How do you pho?
 

This is how I pho it:

- Beef pho
- Large bowl, easy on the noodles (they expand way too fast)
- Brisket (chin), tendon (gan), meatballs (bo vien)
- Use hoisin sauce and sriracha (and chili oil, if they have it) as a dip, but not in the broth.
- No bean sprouts or lime.

Bonus stars if they have oxtail on the menu!

Maybe here

As much as I like soup, many different kinds, I have not been able to get into pho. I've only had it about 4 times, so maybe I haven't found the magic place. Always really bland to me, and adding the various fixins doesn't seem to help.

Thanks, that thread didn't turn up in a search for me. Though a) last post was from 2013, and b) I'm more curious about how people eat their pho, while that "consolidated" thread seems to just talk about where to eat it.

Where have you tried? Pho shouldn't be bland, so my guess is that you maybe haven't had a good one yet? But you could very well just not like it, which is fine too.

How do you pho?
 

Without MSG.

Why pho when you can chua?

on a rinky dink blue plastic stool in a small alley in Hanoi :P always order the meatball pho when available. Can't wait I will be back there next week.

With MSG. Just kidding (well, not really - I love MSG).

It varies so widely even at the same place, so I take a taste of the broth first to see what would work best. I always add lime, basil, a slice of hot pepper and sawtooth herb (I love it when this is available!). Sometimes I'll also add some of the available sauces, depending on the flavor profile.

If at home and the broth is bland, I'll add MSG and/or fish sauce. The last batch I made needed almost no doctoring - I used this recipe and it was awesome:

http://www.seriouseats.com/2012/09/t...amese-pho.html

There's an embedded link in this post that explains how the various bones and cuts of beef affect the end product in a pretty dramatic way.

It had been years since I had eaten pho. I used to hit a couple places a stone's throw from SFO, out on Camino Real, I think.

I now live in a city with a good sized Vietnamese population. A guy who goes to our church opened up a place called The Noodle House. I go with the beef and add the bean sprouts and cilantro and little bit of jalapeno. I skip the lime. I just wish there were forks as my chopstick skills make me dangerous to every diner within 10 feet. Each bowl comes with very nice spring rolls too.

For me, the key basic test to a good beef Pho Tai is the clear broth base or soup itself with the spice mix but I don't care for the northern style with its sweetness, masking that "beef" taste. "Rare" thinly sliced beef flank, steak, brisket & beef meatballs - served with thin white rice noodles, onions, chopped scallions, bean sprouts - topped off with hot broth to finish cooking everything. Drop some fresh Thai basils (sometimes, coriander or Chinese parsley offered instead) and squeeze some fresh lemon or lime juice. Finished off with a nice iced cold Cafe Sua Da.
Southern California is the place for pho - called me crazy, we would drive 20 miles down to Westminster a/k/a Little Saigon just to get some with all that crazy LA traffic. It's 15 degree F outside now, wind chill near zero - I could use a nice big bowl - or, the hot & spicy, Hue style - Bún bò Huế ...
okay, :D dream on, time to get some work done.

Brisket, copious mung bean sprouts and lots of lime.

My go-to places are in Philly, because that's one cuisine where NYC miserably fails.

* With rare steak and brisket
* With sriracha, no hoisin
* Decent amount of steamed bean sprouts
* Lime

Which one is your favourite in Philly?

My go to Pho is Pho ha at 6th & Washington ave in south Philly. Btw, check out sky cafe for good Indonesian food.

- Large
- choose the one with large of selection, tendon, brisket is a must
- Bean sprout
- lots of lime
- Hoisin sauce into the bowl
- No Sriracha

I used to only be able to get a bowl of pho by venturing down from the Great White North (Lake County -- I mean that in the sense that we're currently buried under a few feet of snow, but I guess in another sense it's always true) to Argyle Street in Chicago, but a pho restaurant (The Pho House) has recently opened up in nearby Libertyville.

The carryout pho order they give you is huge in terms of both the amount of broth and the add-ins. Too big a bag of bean sprouts; I only use a fraction of what they provide. Next time I think I'll just say no bean sprouts.

Biggest thing with pho for me is tender meat, such as brisket. I haven't yet tried tendon in pho; that might be my next order ... although the first few lines of this Serious Eats post have me reconsidering ...

What I won't order again is sliced pork or beef round. Raw lean meats turn into unappetizing shoe leather (in my opinion) in hot broth, and I'm not interested in chewing and tugging at them while I'm trying to enjoy the broth.

I like to add cilantro, Thai basil, and lime (this place gives you another bag just for those) and add dashes of fish sauce, hoisin sauce, and or chili paste as needed.

I really prefer Saigon style Pho over Hanoi style. Give me stuff to put in (spicy stuff, limes, sprouts, whathaveyou) and some sauces and a small plate to make a dip-mix for the meat. And as many varieties of beef as possible.....


... damn i really need to get back to vietnam as soon as possible :D

rare beef, flank, brisket, tendon, extra tendon.

lots of lime and herbs, and a little sriracha.

No bean sprouts in the soup, but will dip raw into sriracha/hoisin

Brisket, rare beef, tendon, tripe.

I throw all the sprouts and basil in the soup too.

Using hot chill sauce (not sriracha) and hoisin as a dip most of the time. If I'm feeling lazy, I just throw it in.

Usually hung over. Or sick. Pho solves those problems.

rare beef, flank, brisket, tendon and tripe

As much bean sprouts that can fit into the bowl, with a little basil, peppers and lime.

A little bit of sriracha and a lot of hoisin.

Pro tip for those who don't know: Try ordering your thin sliced rare beef on the side instead of in the bowl... that way, it comes to your table and you can dip the portion beef in the soup yourself, and get the perfect temperature to your tastes. Leave it up to them, and by the time it reaches your table it's almost always overdone.

Some places will charge you extra, but I've found most places to accommodate this request free of charge.

Brisket and Beef ball. Noodle. Soup. Little bit of lemon/lime.

That's it. No additives, no sprouts. No anything else :D

I started eating it like that because that's what my wife orders (who is Viet, although she has Hoisin to dip her beef into). Now I can't order it any other way...

Mmm always time for a pho thread! I like it with prawn and tripe. Strange combo I know, but it gets the job done. And of course some hot sauce and you cannot give me too many noodles!

Take my noodles! I usually have to ask for an extra bowl to take half my noodles out.

Rare beef on the side, so it can be cooked in the broth to desired doneness. Sometimes, add in brisket.

A good amount of Sriracha and lime.

Handful of bean sprouts.

For take-out, I get the noodles uncooked, and drop them in boiling water for about 10 seconds. Prevents those clumps from pre-cooked noodles.

You, sir, are a pro.

My dirty little secret for my take home is to skip the rice noodles and use instant ramen instead :D

I'm not very picky, so I'll take any meat (especially if I can get tripe), bean sprouts, lime, a little bit of hoisin, and chili. Naturally, there's a nice stem of basil leaves as well and a small stack of jalapenos. The place I go to gets the food out from the kitchen fast enough that the meat isn't always completely cooked through, which is a nice touch.

I would rather use chili paste/sauce with seeds, as I think Sriracha is too watery and isn't very flavorful-I'd rather have a chili paste that's more robust and has some oils

Winter storm is going to skirt us north of NYC, heading across upstate NY into New England today, sorry fellow FT's up in BOS - we might get 1/5" coating of ice @LGA for Monday's AM commute, not going to be fun & a few inches of snow for Thursday, hen bitter cold heading into the long weekend for some of us.
Hungry yet ?? Can't figure out what we're going to do for lunch - an excuse to "drop by" to see what one of our retired BIL chef is cooking at home :D (like our last we imprompt visit) Imagine if CX find a way to serve up a nice bowl as a midflight "snack" option at 33,000 ft. - one can dream ;)
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...40825_1726.jpg
or,
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...40831_1242.jpg

i order mine with rare steak.

when it comes, i first loosen up the pieces of meat so that they cook in the broth, and then i submerge them under the noodles. then dump a few jalapenos in a "corner" of the bowl (to make it easy to find and take them out after a few minutes), top with some basil leaves, bean sprouts, and a squeezed lime slice or two. followed by a half lap of sriracha and 1.5 laps of hoisin.

Man I love Tank Noodle and (if the line at Tank Noodle is too long) Pho 777. I usually get the Brisket or Meatball, and a little bit of chili oil (or chili/garlic paste if they don't have chili oil - NOT sriracha) and the greenery. The only thing I don't like is tripe, which I've tried and just didn't do it for me.

Lime, herbs and hoisin mmmmmm... Can't get enough of my friend's homemade chicken and beef pho (she's Vietnamese - hard to go back after mama's recipe!). But love the tofu version at the Vietnamese restaurant near my work, nicely browned, I almost always choose it over meat there. And I love any kind of animal protein! Perfect for a cold day (in Florida, so really not that cold, but I'm a wimp!)

I alternate between a Lobster Pho (base broth, add siriracha) and Tom Yum style Pho with brisket at a place near my work.

I like my Pho with flat rice noodle, cooked and rare beef, no bean sprouts, just lots of finely chopped green onions & cilantro, add a couple of cooked 4-inch cut white part of onion stems, fresh red chili pepper and a squeeze of lime. Never used hoisin sauce or sriracha in my broth because it ruins the subtlety aroma of Pho broth.

I agree with you that the broth has to be clear and not cloudy. But I'm confused about the "northern style with its sweetness, masking that "beef" taste". If anything that's the exact opposite of what true northern style beef Pho is supposed to be. Northern Pho uses a lot less sugar and the broth is clear and subtle, not bold with spices to mask the beef taste. There are lots of US based Pho restaurants that pretend to have authentic northern style Pho. But in reality, it's not the real thing. If you have ever had the real northern Pho in Hanoi, you'll know what I'm talking about. :)

Steak, brisket, flank, tendon, tripe, maybe some meatballs at certain places.
Lots of sweet basil, lots of sprouts, hot peppers, lime.
Sriracha and hoisin.

Yum!

I think I know what I'm having for dinner tomorrow.


http://pho-thien-long.com/