pho-king

Pho Gan on Panda Space

Pandaspace - "adventures in life, travel, food, architecture, bamboo" - has a nice long photo-heavy article on their favorite comfort food (and ours, of course). "One Last Pho Gân" one thing that I cannot endorse - removing the chili before eating, as if it were there only for broth flavoring. No no mon frere! The more chili the better!

Pho in Hue

Okay, the round trip fare from your home in America to Hue City, Viet Nam, might be a bit steep, but if you ever make it to Hue, try the pho at the Saigon Pho shop.  Hue is not the capital of pho - Hanoi and Saigon compete for that title. but this place serves a very good bowl of pho for 10,000 Vietnamese dong - about 66 cents.

You don't see many westerners in this place, and that is too bad because they serve a very good Saigon-style pho, with all the usual shrubbery to put  in it. Oh yeah - if you're not into pho, the rest of the menu is pretty good.

Be sure to click on the photos to see a larger version.

Revenge of Noodlepie

Noodlepie, the Saigon bureau for street food reports, has a number of new reviews up of Saigon pho. I dare anyone to read a page or so of his notes and not want to immediately fly to Vietnam and stuff your face.

Why is the Pho Bo different in Vietnam?

Rob Boyle writes us about the major differences between pho bo in California and the preparations he's had in Saigon:

I guess it really has to do with the quality of the beef. I  didn't see a whole lot of refrigerators in Vietnam (much less freezers). They sell cut meat in open street markets with no refrigeration.

There are two key differences in the beef preparation for all of the Pho Tai I had in Vietnam (read more, inside!)...

perfecto phở

Over at royby.com, you can read about one person's attempt (or rather, walk around the corner - in Saigon, you never seem to have to go any further than that!) to find the world's most perfect phở.

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.