Get thisThis Vietnamese treat could translate as soup, but there's a lot more to it than that, writes Hugo Arnold.
FANCY A PHO? Doesn't quite have the same ring to it as a sandwich, but the benefits are greater. Health for one thing. Satisfaction for another. This is a meal in a bowl, soul food. Something to calm and restore. An event to enjoy slowly or at speed. Fast but good food. And it's yours to customise, as the dish can be fashioned with garnishes and sauces into something really unique.
This Vietnamese treat could translate as soup, but that is to rather undersell it. A bowl of delicious broth, white rice noodles, protein (usually meat, but fish is also possible, as indeed is tofu), and then there are the garnishes; spring onions, coriander, basil and lemon or lime wedges, and beansprouts. A pho can be quite a lot of things.
It will be great when we have a few more noodle bars here. In London, Alan Yau, of Wagamama fame, is opening Cha Cha Moon later this month. In Dublin, Conor Kilkenny, Eoin Pandy and Conor Sexton are opening Koh restaurant at 7 Jervis Street, which will have one pho dish to start with: rare ribeye, vermicelli noodles, spring onion, sweet basil, mint and spiced broth (€12.50).
At Pho in London, you can start with a spring roll, summer (soft) or fried (crispy), nibble on pork balls or opt for a banh xeo (crepe filled with prawns or tofu), but the real star here is the pho. And when you get to ordering, brisket is the one to go for. This tricky forequarter cut of beef was made for pho (its other starring role is in a pot au feu, but that is for another day). The meat poaches to a silky softness and here you can combine it with steak, with meatballs or have it just by itself.
Along with this bowl you get a plate with coriander, Thai basil (an intense peppery play on Italian-style basil), a lime wedge, some sliced chillies, Thai parsley (a long elegant leaf that tastes of . . . celery meets fennel, with a touch of cumin) and some beansprouts. The table also has bottles of hoisin, sweet chilli and fish sauces.
This is really where the fun of pho starts as you can make, add, mend and bend your bowl of goodies to suit your taste. The broth, delicious as it is, can become a little monotonous after a while, but not if you can spike it with herbs, chilli and lime juice. You can enhance as you go along.
You might be forgiven for thinking there is not much to pho. But the stock for a good pho takes at least 12 hours to make. Beef bones, but also chicken for the beef phos, along with the likes of oxtail, onions, ginger, cloves, star anise and black cardamom pods. You can see how things can get complicated and how opinions become divided. Which is why in Vietnam people tend to frequent their favourite noodle stalls, opting for one style of stock over another as it is the stock that really gives character to the dish. Pho is commonly eaten at breakfast and then as a snack through the day.
Pho is not an easy dish to eat. Slurping is involved. It is all part of the pho thing, so a napkin under the chin is a good idea. But you also need to take your time or you run out of steam. Lots of broth and noodles can leave you feeling very full.
Where to Pho
Dublin:Ho Sen, 6 Cope Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2, 01-671818; Saba, 26-28 Clarendon Street, Dublin 2, 01-6792000; Koh, 7 Jervis Street, Dublin 1, 01-8146777.
London:Cha Cha Moon, 15-21 Ganton Street, W1F 9BN, 0044-207-2979800; Pho, 3 Great Titchfield Street, W1W 8AX, 0044-207-4360111; Pho, 86 St John Street, EC1M 4EH, 0044-207-2537624.