Phogettaboutit (mafia pho)
I’ve had pho a few times, in vietnam even. I don’t understand the draw. It was mostly just a really plain soup. But maybe I’m missing something. Is anyone generous enough to explain the flavor profile as it should be? thanks
My mother is Vietnamese and so I grew up eating lots of pho among other Vietnamese cuisines. So I can try to explain this.
The flavor profile is primarily in the broth and it is delicate and somewhat subtle. There are different ways to eat it with different types of meats (meatballs, thinly sliced beef, tendons and intestines, chicken etc.) topped with crisp bean sprouts and fresh basil and chilis, a few squirts of fish sauce, a dumping sriracha and hoisin sauce, a helping of vinegared white onions, egg noodles instead of the white vermicelli noodles etc. etc. But the broth makes or breaks the entire bowl. It has it’s own fragrance from a mix of spices, which is actually smells kind of like BO, but tastes delicious. It’s a light, yet savory flavor that goes down easy and soothes the soul (and the hangover).
No two restaurants are the same. In the Northern Virginia area with a significant Vietnamese population, there are dozens of pho restaurants, many of which have been there for 15+ years, yet the differences from bowl to bowl are noticeable.
Good luck to you CherryDiablo. I was thinking about doing a pho restaurant here too, but I don’t have the F&B experience and I’m also not confident that I can cook up a good batch, though I’ll probably try this week or so.
The pho in Chengdu is overpriced garbage. The pho restaurants at the global center are tasteless. Once a bowl I ordered had the broth too cool to cook the raw meat. Dazhong’s pho was decent only because of the price, but they cook the bean sprouts in the soup so they’re soggy and unappetizing. The one by shangrila was ok but wildly inconsistent and way too expensive. I haven’t tried the one at taikoo li yet, but I heard it’s good.