Pho For Your Soul Mar 20 '06 (Updated Mar 27 '06)    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet Popular Products in Music The Dirtchamber Sessions, Vol. 1 by The Prodigy From $11 Jersey Boys [Original Broadway Cast Recording] by Original Broadway Cast From $8 The Bottom Line Cue in a bit of the Old Ludwig Van, as I drive to my favorite Vietnamese dive to get my fill of pho! When I immigrated to the U.S., it took me some time to understand what I particularly liked from the melting pot of North American cuisine. Now I know that it absolutely has to be Pho. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it. What Pho? (skip this if you already know) Pho (spelled with a diacritical over the "o", actually) is a Vietnamese beef broth with rice noodles and seafood or beef in various cuts and shapes. It is typically served with bean sprouts, culantro (not to be confused with cilantro) and basil leaves, lemon or lime, and fresh green chili peppers. Pho usually comes in a steaming hot bowl ranging in size from medium (but still a full portion) to huge. Two sauces, sweet BBQ sauce and hot red chili one, are a must as well. The combination of salty beef broth and beef, sour lemon or lime, and rice noodles and bean sprouts - almost devoid of taste on their own, but providing a lot of texture - gives pho its unique taste. Pho can be had with many combinations of beef, and beef products. For the less adventurous, there is thinly sliced beef steak, well-cooked beef flank, or meatballs. For the more adventurous or seeking an exotic/authentic experience, there is beef tripe and tendon. My favorite is just thinly sliced steak, as flank tends to be a lot tougher to chew. When I mention "thinly sliced", it is really thinly sliced. Almost paper thin, if fact. Why? As I found out years after regularly ordering and eating pho, beef slices are cooked by placing them in the boiling broth, which is immediately served. No simmering/boiling on an active heat is involved! Pho Better or Pho Worse The corollary to this curious fact is that one probably should not order beef pho in an unfamiliar restaurant. If not sliced carefully - or if the broth is anything less than boiling - the meat may not cook properly, with all the unpleasant results you can imagine. I never had a problem, but I usually went to restaurants recommended by somebody. Another corollary is that you would never find chicken pho, or if you do, it would not be authentic at all. Chicken cannot be sliced thinly enough to cook quickly in broth, so it has to be pre-cooked. Pho Versions Besides beef, seafood is another popular product to go in pho. I have seen (and tasted) shrimp, squid, minced prawns (!) and what I call "mystery seafoodballs." While all are generally good and tasty, especially minced prawns, beef is still my favorite. I should say that this is about the only time I eat beef - and mad bovine syndrome be damned. Pho Etiquette (Learned by observing Vietnamese friends and colleagues eat it.) Without doubt, one should use chopsticks and a special short spoon to ladle the broth. I am not very handy with chopsticks, but pho is one of the few dishes that is easier to eat with these than with a fork. Or maybe it is just a force of habit for me. Once you receive your pho bowl, you would put as much bean sprouts and basil and culantro leaves in the broth as you like, squeeze the lemon or lime half into the broth, add sweet BBQ and hot chili sauce to taste, and mix well. Even those fond of hot and spicy foods may want to go easy on the chili sauce, as it mostly stays in the broth and may make it uneatable. Pho pretty much must be eaten when served. It is not a good idea to order it to go, or take leftovers home. Pho How Good is it For You? There is no frying or even grilling involved in preparing anything that goes into pho. And bean sprouts, basil and culantro are vegetables/fresh greens. These are good things. On the other hand, the amount of sodium likely used in the BBQ and chili sauces may be enough to melt an average driveway in Minnesota, so sodium-avoiders should go easy on those. And then there is the low-level anxiety about eating beef. Finally, rice noodles are most likely made from refined rice, so they have little or no fibre, just the starch. These are potentially not so good things about pho. On balance, while a home-cooked meal, especially a salad, is likely to be healthier, as a going out, quick lunch or dinner meal pho is hard to beat. If not Pho, What? Maybe you are appalled by the idea of a large bowl of soup as a main entree. Maybe you do not eat beef or seafood. Another traditional Vietnamese dish, bun (also with a diacritical), offers an alternative to pho. Bun is a rice noodle salad with lemongrass, which can be had with BBQd chicken, beef, pork, shrimp, or tofu. A mock duck bun, well prepared, is surprisingly tasty and filling. And now excuse me as I ran out to grab an early dinner... I wonder what is going to be?

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