Seafood Noodle Phô at Saigon Noodles in Salinas, California

Seafood Noodle Phô at Saigon Noodles in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget 

I learned to love Vietnamese food when I lived and worked in downtown Chicago (Illinois) and ate at the Mekong House Restaurant after work. I had graduated with a degree in East Asian Studies from the University of Chicago and considered myself to be doing graduate work in Southeast Asian Studies when I ate at the Mekong House. 

I mostly ate deep-fried egg rolls that I wrapped in a fresh mint leaf and tied with a string of fresh carrot before dipping them in sweet-and-sour sauce. The lemongrass chicken stir-fry I ate and loved was a close cousin to the Chinese stir-fries I also loved. 

I did not venture into Vietnamese soups until I moved to Monterey County California and ate them at the Orient Restaurant in Seaside, California. 

I like how phô soup has three layers of food items surrounded by delicious broth: 

-half a bowl of rice noodles or glass noodles 

-half a bowl full of sliced beef, sliced chicken, or seafood 

-garnish toppings such as bean sprouts, fresh basil, lime wedges, and jalapeño slices 

I recently tried seafood noodle soup (phô) at Saigon Noodles in Salinas, California and liked the large bowl of rice noodles and seafood ingredients that came with a container of broth that was large enough to fill the bowl twice. 

The flavorful broth tasted like a bone broth that had been boiled with shrimp shells and strained. The soup was full of curled shrimp, scored squid slices, fish dumplings, fish balls, and imitation crab made from fish. 

The soup came with packages of hoisin sauce for salt and sriracha for salt and spice. I like hot, spicy broth so I added sriracha to the soup. 

Flavor and quantity of food in the seafood noodle soup (phô) at Saigon Noodles in Salinas, California make this dish a great deal for an international lunch. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Feta Omelets at the Agora Restaurant by Ruth Paget

Feta Omelets at the Agora Restaurant by Ruth Paget 

A delicious memory I have of attending the University of Chicago is eating feta omelets at the Agora Restaurant in Hyde Park before going to study at the Regenstein Library. 

My college roommate was a Greek-American, so getting her to support the local Greek diner was no problem. We took the University bus to the nearest stop and walked the final few blocks. 

We were the steady diners, but three of our friends always tried to make it to breakfast, too. I warned them that if they did not come, we would talk about them. One of our male friends joined us for breakfast once and called us the female mafia. 

By the time senior year rolled around, we spent our breakfasts sharing job-hunting information. We were looking for work in different industries, which made it easier to share what we had learned. There was a recession in 1986 with fewer recruiters coming to campus. We were unhappy about this, but industrious about finding work nonetheless. 

I had found an international job in downtown Chicago doing informational interviews. I was a salesman at a translation agency that also did public relations work. (I eventually helped two classmates get work with the agency doing foreign-language narration and teaching/cultural consulting.) 

Since I was employed, I bought two extra pots of coffee for the table, so my friends could have abundant coffee refills as we talked about Richard N. Bolles’ book What Color is Your Parachute?, which counsels people on how to find dream jobs. 

We were all mortified that employment agencies downtown had typing skills tests. I told everyone to bite the bullet and learn to type 50 words per minute without a mistake; it could help with finding a job. Most businesses still used IBM electric typewriters in 1986 and were just beginning to introduce desktop computers to the workplace. 

The University of Chicago had “Apple” computers in the study halls, but companies downtown used all kinds of computers with Microsoft software being introduced. Knowing lots of software programs was an asset and hard to obtain. 

The tech change happening in 1986 was stressful. I credit the food I ate during this period of competitive and stressful tech change with keeping me strong, able to sleep, and willing to learn new ways of organizing and presenting information. Notably, I loved my weekly calcium-rich feta omelet with sliced, kalamata olives and roasted red peppers preserved in olive oil. 

Greek diners offer plenty of nutritious sides to go with omelets like this that I always ate including bacon, whole wheat toast with butter, calcium-added orange juice, and real cream to go with coffee. (In addition to dealing with technological change, I credit this meal with preventing me from having osteoporosis – weak bones – later in life.) 

After this robust breakfast, the female mafia would walk to the Regenstein Library like the “Reg Rats” we really were for a day of studying as we thought of dream careers and the reality of entry-level jobs. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Chicago Dim Sum by Ruth Paget

Chicago Dim Sum by Ruth Paget 

Eating Chinese dim sum was one of the money hacks I used to lead an urbane existence in Chicago on a budget as a young woman. 

On Sunday mornings, my husband Laurent and I would leave our apartment in Marina City and walk up Michigan Avenue to Water Tower Place Shopping Center. Our destination was Rizzoli Bookstore. At Rizzoli’s we would buy Le Monde and Financial Times newspapers. I would sometimes buy art books or novels by Nadine Gordimer and Salman Rushdie. 

We would check out upcoming movies on the way out and walk down to the Chinese restaurant with dim sum tea lunch, which is what I think is the Shanghai Terrace of the Peninsula Hotel now. I liked the circular booths in the restaurant. 

We ordered fragrant jasmine tea to start as waitresses wheeled carts of steaming dim sum by our table. We pointed at many of them, and waitresses noted our choices with a Chinese stamp and wrote how many we chose. 

There is a very good book for ordering dim sum called Dim Sum Field Guide by Carolyn Phillips. Her book is not a cookbook, but has line drawings of various dim sum, dim sum tea etiquette, Chinese characters for the various dim sum, alphabet spellings for Mandarin character pronunciations, and dim sum ingredients. 

I used the cookbook Dim Sum and Other Chinese Street Food to find ingredients used in three dim sum “dumplings” that you can order in almost all dim sum restaurants: 

*jiaozu – ravioli-like coin purse pasta made with minced pork, Napa cabbage, bok choy, and garlic chives 

*Siu Mai – egg dough cups that are squeezed and twirled before steaming that are made with minced pork and shrimp, bamboo shoots, black mushrooms, and water chestnuts 

*Har Gau – Crescent shaped dumplings stuffed with minced shrimp, water chestnuts, pork fat, and sherry 

Leung’s cookbook shows hot to set up bamboo steamers in a wok over boiling water as well. 

Pre-made dim sum would be welcome to many people who are working at home, because you would just have to steam them or heat them up in an oven. H Mart in California just might have all you need to set up dim sum tea lunches from tea to chopsticks. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Chicago, Illinois: Long Weekend Vacation - Part 3 - by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Chicago, Illinois: Long Weekend Vacation - Part 3 - by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

The next day, my tutor, her son, and I got up early and went to eat breakfast at the Hilton Café next door – pancakes, fruit cups, and hot chocolate.

We did two cultural institutions in the morning till about 1 and went back to the hotel.  We went swimming for two hours and then ate salads at the Essex Inn Café with quiet, reading time after that.

Our little group ate in Chicago’s Greek Town that night.  We all ate in Detroit’s Greek Town, so we knew what the items on the menu were.

I tried dolmas, which seemed to be a larger version of dolmades – stuffed grape leaves with different ingredients.

In Detroit, dolmades are stuffed with rice and flavored with mint with a lemon sauce called avgolemono on them.  In Chicago, I saw that large dolmas come stuffed with rice, raisins, and lamb with just the lemon avgolemono sauce on them – no mint.

I was further impressed with food in Chicago when we went to the Bakery Restaurant in the City’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.  The chef-owner was Austrian, who loved the best of all European cuisines.

The owner served dinner in two shifts with a selection of 3 main dishes based on market and pantry combinations for the season.

We ate vegetable terrines with tomato coulis around the slices as a starter followed by Beef Wellington, roast beef baked in a crust.  For dessert, we ate apple strudel with black raisins and golden Sultana raisins.

I thought our meal there was the best one I had ever eaten in my short life at the time. 

When I graduated from the University of Chicago more than a decade later, my mother held my graduation dinner at the Bakery with my family’s paterfamilias (who was a winning quarterback at the Rose Bowl for Northwestern in his youth) and my first employer, who organized the first Super Bowl in the People’s Republic of China (also a University of Chicago alumna).

On our last night together after a few days of intense museum going and reading, our group went to Ann Sather Restaurant for a dinner of Swedish meatballs, spaetzle (German egg noodles), and rotkohl (sweet tasting, braised, red sauerkraut).  We took home boxes of cinnamon rolls, so we could get up early and make it home by lunch.

As we left town, I looked back at the sprawling Chicago skyline and loved how the city found space for the wonderful museums, parks, and art amidst the office buildings.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France


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Chicago, Illinois: Long Weekend Vacation - Part 2 - by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Chicago, Illinois: Long Weekend Vacation – Part 2 – by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

That night after a swim and shower, our little group went to Trader Vic’s for dinner.  Trader Vic’s was a kitschy Polynesian place with tiki torches blowing fake flames and big masks on booth walls with long, straw hair watching over your meal.

My mom’s friend’s sister who babysat picked out the restaurant and had recommendations for me.  I considered her a tutor in art and fine food. 

When she babysat me, we went to the Detroit Institute of the Arts and would devote ourselves to one type of art and its galleries at a time:  Egyptian, Greek, European armor, Dutch, French, and African with an exit stop at the Diego Rivera Mural of the Ford assembly line.

Our après-museum visit place for lunch was Lelli’s Italian Restaurant.  I ate the same thing that was invariably good: pickled vegetables and assorted salume antipasti, lasagna Bolognese, and spumoni ice cream.  I still love that combination.

At Trader Vic’s, I ate rumaki – fried chicken livers with water chestnuts held together with fried bacon strips on a toothpick.  I was surprised I liked that dish.  I also liked the shrimp and chicken curry I ate, which is similar to South African peri-peri I discovered later in life.

My tutor set out the agenda for the young teens on vacation.

“Visiting Chicago is not all about eating in restaurants.  The restaurants here have excellent food, but there are world-class cultural and educational institutions here that I will take you to,” she said.

“Such as?” I asked, knowing full well that cultural outings came with lunch afterwards for kids.

She smiled at me and her son and named the following 5 places:

-the Shedd Aquarium

-the Adler Planetarium

-the Chicago Institute of the Arts

-the Field Museum of Natural History

-the Museum of Science and Industry

My tutor’s son and I both thought those places sounded great.  I knew my mom’s friend’s sister wanted to visit these places as well.

She wanted photos of us on the esplanades around these institutions and in front of the museum porticos with columned façades by Lake Michigan.

End of Part 2

To be continued.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Chicago, Illinois: Long Weekend Vacation - Part 1 - by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Chicago, Illinois: Long Weekend Vacation – Part 1 – by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Long before I attended the University of Chicago, I knew the City of Chicago was very nice to visit.  My mother could drive on the highway between Detroit and Chicago, so we visited often.

On one 5-day weekend for the Fourth of July, my mother and I set out for a vacation in Chicago.  We would meet one of her friends, her friend’s sister who babysat me from time to time, and my babysitter’s son.  (My babysitter took me to museums, so I considered her a tutor more than a babysitter.)

We stayed at the Essex Inn on South Michigan Avenue.  Our hotel was right next door to the 5-star Hilton Hotel.  The Hilton has a majestic façade of foliage-rich Corinthian columns with windows between them for ballrooms and expensive suites for royals visiting the Chicago Institute of Arts or attending the Lyric Opera or the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

As a young teen, I preferred the Essex Inn, because it had a swimming pool.  My mother and her friend both preferred the Essex Inn, because it had valet parking on the ground floor.  The Hilton was designed for tax and limousine pick up in the lobby.

When we arrived in Chicago, my mother took me to the Hilton Café that was located off to the left side of the lobby when entering from Michigan Avenue.

I thought the café chairs were posh – rattan with flowery fabric.  I did not know about Raffles Bar in Singapore at the time, but I think it was inspired by the décor at Raffles.  I liked the lush, green foliage that set the café apart from the lobby, too.

My mother set down the rules quickly about behavior in Chicago.

“If you behave, you can eat here.  That means no fighting, pouting, or complaining,” she said.  Boss lady mom knew the power of examples.

I quickly agreed to the contract and ate eggs Benedict with tangy, lemon-flavored Hollandaise and grapefruit baked with brown sugar that had a maraschino cherry in the middle.

If you grow up in industrial cities like Detroit, trying different food in well-decorated restaurants is a vacation and relief from factory time and scenery.  Detroit looks better now, but work and money are still the huge draw to the region.

As a young teen, I liked trying different foods.  I especially loved going on vacation, because we ate out a lot.

End of Part 1.

To be continued.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Sports Rallyes with Chicago-Style Greek Buffet and Suggested Conversation Topics by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Sports Rallyes with Chicago-style Greek Buffet and Suggested Conversation Topics by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Background:

I began doing tennis championship rallyes in high school featuring fresh-squeezed orange juice for the US Open, strawberries and cream for Wimbledon, and crêpes for the French Open.

Chicago Sports Bar

Tennis championship rallyes morphed into football rallyes after I graduated from the University of Chicago and worked on the first Super Bowl broadcast in the People’s Republic of China.

I think I sold my first sponsorship, because my telephone pitch was, “This would be great PR for the Cubs and trade for the City of Chicago.”

Après-guffaws, I sold a big sponsorship. 

Long-story short – I became a big football promoter.  On the weekends, I went to Bennigan’s Sports Bar and read the Thursday and Friday editions of The Wall Street Journal that I bought at Brentanno’s Chicago store.  I read “The Journal” while I watched the game and gave the paper to the wait staff and cooks when I left.

Monday Night Football Rallyes

On Monday nights, I hosted a “football rallye” for the people who worked with me on the First Super Bowl in China and their spouses or partners.

I worked as an “admin,” so I could get off at 5 pm and deal with deli items for dinner.  I walked to the Treasure Island Supermarket and took a taxi home to Marina City.

I kept receipts that my guests and I (about 8) divvied up.  My guests paid my cab fare for shopping and bringing the deli items up to my apartment.  If they wanted beer, they went to the grocery store in the lobby of Marina Towers where I lived.

While I organized food, my guests and I would talk about:

-current art exhibits

-good magazine or newspaper articles

-movies

-books we were reading

I asked everyone why they thought the book, article, movie, or art exhibit they spent time on was important.

The Buffet was laid out nicely on tables and counters in my pie-shaped apartment.  The living room was devoted to comfy seating for the game.

I did football night in the era of Greek catering.  We ate what we wanted and divvied up items to be taken home.  My friends shared cabs late at night

The Mostly Greek Buffet

-Taramosalata – Greek caviar spread – orange-colored

-Greek Village Salad – a no-lettuce salad made with tomato wedges, feta cheese, Kalamata olives, and mild green peppers

-Tomato – Onion – Oregano Salad

-2 Dressings on the side:

-oil and red vinegar with oregano (rigani)

-tzatziki –cucumber-yogurt sauce

-2 or 3 garlic bread loaves to bake

-2 ready-made Greek bread loaves

-Roast lemon-garlic chicken with dark and white meat separated on a plate

-cheese cubes sprinkled with paprika

-apple slices

-tangerine sections

-pineapple chunks

-banana slices

-vanilla bean yogurt for the fruit

-baked Parmesan cheese sticks

-baked spinach-feta phyllo pastry triangles

-vegetable terrine slices

-smoked salmon open-faced Danish sandwiches

-coffee made from beans by me

Everyone tried a little of everything and leftovers were sorted out for another meal or two.

There are lots of seasons and championships to do a sports rallye night for.

Planning one is great training for ordering catering.

Later in life, I loved learning how to make these items, including spinach-feta phyllo triangle pies.

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Note: Locally all 3 Demetra locations, Paprika, and Yaffa might be able to provide this meal.

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