pho-king

Portland's Best

I conducted an informal poll last night regarding the best places in Portland to get a bowl of the most delicious phở.

Of the ten or so people I asked, all agreed that the best phở is served at Phở Hung on SE Powell. Everyone also agreed that the second best place is Phở Oregon on NE Sandy Blvd.

So, there you have it, ten out of ten Portlanders agree.

Phở-tography

Phở Hoa, 136-71 Roosevelt Avenue, Flushing, New York.

Phở L.A.

So there's Pho 79, Pho Bac, and then ... there was Phở Hoa. The other two get these great reviews every now and then, especially 79 (which is my less favorite of the two), but Phở Hoa was always head-and-shoulders better.

Now it's closed, and I fear for my Sunday-morning hungover self without a phở standby in town.

Suggestions, please!

hello intarweb friends

Hello friends who saw us through Boingboing (which is pure awesome). We are looking for AUTHORS! Please email me and I will send you the typepad author invite thing, and you can post interesting phở anecdotes, pictures, reviews of local places, and any other phở-related news you can think of.

Phở-em

You’re quite the food
Even when your in the nude
No matter what the mood
You will always keep me renewed.

Never tattooed
Almost as if shampooed
Won’t be rude
Or even start a feud

Such a good flavor
To always savor

new restaurants?

Do either of these two places actually exist? If so, where are they located? We seriously need to get out and review both of them.

Another Perspective of Pho

I'm Virtual-Doug. While most of you who read this are on the west coast, I am way down in deep south Texas - right on the Rio Grande. Not exactly pho country, eh?

But, I came by pho the way God intended - I first tried it in Viet Nam.

'I Can't Move To A City Without Pho'

Currently, I live in Pho Heaven, aka the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area. I can indulge my pho whims everyday and still not hit every pho restaurant in the area. Is there anything better? Soon, though, we will be moving from San Francisco to Portland, Oregon. We are moving for my husband J.'s job. When we were considering Portland, we knew almost nothing about the city and knew absolutely no one that lived there. Since then, we've visited twice, met some nice people, and explored the city fairly thoroughly. Before he accepted the job, however, I told J. that there was absolutely no way I was moving to Portland if they didn't have pho. I can't live in a city without pho. That simple fact would have been the deal-breaker for me.

pho at noodle pie

Noodle Pie, our spiritual sibling in pho-love, has a great photo-essay on food in Saigon.

Parisian Pho

On a quaint street in the charming 7eme arrondisement of Paris -- a stone's throw from the Eiffel Tower -- I and my drunken undergrad colleagues would stumble out of our university's happy hour down to the dead-end rue Bosquet and into a small Vietnamese restaurant called ... wait for it ... Pho's. Yes, Pho's. We would always order the same dish because is was so damn good: Vermicille aux Boeuf et Pates Imperieux, which translates roughly to: Beef Vermicilli and Imperial Pasta.

How can you not want to have Imperial pasta? I mean, are you soft in the head? Everyone loves to feel imperial. I think it was the crushed nuts on top. Crushed nuts has 'imperial' stamped all over it, right?

Should you go to Paris, I highly recommend.