I went to Vietnam for 3 weeks in Dec 09 and commented on some of the pho that I tried, among other things:
::How to Define Pho? — Dec 15, 2009 @ 1:44::
Today we are in Lao Cai and we had a chicken noodle soup for breakfast. I also had chicken noodle soup yesterday for breakfast in Hanoi. I asked today if they call this Pho and he said yes. They had cilantro, mint, hot peppers, fish sauce, lime, etc to add to the soup. It was more chickeny and the broth was very different then I’m used to. I will continue to try to figure out what classifies as pho. Do you know?? Help!
::Pho Bo — Dec 15, 2009 @ 12:25::
Pho bo at dinner in Sa Pa. Not impressive! No veggies to throw in, dry beef. I wonder if it is regional. I’ll try it in all parts of ‘nam and find out. Don’t you worry!
::A Lovely Pho at The Victoria Sapa — Dec 16, 2009 @ 1:07::
We are in Sapa/Sa Pa at the Victoria Sapa hotel which is quite fancy. We just had a delicious breakfast and of course I tried the beef pho. It had large pieces of green onion, bean sprouts, cilantro, etc. The broth was flavorful with a really nice lemongrassiness. There was lime and a hot red pepper to add. The beef was a darker more fatty cut, less dry than last night and much better though I do not love the fatiness. The pho was quite lovely. They also had bacon and it was thick cut and cooked almost perfectly! A nice array of fruits: dragon fruit, Asian pears, pomelo, pineapple (at first I typed “pubeapple” so thank you auto-correct), watermelon, and tangerine… The staff was obviously bored and kept hovering around eyeing our plates, ready to snatch them. We only had one night in the fancy hotel but we had a nice sauna and dip in the pool last night. Now we’re off to smaller Northern towns.
::Neigh::
In non-pho-related news, I just refused horse meat.
::Pho in Weird City — Dec 17, 2009 @ 14:08::
Creepy hotel with ice cream truck music in elevator. bad breakfast but decent Pho! beef Pho! my mother poured a pitcher of banana juice all over her pants!
::Qik Videos — Dec 17, 2009 @ 14:31::
check them here:
[qik user="formicadinette"]
::Pho ga in Dien Bien Phu — Dec 18, 2009 @ 0:39::
n Dien Bien Phu at hotel, had pho with chicken. Had bean sprouts, added the veggies, lime, and hot peppers. Accidently overspiced but it was a decent pho, average, better than the rest of breakfast! We head back to Hanoi today and will have some more very tasty food! Then South to Hue and hopefully try banh xeo as Minh suggests!
::Pho 24 in Hanoi — Dec 24, 2009 @ 7:18::
**EDIT– also ate here in HCM city and was very much the same as the one in Hanoi**
This is a chain in Vietnam and other nearby countries. Very tasty actually. Really good broth and good veggies to add, just not enough of them. My mother had an egg in her broth which was quite good. Had beef fillet which was good and not fatty. Yumm. Will try Pho 24 in Saigon too.
::Pho from next door to street place recommended on stickyrice blog — Dec 24, 2009 @ 7:21::
tasty but didn’t add veggies because they were sitting out all day on the street. sat on little plastic chairs on sidewalk. beef fatty. place next door was closed so tried this one.
::Pho from street place recommended on stickyrice blog — Dec 27, 2009 @ 6:51::
ate in cafe next door because police were coming and they can’t have the tables on the sidewalk so they all hurried and scampered around moving stuff inside. broth was good. no veggies to add. beef was fatty so grey got a lot of extra beef from all of us because he likes fatty beef. I added one hot pepper and some lime and thought the Pho was quite good in general. found out a little about Hanoi Pho being different style from south. need to try the southern Pho and compare!