard sides of the garlic are still intact, albeit smaller. But, little of the garlic’s flavor is released when it is simply cut into small pieces, so if you don’t have a mortar and pestle, it’s better to crush the garlic with the flat side of a heavy knife, and then mince it.

Have been cooking pasta in a skillet for years. Use approximately 3 cups of water per 12 oz of pasta in 12-inch skillet. Turn heat to high. Cook approximately 10 minutes, stirring frequently, adding more water towards end if needed as noodles absorb the water and soften. Add favorite sauce - or transfer as recommended in this recipe and toss till you are happy with the finish.

Hamish, Folks have tested this plenty of times - there's basic science to it. Here's one article from a colleague of Kenji's:https://www.seriouseats.com/how-to-mince-chop-garlic-microplane-vs-garlic-pressThat said, we cook for our homes, not a lab. Process the garlic any which way you want. The important thing is someone wanting to cook.

DO not buy crushed garlic in a jar. You can get away with whole peeled garlic in a crunch. Garlic is easy to use peel a few bulbs and leave it whole in your fridge and then you will have the pleasure of using garlic in your cereal in the morning.(just to see if anyone is reading)

Unusual for me, completely followed the recipe, no changes. I'll never cook pasta in a pot again.Added a fair amount of the pasta water, to the end product and tasted like we had a cream sauce. This is amazing, no leftovers ...and chop the garlic however you want!

1. On a well supported cutting board, smash garlic cloves with the flat side of a chef's knife - making sure to: hold the handle of the knife over the edge of the board; center the blade over the garlic (lest you send the clove flying across the kitchen); and give the side of the blade a nice hard whack.2. Gather smashed cloves into what will look almost like a pile of pulp, and mince away.Easy; fast; efficient - and a great way to channel aggression.

I have made this dish dozens of times over the last few years and it's always delicious. I do have a suggestion, however. The amount of sauce needs to be at least doubled from what is suggested above. Keep the butter and garlic on a very low flame so the garlic doesn't burn. Turn the heat off before adding the cheese.

I found a garlic "rocker" on Amazon while browsing kitchen utensils. I's a bent bar shape with small holes in the center. You press down and rock back and forth on a garlic clove and it pushes the garlic through the holes, releasing the most intense garlic flavor. It's much like a press, but without the messy clean up and frustration of getting all the garlic out of the press. It cleans up in about 15 seconds.I'll never mince garlic again!

I think there is also a little tangerine juice to counter the garlic, as in their sumptuous roast crabs...

Fresh is surely better, but those little jars of minced garlic really do make life easier.

There are lots of vegan fish sauces and oyster sauces available, and they taste great. I live in Northern Virginia, so I get them from H Mart, but you can also find online. The vegan oyster sauce I prefer is Kikkoman. ps I just checked the bottle and it says vegetarian, not vegan - but I don't see anything in the ingredient list that's non-vegan.

1- Trust and follow the pasta cooking method - but stir to unstick from pan 2- Use all the garlic even if it seems like too much 3- Add a bit more of each of the sauces, and more like 1/2 c. cheese I ended up not even needing to drain the pasta, end result was perfectly creamy/emulsified, not greasy in the slightest. I told my Roman-born husband it was like Vietnamese carbonara. We added lots of black pepper (like the crab dish has). Anyone tried it w/ bottarga instead of cheese?

The garlic was a bit of a pain to prep (I used a garlic press), but otherwise, this was a quick and easy meal that everyone liked. It probably goes without saying, but if you don't like garlic, you won't like this dish.

Made this with about 8 cloves of garlic grated on a microplane. The garlic flavor was very present but not overpowering in the final dish. I wasn’t brave enough to try it with 20 cloves. Added a little more soy sauce after tasting. Didn’t have scallions, chiffonaded some basil and mint. Delish.

Superb video accompanying the recipe.

How would this taste without the cheese? Would it work?

I’ve been eyeing this recipe for quite a while and finally took the plunge. Married to someone of Italian descent, I had to make it clear that this wasn’t his mama’s spaghetti. He lapped it up and wished there was more. Added wild shrimp. Clean plates; happy people.

I'm not the greatest cook. I really love this recipe and wanted to try it. I thought maybe at the end I needed to add more pasta water to it and let it cook about 2min longer since I like my pasta a little softer. Mine didn't have a "sauce" like the recipe mentioned. I've never had anything like this before. I do love trying new recipes from here to broaden my knowledge.

I was shocked by how tasty this was. I've been afraid of fish sauce for a long time due to past misuse, but it was delicious here. I didn't properly measure anything, so my dish turned out a bit salty. I also didnt have any oyster sauce to use. I added some braised cabbage and the sweetness of the cabbage goes really well with the saltiness of the dish, plus makes the dish a bit healthier. So quick and simple but such a flavor punch!

(I) double sauces by 1.5-2x

Initially, weBen I read the recipe calling for all that garlic I panickedI made it with all the garlicWow , it was greatThere are still no vampires around the county

SO delicious and very easy! I was concerned that the fish sauce might make it too "fishy" tasting, but not at all. Highly recommend, but watch the video to get the technique right. This dish is all about technique.

Sauces aren't ample enough; next time I'll double it. would also double the parmesan cheese dose. otherwise- a great side!

So delicious with a pound of shrimp. Add one minute after the garlic. Add a couple extra minutes cook time after you add the sauces to firm them up (mine were medium size so not very large). Recommend extra sauces (little extra garlic if you need it) to coat the extra food better. Definitely splurge on the green onions.

This was amazing! I never usually leave notes, but I had to for this! This is going to go into serious rotation in our house. He also has a YouTube video showing how to make this, which was nice to watch.

Why would anyone eat "San Francisco style" Vietnamese food? The largest Vietnamese population is 45 minutes away in San Jose. And the Vietnamese culinary capital in this country is Houston.

I used half the pasta but kept the sauce the same. To keep with the San Francisco theme, I used spaghetti from Flour Water. I served it with roasted vegetables (carrots, daikon, broccolini) tossed with olive oil and red pepper flakes. That served two people for dinner, and leftovers for lunch a couple of days later.