Food tends to dominate our lives...well at least mine. The search for the exotic, the unusual, the tasty, the extreme....or, like today, where I havent eaten as was trying to sort out a partially damaged house from Hurricane Irene, sustenance. So I checked in for my flight to Hanoi where Ill see another 5 things from the 1000 places to see before you die book and decided to hit the business lounge. It somehow is quite comforting to realise that no matter where you are in the world, when it comes to queue jumping or security bypassing or just wanting to stop someone nagging about your unfinished chores, that a confident stride and just a slightly condescending nod (ever so slight- sort of how Id imagine the Queen would do it if she passed Gordon Brown in the hallway of Buckingham Palace while wearing her negligee) to security as you stride past the check in desk into the lounge works a treat.
And thus I sat down to yet another dish of noodles and deep fried spring rolls courtesy of Vietnam Airlines and thought Id write about last night's 1000 places to see before you die number 212 review... pho. This national dish of Vietnam is a noodle soup with various meat or vegetarian additions. And Pho Hoa is, according to the 1000 places to see before you die not only the pho heaven of Vietnam but also both a restaurant and an experience that you have to see before entering the graveyard.
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I was surprised to work out how they found the place...tucked as it was a fair hike from the central tourist drag. Good news was the teeeeeny restaurant (prob only held about 50 people) was devoid of tourists (aided Id say as it wasnt featured in my Lonely Planet book) and, according to the heavily pregnant lady who chose to join my chipped formica table for four, was very well known by locals.
In fact it looks rather fancy in this shot with its nighttime lights......and I decided the fashions in the shop next door needed to be shared with the world so here's a bonus shot of that place for you as well....
Or perhaps a shot of the inside of the restaurant. Gotta respect a man who smokes and eats at the same time and uses the floor as the ashtray. Mind you the floor was filthy with bean sprouts and remnants of plants as people didnt seem that keen on using the waste bins underneath each table.
Back to pho. The choice was raw beef, well done brisket or flank, fatty flank, crunchy flank, beef paste, tendon, bible tripe (the only dish I confess I couldnt work out what the inevitable English translation typo was meant to be....bubbly tripe is the only thing I could come up with unless the experience of eating tripe is a heavenly experience which I assure you its not), beef balls and special noodles with all kinds of beef and vegetarian.
I decided that there is enough fatty and crunchy foods in the Vietnamese diet as it was and went for the special noodles. The broth smelt beautiful and apparently it is simmered for 5 hours every day- it was essentially a beef stock. Bean sprouts, a couple of handfuls of chopped spring onions and a few sprigs of parsley were added to the base.
To that I followed the preggo lady's example and concocted a paste from the various bottles on the table (unmarked so hard to know but definately chill, fish and soy sauce were recognisable) and tipped that in, then grabbed shreds of leaves off the plants that arrived separately and added to the top. On these I had no idea what they were but after a few ladylike rabbit nibbles on each type I quickly worked out which ones I liked the best.
The result- one happy me slurping away.Now...is it a dog ear on the page of the 1000 places to see before you die book or a rip out of the page?
Being a national dish you can buy it on every street corner and the only real skill would come in making the broth. But it was a very mild tasting and devoid of any particular flavour so I couldnt detect any culinary masterpiece in creating that.
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