Do you love Pho?
Cuong Phu Le writes to tell us about a Pho exhibition he plans to tour around Australia and then the world. He adds, "If you could help me to spread the word, that would be fabulous so that I could collect more new ideas and stories around this infamous dish." Have you got a story about Pho? A memory? A favourite place, where is it, why is it your favourite? Drop a comment. Or email Cuong on cuong(at)casulapowerhouse(dot)com
"I Love Phở is an innovative Community Cultural Development project that featured at Liverpool Regional Museum in June 2006 with a great success. Casula Powerhouse has been researching and developing this project over the last three years.
The project uses Phở as a provocative, political, social and cultural metaphor to investigate the process of migration and Vietnamese diaspora. I Love Phở aims to create open dialogues among visual artists, local communities, writers, academics, restaurant owners and broader audiences exploring issues of identity, history and diaspora over a bowl of hot Phở."
There's no dedicate website or blog, but you can download a pdf with more about the exhibition. There's more about Cuong on VIR and at Viet Q.
I'm a half-Vietnamese half-American filmmaker living in New York City. I eat Pho when I want to feel connected to my family and my cultural identity. It helps give me sense of place, especially when I'm away from my family and when I'm sick or cold. The best pho places are in Falls Church, VA, my hometown. I recently went to Vietnam and found that the pho in the States to be better. Maybe I just didn't know of the best places to go since it is everywhere in VN but I did write about my experience with pho in VN in my travel blog--fastfood combo pho meals, street msg pho, etc (see my URL link to it). I also have an annual Pho Dinner party for my nearest and dearest friends, made with all my love. This year's party was in celebration of the Year of the Pig. We had so much fun coming up with plays on the word "Pho," like "Phock yeah!" or "Pho shizzle (aka) Pho sure!" or "Have phon!" Pho is major staple in my emotional life for, for me, it's a way to connect to the roots and spread and receive love. It's all phon love!
Posted by: Adele Ray | March 09, 2007 at 07:01 PM
Dumb-asses like Le Phu Cuong are trying to perpetuate the myth that pho is popular throughout Vietnam. It's not. I hope he'll choke on a piece of beef bone and die.
Posted by: phohate | March 11, 2007 at 10:45 PM
Hi Cuong,
The graph on http://endgameradio.com/2007/03/14/ph%e1%bb%9f-science/ is actually a far fetched joke on the word 'faux' being correlated with the mispronunciation of pho. I am not a real scientist but I like taking things and applying scientific theory and rigor to them (often half seriously). If you have been doing studies about pho, I would love to see them!
Aaron
Posted by: Aaron Matthew | March 20, 2007 at 07:25 PM