Updated 10-15-10. We all have our own reasons why we like Vietnamese pho, and we have our own reasons to keep coming back to our favorite pho restaurant(s.) The reasons we like our pho restaurants can be as varied as pho recipes themselves, but when one boils it all down (no pun intended) to the pho essentials, there are really a finite number of reasons why a pho restaurant deserve your business and my business. Here’s my take on what makes a great pho restaurant. You are welcome and definitely encouraged to add your own take in the comments section.

Please be aware that, though I’d like to think of myself as a fair person, I realize that each of us do have our own certain personal preferences and biases. Our preferences may be directly or indirectly influenced by other factors such as where we live, where we come from, what we believe in, and sometime our own economic situation of course. Who says pho is not a religion? Maybe not yet, but the critical mass is already swelling. We can all feel it.

So with the prelude out of the way, let’s look at a couple of recent polls running on LovingPho.com. You are welcome to take them if you haven’t done so. Click “Vote” under the results to take a poll and add your voice among other pho zealots (thanks Andrea Nguyen for the term) and tell us what a great pho restaurant means to you. Why these two questions? Well the first poll, “How important is authentic/good pho to you?,” is repeated here just to set the stage for the fact that, despite my own expectation (and maybe yours too,) there are almost 1/4 of the people who took the poll (20% + 4% saying good pho is subjective or not important) feel that it’s ok to have less than authentic/good pho.

The second poll, “Your perfect pho restaurant?,” is really where the meat is (again no pun intended.) Here it is.

Go ahead, take the polls if you haven’t done so.

OK so let’s pick them apart. The results discussed below are based on poll results as of September 28, 2010. It is expected that the general trend of the results will continue. I’ll continue to track and make updates as needed.

More than 50% say great quality and fresh garnish are the most important pho restaurant attributes.

• Great Pho Quality. Eighty eight percent (88%) say great quality is important. While it is obvious that quality is of course important, it is not 100%! This attribute is a tough one to judge for many non-Viet, but actually it’s pretty easy. Quality is like beauty, it’s in the eye, or the mouth in this case, of the beholder. Alright I’ll just rephrase it; Pho quality is in the mouth of the slurper. We all have our own measuring stick when it comes to pho quality, but even for non-Viet diners it’s pretty safe to say that as a group we all know what pho quality means. It’s what makes us keep coming back for more.
• Fresh Pho Garnish. Sixty two percent (62%) say fresh garnish is important. Well of course! It’s what pho is all about. But the flip side again is interesting too. Thirty eight percent (38%) say they don’t care much about fresh garnish. Wow this really opens my eyes. My theory? Well assuming if one likes to have the garnish, then it has to be fresh; who wants stale garnish right? So one plausible explanation is, pho is so good in itself, many non-Viet diners don’t need/don’t want/can’t stand the garnish or care about the freshness of it. I would expect a very small number of Viet diners do not like fresh garnish so these folks do not contribute to the results.

Cleanliness is an important pho restaurant attribute, but it’s not necessarily what it seems.

• Pho Restaurant Cleanliness. Forty seven percent (47%) say pho restaurant cleanliness is important. I’m sure this applies to any other restaurants as well, but again what’s happening with 53% who say it is not important? Is our expectation that low, or do we actually get used to a “typical” pho or Vietnamese restaurant look and feel? It is what it is? I do know one thing: if the quality is great, cleanliness will always be secondary. For those who never had pho at a street stall on the streets of Saigon or Hanoi, you are missing the total pho experience. And you know what? I totally appreciate people taking time out to participate in this poll, but I now have a lot more respect for the pho zealots who voted quality above cleanliness. Keep on slurping.

Large portions, good service, and low price: restaurant attributes that can be important, or not.

• Large Pho Portion and Low Pho Price. Thirty two percent (32%) and 36% say large portion and low (or affordable) price, respectively, are important. These two certainly go hand in hand because having one normally means having the other as well. What does this really mean? To me it means that, as Vietnamese food is already very affordable in the U.S., when you have the goodness of the all-in-one-meal Vietnamese pho, it is a great deal all around and very hard to beat.
• Good Service. Likewise, 32% say good service is important. This is a non-pho attribute so I think it’s the reason why only a third says it’s important in this context. Let’s face it, a typical pho restaurant is not necessarily a fancy date destination, so you don’t expect much in the service department. The other 68% just say: “Let me have number 2 please, and a glass of water. That’s all I want.” See this poll below about pairing beverages with pho.

Other Viet foods, Viet music and large Viet clientele are not key pho restaurant attributes.

• Other Viet Foods, Viet Music and Large Viet clientele. At the low end of the important attributes spectrum are variety of Viet dishes (12%,) Viet music (4%,) large Viet clientele (21%) all of which to me have to do with the environment or ambiance. This is a pho poll so of course we don’t care much for other Viet dishes. We just want our pho! On the other hand, for those who took this poll, my interpretation here is that Vietnamese pho is reaching a point where the customers, I surmise to say, are knowledgeable and understand the dish enough to care a lot more about the pho they eat and not much else. That’s the way it should be in my opinion. Out of my own curiosity I included these non-pho attributes in the poll, and you are essentially saying: “Just give me good pho any day!” I’m with you on that.

So how am I doing “profiling” a pho zealot? And how do you see yourself among the pho faithful? If you’re thinking about opening your own pho restaurant, I hope you take note. The LovingPho Restaurant will definitely have all the important attributes, but I assure you it will be clean too.

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What Makes a Great Pho Restaurant? is a post from: Vietnamese Pho Noodles

Updated 11-25-11. There are gazillions of pho videos on YouTube. Among the 3,000 or so Vietnamese pho videos there are many how-to-cook, how-to-eat and a variety of other parody clips. After viewing a few of those, you’ll wonder why you’ve wasted a good chunk of your life on them, time that you’ll never get back in any shape or form. On the other hand, there are a few gems that will enhance your knowledge and appreciation of pho in many ways, and you’ll be glad you’ve seen them. Below are some of the best pho-related YouTube videos worth seeing. They’re not your run of the mill personal funny videos. They are quite entertaining and educational, and they definitely ooze personal styles and characteristics that make them unique. Above all they show a lot of care and thoughts put in both during the production and post-production. In addition, they also get the nod for treating pho with respect (though I’m still on the fence about the gigantic bowl of Pho Challenge at Pho Garden.) The magic of pho is really all about the broth, so anything showing large vats of brewing pho broth with huge ladles and crew buzzing to serve pho to hungry customers all get special consideration. Here are my youTube video picks in no particular order. The 2 Vietnamese-language videos are especially great documentaries. Maybe I’ll find time to translate them sometime.

Mobile Home Pho – Pho Bình in Houston

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs5Qo0ICVoY

Phở gia truyền dòng họ Cồ (Nam Định) tại Hà Nội (P1 of 2)

Phở by the Multigenerational Cồ Family (currently 3rd, 4th and 5th generation,) from Town of Nam Định, Near Hà Nội (part 1.) In Vietnamese only. English transcription available at “Pho Dynasty: Pho Hanoi by the Multigenerational Co Family from Town of Nam Dinh, Part 1.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P513niljeMg

Phở gia truyền dòng họ Cồ (Nam Định) tại Hà Nội (P2 of 2)

Phở by the Multigenerational Cồ Family (currently 3rd, 4th and 5th generation,) from Town of Nam Định, Near Hà Nội (part 2.) In Vietnamese only. English transcription available at “Pho Dynasty: Pho Hanoi by the Multigenerational Co Family from Town of Nam Dinh, Part 2.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNMcmw2Geps

How to cook pho: long recipe howcookingworks.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imdVKGm-RKU

Vietnamese Pho Bo, Pho Ga and Bun Bo Hue at St Barbara Parish Fall Festival

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYquwQJfLNo

Pho Challenge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUpvc7O6ywg

Anthony Bourdain Pho – Food Porn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsSiA-JHm0U

Great Vietnamese Pho YouTube Videos Worth Seeing is a post from: Vietnamese Pho Noodles

Something interesting came out of my chat with Corrine Trang about pho and other Asian noodles. Nothing is really earth shattering here, and for pho fans, this is like preaching to the choir. But through these 5 simple questions I believe we captured the essence of Vietnamese pho, so it’s worth a mention in a separate post.

I asked Corinne a series of questions comparing pho to other Asian noodles, calling it the “ultimate noodle face-off.” And she should know, because she herself wrote the book about noodles, Noodles Every Day. Let’s face it, Vietnamese pho is a late comer to Americans’ Asian culinary awareness. Pho certainly came to America after the Chinese, Japanese and Korean noodles. But pho is getting its fair share of fan buzz and definitely building more followers all the time.

So here’s the pho noodle face-off results, pho against other noodle dishes according to Corinne Trang. The scale is from 1 to 10, 10 being the highest level (best, most complex, etc.)

• Deliciousness of pho: 10/10 (one of the best)
• Degree of difficulty to make pho: 3/10 (not too difficult)
• Degree of difficulty to serve pho: 1/10 (very easy!)
• Number of ingredients required for pho: 7/10 (fair, but not numerous amount required)
• Pho popularity among non-Asians: 10/10

If I have to rate these myself, I would give “Difficulty to make pho” a 4/10 and “Degree of difficulty to serve pho” a 2 or 3, just because I would take into account the fact that many Americans didn’t grow up with pho, and therefore are unfamiliar with how it’s made and served from inside a kitchen. But I think my own viewpoints do not disagree with Corinne Trang’s numbers.

The take-away: Pho is great tasting, not difficult to prepare (especially with the right pho recipes,) super easy to serve, does not require an excessive amount of ingredients, and is very popular among non-Asians. If you also consider that pho can be enjoyed at any time of the day, then you have the perfect combination of goodness in pho.

For me though, there’s a missing link: I’m still working on getting reliable calories counts for pho. So please let me know if you have a good source.

Read the details on the original and complete post with Corinne Trang on Vietnamese Pho, Noodles Every Day, and Life.

Vietnamese Pho Soup Noodle in Noodle Face Off Against Other Asian Noodles is a post from: Vietnamese Pho Noodles

I had the privilege to meet and chat with Brian Nguyen, the founder of Quoc Viet Foods^® Incorporation in Westminster, California, the maker of Vietnamese pho and other soup bases. I find Brian’s story about how he started Quoc Viet pho soup base and where he wants to take his company quite fascinating. Here’s a recount of our encounter.

First a little bit about the company. Quoc Viet Foods^® specializes in manufacturing and distributing Vietnamese pho soup bases and other seasonings. The company is the first to use modern technologies to convert the traditional Vietnamese dishes into the convenient soup base form. Quoc Viet’s soup bases and seasonings are processed from natural ingredients and do not contain any preservatives. For those who think soup bases are cheap, MSG-laden imitation of the real thing, they haven’t try these products. In fact Quoc Viet’s pho and other products are so good you’ll get restaurant taste and quality at home. By the way, in the interest of full disclosure, I did not receive any compensation for writing this article.

Those who have been looking for quick pho recipes probably saw my post about Quoc Viet Foods’s pho soup base. In it I described how to make a batch of 20 plus bowls of pho in less than 3 hours. I took my time for that post, but my subsequent performance has improved to less than one hour. So you can say I’m a fan, and Quoc Viet Foods’ products should definitely be on your try list if you don’t want to deal with bones, oxtails, and 3-6 hours in the kitchen.

Quoc Viet Foods’ Formative Years

The company name is Quốc Việt Foods^® Incorporation. In Vietnamese, the word “quốc” means nation, state or country, and of course Việt is the majority ethnic group of people living in Vietnam. So Quốc Việt Foods^® is all about the traditional flavors and taste of Viet foods of the motherland. By training, Brian Nguyen earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a Master of Science in Food Sciences. He’s worked for major food companies so he had all the right knowledge, from food product development to testing, from production to packaging, and distribution. Only problem was, he had no product to call his own.

On many trips to the local supermarkets, Brian told me he often looked that Viet foods on the shelves that are made in Thailand and elsewhere, with questionable quality and authenticity. One can almost see the entrepreneurial mind at work, and like many entrepreneurs, Brian had this energy that was just waiting to explode into a great product for a waiting market.

It finally dawned on Brian Nguyen that pho is what he wanted to do. Already in existence were mediocre products at best, and Brian definitely had some ideas. Now I’ve written before that Vietnamese cuisine is not something easily duplicable into mass produced quantities. And when it comes to pho, the variation is something that is expected. It’s one reason why I’ve not been impressed with pho franchises. But I digress.

Back to Brian and his pho. His garage became his R&D and product development laboratory – think Steve Jobs, Apple computers, and garage. Local supermarket meat departments were his beef bone and oxtail suppliers. It came to a point that butchers knew his face, what and how much he wanted as soon as he approached them in their shops. And his neighbors started wondering about this family next door that cooked pho everyday, all day long. Brian’s family is Northern Vietnamese so it’s no surprise, but the real kicker was when he told me neither he nor his family liked pho!

It wasn’t until the business actually opened that the butchers and neighbors understood what he was up to.

Growth and Market Expansion

Quoc Viet Foods^® then began a journey of growth from a humble 900 square foot location in 2002, expanding progressively to larger facilities every few years, to the current 12,000 sq ft space.

With an excellent product line, an expanding pho market that continue to gain visibility and popularity, new products coming down the pipeline, Quoc Viet is poised for more growth in the coming years. You can now buy Quoc Viet’s products from many Asian supermarkets. For those who cannot find a local retailer, the company will make an effort to ship products directly as well, though it’s an exception rather the rule.

In addition to supplying to the supermarkets, Quoc Viet Foods^® also ships products to restaurants, hospitals, schools, and casinos. Recently the company also became an approved vendor to SYSCO, the ubiquitous distributor of food and related products and services to restaurants, nursing homes, hospitals, hotels, motels, schools, colleges, cruise ships, sports parks and summer camps – wherever a meal is prepared away from home. This is serious pho distribution channel.

New Products – Vietnamese Coffee and Tea

Vietnamese milk coffee Cà phê sữa (either đá or nóng – iced or hot) is great by itself or it can go well with or after a bowl of pho. Brian Nguyen informed me that Quoc Viet Foods^® is also bringing to market its own new products of coffee and tea. Branded Cafvina, the coffee that I tried rivaled many coffees you may find in retail shops, and can give Lee’s Sandwiches’ iced coffee some serious challenge. Cafvina brand coffee comes in whole bean, ground, concentrated or ready-to-drink varieties. Look out for them.

Visit QuocViet.com.

Quoc Viet Foods® Steadily Growing and Bringing Vietnamese Pho to the Masses is a post from: Vietnamese Pho Noodles

I was happy and honored that Andrea Nguyen agreed to an interview. This gives me a great chance to pick her brain and learn what makes her tick. Between writing for well-known publications, teaching classes, giving live tours, demos and interviews, and writing best selling books, Andrea Nguyen is the go-to sources for all things Viet cuisine and Viet pho.

Many searching for advice on Viet cuisine undoubtedly have heard of Andrea Nguyen. She is a celebrated food writer and teacher with a unique ability to interpret traditional Asian cooking styles for modern cooks. Her work appears in the Los Angeles Times, San Jose Mercury News, and Saveur magazine, where she is also a contributing editor. Andrea’s first book, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen, received three prestigious James Beard and IACP cookbook award nominations. Her new cookbook, Asian Dumplings, hits the shelves on August 25th, 2009.

Andrea Nguyen's Asian Dumplings book

With her very popular website VietWorldKitchen.com, a new book and its companion website Asiandumplingtips.com, Andrea is more than busy. Her new book Asian Dumplings is now available everywhere. You can also buy Asian Dumplings on Amazon.com. So let’s get to the Q&As. As usual I add my own comments in the brackets [...] to clarify or explain as needed.

LovingPho (LP): What are some of your favorite Vietnamese dishes, either to make or to just enjoy them being made by others?
Andrea Nguyen (AN): Pho noodle soup and any kho dish simmered in caramel sauce!
["Kho" dishes are normally pork or fish simmered in caramel sauce in a claypot. They're great over just white rice! See her own example of fish kho.]

LP: What are some of your favorite non-Viet dishes? And why?
AN: Good wonton noodle soup because the textures are so alluring. A juicy hamburger on a homemade bun with hot, crisp French fries because I love practically anything that’s grilled or deep fried.

LP: What do you consider as some of your proudest accomplishments (food related or otherwise,) both in recent years and of all time?
AN: Having Into the Vietnamese Kitchen published and knowing that people are using the book to make food at home. Also, having my mom say that she cooks from the book.

LP: People can read about how you started your culinary career from your own blog and many interviews you have given. What happened was you ended up abandoning your “professional career” to pursue cooking. It’s a classic case of triumph of passion. But were there times in the early years that you ever felt a food career could be a mistake, or did your passion keep you going regardless?
AN: Life is a strange thing and I kept my eyes on the prize. I couldn’t get a book deal for years, though people in the higher echelons encouraged me to get my name out there. Knowing that people you value value your work fueled my tenacity.

LP: Do you have a funny story of failure during those years that you’d like to share?
AN: Writing is a learning process. It’s quite organic. I found out that I’d been making rice wrong for decades. My mother set me right and now 98% of my pots of rice turn out perfect. Practice and constant discovery is key.

Andrea Nguyen's bánh chưng (sticky rice cake)

LP: The food industry is as wide ranging and diverse as any other big industries. Did you have some kind of plan in mind or just wing it? I see your passion in your work now and would like to know what it took for you to finally found your niche.
AN: I thought I’d cook but that was such hard work. I’m an academic geek who is into educating people about new flavors and ideas. You can be creative nowadays with your career. I started out in banking but those skills I now use to figure out business opportunities, contracts, etc. I kind of have a plan and see where life takes me. My folks taught me to always have a backup plan. It’s the immigrant/refugee thing, you know? If this writing/food career doesn’t work out, I bag groceries quite well at Trader Joe’s.

LP: Recipes are essentially detailed instructions to make something. In your views, are recipes really the pinnacle of what humans can achieve to share and teach, or do you see even better ways to share and teach about food?
AN: Recipes are like performance art pieces for me. I do them over multiple times to communicate enough details to help home cooks. I’m a professional home cook and through recipe books, I like to offer a cultural and historical understanding of food and flavor. I learned cooking by reading and practicing on my own and encourage others to do that too. However, we don’t all learn the same way so cooking classes and demonstrations, particularly of difficult techniques, are always welcomed.

LP: How often do you deviate from your own recipes and why?
AN: I love to test out my own recipes to sort of test myself. It’s often a mistake and I find myself saying, “Darn, I should have listened to me!” If I seriously deviate, it’s because I’m testing out a new idea or technique.

LP: Most everyone enjoys eating out. With your knowledge about foods and the culinary arts, how critical are you about the foods you order in restaurants?
AN: I’m a bit too critical but remind myself that eating out is entertainment, a time-saver, and opportunity for discovering new ideas.

LP: And do you feel such knowledge has increased or decreased the level of enjoyment you may get out of a restaurant meal?
AN: I like to eat out and learn something new. It can be as simple as having a bowl of filet mignon pho in a double layer metal bowl (go to El Monte in SoCal) and thinking about how that Korean vessel keeps the soup extra hot. Or, eating at Alinea in Chicago and savoring post-modern culinary dinner theater.

Andrea Nguyen's Shanghai soup dumplings

LP: Do you find yourself naturally becoming the focus for culinary discussions, and opinions, at the restaurant table?
AN: I have opinionated family and friends so it’s normally a broad discussion of food, cooking, history, politics, etc. Food is a great lens for exploring human existence.

LP: When you enter an unfamiliar Viet restaurant, what food do you think about first? Do you think to yourself “I wonder how good pho is here?” or is it a different dish you’re wondering about? Why?
AN: I look around and see what everyone is eating. If I’m in a pho joint, I take a big inhale to get a whiff of the broth. Sometimes you really get to smell the pho fragrance and that’s a nice sign.

LP: I think you’ve been back to Vietnam a few times, and no doubt you had to visit the food markets there. Can you share with us what you can find in a Viet market there that you wish are available here in the states?
AN: Seafood like you wouldn’t believe. Live rice paddy crabs that you’d use for bun rieu cua. Produce like fragrant hoa thien ly. Prepped ingredients like minced shallot, lemongrass, and chiles. Freshly grated coconut for coconut milk. You would be hard pressed to find that abroad.

LP: What are your views about the state of Viet cuisine in Vietnam? Whom do you feel are doing good things to advance Viet cuisine there?
AN: There are a number of locals like Mrs. Nguyen Dzoan Cam Van who are pushing things a bit in terms of modern Viet cuisine that retain its traditional foundations. Viet kieu (Viet expatriates) open places like Ngon to present Viet fare in pleasant surroundings. Foreigners such as Didier Corlou and Bobby Chinn meld eastern and western traditions.

LP: It’s really a blessing (and interesting too) that pho is now one of the most recognizable Viet dish outside of Vietnam. What are your thoughts on this?
AN: I’m just hoping to get better bowls of pho in more places in the future! I’m selfish that way. Seriously, the popularity of pho in urban centers around the world reflects the maturation of the Viet-immigrant communities. People tell me about eating pho in the Czech Republics! How cool is that? Our peeps are everywhere. I’ve had Vietnamese food in the “new” section of Avignon, France, which dates back to medieval times. The Vietnamese restaurants are on side streets and one place used a dumb waiter system to bring the food to the dining room.

LP: Many people feel pho recipes are too complex and involved to try making themselves. What are some ingredients that you think pho can do without but still give acceptable results? Or is it all about authenticity and completeness?
AN: Vietnamese people often think it’s too time consuming to make but I’ve had plenty of non-Viet people cook my pho recipe and prepare delectable bowls. One man took his homemade pho to some local Vietnamese nail salon gals and they loved it. The ladies responded by asking, “Is Into the Vietnamese Kitchen available in Vietnamese?” If you make pho once, you’ll understand what goes into preparing a good bowl and appreciate both home and restaurant cooking. Plus, you can freeze pho broth.

LP: What are some ingredients that pho must absolutely have?
AN: Charred onion and ginger, good fish sauce, yellow rock sugar, and good beef marrow bones for beef pho.

Andrea Nguyen's Moon Cake

LP: How do you feel about franchised foods in general and franchised pho in particular?
AN: Would love to see a good franchise abroad but what we have now is not consistently good. Pho is not close to becoming like McDonald’s.

LP: Speaking of franchise, what are some of the Viet foods that you think will lend themselves well to being franchised foods? Is it the fried variety?
AN: Banh mi sandwiches can be like Subway but lots better.

LP: Back to pho franchises. Pho is popular in the U.S. for sure, but can the franchises co-exist with independent shops in Viet communities, or do they have to expand into more mainstream American markets while risking their own survival there?
AN: There’s too much competition in the Viet communities for good pho shops. I’d go out into the mainstream.

LP: In your opinion, is there such thing as pho etiquette? If so what are some important pho etiquette?
AN: Taste the broth first before dousing it with hoisin sauce, lime juice and Sriracha. The cook has worked hours to brew that broth so don’t kill it before you taste it!
[Great advice!]

LP: Your new book is exciting. What are some exciting things you have coming up for the rest of 2009 and into 2010 that readers can look forward to?
AN: I love my new book Asian Dumplings. It’s comprised of a collection of over 75 amazing recipes, gorgeous photography and design, step-by-step instructions, and helpful illustrations. I’ve been making dumplings since I was a child and have longed for a book that demystified the techniques and flavors that go into making them. Thanks to the many people who pitched in and my publisher Ten Speed Press (Random House), we now have Asian Dumplings out for people to get doughy.

Looking forward, I’ll be teaching Vietnamese and dumpling classes around the U.S., traveling to Sydney, Australia, for their first international food festival, and doing radio and TV interviews. It’s all really exciting and fun. And, I’ll be thinking about my next book.

LP: And finally, what are your desert island ingredients and cooking implements? Sorry but you can only have 3 of each.
AN: Fish sauce, pepper, and good peanut oil. A wok, steamer, and saucepan.
[I don't doubt Andrea's ability to make great cuisine on a desert island, having just these in her possession.]

Visit Andrea Nguyen on VietWorldKitchen.com and Asiandumplingtips.com. You can also follow her on twitter.com/aqnguyen.

A Conversation With Viet Culinary Author and Teacher Andrea Nguyen is a post from: Vietnamese Pho Noodles

The question is: Are there secrets to making the perfect pho at home? Well, people in Vietnam do not actually make pho at home. Even if they know how, they do not really bother to cook it themselves because it is far easier and cheaper to walk a few steps to a street stall that sells good pho. Home-made pho is the unique product of Viet immigrants arriving at foreign shores after 1975.

By contrast, Viet immigrants to other countries can and do try their hands at cooking pho at home, initially out of necessity. Learning how to cook pho, for these Viet immigrants, is a way for them to keep the link with the homeland alive, to heal wounds caused by displacement, and to remind themselves of their own heritage. Nowadays, however, it’s more about convenience and good times to meet friends at a pho shop.

Because pho is essentially a dish that knows no language or boundaries, many non-Vietnamese have fallen in love with pho and have developed the desire to learn how to cook pho in their own kitchens. The thing is, it is far too easy to make a bad bowl of pho than it is to make a good one. To make good pho at home, one has to pay attention to the details of cooking it. And thanks to the Internet, good pho recipes can be found much more easily than at any time before. See my articles on Ten Pho Recipes from Around the Web and Pho Broth.

So let’s get back to the question of secret techniques to creating the perfect pho. One of the great qualities of pho is that techniques vary – no two bowls of pho made from two separate kitchens will ever taste the same. A chef’s creativity is always a good thing, but it’s important to understand that, while the previous statement is true, there is a narrow range of acceptability outside of which your home-made pho dish is actually becoming something else.

Many Vietnamese outside of Vietnam will tell you that the perfect pho is the one made by his/her own mother. That may be true probably because they grew up with it. But, for me, the perfect bowl of pho is the one that you keep coming back for more. Nevertheless, there are some basic techniques that can help in your quest to make good pho. Here are a few of them.

1. Always choose good beef bones. Your choice of beef bones for making your pho broth is very important. The bones and the marrow in them will give the foundations of the flavor of your broth. For great-tasting broth, choose knuckle bones, leg bones and oxtail.
2. Keep your broth clear. There is a reason why you need to pay attention with the simmering of your broth, even if the length of time it takes can test your patience. You need to continually skimming the scum and foam off the top of your broth to keep the broth clear. A clear broth is one of the essential qualities of pho. It means that the broth has been rid of all the impurities and the excess grease that come with marrow. One tip for achieving clarity in your broth is to boil the bones for five minutes, rinse the bones and then simmer them in a fresh pot of water, as many good recipes call for.
3. Never dilute the broth. When you are cooking pho, always aim for an intense flavor in the broth. You defeat this purpose if you dilute the broth as it simmers, even if you end up with less broth than what you have started with.

These are just some of the techniques that most veteran home cooks follow when making Vietnamese pho. It’s not a surprise that they all pertain to the creation of good broth. That is because coming up with a good broth for pho is the first, and toughest, step toward making the perfect pho. Once you have a great broth, the rest should just fall into place.

And the best sign of a perfect pho is an empty bowl with the chopsticks resting across it.

Are There Secrets to Making the Perfect Pho at Home? is a post from: Vietnamese Pho Noodles

Updated 01-16-12. There’s nothing like enjoying a bowl of pho at your favorite pho shop with your pho companions. But there are times, for various reasons, you’d like to make pho yourself at home. Most authentic pho recipes like Andrea Nguyen‘s or Didier Corlou‘s call for cooking the bone and meat in broth for up to 2.5 to 3 hours. Adding other preparation time, including the time to bring water to boil, and you’re looking at maybe 4-5 hours total cook time. So for those who want to take a shortcut and shave off a few hours, try the Quoc Viet Foods Beef Flavored “Pho” Soup Base option.

Quoc Viet Foods makes shelf storable soup bases, seasonings, coffee and tea. When it comes to authenticity, it’s always a challenge to find ready-made food products, including Vietnamese pho. Yet Quoc Viet seems to achieve the impossible for pho, that is to “convert the traditional Vietnamese products into a convenient form” while maintaining the flavor expected of such product. This means for those who never made pho or tasted pho, they can now get very close to the real thing, easily.

You can read more about my other post on Quoc Viet Foods. But enough about the company. Let’s get to the goodness of their Beef Flavored “Pho” Soup Base.

The package comes in a compact round plastic container. The wraparound label clearly describes the content and includes an ingredient list, nutrition information and cooking directions in English, Viet and Chinese. While the nutrition info states that there are 32 servings per container, the cooking directions indicate it makes 20 bowls. Confusing, but still very nice! At a price of US$ 6.99 per container, I’m paying US$ 0.35 for the broth in each of my pho bowls, excluding a few other ingredients of course.

Inside the container are the powdered soup base with marrow, and 2 bags of spices. The soup base is the key part of the pho broth and is essentially your “instant” bone/bone marrow solution that you didn’t have to cook for 2-3 hours. It also packs plenty of beef fats which you can skim off at serving time if you wish. The spice bags are your normal star anise, cinnamon, and various other spices. What’s awesome about the soup base/spice bag combination is they give you all you need for the broth, including all seasonings that you need-I added some fish sauce but it’s really not required. The only other 2 things you’ll need are the ginger and onion which should be charred or grilled before use in the broth.

Quoc Viet Foods Beef Soup Base	Quoc Viet Foods Beef Soup Base Nutrition Facts
Quoc Viet Foods Beef Soup Base Cooking Directions	Quoc Viet Foods Beef Soup Base Package Content

The direction is very easy to follow. You’ll have to buy your preferred meat to cook, but this whole process entirely does away with having to buy the bone/oxtail and cooking them to get to the marrow, and to purchase the spices separately. For my broth I bought 2.8 pounds of beef flank, a piece of ginger and a medium size onion. The required ingredients list and cooking directions can be viewed from the photos below, but here’s a recap:

REQUIRED INGREDIENTS:

• 3-4 lbs, beef flank or brisket,
• 1 lb, beef tendon*,
• 1 bulb, onion,
• 2 pieces, ginger.

DIRECTIONS:

• Blanch meats for 15 minutes. Discard solution and rinse meats.
• (Step not in package direction): Char or grill the onion and ginger pieces. I cut my onion in half, but it’s your choice to do so or not.
• Put meats, onion, ginger, in a large pot and add enough water to cover meats. Boil at medium flame for 1 hour.
• After 1 hours, add spice bags and content of soup base. Do not tear spice filter bags.
• After 15 minutes, remover filter bags. Boil at medium flame until meats are softened.
• Remove meats, onion and ginger pieces.
• Adjust water to 2 gallons or to taste.
• Bring to boil and serve.

* The meats and tendon are optional, or you can also substitute/add tripe, meatballs, etc. depending on your preference, just as you would order in a restaurant. See my “Tips on Ordering Pho Your Way.”

For me I ended up with so much broth that I had to divide into 3 smaller containers, put 2 in the freezer and enjoy the third portion over a few days. Again the key was the soup base which is all inclusive. There are no seasonings required as the soup base is super concentrated, and you can add water to adjust to taste. My total cooking time was about 3 hours, but that’s just me because making and eating pho is a religion for me so I took my time. For others who just want to get quickly to a nice steaming bowl of pho with chopsticks and spoon in hands, you can probably do it in 1.5 hours or less. An alternative is to use a smaller portion of beef (hence cutting down cooking time further) and/or use pre-cooked meatballs instead. By the way, for those unfamiliar with meatballs, you don’t cook them in the broth for the whole duration. Just heat them in the broth just before serving.

Finally I rate my pho broth creation using Quoc Viet  Foods’ Beef Flavored Pho Soup Base as follows:

• Quality and taste: 8/10.
• Convenience: 10/10.
• Affordability: 10/10.
• Total value (quality & affordability): 9/10.

You can find this and other Quoc Viet products in many Viet and Chinese food markets in the 50 U.S. states, Denmark, Canada and Japan. Quoc Viet’s website indicates their products include

1. Chicken Flavored “Pho” Soup Base
2. Beef Flavored “Pho” Soup Base
3. Beef Stew Seasoning
4. “Hue” Style Beef Flavored Soup Base
5. Chicken Flavored Soup Base
6. Pork Flavored “Hu Tieu” Soup Base
7. Pork Flavored Soup Base
8. Tamarind Soup Base
9. Vegetarian Soup Base
10. Crab Flavored Soup Base
11. Thai Tom Yum Soup Base

Unfortunately Quoc Viet is a wholesaler and does not sell directly to consumers over the Internet. The company is also very active at local demos, festivals, and charity fund drives, so if you’re lucky you can catch them in action serving pho to hungry pho fans at these events.

Quick Beef Pho Recipe with Quoc Viet Foods’ Pho Soup Base is a post from: Vietnamese Pho Noodles

Lovingpho.com’s top pho recipe picks are now available. Go directly to “Top Pho Recipes You Must Try Yourself.”

Updated 03-05-11. If people from all across the world are crazy about Vietnamese pho, that really comes as no surprise. Vietnamese pho, or simply pho for short, is a deceptively uncomplicated dish with very complex flavors and exotic textures. Its heartiness fills the stomach and its heat warms the soul. It is one of the best comfort food ever created.
Although pho is a classic example of Vietnamese cuisine, its popularity is not limited to Vietnam alone. Since the Vietnamese refugees left Vietnam in 1975, Vietnamese restaurants all across the globe offer their own variations of pho, cooked using their very own pho recipes. Even non-Vietnamese people have strived to learn how to make pho in their own kitchens because it is such a lovely dish to eat any time of the day and is not that hard to make. That’s right it’s not that hard to make, but you are required to put in the time if you want to do it right.

As many pho lovers already know, good pho depends first and foremost on the broth, which is what makes a difference between bad homemade pho and good pho, restaurant or otherwise. If you know how to make good pho broth, then everything else is just a matter of getting the pho ingredients from the markets.

The way pho is made largely varies on the skill and dedication of the person cooking it. Because of this, it is hardly a surprise that there are so many pho recipes to be found on the Web. Pho is versatile enough to lend itself to different variations but you have to know where the rule can be broken, and where it cannot.

Here are ten pho recipes you can try your hands at. Be advised that when it comes to making pho, or many other dishes for that matter, experience is key because you need to know if what you just made tastes right or not. Furthermore, this is not a top ten list, and the recipes are not presented in any order. I would consider a number of these “quick broth” recipes as home remedies, something you can do to tie you over until you can get the next real pho fix.

One thing is for sure though: if you really want to try and make pho yourself, then select a recipe from a Vietnamese chef, preferably a respected one. Except that there’s a certain French chef that knows a lot more about Vietnamese pho than many Vietnamese. I’ll share this tip at the end of the article.

The So-Sos and the Funnies

1. Pho Bo Soup. About.com is one of the most authoritative and reliable sources on the Internet, and its guide to Chinese cuisine, Rhonda Parkinson, featured a recipe of the beef pho. The recipe is not hers, however, but is by the author of The Vietnamese Cookbook, Diana My Tran. This pho recipe is good because it has all the ingredients and condiments necessary in making the classic beef pho.
2. Hanoi Beef Noodle Soup. This pho recipe from the Food Network is aptly Americanized in that one does not have to boil beef bone marrow to come up with the broth. Just buy cans of ready-made beef broth from the supermarket to make the soup. It also skips on the onions and the culantro, and requires boiling the beef and the bean sprouts instead of letting them cook in the soup while served.
3. Vietnamese pho. This pho recipe in the UKTV website by Jason Atherton is another easy-to-cook version of pho. It only requires putting beef broth cubes, ginger, peppercorn, cinnamon, star anise, and cardamom into a pot of boiling water. It also makes use of mint instead of cilantro, culantro and basil.
4. South Vietnamese Style Pho. This pho recipe from All Recipes makes the process of cooking pho look arduous, but it’s what’s required. Boiling the beef bones alone for the broth requires at least six hours, but as the author said, the longer the beef bones are boiled, the richer the flavor. The recipe makes use of radishes and sugar. The author also recommended serving the toppings separately from the noodles itself to suit the diner’s preferences.
5. Vietnamese Beef Pho. This version of the Vietnamese beef pho from the Steamy Kitchen blog is the blogger’s take on Andrea Nguyen’s classic recipe from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. Beyond the fact that the recipe sounds as authentic as pho recipes go, it is also an entertaining read.
6. Vietnamese Pho Noodles with Beef. This pho recipe featured in Epicurious is one straight from Mai Pham’s cookbook Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table. This is a classic pho recipe, although with the broth boiling process reduced to two hours instead of three or four.
7. Chicken Pho (Pho ga). All of the recipes named here so far use beef as the main ingredient, but this pho recipe by Tien Dinh of Pho in Las Vegas makes use of chicken. This version sounds like a shortcut to authentic pho, but it does boast of less fat and less time to prepare – less than 15 minutes.
8. Chicken Pho (Pho ga). This pho recipe comes straight from the blog of Andrea Nguyen, author of Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. It is still classic pho, except that instead of boiling beef bones to make the broth, the bony parts of the chicken are used instead. The chicken flesh is also cooked separately, instead of being cooked in the broth while the bowl is served, as it would have been if it was beef pho.
9. Vegetarian Pho Broth. This interesting pho recipe from SparkPeople makes use of tofu instead of meat or chicken. It is admittedly not an authentic pho recipe, and the flavor comes mostly from the boiled vegetables, the lime and the spices.
10. Pho with Shrimp. This is another semi-vegetarian adaptation of pho from SparkPeople. The broth is mostly flavored with the usual pho spices and with soy sauce. The shrimp is either boiled or stir-fried in olive oil before it is served with the noodles. I think this recipe is more of what we call “hu tieu”, a Southern Vietnamese cousin of pho, which uses the same noodle but with meats other than beef or chicken.

The Pros

Now that you’ve read all these interesting recipes, what would I recommend? Here are my picks and they’re actually not on the list above (ha ha, sorry):

• Serious pho chef wannabes should head over to Andrea Nguyen’s blog and see her articles on “Basic Pho Secrets and Techniques, “ ”Beef Pho Noodle Soup recipe, ” “Chicken Pho Noodle Soup recipe,” and “Advanced Pho Secrets and Techniques.”
• “Pho by Chef Didier Corlou,” also courtesy of Andrea Nguyen’s blog, has the recipe by this famous French chef that is considered the authority on Vietnamese Pho. On that page, scroll down near the bottom to see his recipe. Who is Chef Didier Corlou? I’m sure you can Google his name yourself, but here’s our take on Chef Didier Corlou.

In summary, beef is the traditional main ingredient of pho, but pho is also adaptive so it can be made in many different ways. No matter which pho recipe you choose, pho is a great meal to make, share and enjoy. Now if you’re still confused about what pho is, head over and check out the post titled “What is Vietnamese Pho: Think You Know? Think Again.” Enjoy.

A final note:: if you’d rather not deal with buying the bones and oxtails and simmering them for hours as called for by many recipes mentioned above, you can opt for making the broth the easier way. Just substitute the steps to make the broth with that described in this article “Quicker Beef Pho Recipe with Quoc Viet Foods’ Pho Soup Base,” and you’ll have a steaming pho bowl on your dining table much sooner.

Ten Pho Recipes from Around the Web is a post from: Vietnamese Pho Noodles

Sitemap is a post from: Vietnamese Pho Noodles