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Pho Is Changing – Chinese, French and Now American Influences
Updated 01-03-10. By now you probably know how passionate I am about my beloved Vietnamese phở. With everything that’s going on in the pho industry, if you can call it that, from pho franchises to “new” forms of pho (seafood, pork, etc. – I’m shuddering brrr…) to pho shops owned by non-Viet restaurateurs, I have a serious concern for where the authentic pho as we know it may be heading – at least the version I know I like. Who cares, you say? Well I hope at least some people do.
Of course “authentic pho” itself is debatable, so let’s talk about influences.
Vietnamese Pho: Chinese and French Influences
Vietnam was under Chinese rule for about 1000 years, then another 100 years under the French after that, so one can make up his/her own mind about who gave what and how much influence to the Vietnamese. Pho is no exception.
If you haven’t done so, I invite you to read the following articles:
Nobody will argue against the fact that Viet culture definitely have Chinese influences. But for me, there’s also no argument about French influence either. In fact French was the second language in the country even during the Vietnam war, when the French were long gone and large number of Americans were there.
Many people fail to realize how strong the Viet-French tie has been and will ever will be. Even in the 10 or so years following 1975 when the Communist government in Vietnam closed up the country, it was the Europeans and specifically the French who came back to Vietnam first to open diplomatic relations. Everyone knows the French love Viet people and vice versa. The Communist Vietnamese took credit for kicking out the French, but they won’t admit that in post-1975 Vietnam depended even more on the French and was glad they came back as they did. It actually opened up the country again to Western investments, trades, education, and other good things.
One thing for sure though, Viet people (especially the commoners) adopted foreign words and added our own accents to make it “look” and “sound” right for our conversational use. The “ph” in “phở” is pronounced exactly as an “f” in French, since there is no letter f in the modern Viet alphabet. And I want to stress that there is no “p” sound in “phở” either.
Vietnamese Pho: American Influences
Here are a couple of things that happened after 1975 and is happening now. One, pho is now popular around the world due to the millions of Viet refugees who left the country since 1975. Without this key group of people I doubt if pho would have received much attention at all aside from a few tourists and foreigners adventurous enough to try out a bowl of pho. Two, with such large Viet communities in the U.S. and more and more Americans searching out for pho everyday, pho itself is being influenced by Americans, American way of life, and the American marketplace as we speak.
So how is pho being changed? Here are a few ways:
- The viral pho reason. As second, third and subsequent Vietnamese-American generations spread outside of the Vietnamese enclaves around the country, more and more Americans who consider themselves ”meat-and-potatoes” kind of diners will be exposed to pho and will add pho to their list of preferred Asian foods. But guess what? Pho will need to change to their palates, not the other way around, if the restaurants are to survive in areas outside of the Viet communities.
- The variety pho reason. Once Americans like something, they will demand choices, and there will be restaurateurs who will oblige. Already we’ve seen pho choices that a Vietnamese would not see or order in a more authentic Vietnamese restaurant. I’m talking about pho varieties with seafoods, pork, fish and other non-traditional ingredients. Again when the clientele demands, the restaurateurs will provide.
- The healthy pho reason. Pho itself is probably already more healthy than the typical American foods though I haven’t seen any clear proof of this. With millions of Americans actively out searching for healthier diets, many already found what they need in Vietnamese foods. The trend will be even more creative and non-traditional pho to be offered by restaurateurs in the forms of vegetarian, tofu, and other non-red meat ingredients.
- The alternate ingredients reason. Let’s face it, when a Vietnamese restaurant owner ventures outside of the Viet community, fresh ingredients will become harder to acquire locally. The net result will be more expensive pho, or pho without the right ingredients. While this maybe a small issue for some, it can and will contribute to the creation of morphed versions of pho, as the local clientele wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
- The parallel tracks reason. Since 1975, there are multiple versions of pho that continue to develop around the world. It’s hard enough to track the changing pho in Vietnam. We now have pho sold around the world. It’s not that easy to put your fingers on it, and it’ll be interesting to see how all this will transpire.
So there you have it. Pho is changing. Regardless of if you’re for or against it, or maybe don’t even care, you can’t stop it. The only thing you and I can do is to help control it through our own pocketbooks. I know we have urges to try something new all the time, but I also know I need to give my continued business to good authentic pho restaurants who go out of their ways to do it right. There are real and important reasons to patronize good pho restaurants, because if they go away, you’ll never know what you’ll get in their places.
So take thisa poll on the subject.
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Posted on Nov 22nd, 2009 and filed under Pho Corner: Everything Pho, Pho North America, Pho Op-Ed, featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response by filling following comment form or trackback to this entry from your site
Wow I was researching about pho and how I believe pho will one day evolve into a fast food like taco. Cool post you wrote there. I am too someone who is passionated about pho.
Dear Dzung Le: Thanks for dropping by with your comments. So what are you researching about pho for and what’s your theory? Care to share it?
As you said, I strongly believe that’s where we’re heading with pho. And in the same way that many tacos are for the general consumption of the mass and not necessarily for the Mexican ethnic group of people. That’s part of progress, but is there a reason to try and stop it?