A favourite dish of the Vietnamese people, the pho noodle soup, has beenrecommended as a "bowl of heaven" by The Huffington Post, a USnewspaper website.
The online newspaper lists thedish as one of the most delicious foods people should discover whiletravelling abroad. Simply a combination of broth, fresh rice noodles,thinly sliced beef or chicken, with a sprinkle of aromatic herbs, pho isranked 11 out of the list of top 12 foods.
"Thereare many delectable treats out there, to be sure. Here's just a samplingof some delicacies whose truest, most scrumptious forms you will onlycome across while travelling," the online newspaper wrote last week.
The noodle soup is typically associated with the capital city, as thelate Vietnamese writer Thach Lam made clear in one of his works in the1930s on local cuisine: "Pho is a specialty of Hanoi. You can taste itin other places. But the pho is better in Hanoi than anywhere else."
Visit the capital, especially in the early morning, and you're likelyto see people queuing up and sitting on plastic stools at street stallsfor a hot bowl of pho.
Breakfast choice
The dish has become a breakfast favourite for the majority of local residents, as well as some foreign expats.
"I have eaten pho since I was a little boy; I could have it everymorning, as well as any time of the day," said 40-year-old Hanoian BuiTuan Hai, a resident living in the city's Old Quarters.
"I have tasted pho in other cities like Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong,Sydney, and Brisbane, but the taste is completely different from Hanoi'spho.
"The dish is not simply a type of food, but a culture that I miss the most whenever I am far away from the city."
For Canadian restaurant owner Donald Berger, a good bowl of Hanoi phobo (beef noodle) or pho ga (chicken noodle) for breakfast is a great wayto start the day with his Vietnamese wife and their son.
"Pho is light, not fattening yet nutritious, delicious and fragrantwith Vietnamese spices. It is also really good for lunch and latenight," said the chef patron at Don's.
"Vietnamesehave a funny saying about rice and pho: Rice is like the wife you haveat home, but pho is best outside (meaning the mistress!)," he added,showing his deep understanding of Vietnamese cuisine and culture.
It is the number one choice among 40 delicious Vietnamese dishes thatCNN reporters Helen Clark and Karryn Miller suggested in their writingin October 2011.
"What list of Vietnamese cuisinewould be complete without pho? It's almost impossible to walk a block inVietnam's major cities without bumping into a crowd of hungry patronsslurping noodles at a makeshift pho stand," they wrote.
CNN earlier placed pho N°28 among the world's 50 best foods, implyingthat some foods you eat to stay alive, while others you eat because tonot eat them would be a crime.
Cultural icon
Pho is considered a national treasure; so much so that the soup evenwarranted a conference years ago, covering the social, culinary andhistoric aspects of the dish.
"Pho was very special,almost a status food. We loved it because it had everything we valued –rice noodles, broth, meat and vegetables. It was complete, nutritious,infinitely delicious and yet so easy to digest that we could eat itmorning and night, day after day," said Huu Ngoc, a renowned expert onVietnamese culture.
Ngoc even writes "Bat pho hoagiai" (literally known as pho – a noodle bowl of conciliation) to retellabout a meeting between American and Vietnamese war veterans in thecapital city.
"Pho – a specialty of Hanoians – hasbeen presented to every corner of the material and spiritual life ofhuman beings and has witnessed current affairs… That's a food of acultural category," he wrote.
In the book"Vietnamese Street Food", Tracey Lister and Andreas Pohl describe pho asbeing glorious and undoubtedly the most famous and quintessential Hanoistreet food.
They quote Ngoc's words to say that the dish is no less than "Vietnam's contribution to human happiness".
Where pho originally came from remains a mystery. But there is certainly no shortage of creative theories.
In his book "Pho, a Specialty of Hanoi" (2006), co-written withAmerican author Lady Borton, author Ngoc indicates that the birthplaceof pho was in the village of Van Cu in Nam Dinh province. Villagers donot know who created it. But they say that in 1925 a villager named Vanmoved to Hanoi and opened a pho stall.
The dish wasalso adopted in the south in the late 1950s, when it crossed the borderof the then-divided Viet Nam. However, the recipe changed in theprocess. In Ho Chi Minh City and other places in the Southern region,the dish is served in larger bowls, with the addition of aromatic herbsand fresh bean sprouts. It's often served with extra condiments such assugar and hoisin sauce.
However, To Hai, a phopurist, said that in order to taste the best, the dish should stay trueto the Hanoian style: a simple, soup that has a deep, rich, meaty andlightly spiced flavour, with a subtle hint of sweetness.
"The secret to a great pho is the broth – the broth will make or break your soup," he said.-VNA
The online newspaper lists thedish as one of the most delicious foods people should discover whiletravelling abroad. Simply a combination of broth, fresh rice noodles,thinly sliced beef or chicken, with a sprinkle of aromatic herbs, pho isranked 11 out of the list of top 12 foods.
"Thereare many delectable treats out there, to be sure. Here's just a samplingof some delicacies whose truest, most scrumptious forms you will onlycome across while travelling," the online newspaper wrote last week.
The noodle soup is typically associated with the capital city, as thelate Vietnamese writer Thach Lam made clear in one of his works in the1930s on local cuisine: "Pho is a specialty of Hanoi. You can taste itin other places. But the pho is better in Hanoi than anywhere else."
Visit the capital, especially in the early morning, and you're likelyto see people queuing up and sitting on plastic stools at street stallsfor a hot bowl of pho.
Breakfast choice
The dish has become a breakfast favourite for the majority of local residents, as well as some foreign expats.
"I have eaten pho since I was a little boy; I could have it everymorning, as well as any time of the day," said 40-year-old Hanoian BuiTuan Hai, a resident living in the city's Old Quarters.
"I have tasted pho in other cities like Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong,Sydney, and Brisbane, but the taste is completely different from Hanoi'spho.
"The dish is not simply a type of food, but a culture that I miss the most whenever I am far away from the city."
For Canadian restaurant owner Donald Berger, a good bowl of Hanoi phobo (beef noodle) or pho ga (chicken noodle) for breakfast is a great wayto start the day with his Vietnamese wife and their son.
"Pho is light, not fattening yet nutritious, delicious and fragrantwith Vietnamese spices. It is also really good for lunch and latenight," said the chef patron at Don's.
"Vietnamesehave a funny saying about rice and pho: Rice is like the wife you haveat home, but pho is best outside (meaning the mistress!)," he added,showing his deep understanding of Vietnamese cuisine and culture.
It is the number one choice among 40 delicious Vietnamese dishes thatCNN reporters Helen Clark and Karryn Miller suggested in their writingin October 2011.
"What list of Vietnamese cuisinewould be complete without pho? It's almost impossible to walk a block inVietnam's major cities without bumping into a crowd of hungry patronsslurping noodles at a makeshift pho stand," they wrote.
CNN earlier placed pho N°28 among the world's 50 best foods, implyingthat some foods you eat to stay alive, while others you eat because tonot eat them would be a crime.
Cultural icon
Pho is considered a national treasure; so much so that the soup evenwarranted a conference years ago, covering the social, culinary andhistoric aspects of the dish.
"Pho was very special,almost a status food. We loved it because it had everything we valued –rice noodles, broth, meat and vegetables. It was complete, nutritious,infinitely delicious and yet so easy to digest that we could eat itmorning and night, day after day," said Huu Ngoc, a renowned expert onVietnamese culture.
Ngoc even writes "Bat pho hoagiai" (literally known as pho – a noodle bowl of conciliation) to retellabout a meeting between American and Vietnamese war veterans in thecapital city.
"Pho – a specialty of Hanoians – hasbeen presented to every corner of the material and spiritual life ofhuman beings and has witnessed current affairs… That's a food of acultural category," he wrote.
In the book"Vietnamese Street Food", Tracey Lister and Andreas Pohl describe pho asbeing glorious and undoubtedly the most famous and quintessential Hanoistreet food.
They quote Ngoc's words to say that the dish is no less than "Vietnam's contribution to human happiness".
Where pho originally came from remains a mystery. But there is certainly no shortage of creative theories.
In his book "Pho, a Specialty of Hanoi" (2006), co-written withAmerican author Lady Borton, author Ngoc indicates that the birthplaceof pho was in the village of Van Cu in Nam Dinh province. Villagers donot know who created it. But they say that in 1925 a villager named Vanmoved to Hanoi and opened a pho stall.
The dish wasalso adopted in the south in the late 1950s, when it crossed the borderof the then-divided Viet Nam. However, the recipe changed in theprocess. In Ho Chi Minh City and other places in the Southern region,the dish is served in larger bowls, with the addition of aromatic herbsand fresh bean sprouts. It's often served with extra condiments such assugar and hoisin sauce.
However, To Hai, a phopurist, said that in order to taste the best, the dish should stay trueto the Hanoian style: a simple, soup that has a deep, rich, meaty andlightly spiced flavour, with a subtle hint of sweetness.
"The secret to a great pho is the broth – the broth will make or break your soup," he said.-VNA
