Comments on: Great Vietnamese Pho YouTube Videos Worth Seeing

By: Cuong Huynh

Cuong Huynh — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 17:27:33 +0000

Hi Pho: As far as I know this is the technique of pho Nam Dinh of the Co family. Others may do the same thing too, but it is basically what is commonly known as rare steak. For mass production in common pho restaurants, machine slicing is the most economical, least laborious, and requires the least skills. That's how you get those consistent, thin slices of rare steak. As suggested by Andrea Nguyen's recipe (Beef Pho Noodle Soup Recipe (Pho Bo)) the raw meat may include eye of round, sirloin, London broil or tri-tip steak. For better quality pho like what you saw in the video, the skilled cook did slice the meat thinly. Many cooks end it there and just put the hand-sliced meat in the bowl and be done with it. This technique goes on to tenderize the meat; if you look closely you will see that the cook is not actually chopping the meat. He turns the cleaver upside down and uses the flat edge. Then the last step is to help the broth cook the raw meat by making the whole thing thinner. If you're in Southern CA, I know Pho Nam Dinh in Little Saigon does this. Hope that helps.

By: pho

pho — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 16:05:17 +0000

im wondering about that technique with the cleaver where the man chops the meat, flattens it out, and puts it in the bowl. anybody know how and what cuts of meats that is? never seen my parent do that

By: Phở Hà Nội by the Multigenerational Cồ Family from Town of Nam Định, Part 1 - Vietnamese Pho Noodles

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:51:54 +0000

[...] telling an important story of the origin of pho in Vietnam. It made my list of top phở videos (Great Vietnamese Pho YouTube Videos Worth Seeing.) It’s narrated in Vietnamese, so not surprisingly it has a very limited audience. I think [...]