Big "Pho"kin Deal

I didn't hear about Pho (pronounced FUH) until about junior year of college. I had a good number of Vietnamese friends that constantly told me how great it is. But it seemed too far outside of my comfort zone, so I never went. About month or so ago I fiiiinally went to a place called Pho Queen for lunch. The line to get in was out the door, which is pretty common at most places at lunch time where I work. But the people I was with told me that the lines move fast at pho places. And I found that to be true.

So first off at the table, I noticed there are A LOT of extras that you can put in the soup: garlic flakes, about 3 different kinds of hot peppers, hoisin sauce, soy sauce(regular AND reduced sodium), siracha, salt and pepper. What this said to me was the food was going to be pretty bland. Trying to not let that hinder my decision, I took a gander at the menu. I went for a basic dish, the spicy noodles with flank steak (by the way, this was not spicy, see "Black Thai Affair" for my definition of spicy).

So they brought out a big bowl of boiling broth, big enough to bathe a baby in (Nice use of alliteration, I know) that contained my noodles and meat. Apparently the logic behind the super hot broth is to cook the meat as it is served. You're supposed to order the thin strips of meat medium rare and they will cook more thoroughly in the soup. I found that quite interesting. As to no insult the cooks, I tried my pho without adding anything to it, which you should ALWAYS DO PEOPLE! It's a slap in the face of anyone that prepared you food, to automatically conclude that the food will be bad if you don't add a dash of salt before you partake. So after my test run, I had to hit my pho with this red paste packed with chili peppers, mixed with the hoisin and garlic chips. This gave it a little kick. So I got the taste to where I wanted, then proceeded to dig in.

OK, so I couldn't really dig in. I don't know who said it was a good idea to eat soup with chop sticks, but that person was definitely not hungry or concerned with eating quickly. But I struggled through it and finished about 2 hours later. I kid I kid. But it did take a while, even though they did give a little spoon/bowl to aid in the transfer from bowl to mouth. I felt a little bit lied to/disappointed about the whole thing after all the build up about pho. But hey, they can't all be winners.

Wrap up, pho to me was basically top ramen with meat. It may have received too much hype from people, so my expectations were a little elevated. Maybe a good side dish, if it came in smaller portions, by my standards pho is not a main dish. That's that for my pho experience, it's about lunch time...and I'm starving. Stay hungry.