Restaurant: Anh Hong
City: Milpitas, CA

In addition to bò 7 món, we had the sour soup with catfish.

Canh chua cá bông lau – sour soup made with pangasius krempfi catfish. Other ingredients included in the soup were jalapeno pepper, tomatoes, pineapple, onion, bạc hà.

The following is some more info about the soup, from Wikipedia:

Canh chua (literally “sour soup”) or cá nấu (“boiled fish”) is a sour soup indigenous to the Mekong Delta region of southern Vietnam. It is typically made with fish from the Mekong River Delta, pineapple, tomatoes (and sometimes also other vegetables such as okra or bạc hà), and bean sprouts, in a tamarind-flavored broth. It is garnished with the lemony-scented herb ngò ôm (Limnophila aromatica), caramelized garlic, and chopped scallions, as well as other herbs, according to the specific variety of canh chua; these other herbs may include rau răm (Vietnamese coriander), ngò gai (long coriander), and rau quế (Thai basil). It can be served alone, with white rice, or with rice vermicelli.

The sour taste of the soup comes from tamarind, which is mixed with a small amount of hot water; the mixture is then stirred for a few moments to release all the essence, and the liquid (minus the tamarind seeds and other solids, which are discarded) is then added to the soup.

When made in style of a hot pot, canh chua is called lẩu canh chua.

This is my favorite soup; I espcially like eating the bạc hà (also called giant elephant/mammoth ear or Indian taro). It’s basically the stalk of colocasia gigantea. It’s crunchy and spongy with the soup when you eat it. I also ate the catfish with the concentrated fish sauce.