Ignite | Spring 2022
Embracing the flavors of Vietnam
Karen Pham didn’t grow up as a foodie: she grew into it.
As a child in Philadelphia, raised mostly by her
grandmother while her parents (Vietnamese immigrants)
were working long hours, meals were not particularly
nutritious. They consisted of what could be purchased with food
stamps at a nearby store: canned spaghetti, microwaveable meals.
“As I got older, I felt the toll that the processed foods were having on my body. I learned how to wield a knife and it empowered me to take charge of my health through my diet,” says Pham, now a second-year student in the College of Medicine.
During a two-year gap before starting at NEOMED, Pham worked for the Vetri Community Partnership, a nonprofit started by a successful Philadelphia restaurateur, Marc Vetri. In one program, Pham taught fifth and sixth graders the very lessons that helped her escape the food desert she was living in: specifics like how to hold a knife, how spices work, and how to make nutritious meals out of the canned or frozen vegetables available within convenience stores.
“People will not eat better if they do not know how. As a doctor you can’t just say, ‘Go home and drink your milk and eat your vegetables.’ It may feel impossible to eat vegetables if you don’t have access to them or are unfamiliar with how to make them taste delicious,” says Pham.
Also through the Vetri Community Partnership, Pham taught a culinary medicine course to pupils ranging from fourth-year medical students at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine to the registered nurses and medical residents of Jefferson Hospital. Each week, they tailored a recipe to a specific disease state, whether it was high cholesterol or the needs of a lactating mother. Pham is hopeful that these efforts experiences will enable future patients to receive more meaningful and practical counsel.
Recipe: VIETNAMESE VERMICELLI BOWL
One of Pham’s go-to dishes at home in The Village at NEOMED is a Vietnamese vermicelli bowl. It’s loaded with fresh vegetables and it’s super versatile, she says, since you can make it vegan by swapping tofu for chicken, for example. The vermicelli itself is gluten-free, which is a plus for people with celiac disease.
Here’s Pham’s quick overview of Vietnamese flavors:
Vietnamese and Thai cuisine share a LOT of herbs, seasonings and flavors. Both cuisines rely on the following flavor profile:
- sweet (usually lump/rock sugar),
- salty (fish sauce),
- sour (tamarind),
- umami (MSG/chicken bouillon).
Vietnamese recipes frequently use garlic, shallots, ginger and lemongrass (which is now available at chain groceries, not just specialty markets). One of the biggest differences between the two cuisines is that herbs or sauces are cooked into a dish in Thai cuisine but served on the side (as a topping or dipping sauce) in Vietnamese cuisine.
EASY LEMONGRASS-HONEY CHICKEN VERMICELLI BOWL (BÚN GÀ NƯỚNG)
RECIPE BY KAREN PHAM
Serves 2-4 // Ingredients:
Chicken Marinade
4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons lemongrass, minced
2 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 teaspoon five-spice powder (optional)
1/4 teaspoon curry powder (optional)
Bowl
Vermicelli rice noodles
Lettuce (Romaine or iceberg), shredded (1 cup per serving)
Cucumber, julienned (1/2 cup per serving)
Herbs of choice: Cilantro, mint, Thai basil, dill
Dipping Sauce (Nước chấm)
1 garlic clove, minced
1 Thai chili pepper, minced
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup hot water
1/4 cup fish sauce, soy sauce or tamari
2 tablespoons lime juice
Optional toppings: Scallion oil, fried shallots, crushed peanuts, pickled daikon radish and julienned carrots
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- In a medium-sized bowl, combine garlic, lemongrass, soy sauce, fish sauce, five-spice powder, curry powder and chicken. Mix well. Allow the chicken to marinate for at least 30 minutes (up to 1 day). Pro tip: debone the chicken thighs before marinating for quicker cook time and easier final assembly.
- Prepare vermicelli according to package instructions, taking care not to stir the noodles — they’ll break!
- Wash all herbs. Shred lettuce of choice and julienne the cucumber. Set aside for serving.
- Roast the chicken in the oven until completely cooked through (reaching an internal temperature of 175 degrees F), about 25-30 minutes.
- Debone and slice the chicken into strips.
- Bowl assembly: Per serving, place 1 cup of shredded lettuce, . cup cucumber, mixture of herbs and 1 cup vermicelli noodles into serving bowl. Layer the sliced chicken on top. Garnish with optional toppings (scallion oil, fried shallots, crushed peanuts, pickled daikon, carrots), if desired. Serve with nước chấm (dipping sauce).
- Dipping sauce: Combine all ingredients in a small bowl. Stir until the sugar completely dissolves. Watch a video of Karen Pham demonstrating her knife technique and learn more about this student’s early career as an actress, both at neomed.edu/extras.
WEB EXTRA I
Watch Karen Pham demonstrate her knife skills on YouTube.
WEB EXTRA II
Before NEOMED, Hollywood
A devotee of food shows, College of Medicine student Karen Pham knows a thing or two about tv production from working as an actress. An ad paved the way for her move to Hollywood and a legitimate contract with an agency before she had even graduated from high school in Philadelphia. Here's Pham's story:
“Do YOU want to be the next Hannah Montana? On Disney Channel with Selena Gomez?” Yes! I did! Much like many children, I dreamed of becoming famous. I believed the radio ad that promised me it could fulfill my fantasy of becoming a child star, for the very small price of, well, many more dollars than it ever should have been. Despite the what-I-now-realize-was-just a money-making ploy, I got very, very lucky,” Pham related in an email.
“Through the program, I actually did meet a manager, who both to my and her surprise, stopped in her tracks of lifelessly filling out the standard improvement survey she was directed to submit after every student’s monologue performance. “Karen—" she was at a loss for words. There was far more silence and staring than speaking after I stood before my would-be manager in tears after performing my monologue. “Karen, you’re ready for Hollywood.” Before I knew it, I was doing exactly as the radio ad promised. My acting career brought me to North Hollywood and later to New York, where I met with producers of Law and Order SVU and worked alongside Paul Rudd and Tina Fey.
“I’ve since retired from acting in order to focus wholly on medicine, but I know my experience will be invaluable to my future caretaking. For more than six years, I practiced living in the life of others, feeling what they might feel in order to accurately portray a character. My experiences grounded me in being empathic as soon as I walk into a new room to greet my patients.”