How do *you* eat Pho?
I rarely write about food here, but eating and cooking are two of my favorite things. Pho, Vietnamese rice noodle soup, is a pleasure I discovered more than a decade ago, when I went gluten-free for a time and struggled to eat anything anywhere. I’ve always loved noodles and it was a perfect match.
I’ve eaten it regularly ever since and it’s staple here in Seattle with dozens of places that specialize in it (the soup and where I’ve eaten it are even mentioned in the acknowledgements of Confessions Of A Public Speaker).
What I don’t like about people who write about food is pretense. The pretense that there’s a wrong way to eat. I have two rules about eating:
- It is your mouth – put in it what you like, not what an expert (who has their own maw to fill) says
- It is your money – you paid for it, eat it how you like
Of course you should experiment with different foods and different ways to eat things, and experts can help offer good experiments to try first, but only to discover what you enjoy. Everyone’s palate and tastes are different. Rules for food are for fools.
And now, Pho.
Pho is traditionally served with many ingredients for you to use as you please: bean sprouts, basil, lime, jalapeño, and at least two sauces, a hot Srirachia sauce and a sweet and salty Hoisin sauce. It’s quite a taste chemistry set and you’ll see many people who have very specific cauldronesque recipes for their pho.
I’m a simpleton: I taste the broth first, then put just about everything in (except basil which is rarely worth the effort), a shot of hot sauce, a shot of Hoisin, and I’m off and running. Maybe less sauce if I think the broth is great, maybe more if it’s not so impressive. I use the chopsticks for noodles, and sometimes drink the some of the broth at the end.
It’s no surprise all the experts have their laws, rules and traditions to which i say hooey. Traditions are great to try at least once, but you should always remember every tradition we have was invented by someone who tried something different than what had been done before:
- How to eat Pho like you know what you’re doing
- Food Pho Pas: 23 things you’re doing wrong when eating Asian food
- How to order and eat Pho like a pro
- Lovingpho – an entire blog about making, eating and running a pho restaurant
My question for you is: how do you eat your Pho? Leave a comment.
I dump everything into the bowl. Basically I don’t feel like I know what I’m doing, but if I wasn’t supposed to put it in there, they wouldn’t have given it to me.
I eat it almost the same way. The Vietnam people eat it that way, too. There’s no wrong way. Only one “special” thing I’ve learned from my Vietnamese wife: take chopsticks in the right hand and a spoon in the left one. Then you can eat faster :D
If You like noodle soups You should try the others Vietnamese soups. They have
lot of great soups.
I’ve never been to Vietnam, but one or more of those links suggests true pho locals never put sauce directly in the broth, but instead mix it in a cup, sort of like what you do with traditional Chinese hotpot.
Do you drop the basil leaves in whole, or do you tear them up a bit to release the aroma?
I used to do the tearing thing, carefully, but I rarely do it anymore. I do notice the difference but usually I’m really hungry and don’t want to bother.
I used to pick the brown ends off the bean sprouts. Now I’m too lazy and just leave them out.
“What I don’t like about people who write about food is pretence.”
Well. I like to pretend that all my speeches at toastmasters are weighty, uplifting and contributing to world peace. And what speech am I most remembered for? The one on how I mix my breakfast cereal for maximum enjoyment. “We think of you at every breakfast.”
Breakfast is the king of meals!
I have no idea what it means to be the king of meals (would that make snacks the court jester of meals?) but it sure sounds impressive
FYI – Pho is traditionally a breakfast dish!
I don’t think I knew that. In the US it’s rarely served before lunch.
I actually did not know that either until I visited Vietnam for the first time and most if not all the pho places were closed by lunch time (this was in 2000 – times have changed and now there are places in Ho Chi Minh City that are open 24 hours a day).
Here’s some more trivia (not sure if it’s true but it’s what I was told by family when I was young): ever notice how the XL (extra-large) size is usually listed as “Xe Lua” in Vietnamese. Xe lua means train in Vietnamese. Story is that train conductors used to eat a Xe Lua sized bowl of pho in the morning to last a whole day on the train. So when you want the largest bowl of pho at a restaurant, you tell the waiter you want a, for example, pho dac biet xe lua (House special pho, “train size” aka extra large). Not only does it make for a good story to show off your cultural knowledge to your buddies over a bowl of pho, but it’s also conveniently acronymed to XL.
I couldn’t have put it better myself. You eat it however you like.
I am Vietnamese and growing up I ate plain meatball pho with hoisin sauce, this was typical for kids.
Now I put in almost everything. I taste the broth( and make my judgement about the restaurant), add a shot of hoisin, and sriracha, basil, sometimes squeeze in the lime. I also put a bit of the hoisin and sriracha on a small side plate to dip my meat. :) yum
I love pho in the states much more tasty, and healthier. Pho in Vietnam is very different flavor, i’m guessing because the ingredients and meat are different quality.
.The ingredients are the same but the pho tends to be more oily.
You should visit Vietnam sometime! A lot has changed in the past 10 years its amazing.
Linh Tran
Interesting you like it better in the states. I’m surprised by that.
You eat enough pho and this is what happens lol.
It’s the equivalent of how we eat an American burger. Not all are created equal.
Also Scott you have to try Bun Bo Hue! Lemongrass beef noodle soup!
Tastes amazing and that is another well known Vietnamese dish as well.
Definitely add Vietnam to your list of travels. The food adventures alone is worth it.
Ask for snails cooked in coconut milk and hot peppers life will never be the same. :)
I’d second Linh’s opinions on Pho in North America vs. Vietnam from what I’ve tasted. I think it’s the quality of ingredients here vs. Vietnam. The West just has bigger, fattier, tastier cattle, and beef is relatively cheap vs. Vietnam. The key to really good broth is to use a whole lot of beef bones (what I learned from my mother, who is a noodle soup specialist).
I always prep my pho in the same order, and I never stray (honed over thousands of bowls). Taste broth, add basil leaves (which I tear off the stem), culantro if available (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eryngium_foetidum) – which I tear into quarters, bean sprouts, a squirt of lime, hoisin sauce, and Siracha (a whole lot). If I’ve feeling frisky, I’d mash in a fresh chili (thai) for added kick. Sometimes I add more of of the above if necessary as I’m eating my way through.
As you can tell, I love pho. It’s my favorite dish in the entire world. I once ate it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a week straight before I needed a break.
P.S. I loved The Year Without Pants – one of the best books I read all of last year!
I dump the entire plate of sprouts, herbs, etc. in the bowl. I’ll add Srirachia and those chili flakes in oil. I don’t usually add Hoisin, though. I almost always order a sweet Vietnamese iced coffee to balance out the spice. Yum, I’m craving pho now!
I’m a new convert to the Hoisin in the last year or so. It’s really the tang of it that I’m fond of.
I do really like foods that I can mix and rearrange each time – it’s part of what makes pho so addictive in that I can make the meal a very different flavor experience on a whim.
I love Pho!!!!! I eat mine with chopsticks and the laddle thingy with plenty of hoisin, sriracha and sprouts. I have to be honest, I have never tried to eat it with a spoon. Pho seems to break all of the soup/non-soup rules. You have to use chopsticks to get the noodles because a spoon wouldn’t really work. Can’t use a fork because of the broth. It’s a hybrid inter-cultural experience.
I see people eating pho with forks often – I guess some folks just don’t like chopsticks or never learned.
I mentioned in my post about no rules, but the one rule that drives me nuts is people who eat pizza with a fork and knife. MADNESS.
I agree! Omg I went on this date once and the guy ate his pizza with a fork and knife which wasn’t bad enough but insisted that I did too, I was just like….seriously dude?
He insisted you eat a certain way? You should have stabbed him with the fork – I would have.
I’m from NYC so I’m entirely arrogant about pizza behavior – but it’s a sign of bad pizza (or the Chicago style casserole pizza which is really a different beast) if you can’t fold it and eat it.
Just want to clarify that it’s Southern style Pho, I highly recommend you to try original Northern style Pho someday
This is my favorite pho place in Seattle:
http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/1/3419/restaurant/International-District/Pho-Ba-Seattle
And they have really good summer rolls, too!