noodlepie

Pricing Pho

Have no idea if this is correct, but it entertained me,

Let's do the cost estimation (restaurant supplies rate):

FOR BROTH AND MEAT (ENOUGH FOR 20):

   7 pounds beef bones with marrow ($4)
   5 pounds beef brisket ($15)
   6 pounds oxtails ($24)
   6 pounds beef back ribs ($5) + (2)

1 medium onion, peeled and charred directly over a gas burner 9 pieces star anise 6 cinnamon sticks 7 dried cardamom pods 10 whole cloves 1 tablespoon black and white pepper (whole kernel) 1 ounce licorice root (optional) 4 small long white radishes (daikon), peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks ($2)

   3 pounds celery, washed and trimmed at base, cut into 2-inch pieces ($1)
   2 teaspoons salt  3 small rock-candy crystals

   FOR 8 BOWLS:

   11/2 pounds 1/4-inch wide dried rice sticks (banh pho) [($1) + ($1)] X 3 = $6
   3 scallions, thinly sliced  1/4 cup shredded cilantro  1 medium onion, sliced paper-thin  Freshly ground black pepper

   ACCOMPANIMENTS: ($2)

4 fresh red or green chile peppers, sliced 3 limes, cut into wedges 1 bunch of fresh mint, separated into leaves 1 bunch of Thai basil, separated into leaves 1/2 cup hot chile sauce 1/2 cup hoisin sauce

   1. Rinse the bones with cold water and soak for 2 hours in a pot. Drain.   

2. Place the beef brisket, oxtails, beef back ribs and beef bones in an extra large stockpot. Add water to cover and bring it to a boil. Simmer for about 15 minutes. Drain. Rinse the pot, bones and meat.

3. Bring the bones and meat back to the pot and add water to cover. Bring to a boil, skimming the surface to remove the foam until it ceases to rise. Add 2 quarts more cold water and bring back to a boil. Skim off all of the residue that forms on the top. Set the heat to low and simmer for one hour.

4. Tie the charred onion, star anise, dried cardamom, cinnamon sticks, cloves, white and black peppers and licorice in a cheesecloth. Add the spice bag in the simmering broth. Simmer for 1 hour.

5. Add celery and radishes and simmer for another hour. Remove the beef brisket, oxtails and back ribs, allow to cool and pull the meat away from the bones and reserve it. Thinly slice the beef brisket. Slice the rib and oxtail meat into small chunks. Set aside.

6. Simmer stock for one more hour, then remove and discard all of the bones. Strain the broth through a strainer lined with a cheesecloth into a clean pot. Add the fish sauce, salt, black pepper and rock-candy crystals, and bring the broth to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer the broth. Broth can be prepared ahead to this point and refrigerated.

7. When ready to serve, bring 5 quarts of water to a boil. Drop the noodles in the boiling water. Drain immediately.   

8. Combine the sliced scallions, shredded cilantro and sliced onion. Set aside.

9. Divide noodles in large soup bowls. Top the noodles with meats. Ladle hot broth over the meat and noodles. Garnish with the scallion mixture and black pepper. Serve with the accompaniments on the side as desired.

==================
Sub-total: about $60

Lacking of rare beef ($10)

Total: $70 + Energy ($10) + labor ( $30) = $110

$110/20 bowls ==> $5.50

NO PROFIT! THIS RECIPE SUCK FOR A BUSINESS!                                          

It's based on something I linked to over two years ago.

Pho Radio

I haven't listened to this yet, but I'm looking forward to it. Andrea's latest newsletter alerted me to an hour long call in radio show on Seattle NPR affiliate 94.6FM KUOW where folk call in to recommend their favourite phocations in the Seattle area. I've never been to Seattle, but I've eaten plenty Pho,

In the Pacific Northwest, restaurants selling Pho are popping up everywhere. The Vietnamese noodle soup is the ultimate healthy fast food. But are all bowls of Pho the same? For the Weekday staff all new pho places are held against Thanh Vi on University Way NE. We have yet to find any bowl better. So, enlighten us. Where do you like to eat pho? Today Weekday creates a list of great pho places, with your help. audio link.

Guests: Andrea Nguyen is a Vietnamese cooking teacher and the author of the cookbook Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. Hsiao–Ching Chou is the food editor for The Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Pho Thin, 13 Lo Duc St, Hanoi

Interesting to see a review of Pho Thin at 13 Lo Duc street in Hanoi in the Vietadvertorialnam News,

"I have a confession to make: for the first three months I lived in Hanoi, I didn’t especially like pho... But then I tried Pho Thin at 13 Lo Duc Street. After my first bite (slurp?), I knew this was not just any pho. It tasted entirely different from any I’d ever tried: the beef was lean and tender, the broth flavourful and aromatic. I dived into my bowl and ate until not a noodle remained. As I discovered on a subsequent visit to Pho Thin at 8.30am, I’m far from the only one who thinks this is the best pho around."

I'll admit I used to think this way until I visited Saigon... since when I was converted/enlightened/brainwashed - take you pick. (UPDATE: Sticky Rice has the full skinny - see comments). I noticed one factual error in Julie Ginsberg's review and I've corrected the sentence. See below,

"We do business with our hearts," he said. "Our priority is pleasing our customers, not making money or spending so much as one measley little shilling of our money on doing this shit pit of a soup shack up or  letting rentokill loose for an hour or two. No siree. You want comfort then you can bugger off to the Hilton."

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.

Phorati

A quick soup scan through Technorati informs me that there are more than a few people nattering about pho, the ubiquitous Vietnamese beef noodle soup. Three links worth noting for pho fans,

Husband and wife bloggers Faizis cooked up a version of pho in Singapore and they have a very detailed looking recipe.

Kalyn has a post at BlogHer with quotes and links out to various pho eating and cooking bloggers.

From Kalyn I arrived at Food Lover's Journey. This blog is written by Anh in Australia who describes herself as "a Vietnamese girl who loves to cook". She appears to have a penchant for Vietnamese cooking, although she cooks dishes from all over the place. There aren't too many Vinarecipes up there at the moment - she's only been blogging since October 2006 - but what she does have looks rather good.

If you know of a decent Vietnamese food based blog, let me know. I'm hoping to get my cook's hat on very soon to attack Andrea's mega Into the Vietnamese Kitchen book. Meanwhile, if you're a total pho head, scour the Technorati pho search.

Guest post: Thai Son, Baxter Street, New York City

In a first, and quite possibly one and only unique post, ex-Saigon resident and blogger NoStar Where reports from New York City. NYC, as it's often called, is a big city in a country called America. Mr. No Star Where, is now resident there and is looking for someone to hire him. Any takers, hit the comment box or email me.

Since arriving in New York City from Vietnam late this Spring, I've been fattening myself on slices and bagels, with nary a bowl of Bun Cha or Bun Mam in sight. That all changed last week. I hopped on the subway, though I pretended it was a Honda Wave, (How did you do that? - Ed.) and scooted on down to Chinatown. After surveying the area, searching tiny alleyways, passing fish markets and stores that sell 7 t-shirts for $10 USD, we settled on Thai Son, a Vietnamese restaurant at 89 Baxter St, between Bayard & Walker St.

We said Xin Chao to the waiter who just looked at us funny, ordered Pho Tai for me, Pho Chay for veghead Alison, and our Saigon fave, Chao Tom to share. To drink, we ordered, yes, get this, Bia Saigon. I assumed the restaurant would have 33 (that's the export version of 333) but Bia Saigon, wow, this place was legit, a fact we already confirmed when we saw the large family of Vietnamese-Americans sitting next to us, the whole family, from old grandma to the young kids all sharing a meal under a tacky lacquer painting of the Vietnamese countryside. It could have been a restaurant in Vietnam, if not for the table of NYU hipsters sitting on our left.

Onto the food. Now I'm not one to expect the same style of Vietnamese in NYC Chinatown as you'd get from the streets of Vietnam so I approached the meal with an open mind. I've eaten enough Vietnamese food in the States to expect the worst. Sure the Pho in Falls Church is divine and the Banh Mi in Oakland is fantastic, but go to your average joint in the U.S., and spring rolls are about as good as it gets. So how did it rate at Thai Son?

This being America, the portions were big, at least the Chao Tom was. Two pieces of sugarcane with shrimp mash wrapped around, a plate of greens, and bowl of fish sauce. No starfruit or rice paper, which did disappoint but the Chao Tom did not. Impressively prepared, very tasty. The shrimp peeled right off the sugarcane and the greens were fresh. Then there were the two bowls of Pho. My Pho Tai was a reasonable dish. I've learned that the best Pho to be had in Vietnam or in the States, is in restaurants that exclusively serve Pho. The broth was a tad on the weak side, the noodles very thin, but the beef was tender and delicious.

Alison's Pho Chay, a dish that faces incredible odds of actually having flavor, was full of veggie's but the broth was weak. Without much hot sauce, it was a rather bland affair. Like drinking veggie stock with noodles but then again, I think most Pho Chay in Vietnam, minus one special location in Saigon, tastes about the same. It's tough doing a veggie version of this most meaty of dishes.

Will we be back? You bet, if only for the Chao Tom and Bia Saigon, plus I did notice Bo La Lot on the menu, and several other Southern specialties. Actually, compared to most Vietnamese restaurants I'vevisited in the States, this one scored pretty well. I just urge all Yank's to please not order the Chicken with Lemongrass or whatever other generic rice dish you see. Order something you can't pronounce and don't understand like Banh Xeo. That's where Vietnamese food is at. Ask the waiter for what his cousins in Saigon eat, and then order that. Be generous with the fish sauce and light on the soy. Without little plastic chairs, screeching pop, and sweltering heat, well, it's not quite the same but then again, if a New Yorker ever ate pizza in Vietnam, they'd probably wonder what atrocity has been committed against their most favorite of dishes.

Cheers for the report NoStar Where and all the best with the job hunt.

13. Pho Linh

You'll find Pho Linh at number 163/10 down a small alleyway leading off To Hien Thanh street in Saigon's District 10. I passed it yonks ago during the first Saigon streetcast movie and made the vaguest of mental notes to return one day. This morning my xe om driver suggested I'd like it. So here I am. It's pho fashioned the Hanoi way. No faffing, no frills, just straight up beef noodle soup from grandma's kitchen. A stern grandma. A grandma known to scowl and hand out a severe hiding to them's that don't sup their fill. Not the kind of pho you'd want an argument with. Head down, get the job done, and go. Hot, meatfilled, no namby-pamby Saigon snazzifery polluting this bowl. Pho Linh is a hard, honest, workmanlike pho and nothing more. It doesn't need to be.

Hic. 'Scuse me. 12,000VD with a tra da and a much needed wet towel. Smashing. Bonus condiment shot.

Saigon Pho Map

The website of the People's Committee of this fair parish has a Pho map of Saigon. Quite a small map - actually there is no map, just a list of six shacks - but there are some interesting tidbits of history like this one about Pho Tau Bay at 435 Ly Thai To street in District 1,

Pham Xuan Tien, manager and chef of Pho Tau Bay, says that in 1950 his grandfather opened his pho shop in Hanoi, which did not have a name. Tien's grandfather was given a pilot's helmet by a friend. He liked the helmet very much and often wore it. Diners called him tau bay, which means "aircraft," and he named his pho shop after it. In 1954, Tien's family moved south, bringing with them the pho trade.

Now what wouldn't I pay to go to a pho shop served by waiters in pilot helmets. Hang on a minute. Make that waiters in ao dai and pilot helmets. Or ao dai, pilot helmets and black leather boots. Now I'm just being silly... leather boots are just not practical enough for a hot city like Saigon or the sweaty environment of a steamy pho kitchen. While we're on the subject of pho maps. I read somewhere that there is a Pho Map of Hanoi. Does anyone have this map? Is it easily available in Hanoi? Online even? I want one. Here's some more from the People's Committee on Pho.

12. Pho Anh

Pho chin bo at Pho Anh, 10A Ky Dong street, District 3, Saigon. Splendid soup, tender as you like beef, spices quietly buzzing around in the background, thick cut spring onion, cilantro, coriander and fresh noodles. Been off the Pho for a while. Good to get back in the fold with this statesmanlike pho. Yes, I really do mean statesmanlike. Most Pho is thrown together without too much thought. OK - a modicum of brainpower. Noodles in first, meat on top, seasoning, soup. Whallop. But look here. I swear they've arranged my meat in a vaguely circular pattern.

The Circle of Pho. Hello Elton? Are you in there? This is excellent Pho. The cook tells me Pho Anh has been serving beef noodle soup from this location for 37 years. Well, it's about bloody time they got it right. Finally. Reminds me - Pho isn't exactly easy to make, see what I mean here. Will be back to this one. Nice. Very nice. Costs 10,000VD. More snaps.

Working lunch

Disrupting media, exploding pardigms, the usual 9 to 5 stuff today. Paradigm exploders still need to eat though. For that, the Pho shack at 14/1 Ky Dong street in District 3, Saigon, Vietnam sufficed, but did not surprise. More here.

Technorati Tags: journalism, blogs, citizen journalism, new media, pho

In pho news

Vietnam Net goes phoking mad. There's a round up of some of the 'best' pho shacks in Saigon and the streets you can find them in. Somewhat frustratingly, there's a distinct lack of address numbers. There's also some historical pondering on the humble beef noodle soup.

Lastly, there's a wee look at the ongoing spread of the Pho 24 chain of soupshacks. When I first blogged about Pho 24 - a little over a year ago - there was one branch and I honestly didn't expect to like it, but I did and I still do. In fact I still haven't tasted better in Saigon. There are now over 20 franchise outlets the length of Vietnam and one in Indonesia. In the future Pho 24 "will serve customers 24/7". Does anyone know if that's legal in Vietnam? Can you open 24/7 in Vietnam? Ly Quoc Trung, the beef and the brawn behind Pho 24, also wants "the model to develop worldwide".

Good luck to them. What they do, they do very well indeed. Pho does seem to have taken on some kinda mythic quality for Vietnam and Vietnamese people over the years. But would you rate it as the best dish in the gloriously vast Vietnamese culinary cannon? Good as it is, I wouldn't.

Pho drought

There's been a bit of a Pho drought here for some months. The beef noodle soup is probably Vietnam's most famous dish, but to be honest I'm not its biggest fan. I like it, but it's... you know... so what. Step into the breach No Star Where blog and regular commenter in this neck of the woods, blogger Buffalo,

"Then, and with all honesty, this is the only reason I went, I read on Noodlepie that Pho 24 was the best he's ever eaten. Suspicious but trusting, I decided to give it a shot, especially because a new Pho 24 opened up near work." Read on for his verdict.

"Trusting"? you fool :) Branches of Pho 24 are opening up all over the shop. They've reached as far as Indonesia. Good luck to them. They make rather good Pho. Haven't been for a while. Hope they haven't lost their touch.

Pho 24, Hue

Virtual Doug is one of the first customers through the shiny new doors of Pho 24 in Hue. Bending bowlwards he takes it like a man and by the sounds of it, he enjoys what he receives.

Technorati Tags: Hue, Pho, Vietnam

11 - Market Pho

It's not that I've been off the Pho of late, I've just been eating at pho shacks I've already blogged, but I'm back on the case today. There's a pho seller who occasionally pops her head above the parapet down the alleyway market. Not a firm fixture on my manor, but firm enough. Her stall merges into the adjacent Bun rieu. I only tried her pho a month or two back and I'll admit I wasn't expecting much from it. So I was pleasantly surprised to discover this local provider serving up a stonker.

Sweeter than yer average pho with mucho meatiness to boot. The only downer is the beef itself. I ordered the Pho chin variety (Pre-cooked beef noodle soup) for 6,000VD only to find myself entering the gates of chewdom - which is never a fun place to hang. OK - it's not that chewy, but it's a gum workout too far for my tender jaw. Herb selection is healthy and there's the regular condiment crew of Hoisin and chilli sauce on hand. Some of the noodles were surprisingly wide.

This is often the case with pho noodles for some reason - must be a noodle compression outage at the noodle factory or maybe she goes to 'Madame Nguyen's Bumper Budget Noodle Store' to buy her noodles. Whatever it is she's doing, there are quite clear quality assurance issues within this bowl. However, like finding a stray, mutant three-headed chocko covered peanut inside a bag of M&M's, it's strangely pleasing to recieve a noodle oddity once in a while. Putting aside any disputes over carcass and noodle production, this is my new fave pho. Slurp, dribble, slurp.

Pho 24 spreads south

Pho 24 is still our fave pho in Saigon, but we're ever on the lookout for bigger, better, brighter, harder. The second we get a sniff of anything that tops this mob, we'll let you know. The franchise is expanding into the nouveau riche new town, Saigon South - kinda like a grubbier Milton Keynes - they're also looking at heading overseas, with Indonesia the likely first stop. Read the full skinny here.

Pho 24 Hanoi review

This is the first review that's come my way from Pho 24 in Hanoi. It's brief and unimpressed.

"Well.... it tastes like pho! Okay, the surroundings are quite smart - it's probably not really fair to call it McPho as the restaurant is actually quite snazzy. Very designer-minimalist looking. Other than that, the pho is just okay - not awful and not fantastic. So I guess if you want to pay 2-3 times the going rate for your pho, what you get for that is a clean, modern restaurant. Fair enough, really."

Have you tried it in the capital? Let us know what you think. Is it popular? How does it compare to your fave scuzz shack?

Stateside Pho

Must be Pho week or sommit in the States. Or is it a pre-Tet thing?? The Washington Times has its face stuffed in a bowl. The Miami New Times gets poetic (kind of) on the east coast and the Contra Costa Times (registration required) brings us a recipe, a list of do's and dont's and 'phocabulary' for pho beginners. Here's a few snippets and the recipe from Jessica Yadegaran's piece in the Contra Costa Times,

"You don't want to put hoisin sauce in it," insists Anh Bui, 45, of Oakland, referring to the South Vietnamese tradition of adding sauce and bean sprouts. Bui grew up in the north....

...Bui got her pho fixes from vendors who worked the city streets selling beef balls and noodles in broth. This was in the 1970s. Back then, a bowl cost 150 dong, or about 15 cents, and the vendors leaned on their bamboo carts arguing whose pho recipe was best...

It was bargainsville way back then, ehh? Hardly breaks the bank now though. Pho costs between 5,000VD (30c) on cheap street and 24,000VD ($1.50) at swish diner Pho 24.

"The most important thing about pho is the broth," says Hung Le, owner and executive chef at Walnut Creek's Three Seasons, an upscale Vietnamese restaurant where pho is only served at lunch and costs $10. Like a French saucier, Le spends hours and hours on his stock: blanching bones, skimming residue and simmering spices in a bag. "You want it to be pure and clean but still full of flavor."

Ten bucks. Yowsers. That's 33 street bowls in Saigon. Is it worth it? Pho's good, but 10 dollar's good? Anyway, here's the recipe from the Contra Costa Times,

Pho Bo (Beef and Rice Noodle Soup)

Serves 8-20

Making pho is a long and arduous process. But once the stock and meats are cooked, it's a cinch to whip up a bowl -- or 8. The recipe below, courtesy of Hung Le, executive chef and owner at Three Seasons in Walnut Creek, produces a more refined stock than you might find at your average pho house. It makes enough meat and stock for 20 bowls of pho. The amounts of garnish listed are appropriate for 8 bowls. If the recipe looks too intimidating, don't think twice about buying your pho. "We never cooked pho at home," says Anh Bui, of Oakland, who grew up in Hanoi. "It was too involved."

FOR BROTH AND MEAT (ENOUGH FOR 20):

7 pounds beef bones with marrow

5 pounds beef brisket

6 pounds oxtails

6 pounds beef back ribs

1 medium onion, peeled and charred directly over a gas burner

9 pieces star anise

6 cinnamon sticks

7 dried cardamom pods

10 whole cloves

1 tablespoon black and white pepper (whole kernel)

1 ounce licorice root (optional)

4 small long white radishes (daikon), peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks

3 pounds celery, washed and trimmed at base, cut into 2-inch pieces

2 teaspoons salt

3 small rock-candy crystals

FOR 8 BOWLS:

11/2 pounds 1/4-inch wide dried rice sticks (banh pho)

3 scallions, thinly sliced

1/4 cup shredded cilantro

1 medium onion, sliced paper-thin

Freshly ground black pepper

ACCOMPANIMENTS:

4 fresh red or green chile peppers, sliced

3 limes, cut into wedges

1 bunch of fresh mint, separated into leaves

1 bunch of Thai basil, separated into leaves

1/2 cup hot chile sauce

1/2 cup hoisin sauce

1. Rinse the bones with cold water and soak for 2 hours in a pot. Drain.

2. Place the beef brisket, oxtails, beef back ribs and beef bones in an extra large stockpot. Add water to cover and bring it to a boil. Simmer for about 15 minutes. Drain. Rinse the pot, bones and meat.

3. Bring the bones and meat back to the pot and add water to cover. Bring to a boil, skimming the surface to remove the foam until it ceases to rise. Add 2 quarts more cold water and bring back to a boil. Skim off all of the residue that forms on the top. Set the heat to low and simmer for one hour.

4. Tie the charred onion, star anise, dried cardamom, cinnamon sticks, cloves, white and black peppers and licorice in a cheesecloth. Add the spice bag in the simmering broth. Simmer for 1 hour.

5. Add celery and radishes and simmer for another hour. Remove the beef brisket, oxtails and back ribs, allow to cool and pull the meat away from the bones and reserve it. Thinly slice the beef brisket. Slice the rib and oxtail meat into small chunks. Set aside.

6. Simmer stock for one more hour, then remove and discard all of the bones. Strain the broth through a strainer lined with a cheesecloth into a clean pot. Add the fish sauce, salt, black pepper and rock-candy crystals, and bring the broth to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer the broth. Broth can be prepared ahead to this point and refrigerated.

7. When ready to serve, bring 5 quarts of water to a boil. Drop the noodles in the boiling water. Drain immediately.

8. Combine the sliced scallions, shredded cilantro and sliced onion. Set aside.

9. Divide noodles in large soup bowls. Top the noodles with meats. Ladle hot broth over the meat and noodles. Garnish with the scallion mixture and black pepper. Serve with the accompaniments on the side as desired.

10 - Pho Bo 96 Bui Vien Street

This Pho restaurant is at number 96 Bui Vien Street in District 1 along one of the main 'backpacker ghetto' thoroughfares. I originally blogged this for a Moveable Feast feature at The Food Section. The fact that it's empty is a worrier and the three woman running the show are of the agressive, hard-sell, drag you in by the arm whether you're hungry or not variety that tends to unsettle my stomach. However, I do want to cover as many Pho stalls as I can and I'm game for anything - good or bad. This restaurant is actually a streetstall within a restaurant. The stall can be wheeled around the streets and the broth served alfresco if needed. Not that the owners would need to do that these days. Just bring the stall in off the street - smart.

I order Pho bo tai (Raw beef noodle soup). It arrives with a three herb plate, blanched beansprouts, slices of lemon and sliced yellow chilies. Certainly looks like bonkers good broth from where I'm sitting, but let's dive in and see what's under the bonnet. Plenty of meaty vapour powering through, however as with many other Pho I've had in town, it lacks a distinctive character to separate it from the rest of the gruel gang. Having said that, it's far better than I was expecting. I did think the restauranteurs in this part of town would veer towards laziness what with their clientelle mainly consisting of clueless foreigners, like me. However, the noodles aren't fresh enough and taste as if they've been out in the sun too long. This is commendable Pho, if not great Pho.

The main gripe, aprt from the stale noodles, being chewy beef. Buy a tenderiser, I've seen them on the market, cost less than a buck and does wonders for meat heading brothwards. 12,000VD a bowl. Not worth making a return visit here.

Pho 24 spreads north

We covered Pho 24 many meals ago. Since we scoffed that bowl on Nguyen Thiep Street, the chain of Pho shops has expanded rapidly.

They've now got a website -  www.pho24.com.vn - and there are five branches in Saigon with more due to open soon. The most recent addition is next to Ben Thanh Market.

Interestingly, Pho 24 will also open a branch in Hanoi soon. I can't imagine your average Joe-Hanoian taking too kindly to some soft southern nonces dissin' with their local dish - even if the southern version pisses over most of the rubbish doled out in Hanoi - but, we'll see.

You never find herbs and wotnot on the Pho table in Hanoi and I'm mega-curious to know whether Pho 24 will ditch the frills and 'go rough' to draw in Hanoians. Or, will Hanoians go along just to bitch about how crap Saigon Pho is? Or, is the chain hoping to hit the expat market? If you're up there when it opens, let me know.

Can Pho 24 also improve dining habits in Hanoi? Will Pho 24 be the first Pho shack in the capital without a floor covered in napkins, toothpicks, broken chopsticks and spit? So many imponderables...

I've tried three branches of Pho 24 in Saigon. I believe the broth is cooked at a central location and shipped out to all the branches. It's pricey (more than double the 'street' price) but it's the best I've yet to find. The chain is named after the 24 ingredients that go into a bowl of Pho 24 Pho. I generally hate chain store food, but when the Pho is this good, you can't grumble. But, we're still looking for Pho and there's plenty more of it to scoff in Saigon.

Pho 24 Saigon branches:

5 Nguyen Thiep Street, District 1
67 Hai Ba Trung Street, District 1
89 Mac Thi Buoi Street, District 1
Diamond Plaza, 34 Le Duan Street, District 1
NOW OPEN - 134 Le Thanh Ton Street, District 1 (Near Ben Thanh Market)

Opening Soon:

Saigon:
100 Nguyen Luong Bang Street, District 1

Hanoi:
26 Ba Trieu, Hoan Kiem District

UPDATE: It's somewhat annoying to find Pho 24 have nicked the noodlepie review without a credit or a link back to noodlepie. The Vietnam News review gets the same treatment. Here's their original review. That's not good table manners. Oh well.

9 - Pho Vinh Quang

It'd be a snitch to miss Pho Vinh Quang at 19/13B Nguyen Thi Minh Khai street. It's hidden off the main drag down a wee alleyway. The only hint of a beef noodle soup lurking nearby is the sign hanging on the electricity pylon. It's a front room pho set up, just next door is a Bun Rieu which is a similarly homespun affair. On the evidence of this visit, Pho Vinh Quang looks like a popular haunt. Although, pushed for time and with the toad in tow, I opted for the take away option today.

No snaps of the bowl, so you'll have to make do with the restaurant. Like I said, very 'homely'. In fact it is a home, I think. Looks like this place doubles up as Vinh's front room. There's only Pho bo on offer, no fowl in sight, and I opted for the Pho Bo Tai (Raw beef noodle soup). As with previous takeaways, they fairly pack their noodles in here and scrimp on the soup. And that's never a good thing.

What there is of the soup (not a lot...) is quality stuff, meaty and thick. A takeaway order comes with a small bag of premixed Hoisin sauce and chili sauce (which I didn't bother with), a minimal three leaf herb selection and a bag of freshly chopped red chilies. The meat was slightly chewy. The more I search for the perfect Pho, the more I realise meat tenderising is an afterthought in Vietnam. Having said that, I'm gonna return here. It's just a stroll up from Saigon zoo and I have a feeling that eating in house would reap better results. Also, I want to check out the Bun rieu next door. A takeaway will set you back 10,000VD.

8 - Pho Hoa

Pho Hoa at 260C Pasteur Street is possibly the largest and most popular pho restaurant in Saigon. Probably the most popular in Vietnam, at least with southerners. Locals slurp in this two-storey institution alongside busloads of Asian package tourists, backpackers and expats. Downstairs tacky paintings of the family adorn one wall, a bonkers-big photo of a bamboo forest is pasted along the length of another wall. This place is always busy and cleaner and more expensive than yer average pho joint. Beware of the team of beggars, shoeshiners and sellers who stalk the front of this restaurant. Better to get a seat away from the front, out back, or upstairs if you want peaceful dining.

I ordered Pho tai (Raw beef noodle soup). On every table there are breadsticks, a three herb plate, freshly cooked beansprouts, sliced chilis, lemons and a plate of pate chau type savoury snacks. The waitress also delivers a plate of bananas mid meal. There's plenty of soup at Pho Hoa and the white pho noodles are slightly thinner than most pho shacks. There's not a lot of so-pho-stication to the tepid soup stock here, but there's a meaty punch in there with plenty of carnivorous depth cutting through the soup. Overall this bowl is generally spice shy, but that meaty tang makes up for the lack of frilly spiced anise edges.

I like tender beef, but unfortunately on this visit the scrummy broth was let down by the quality of the beef. Stringy and chewy and, because the broth wasn't totally pipin' hot, some of the meat failed to cook quickly enough. At least it didn't cook quickly enough for a ravenous lunchtime pieman. The cooked meat - Pho Chin - might be a better option, although that looked a fat laden fiasco. So, you're probably screwed whichever way you attack it. But, don't let that put you off trying a bowl of one of Saigon's more famous pho renditions. And if you're a nervous pho beginner and/or you don't wanna go 'too local' - Pho Hoa fits the bill. A bowl of Pho bo tai will set you back 20,000VD. Breadsticks are 1,000VD a shot, Iced tea (Cha Da) also 1,000VD. Want more pho? Interesting article by Alex Renton in The Observer last month on pho up the road in Hanoi.

7 - Pho Ha

Pho Ha sits on one of the corners of the flabulous food section on Ben Thanh market in District 1 at stall number 1004. She navigates her kitchen through other noodle territory, but it's the pho that's her meat and potatoes. Pho Ha is one of three or four pho stalls on Ben Thanh. I'm a regular at this stall, but that doesn't mean this is souper soup. It's good, but it's not this good. Ms. Ha's broth is businesslike, but not burpmungus.

I ordered the Pho Tai (Raw Beef noodle soup), the beansprouts were pre-thrown in for me, and a 2 leaf herb plate (Basil & Cilantro) was plonked stallside together with a dish of lemon slices and chili slivers. Ha's broth has Hanoian aspirations, but lacks those all important meat thick juices. However, Ha also gives you a nifty little sauce - a ready mixed oyster sauce and chili sauce number - and her soup needs it. Sauce added, your intestines can kick back, relax and enjoy. Without it this is second rate soup - great if you knocked it up yourself at home, but not what you expect from a professional purveyor on Vietnam's finest.

This retails for 10,000VD. There's a decent market life view from Ha's stall and Banh cuon, Cha gio and Mi Quang are all within arms reach at neighbouring stalls, and can be ordered to your seat as required.

6 – Downtown, Chinatown Pho

It’s a bit of a trek out to Cho lon, otherwise known as Chinatown, in District 5, anything up to 30 minutes from the other end of town depending on traffic, and I only ever go to pick up overseas parcels at the post office. I’ve done zilcho in the way of exploration of this people-packed part of town and for eats I was in need of advice. And so, after a bit of a debate, the paper shufflers down at the main Cho lon post office suggested I head to their fave pho joint, 3 minutes around the corner at 93 Tran Van Kieu Street.

No more than a pavement stall across from the scented Saigon river. Diners scoff in a darkened, scuzzy, alleyway behind the stall. I ordered Pho Chin bo (Cooked beef pho) and got Pho Tai Bo (Raw beef pho). It wasn’t a language problem that cocked up the cookery, the raw beef rendition is the only dish on offer - my mistake. The broth was pipin’ hot and I could see the slivers of beef change colour as I waited for it to chill to internal organ temperature. This pho comes with a 3 herb plate. After sampling the beefy broth, I ripped up some saw tooth leaves and basil, chucked in some freshly cooked beansprouts, squeezed in a lemon quarter and bent bowlwards.

The first taste is pepper heavy with strong chili overtones - stronger than I have had at any pho shack before - and of course, there’s that old favourite, star anise poking its head up at the back. There’s little of the all-important fat skimming going on at number 93, consequently this pho sits firmly in flab city. Unsure whether or not I already had enough lunchtime cholesterol to deal with, the chef gave me an additional small bowl filled with broth, spring onions and morsels of beef groaning with grease – called Mo beo. I didn’t really need it, but cheers anyhow.

One minor grouse, is this culprit. I like clean meat in my pho. Fat trimmed, blood heavy, and tender. This was tender enough, but that arty line of fat above is a bit of a pieman turnoff. However, it is far better than the stringy fat you find attached to the main meat event in many other pho joints. At least this example was not at all chewy, just a bit unsightly.

The noodles were a little tired, but this isn’t one of those noodle nightmares where you need to beg for more broth. At 8,000VD, this is stomachworthy pho, but nothing more. I wouldn’t make a point of heading into Cho lon for this offering, but if I was cruisin' the vicinity and needed a quick fill I’d drop by again.

Pieman will be up north on business for the rest of the week. Got my mince pies on a noodle shack or two. Will blog up upon my return.

5 - Pho with no name

Curb crawlin' for eats in District 1, I wound up at this makeshift stall on the crossroads of Hai Ba Trung & Le Thanh Ton streets. It's a one woman show, located in among a throng of Xe Om (motorbike taxi drivers) touting for trade. The stall is nothing more than a bubbling vat of stock propped up against a wall, a bag of fresh herbs and one of noodles, some raw chopped beef and a couple of nursery school tables and chairs. There isn't even a sign indicating what it is she's selling or how much it might set you back. I had a good look around the 'kitchen' and the lack of cooked beef suggests she's a one dish operation - Pho Bo Tai (Raw beef noodle soup). Hmmm... raw beef... out on the streets, sun beating down, no refrigeration... ??? a little risque - maybe? Oh well, you gotta live a little and this was 9am and well before the mid-day hothouse. Everything looked fresh and inviting and it wasn't as if there were flies buzzin' around a rotting carcass or anything.

Every bit of vegetation on the herb plate and in the Pho must have been hacked out of the ground that morning, this Pho was startlingly fresh. I was a tad concerned the beef may have been of the buffalo variety, but No. Tender certainly, if not up to Pho 2000. I liked just looking at this Pho. Sometimes Pho looks scrummy and the little spots of beef fat in among the chopped spring onions and noodles with a light dusting of pepper had me spellbound for ohhh... 30 seconds before I had to dive in. It's a good Pho, a fresh Pho, but not a great Pho. Slightly sweet. However, I felt the stock wasn't old enough to be out on the streets unaccompanied and so I tarted it up with a splash of Oyster sauce. I would return to this place if I was passing, but I wouldn't go out of my way. 5,000VD a bowl. I'm pretty sure it's this same spot that is heavin' with Lau (Hotpot) slurpers from 6pm. So this Pho could be a daytime only connection.

4 - Pho 2000

Any restaurant calling itself Pho, or anything else for that matter, 2000 is asking for trouble. I mean would you be tempted by a restaurant called 'Cheeseburger 1982' -  No, I didn't  think so. However, this restaurant - the brainchild of Viet kieu - Huynh Trung Tan - is apparently the first of many that followed in the US. So that shows just how much I know about naming successful restaurants. There's a Pho 2000 in Los Angeles and one in Denver and there's at least 3 of the beasts here in Vietnam. I'd been avoiding this one as I tried it a couple of years ago, found it bland and got fed up with the hassle from shoeshiners and sellers marauding the perimeter window tables. Two years later I remembered to get a seat away from the 'window' seats, avoid the grief and concentrate on the soup.

This clean, airy - almost American style fast food diner - is located on a prime plot of land at 1-3 Phan Chu Trinh street in District 1. No less than 7 rave press reviews adorn the walls and umpteen snaps of Bill Clinton, who stopped by for a slurp in, you guessed it, the year 2000. As I have mentioned before pho restaurants that serve more than just pho awake my suspicions and Pho 2000 serves quite a variety of dishes. The fact that this place is also on the tour itineraries of at least one tour company doesn't add any pre-pho slurp confidence. But, hey - let's bin the bias and tuck in.

I opted for a Pho Chin (cooked beef brisket) and a Cha Da (Iced Vietnamese tea) - 18,000VD the lot. The herb selection was a wee bit paltry, but all the essentials for satis-pho-ction were there. The big plus about Pho 2000 is the beef. It's as tender as any I have had in Vietnam and in a different league from your average pho joint. The soup itself is pretty light, the asian aromas that blow fragrantly from chief rivals Pho 24 are not as present here. That said, the soup is a quality broth. However, noodle overload does not go down well with the pieman and especially when those noodles are of the wide, flat variety. Ease off. I wasn't so keen on the plastic wrappers for the chopsticks and the spoons either. If you're gonna lift pho off the street and give it some kind of class, don't insult it with unnecessary cheap table junk or just do it better - a la Pho 24.

Pickiness aside, Pho 2000 surprised me. I wanted to dislike this McPho of pho-land, but I didn't. It's a solid pho experience, just lacking that extra oomph in the broth department to really distinguish it from the pack. However, the sheer quality of the beef will draw me back again and next time it'll be the Pho Tai (raw beef) I'll try. View the business card.

3 - Pho Cao Van

After experiencing some major soup scrimping on my last dip into pho-land I was hoping for better when I pulled up at Pho Cao Van, 25 Mac Dinh Chi in District 1. I very nearly skipped this joint as the place was packed to the fluorescent light bulbs with not a seat free. Rather than take the easy option and keep walking I decided to wait out the stares until one of Saigon's many speed-eaters had slurped his last noodle and upped and left. After all, this many pho-fans can't be wrong, can they?

Comfortably ensconced at the rear of this non-too shabby, intimate diner I ordered Pho Chin bo. The Chin bo means cooked beef brisket, rather than my other regular choice, Tai bo, which is the raw beef variety (the raw meat cooks in the broth) I tend to steer clear of raw beef in places in which a Food Hygienist's nerves would jangle too loudly. Actually, Cao Van isn't that rough, but I probably wouldn't take my mother there.

Nice bush

Normally bad-pho warning signs can appear when the hedgerow pickings arrive, but Cao Van doesn't disappoint. 3 varieties, including clean, fresh basil, no limp leaves, just bright greenery. Sorry, don't know the names of the other 2, including the one on the right in the picture which I like, but is powerfully perfumed and will gladly rape your pho of all that meaty goodness if you overdo it - best go easy on this fella. The other leaf, the long straight leaf on the left, has a none too intrusive sharp veggie tang, no problem with him in my soup even if we're not on first name terms. For some reason Vietnamese men think this particular leaf gives them more... err... staying power...

As for the pho itself, when it landed on my aluminium table I felt sure I was onto a winner. More soup, less noodle - nice. Good to see a generous handful of spring onions along for the ride too. The all important stock was a blinder - no overpowering star anise or watery non event here - just bags of bite, tonnes of depth and most importantly for me - heavy overtones of meat cutting through all the added flavours. Also, this gal goes light on the MSG front - I can't say that about too many chefs in Saigon - and it's not every bowl of pho in this town that gets me tilting to grab the last drop. In private it would be a 'down spoons, bowl to mouth moment', but you've got to have some standards when you're out in society.

If I had to fault the pho at Cao Van, it would be the beef. Well cooked, tasty and thankfully not chewy - but - please - drop the fat - babe. Many a Vietnamese slurper enjoys a lump of fat on their beef, but not me. And it can get a wee bit fiddly separating beef from animal lard with chopsticks and a spoon or worse, by hand, mid-mastication - not cool. However I'll forgive her, she's got a nice smile and really excellent beef in fleapit-pho land is an oxymoron - as and when it evolves, I will let you know.

Right now, at 10,000VD a bowl, I'll be back for more and I am happy to welcome Cao Van into the Pho top 10 - well done.

2 - Bac hai Hanoi

Now this is more like it - that's what I call a kitchen. Bac Hai Hanoi at 25 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street, District 1 serves pho and keeps its restaurant and kitchen respectably dishevelled. I had high hopes when I spotted this one. Big chunk of cooked brisket on the kitchen slab next to a pre-boiled chicken, piles of dirty bowls, a fair number of soup slurpers, 1 rat (live) and a decent display of herbage on the tables. I ordered and waited.

Doubts did cross my mind when I spotted the menu. Call me a stickler for detail, but a pho restaurant should only serve pho. Bac Hai offers up mien ga (chicken soup with thin translucent noodles) and pho xao (noodle stir fry) Too much diversity is not a good thing. However, I was willing to look over this major missive when I surveyed the state of the restaurant. Not quite up to the Hanoi standard of filth - floors are a bit too clean - but not bad for Saigon.

The only real problem was the pho itself. Where's the soup? I had to ask myself. Can't see the soup for the noodles and that's not good. I had to wade through a thicket of wide flat pho noodles to find my paltry puddle at the bottom of the bowl. Sadly the soup stock wasn't a winner either. Lacking the aroma of pho 24, this soup harks back to the limp affairs that litter too many street corners of Hanoi. These boys just aren't trying hard enough.

There are a lot of restaurants that serve Hanoian dishes in Saigon and most cater to a clientelle of, I'm guessing here, 70% Hanoian and they deserve better than this.

In a city of 8 million++ and - big-big guesstimate here - well over 5,000 pho restaurants there's no time for second chances - even at 7,000VD a bowl. In the words of Simon Cowell, "I don't think you're taking this seriously. Goodbye."

1 - Pho 24

Nothing makes me fussy like Pho. Vietnam's national dish, a belchworthy beef broth, belongs in scuzzy shacks, floors littered with broken chopsticks and cheap napkins and NOT the poncey tables of nouvelle cuisine, restaurants with chamber music or the 'ethnic' section of the Hilton breakfast buffet. For this reason I was reluctant to check out Pho 24 at 5 Nguyen Thiep Street in District 1. My Top 10 list of pho joints has remained stalled at a Top 2 after bumping up the belt notches on a mammoth '30 different soup kitchens' soup test over the years. Most pho, in my experience, is average at best.

Both my top 2 are up the road in Hanoi: 13 Lo Duc Street, Hanoi & 2 Le Van Huu Street, Hanoi. These two pho-tastic soup shacks are within 30 seconds walk from each other and are well worth sniffin' out. Devoid of clueless foreign tourists, packed to the rafters with sino-soup slurpers and oozing grubby charm. Long may their paint peel, their floors gather grime and their service snarl.

Pho 24, on the other manicured & moisturised hand, is all uniformed waiters, polished table tops, dimmed lighting, chefs with real chef's hats, china toothpick holders, logo embossed place mats and chopstick holders.

This is not pho as I know it - there are 9 beef/1 chicken varieties on offer for chrissakes - but prejudices aside, how's the soup? Well... much as it pains me to say it, Pho 24 just brings my list to 7 shy of a Top 10.

The thing about Pho 24, I guess, is they've taken a street food and given it respectability, class or maybe just a fancy facade - you choose. But, what they have done is new and a first for Vietnam - at least to my knowledge. (In Saigon, there is also Pho 2000 - more of which later this week) - but it's Pho 24 which, I think, has set the standard for the rest to follow.

Pho is a noodle soup and comes in either its beef variety - Pho bo - or chicken - Pho ga. The chicken variety has been missing from the streets of Vietnam since Asian bird flu struck the region in early 2004, but has started to make a tentative comeback in the last week or two. The beef variety consists of thinly sliced beef and fresh flat noodles, sitting in a steaming stock, heavy of star anise, meaty vapours and sprinkled with spring onions.

In the south the broth often comes with a side of herbs, bean sprouts, chili slivers, half a lemon and maybe sliced raw onions. In the north, many folk, myself included, like to crack a raw egg into the soup. Although Pho is known as a northern dish, the Saigonese have added a certain sophistication to their broth which is missing from the bogstandard raw and alive deal in the north. I am reliably told that the key difference is; the Saigonese regularly skim the fat from the 100l vats the broth cooks in, go easy on the fish sauce - nuoc mam and know how to spice with a gentle touch. I'm far from being an expert, but the southern version does taste 'fancier', even if my base nature has an instinctive preference for Hanoi's basic broth.

Meanwhile, back at Pho 24...

To cut to the chase... I simply cannot find fault with these guys. The key is the soup stock. The steamy beams of aroma rising from a Pho 24 bowl demand immediate devouring. This is the most flavour-filled Pho I have found in Saigon (so far). And so it should be. At 24,000VD a bowl (my Hanoi faves set me back 7,000VD and that's with the added egg) OK-OK- I'm paying for the service, the setting - but still...

If they could knacker up the furnishings, smash the odd bowl, splinter the chopsticks, add a couple of rats and allow spitting on the floor they might just pip the number one slot. But for now, they is just too posh. The battle lines are drawn. Expect more pho blogs soon. View the business card.