Mid-week Vietnamese

My parents-in-law's place is what I secretly call the House of Good Food because my mum-in-law is a fantastic chef (and person too). We were really happy to get an sms from her telling us our regular Wednesday dinner would be a Vietnamese feature consisting of Beef Noodles (Pho) and rice paper rolls.

Here are the ingredients for the rice paper rolls: lean pork, prawns, lettuce, carrot, cucumbers, rice vermicelli, mint leaves and the rolls.

First, you need to soak the dehydrated rice paper sheets in water to soften them.

The husband then added the lettuce leaf, cucumber and carrots to the bottom third of the sheet.

He then added the pork and rice vermicelli.

After that, he folded the roll one time, and then added the prawns and some coriander leaves to the next layer.

After that, he folded in the sides and wrapped the rest of the sheet wrapped around the entire roll. One down, nine more to go!

Dish No. 2 - Pho - with the stock made from scratch by my mum-in-law. She used beef shin boiled for a couple of hours.

Both raw beef (she used sirloin) and cooked beef shin were added to our noodles. The beef shin, after being boiled for hours, had a lovely soft texture because all the connective tissue had been broken down.

We added the noodles (we used kuay teow) to the bottom of the bowl, then added the sliced beef shin above the noodles and placed the raw beef slices at the very top. The hot boiling beef soup was poured on top to cook the sliced beef.

All the condiments to add: Thai basil, mint leaves as well as limes...just like in the Vietnamese shops! She even had chilli and onion slices. Didn't photograph the bean sprouts (boring!)

My bowl of Pho all ready to be consumed.

The dinner table

Dessert for the evening: Potong ice cream (forgot to take photo before eating).

Absolutely divine!