Don't speak to the locals

What is the point of swallowing the last 10 years of Hanoi food writing from U.S. magazines, visiting said city for a holiday-come-assignment, talking to the self same people you've read about in those U.S. magazines and spewing 2,129 words of uninspired, unoriginal, factually inaccurate, poop out the orifice of an American printing press at the other end? I dunno, but maybe the editors at The Smithsonian can tell us.

Let's look at the title of food writer Mimi Sheraton's article first - Searching for Hanoi's Ultimate Pho. Hmmm... couple of things here:

• If you're searching for a superlative, you'll need time and local knowledge. Mimi seems to spend most of her time - and I'm guessing she had a max of one or two weeks in country - with various members of the New York Philharmonic, the U.S. Ambassador, his missus and (stifle yawn) Didier Corlou - yes, we know Didier is French, has a Vietnamese wife, runs a posh restaurant in Hanoi (that no Hanoian Pho seller will ever set foot in) and has featured in every single page tearingly dull article ever written by a tay on Hanoi food. Enuff of Didier already.

Which brings us to point number two:

• Hanoi has a population of 6.5 million, ALL of whom have an opinion on food. So, here's an idea - admittedly this may be a tad radical for your parachuted in food writer - but why not try and speak to some of them? They don't bite - unless they're eating... You spoke to one - a violinist in the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra. Think you might need more than one Vietnamese opinion, and less foreign nonsense, if you're in search of the Ultimate Pho.

Next up, focus on the job in hand:

If you're writing an article about Pho - sorry, a search for the Ultimate Pho - why would you ever want to step inside the Sofitel hotel, let alone try the Pho you found there? Why? Even the biggest food idiot in Hanoi would never, ever, in a million and one lunar new years, send you to the Sofitel for... Pho. OK, so maybe you want to compare the "flash" with the "street", but don't drown your feature in highfallutin, nambypamby eateries that pay the merest nod to the down and dirty Pho.

Open you eyes and get your facts right. Lines like this make me wonder how seriously you take your job,

Between dodging motorbikes and cars that streamed unimpeded by stoplights—an amenity missing from the burgeoning capital link

As Our Man in Hanoi mentioned, after bringing this article to my attention,

Why do travel writers and bloggers keep saying there are no traffic lights in Hanoi - they're everywhere. link

Even back in the day, they were there. OK - so a lot of folk ignored them, probably still do - But, I can confirm that Hanoi has had some traffic lights, even a lot of them, since at least 1996. Has there been another revolution? Did they all get trashed? Did I miss sommit?

This next gripe has me a little confused.

Justin Mott's fabulous photo of Chuyen Bo, shown below looks like a pretty sophisticated Pho stall, with a number of cuts of meat, fresh Pho noodles and chopped spring onion. However, the text mentions tofu, crispy noodles, blood, "eight kinds of greens" etc. All of which are no-no's in Pho, especially in Hanoi where Pho comes sans herbs. I think you are describing somewhere else. Also, these things don't seem to appear in the picture,

Our destination was Chuyen Bo, a pho stall with stools so low that Honna had to pile three atop one another for me to sit on. The choice of ingredients was staggering: not only eight kinds of greens, tofu, soft or crisp noodles, but also various cuts of beef—oxtail, brisket, shoulder, kidneys, stomach, tripe, lungs, brains—plus cooked blood that resembled blocks of chocolate pudding, a pale pink meat described to me as “cow’s breast” (finally decoded as “udder”) and a rather dry, sinewy-looking meat that one of the workers, pointing to his groin, said was “from a man.” I was relieved to learn that the ingredient in question was a bull’s penis. I opted instead for a delicious if conventional pho of oxtail and brisket. But later I worried that I had missed an opportunity. Perhaps udder and penis pho might have made a more stirring, not to mention memorable, finale to my quest. Maybe next time. Pho better or pho worse.

Lastly, why didn't you just take my advice?

Go to Saigon. Hanoi Pho is a load of crap. But, if you must... I know where the Ultimate Pho is in Hanoi. It's in a scummy shack at 13 Lo Duc street. Sticky Rice and Our Man in Hanoi might disagree with me, but I know I am right and they are wrong. See below.... arrhhh, the memories...

Comments

[Steve Jackson]

Where to start...

Some hours ago I posted a comment to the piece which is still in moderation but I think you've gone over much of the same area.

You can see how this whole thing was put together - some bridge building trip where the author hitched a ride along with the Philharmonic.

She had the the US ambassador pushed at her. She was "with the band" and she stayed in a posh hotel. A couple of lunches, a couple of discussions and there...job done.

One of the issues is that pho, as wonderful as the stuff is, just doesn't sit well with all this foodie chat. It's food of the people stuff. Eat it, enjoy it - move on.

And as for Didier Corlou - surely even he is embarrased by the same repeated articles.

As you said...ask a Vietnamese person. They may or may not come up with the best pho in town but at least they'll be a whole lot more interesting in their opinions.

The other issue is this - and it is a much wider one. Like you say, parachuting in journalists isn't a smart move and increasingly thanks to blogs, social media etc you can't get away with it.

I wouldn't feel suitably qualified to write at length on pho and I live here and eat the stuff at least a couple of times a week.

I can't remember the last time I read a decent travel article on Vietnam. Although this one is by far the worst (check out the comments):

http://www.t5m.com/uprising/war-tourism-vietnam%E2%80%99s-new-industry.html/comment-page-1#comment-509

In the comments a group of bloggers were able to, as you have done above, take apart a piece - bit by bit to a point whereby the journalist involved has pretty much admitted she's got it horribly wrong.

Actually one thing does strike me about the pho article - I don't think she mentions the war. That's a first.

By the way - I'd love to see someone write a decent bun cha piece. Pho, street sandwiches etc are all old hat.

But not many people have written about bun cha and it's everywhere in Hanoi.

Personally give me bun cha over pho any day.

[Graham]

The things is, I think, The Smithsonian is one of these highbrow U.S. outlets that pay around $2-3 per word (often more for "names") and send writers out on all expenses paid commissions - not junkets.

I have friend who has freelanced as a snapper for them and that is the way he always works, so I'd be surprised if this was a freebie.

To be honest, I don't really care if it was or it wasn't. The writer is apparently very experienced, has written books, is a foodie and The Smithsonian is bound to have one of those ultra-anal American subbing desks that ferret out every dot, comma and factual inaccuracy. So, what happened with the traffic lights and wotnot here?

2,129 words, with photo feature and video is not filler and not cheap. You'd probably be looking at close to $10,000, or more, just to pay the two journalists, before expenses, editing and production...

Ach... I could go on, but why waste my breath. I get far, far more value from some bloke on the street, who lives somewhere he knows well and loves, and who calls it as it is on a blog or flickr or wherever.

Bit like Anthony Bourdain was saying recently, how can these expensive publications - that often get it so very wrong - justify their existence o their subscribers if they can't offer something better and if they can be picked apart by anyone who has a little more than a brush with the focus of the feature.

Not to rubbish the NY Philharmonic, US Ambassador et al. I'm sure they are all far more knowledgeable about Pho than you, I or anyone else who has ever had the misfortune to stumble into this blog.

[Minh Dang]

Dear Mr Noodlepie,

Having been an avid reader of this blog, I am quite disappointed with your comment that "Hanoi Pho is a load of crap". Pho Saigon is not what we call traditional Pho (which again originated from China). As a Vietnamese (and a Hanoian) I would not recommend anyone to try pho in Saigon without having tried pho in Hanoi. And I think most of my country fellow will agree.

Sincerely,
Minh D

[Graham]

Thanks for commenting Minh, the crap quote may be a tad strong, but is meant to convey (to those few who can remember debates on this blog over the years) something of the healthy, fun chats we've had about Pho in the past.

I see both Hanoi and Saigon Pho as two very separate animals. I was, as I mentioned in this post:

http://www.noodlepie.com/2007/03/pho_thin_13_lo_.html

a very big fan of Hanoi Pho when I lived there for fours years. However, in my opinion, the southern version is way more sophisticated - there's all the herb add ons for a start.

Now I know, this is something deeply personal and highly divisive among Vietnamese folk, but I completely disagree with your statement that "most of my country fellow will agree" I lived in Saigon for 6 years and never met anyone who would agree with you on that.

But I do miss a dose of 13 Lo Duc, with a raw egg, in the winter :)

[Hel]

Steve, Anthony Bourdain is obsessed with bun cha and I've seen it pop up here and there in articles. But at least she didn't mention the war, or retrace Graham Greene's "steps" (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-1250928/Vietnam-Graham-Greenes-Saigon-city-delight.html)
The problem with this article isn't its minor inaccuracies, though they never stop being irritating to a resident, or even that she ate pho at the Sofitel and talked to famous chefs (at least it wasn't the trifecta of Chef Didi, Berger and Chinn). It was that it was boring.
over 2000 words and what do we get at the end? Some bad punning, a mention of the traffic and the wish to eat a bull's knob. Great. It's like a European art film about food, all long camera shots and atmosphere but at the end you're left saying, "well what the hell actually happened?"
ps. I think the great north/south pho debate comes to down which city you call home first. Expat Hanoians generally sneer at the south's sweet broth and say the city is too big and has no soul. Expat Saigonese complain northerners are grumpy rip-off merchants and you can have more fun in a morgue most Saturdays.

[vincent jaubin]

I am Vietnamese living in California and agree with Graham that the Southern style of Pho is much more flavorful than the one up North.

Saigon Pho wins hands down. I still have to eat an Hanoian version here in Little Saigon.

[Robyn]

Well put. Mimi Sheraton is pretty much a legend in the food writing world. But I wouldn't say that low-to-the-ground reporting is her thing. Not suprised that she didn't go street-crawling for the best pho.

BUT -- not all 'parachuting' writers are created equal. I simply don't buy the argument that stories, food or otherwise, are usually best written by a writer who lives in the locale. If I'd been sent to Hanoi for a week or two (at $2 or $3 a word all expenses covered? In my dreams.) to write about pho you'd have a very different story. And it certainly wouldn't include the Sofitel or (yawn) Didier Courlieu.

I find that alot of big-name food writers tend to exoticize cuisines or food experiences that are outside their comfort zone. Ruth Reichl had a write-up on her blog on eating Chinese in Golden Mall in Flushing NY that's ridiculous in the same way.

[Steve Jackson]

Oh and it seems they didn't allow my comment past moderating.

Which is very very uncool.

[Phil]

Robyn - I couldn't agree more. I can't believe that there is still a market for food articles that just speak to the cultural translators rather than to people on the ground. If a journalist is writing about non-Western food, they are able to get away with speaking to somebody else who has eaten the food rather than having any knowledge of it themselves. It is a little like writing restaurant reviews from purely secondhand sources.

It's not to say that either the translators or the locals are the best or most accurate sources of information - everyone has their own food biases.

[Steve]

I guess the Smithsonian article caused a little stir with the author.

[Jon]

I too hate these highbrow articles published by non-residents, their prose presumes an air of knowledge and self-confidence which simply shouldn't, and couldn't exist. Meeting all these rich bastards to massage each others egos before deciding on which throwaway quip to lob in the direction of the article.

The article can only be enjoyed by those who read food articles for the sake of reading food articles and nothing more. Those with a serious interest, or hoping for some kind of critical input to the question posed by the headline would be dissapointed!

[Sticky]

I'm coming late to this forum but can anybody who comes to Hanoi to write/report about food here get beyond Coulou, Chinn or KOTO? I'm over it.

As for the north/south pho debate, I'm over that, too. I like both and I've done a lot of research!!
http://stickyrice.typepad.com/my_weblog/hanoi_pho_swoop/

[Dzung]

I am from the North, so I am a bit offended reading "Hanoi Pho is a load of crap." I've been working with many foreigners here in Saigon, and I agree that many foreigners and Saigonian prefer Pho Saigon.

Hanoi food is isn't just the taste as it is. Its is a load of hard work by the cook for the finest taste and presentation of the dish. The soup in Hanoi is always clear, and the soup alone is already very sweet, which you will never find a competitor in Saigon. Have you heard a Vietnamese quote "An Bac, Mac Nam", meaning the North is great for food, the South is great for clothing. It takes culture and proper procedure and understanding to enjoy Hanoi food. Hope I have time to discuss more about this with you guys some day.

Cheers,

[Orlando personal injury lawyer]

Interesting read. Enjoyed learning about your experience traveling and the different places for pho. Thanks for the review.

[Starving artist]

Here's my secret to having the ultimate pho experience in Hanoi for anyone:
1. Fast for 2-3 days
2. Go to the nearest Pho joint for a hot bowl.
I guarantee that it would be the best bowl of pho you have ever eaten.

By the way, the best pho is ALWAYS made by Hanoi people who live in Saigon.

[Nguyen]

"It takes culture and proper procedure and understanding to enjoy Hanoi food."

LOL. So classic! Spoken like a true smug northern snob floating down a river in Egypt.

I grew up in the DC area revering the Smithsonian. However, as I grew older and more able to afford travel on my own, I soon had the heart-breaking realization that the Smithsonian serves up a lot of inaccurate crap like this video.

[thang@noodlies]

The photo with the black background is beautiful.

And yes, pho is so subjective it's hard to get agreement on the best bowl!