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 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 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 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?

Didn't have oyster or fish sauce, so I used a bit of soy sauce and some cooking water, put that into a container with an anchovy and puréed the mix. It was delicious.

Greasy

I plan to try this...but my comments are to the whole discussion about garlic....to mince, press, micro plane or crush with a mortar and pestle. I have a knife, a mortar and pestle, a garlic press, a micro plane and this Japanese grater...its stainless steel and about 6' long and looks like a giant finger splint. It pulverizes ginger and garlic into a paste way easier than any other method. Better yet, It cleans with a quick rinse under the faucet. Its a game changer.

Try putting all the garlic in a zip-top bag and crush them in a tortilla press. Quick and easy. The press is also great for easily flattening pork or chicken for cutlets. No more tedious pounding. Sandwich the meat between two plastic wrap, drop the press, and move along.

The only reason I gave this two stars and not one is that the method of cooking the pasta and the resulting texture of the sauce is excellent. However both my husband and I found the flavors to be completely unsatisfying. But I will try this method with other ingredients. it's essentially a quick cooking risotto with pasta instead of rice.

This savoury umami filled dish passed my picky 14 y o won't eat anything interesting test. Served it with pan fried barramundi and zucchini noodle on the side. Will def make again! Next time I'll add chili garlic oil as a finisher or maybe the tiniest dab of vegemite.

Just made this. It was absolutely delicious! I sautéed a handful of shrimp along with the garlic as suggested, and used bucatini instead of spaghetti. I’ll definitely be making this recipe again (and again)! Don’t skimp on the garlic. In my opinion, you can’t have too much garlic! I served it with roasted asparagus. This was definitely a perfect accompaniment.

I wanted a side dish for snow crabs and this recipe happened to show up in my inbox. Per reader feedback, I doubled the amount of sauce, juiced 1/2 of a tangerine, and drizzled toasted sesame oil on top. I had Trader Joe's Parmesan, Romano, and Asiago cheese so I used that. I also weighed 60 grams of garlic and it was perfect and not overwhelming. I would like to try this again and substitute rice for the pasta.

If any of you ever run out of salt, just turn to this noodle dish!I made it exactly as written, and it smelled amazing, and then when we took our first bites, we all spat it out on our plates. The saltiness absolutely overwhelmed everything else. To be clear: I made it a year ago, as well, with the same result. I tried making it a second time thinking I must have gotten something wrong the first time.I have no idea why it is not turning out sald-laden for those of you who loved it.

The problem with many of the NY Times recipes are that half of the igrediants are not available at normal supermarkets. Fish sauce, oyster sauce no way my supermarkets stock this stuff. and I am only 30 miles from Manhattan. Please tailor your recipes to ingediants that are available.

Made exactly as written. Stupid good! My husband and I finished the whole pound of pasta in like 30 minutes. This is very unusual for us. Also RIP the pecorino I bought for this recipe. It also did not last the meal. Someone please send antacids.

This felt almost too easy and made a great dinner with shrimp and roast brussel sprouts. Thanks!

I love all things Vietnamese, but not in my pasta sorry. Love the garlic and the rest but not with pasta

Used the flat side of a meat mallet, doubled the garlic and didn’t regret it.Making this again.

Based on several comments, I tripled the sauce, including butter and parmesan. This was a mistake. There was a bit too much funk from the fish sauce and saltiness from the soy sauce (did not salt pasta water). I'm not rating this since I didn't follow the recipe. Just posting this as a warning not to go overboard with the sauce.