![]() It’s intense and complex with that first hit of star anise in the meaty broth. Jenkins encourages me to try the soup before adding condiments. Our pho bowls are crowded with slippery rice noodles, chunks of tendon and ribbons of tripe. “I take a selfie every time I eat because I just get so excited,” she says. Her perfectly manicured fingers snap a few photos. She straightens her Gucci headband and flashes a megawatt smile. She holds her phone with an outstretched arm at a downward angle and uses her other hand to slide her high ponytail to one side. She takes a small ramekin on the table and pours me some hoisin sauce, then draws a happy face with some sriracha.Īfter a few minutes, a parade of plates lands on the table. She reaches for a caddy of condiments stocked with the holy trinity of pho seasoning: hoisin sauce, sambal and sriracha. If Jenkins is particular about the way the pho is ordered, she's equally particular about how it should be eaten. ![]() I want to see uncle capturing these with his little old Canon.” “And keep your Instagram-perfect photos to yourself. “I don’t want to see ‘noodle bone broth soup.’ I want to see numbers and Vietnamese writing,” she says. Then look for Vietnamese writing and lots of pictures. “It just signifies that they go the old-school way, so you’ve got some grandmas and grandpas and some uncles in the kitchen.” 1, always go with a restaurant that has a number after it," she says. While we wait for our order, she gives me her tips for choosing a “legit” Vietnamese restaurant, tips she shared with more than 1 million viewers in a YouTube video that went viral two years ago. ![]() Mama Mai), cook, and extols the virtues of Vietnamese food. In her YouTube series, “Hello Hunnay,” pronounced so that the “nay” drags into a personality all its own, she cooks, or rather watches her mother, Olivia Tutram (a.k.a. Jeannie Mai Jenkins waits outside the restaurant Bun Me for her banh mi sandwiches. Oh, and some extra nước chấm with that too. Not finding exactly what she wants, she builds her own plate, requesting a charbroiled pork chop with a slice of meatloaf, shredded pork skins and a fried egg. She turns the menu over and peruses the rice dishes. She then points to a photo of crisp spring rolls and asks for an extra cup of nước chấm. This is just the instructions for the pho. And she wants a bowl of nước béo, the fat and oil they skim off the top of the soup while cooking, which they use to marinate diced green onions. She would like the accompanying bean sprouts warmed so that they do not cool down the soup. And she wants extra tripe in a bowl with hot broth. She wants the slices of raw beef on a plate on the side rather than served in the soup so she can control the cooking time. In Vietnamese, Jenkins asks the server for a bowl of Dac Biet Xe Lua, a combination pho with rare slices of steak, flank, tendon, tripe and rice noodles. “When I moved to L.A.," she says, "the two homes I could afford at the time, one was 25 miles away from this restaurant and one was five miles. The Van Nuys branch of Pho So 1 restaurant, Jenkins' first destination on a three-stop Vietnamese food crawl, is home to her favorite bowl of pho besides her mother’s. “To actually be in the realm of food now makes me feel like a dream has finally been accomplished.” “I’ve been starving for an opportunity like this,” she says. She always wanted her own food show, and recently landed her dream job hosting “America’s Test Kitchen: The Next Generation,” a cooking competition series now streaming on Amazon Freevee. But food, she says, is always central to what she does. Jenkins, best known as one of the Emmy-winning co-hosts of the daytime talk show "The Real" - which ended its eight-season run earlier this year - has made countless appearances as an energetic red-carpet fashion expert at the Golden Globes and the American Music Awards. ![]() Sitting at a table at Pho So 1, a bare-bones restaurant in a strip mall in Van Nuys, she grips the laminated menu and points excitedly to a bowl of pho. Jeannie Mai Jenkins orders food like she’s giving a TED Talk, with total authority, confidence and gumption. Jeannie Mai Jenkins enjoys a meal at the restaurant Pho So 1 with Jenn Harris during their Vietnamese food crawl in the San Fernando Valley.
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