Since it’s winter and the time where many humans are afflicted with “the sickness”, I thought I’d share my favorite form of chicken noodle soup. I guess in Vietnamese it’s officially “pho ga”, but that literally just means “chicken soup”. So the American patois in this instance is far superiour as it includes the word “noodle”. But I don’t really care at all what you call it. It’s a free country—until of course everyone has access to affordable health care at which point we will all be fascists.

Start the Broth

• 1 Chicken
• A lot of water
• 2 teaspoons coriander seed
• 4 allspice berries
• 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon white peppercorns
• 6 star anise
• 1/2 cinnamon stick
• 10 cloves
• 4 dried scallops
• 15 dried shrimp
• 4 tablespoons finely minced lemongrass
• 7 kaffir lime leaves
• 1 large white onion
• 2 carrots
• 3 stalks celery
• 1 medium sized knob ginger, sliced

Put the chicken in a stock pot. Pour enough water in the pot to cover the chicken by a couple inches or so. Add vegetables and spices (all the rest of the broth ingredients) and bring to a low simmer. Lower heat to low and allow chicken to poach for 45 minutes or so, and then remove the chicken and stick it in the fridge. After it’s cooled sufficiently, remove the breast meat (but keep the rest of the chicken on the bone).

Bring the stock back to a low simmer and return the rest of the chicken back to the pot. Reduce the heat to the lowest possible setting (and if there are burners on your stove smaller than others, move the stockpot to the smaller burner). “Simmer” overnight (there really should be no bubbling at all).

Season the Broth

The next morning, strain twice (or more!) and place in the fridge. Once a layer of fat congeals at the very top, skim it. Return the pot to the stove (and heat) and add:

• A few, small (nickle-sized) pieces of rock sugar
• Salt
• 1 teaspoon or more of Ajinomoto (aka “MSG”) – this is your call (if you hate MSG, I respect your wishes. The scallops and shrimp do add a significant amount of umami).
• Many dashes of fish sauce

Taste and season accordingly.

Bowl It Up

Bring the broth to a roiling simmer. In the meantime, boil fresh banh pho noodles for 30 seconds and remove to a bowl. Add to that:

• Torn chicken breast meat (see above)
• Chiffonade of thin omelette spiked with a lot of black pepper
• Torn Thai basil leaves
• Sawtooth herb (if you can find it)
• Cilantro
• Thinly sliced onion
• Chopped green onions
• Chopped bird chilies
• Bean sprouts

Pour hot broth over noodles. Finish with a couple dashes of fish sauce and grinds of fresh black and white pepper. Squeeze of 1/4 or 1/2 of a lemon over the soup. Slurp.