History
Garlic noodles and all the forms they take are staple foods for many cultures. I found this recipe from NYT Cooking on YouTube. The video creator, Kenji, tells the story of how this dish came to be. A Vietnamese restaurant owner in San Francisco visited an Italian restaurant and ordered a bowl of garlic spaghetti. Disappointed by the bland, subdued flavor of the dish, she decided to elevate the meal by incorporating her own Vietnamese ingredients. By combining a garlic and butter base with the umami-rich soy sauce, oyster sauce, and fish sauce, she created a delicious fusion noodle.
The Verdict
Affordability: 5/5
Nutrition: 2.5/5
Taste: 5/5
Time: 4/5
This dish consists of eight ingredients, and most households will have around one to three of them already. The total cost of groceries for 14 servings (2 people for seven days) was $26.07 or $1.86 per serving. There are three potential avenues for reducing costs: opting for cheaper butter, selecting a more affordable Parmesan cheese alternative, and omitting green onions. I use Kerrygold butter, which is on the more expensive side, as well as Sargento parmesan cheese. I believe cheaper butter would work well, but cheap Kraft parmesan cheese would compromise the flavor. Omitting green onions, which contribute minimally to the dish, is not a bad idea. Lastly, my grocery store was out of oyster sauce, so I found hoisin sauce to be a suitable alternative.
In total, this meal took me an average of 30 minutes and 15 seconds to make from start to finish. This includes everything from peeling and chopping garlic to garnishing the plate. Out of all the pasta sauces I have ever made from scratch, this was by far the easiest. The sauce is matured with the pasta in it, which saves time. The most annoying and time consuming part is peeling garlic, but the fresh garlic taste is worth it. This is one of the few times I can say using raw garlic was 100% necessary.
The most significant downfall of this dish is its one-dimensionality. There is no vegetable or protein. In future iterations, I aim to enhance its nutritional value by incorporating spinach and cubed chicken. That being said, the flavor and texture of this pasta is exceptional. The incorporation of Parmesan cheese into the umami-rich base yields a creamy, delectable sauce that coats the spaghetti noodles flawlessly. Given its remarkable taste and texture, this recipe undoubtedly earns a spot in my culinary repertoire for future use.
Ingredients
Makes two servings:
1.5 Tbsp butter
8-10 cloves Garlic
Dry Spaghetti Noodles
1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1 Tbsp Oyster Sauce
1 Tbsp Fish Sauce
2 ounces parmesan cheese
Green Onion
Instructions
- Heat water in a pot to a boil. At the same time, follow the next three steps. When the water boils, put in the pasta.
- Peel and thinly slice your garlic. Mash garlic in a mortar and pestle (or use a spoon if you don’t have one, like me). It doesn’t need to be a paste, but instead just roughly mashed.
- Heat a pan on low-medium heat. Once the pan is hot, melt the butter and add the garlic. Cook the garlic for two to three minutes. It should not be browned much, if at all.
- Add the soy sauce, oyster sauce, and fish sauce to the pan. Stir to combine.
- Cook the pasta until just before al dente. The center should just be slightly firm, as the pasta will finish cooking in the sauce.
- Transfer the pasta directly from the pot to the sauce pan and turn the heat up to medium-high. Pour a small amount of extra pasta water to prevent the pasta from frying. Stir to combine. The water at the bottom of the pan should boil. The video to the right demonstrates the sound the pasta should make. If a higher pitched frying sound is heard, add more pasta water.
- Once around 75% of the water has boiled off, take the pan off the heat and add the parmesan cheese. Stir quickly thereafter to ensure the cheese becomes incorporated into the sauce as opposed to clumping up and becoming stringy.
- Add green onion and stir to combine.
- Plate with a little extra parmesan cheese and green onion on top.
If you need further instructions, please see the NYT’s video covering this recipe. Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments about what recipes you would like to see next!
One response to “San Francisco-Style Vietnamese American Garlic Noodles Recipe”
Looks amazing and tastes great too!