I know I go on about pho a fair bit. In a blog about food in Hanoi, I suppose it's rather necessary. There would have to be thousands of pho stalls in this noodle-mad city. While all Hanoians worth their spoonful of MSG would defend the northern origins of this feel-good soup, their southern relatives are sluicing some very fine concoctions into millions of bowls down closer to the equator.
Like the climate, these two variations are poles apart.
A gander at my pho research in Hanoi - aka the Hanoi Pho Swoop - proffers the general idea of what slurping is all about in the capital. Down south on my annual Tet blobfest at the beach in Nha Trang, I idled into one of my faves, a thriving pho house known as Pho Hong for a bowl of contrast. Comforting it is, though, that the ambience in heaving southern pho houses, too, is provided by the ear-piercing communications between teenage girl waitresses, shouting orders and admonishing each other to gain a foothold further up the staff pecking order.
Differences present themselves at the stainless steel table, a smudge-free surface upon which is set the condiment basket. This contains bottles of sauce to doctor one's soup with: hoisin, chili, fish and garlic vinegar. Laying on a blue plastic plate nearby are pieces of lime and tiny green chilis which should come with health warnings:"Prolonged consumption kills tastebuds" or "one inadvertent bite may impair the senses and faculties" or "consumption causes illusory ear bleeds." Even the locals are cautious with these little firecrackers.
My attraction to southern pho is largely to do with the delivery of individual platefuls of shrubbery, which are torn at and tossed into the soup by the consumer. At this joint, ngo gai (saw leaf), a mint (hung cay) and a lettuce not unlike the iceberg are the greens on offer. More veggie crunch comes in the form of bean spouts and spring onions which have been momentarily blanched in hot water. Standing alone, of course, it's nothing more than rabbit food
Ripped and scattered into a bowl containing a knotted clump of noodles, an artfully-placed pile of rare beef around which a ladle of clear stock has been poured and it's a different story.
The Bill
One bowl of seaside pho, one glass of iced jasmine tea - 13,000VND (USD80c, AUD$1.05)
Pho Hong
1-3 To Hien Thanh St
Nha Trang
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