Once upon a time I fell in love with a bowl of Mi Kho from Hai Ky Mi Gia in Falls Church, Virginia. This place only sells different type of Hu Tieu/Mi dry or wet. I like places that has a very limited menu which mean they can spend more time on perfecting that one dish. While I ordered a bowl of egg noodle soup, my friend ordered the dry version. She said the secret is the sauce for the Mi Kho, of course it's always the sauce! I mooched a couple bites from her bowl, while I very much enjoyed my soup I really wished I ordered the Mi Kho instead. After I polish off my bowl, I began to analyze what was left of the sauce. The sauce was definitely soy base, it was sweet and had hints of familiar spices. At the time I was very determine to recreate this sauce at home.
I posted an entry for the soup version of Hu Tieu two years ago but was unable to come up with a sauce for the dry version. I tried a lot of different sauces and I just wasn't satisfied with any of them. I pretty much threw in the white flag until I saw the comment from a reader that has been waiting for me to come up with the sauce. Thank you for reminding me and motivating me to get back on the saddle.
I remember when I first tried the sauce from Hai Ky Mi Gia, I thought it reminded me of Xa Xiu, Chinese BBQ pork. I love the Xa Xiu seasoning I use by NOH so I took out the seasoning package and look through the ingredients. For the next two hours I begin playing around with the ingredients and I finally ended up with a sauce that I am satisfy with. I'm just so glad I got this recipe out of the way and hope you will like it.
Please refer back to my Hu Tieu entry on how to prepare the toppings. I will only be listing the steps tomake the sauce for Mi Kho.
Toppings:
Xa Xiu (thinly sliced)
Ground Pork (pan fried until crispy)
Cooked Squid
Cooked Shrmip
Chinese Chives
Fried Shallots
Sauce:
soy sauce
pure sugar cane or rock sugar
hoisin sauce
onion powder
garlic powder
five spice powder
mushroom seasoning
water
1. Save the liquid produced from pan frying the ground pork and xa xiu.
2. In a small pot combine 3 tablespoon of light soy sauce, 6 tablespoon of water (if you are also making the soup to go with this dish I would add the soup water), 2 teaspoon of hoisin sauce, 1 tablespoon of pure sugar cane, 1/2 tablespoon of rice vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon of onion powder, 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon of five spice powder, 1 teaspoon of mushroom seasoning and the excess frying liquid.
3. Stir all the ingredients together and let it come to a boil and then turn the heat down low. The sauce should thicken just a little. If the sauce has reduce too much, just add more water.
Prepare a bowl with all the toppings to your liking and enjoy!
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