Boxer Ramen Opens New Location off 23rd

Have you been to the new Boxer Ramen location yet? Now just over a week old, the new spot on 23rd and Kearney is serving up the same favorites as its SW Stark and NE Alberta locations. While the small chain has been popular around Portland for a while, for my recently-moved-back self, my visit last week was my first!

If it weren’t for a much appreciated tip-off from my mom I might have missed their fantastic soft opening deal last Friday, free bowls of ramen from 4-7 PM! I can understand it was a great way for the cooks to get in their groove, and to lure in new customers, like me!

Thanh’s special noodles

Okay I’m sure there is a real Vietnamese name for this dish but I know it as Thanh’s special noodles because it’s always a special treat when Thanh, a Vietnamese chef at work, makes them for the staff. After acquiring the basic ingredients and general recipe of how to make them I’ve done several test attempts at home but never felt like they tasted as good as Thanh makes. It’s like when your mom’s peanut butter & jelly tastes so much better. I know I haven’t found the perfect noodle yet, somehow the brands I keep buying are either too thick or too thin. I had special instructions to buy the specific brands of chili paste and fish sauce used in this recipe so looks like I’ll be needing a specific brand of noodle too! Uwajimaya will help me out.

I’ve put together what I believe is closest to the recipe is below. Adjustments and small tweaks are being made constantly by me, and you are always free to make personal changes.

Thanh’s special noodles (rice vermicelli with fresh veggies, herbs, & fried tofu in sweet chili sauce)

Serves 2 (large) portions

Ingredients:

Chili Sauce:

• 4 tsp fish sauce (Tiparos)
• juice of 1 lemon (about 3-4 Tablespoons)
• 1-2 tsp chili paste (Sambal Oelek)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 tsp sugar

Mix all ingredients in a small bowl and set aside. Taste and adjust as needed. I consider this plenty spicy but if you really want to sweat add more chili paste.

Noodle bowl:

• 1 package Bun rice noodles
• 1/4 cup cilantro, lightly chopped
• 1/4 cup mint, julienne
• 1/4 cup basil, julienne
• 4 cups romaine, shredded
• 1 package firm tofu, cubed
• Cornstarch, as needed
• 1 quart vegetable oil

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the noodles and cook for 2-3 minutes or according to package directions. Drain and rinse with cool water. Set aside or refrigerate (can be made ahead of time).

Pour vegetable oil into large pot and heat until almost smoking point.

Rinse all vegetables before cutting (just makes it easier). Mix the romaine, cilantro, basil & mint together in a medium bowl. Set aside.

Slice the tofu into cubes (or rectangles, circles, stars… honestly whatever your heart desires) and toss in a bowl of cornstarch.

Timeout…. is it just me or does touching cornstarch give anyone else the willies?? It’s like nails on chalkboard or the sound balloons make when people touch them. They all make me want to leave the room. Actually don’t even get me started on balloons, I have an irrational fear of popping balloons. I have literally left rooms before because there are balloons in there. I almost cried once when I had to do one of those awful scavenger hunts when the answers are inside inflated balloons i.e. everyone has to pop them. I practically run past the balloon area in the flower department of grocery stores with the screeching helium noise. I’ve got to have some fellow balloon haters out there, anyone?? But anywayyyy…. back on topic if I could delegate this step of the recipe to someone else I would. Ok continue.

Carefully add the tofu into the hot oil and fry for about a minute, until the tofu takes on a light brown color. Remove with a slotted spoon and placed on paper towels or a metal rack to absorb some of the oil.

Fill bowls halfway with noodles. Top with the lettuce mixture and then place half the tofu into each bowl. Pour on the chili sauce. Eat with chopsticks.

…I was so ready to eat these that I didn’t try as hard in my final food styling so the tofu is noticeably overshadowing everything else in the bowl. Sorrryy. My bowls are also wayyyy too small for this dish but I literally had nothing else unless I wanted to eat out of a mixing bowl. So in comparison, this is like a quarter serving. Sorry peeps. Enjoy your noodles! Be careful, that sauce will sink down to the bottom and then the last few noodle bites will be super spicy so keep that in mind when you’re added that extra teaspoon of chili paste. Also, the great thing is that some of this can be done in advance which makes it much easier. I’d suggest boiling the noodles, cutting the tofu, and making the sauce in advance and then storing them in the fridge until needed.

bun rieu

It was the end of an exhausting weekend at work. While everyone else was enjoying Valentine’s Day Weekend, my coworkers and I were pushing ourselves to make everyone else’s weekends special. Welcome to hospitality. Sunday before heading home our Vietnamese chef mentioned she was making a special noodle soup for dinner and I was so sad I would be leaving before enjoying it. Making dinner was not an option at my exhaustion point, and her food is always so good I couldn’t miss out on it. Thankfully, she cooked up the soup earlier than expected so I hadn’t left yet!

Without asking many questions, I topped my soup with fresh sprouts, lettuce and mint, and a small dollop of chili paste as suggested and relaxed in my comfortable office chair. I was past “spacing out” and closer into the “memory loss” point of tiredness. After a little while I began thinking, what exactly am I eating anyway? The soup was so unique and different than anything I’d ever had, it completely qualified as a flavor adventure! Taking the bowl apart visually I saw: rice noodles, fried tofu, sprouts, lettuce, mint, cilantro, basil, green onion, a shrimp paste/egg mix, and quartered tomatoes, in a reddish tomato broth. I couldn’t just let the experience go to waste so I jumped on the name “bun rieu” the chef gave and did a little research once I had successfully dragged myself home through the heavy wind and rain, 24oz PBR in hand from the store (no judgement… it needed to happen…and it was only $2).

Turns out I was pretty correct in my ingredient list. While I’m not sure that it included the crab meat/paste or the traditional congealed pigs blood, even if it did I can’t say it was bad. (The same chef brought pigs ears to work the other night, something I just couldn’t bring myself to try.) Although I wanted to finish it, my bowl was so huge I had to throw a lot out. I really need to work on bringing to-go containers with me to work.

Just for fun I included a recipe for the soup below, adapted from the blog The Ravenous Couple

• 1 packet vermicelli noodles
• 12 cups of pork or chicken stock
• 1/4 lb ground pork
• 1 cup crab meat, either fresh or canned/frozen drained
• can of 14 oz of crab meat paste in spices
• 1 tbs finely chopped shallots
• 1/2 tsp fine shrimp paste
• 1/2 tbs of fish sauce
• 2 tbs dried shrimp (soaked in warm water for 1 hr then minced)
• 1 tsp ground pepper
• 1/2 tbs of sugar
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 4 medium to large ripe tomatoes (quartered)
• 10 medium sized fried tofu (halved)
• 1 tbs of annato seed oil mixture (optional)

Cook the vermicelli noodles and set aside. Pour stock into large pot and bring to boil.

Combine ground pork, crab, can of crab meat in spices, shallots, fine shrimp paste, fish sauce, minced dried shrimps, pepper, and sugar in a separate bowl. Add the beaten eggs and mix well. When the stock comes to a boil, slowly add this crab mixture into stock. Add the tomatoes and tofu and bring to boil again. Season stock with additional salt or fish sauce to taste. At this time, add a tablespoon of annato seed oil if using.

Add vermicilli noodles to soup bowls and ladle on the bun rieu.

Top bun rieu with fresh herbs and veggies such as:

• chopped green onion and cilantro
• perilla, mint, lime wedges
• bean sprouts
• split watercress/ong choy/kang kung/rau muong stems
• fine shrimp paste