Wide rice noodles are available on the ethnic-foods aisle at most major supermarkets and at Asian grocers. If you can't find them, any rice noodle or even spaghetti will work in this dish. You can also use ground sirloin, if you can't find pork.
I fully admit that around this time of year I go a little squash crazy (examples: mashed with mascarpone, curried in soup, curried in another soup, in pasta with bacon, in farro salad). I tend to …
While not nearly as sweet as bananas, plantains do have a sweet flavor. In this soup we keep that sweetness at bay by using firm plantains with green skins rather than riper brown-skinned ones--the sugars will have not yet developed, so the fruit will add starchy body to the soup without too much sweetness.
