Pho - a Vietnamese gourmet delight for less than 50 cents

If Vietnam has a national dish, it must be ‘pho’, a ubiquitous beef noodle soup from the northern part of the country. It is enjoyed everywhere and at any time of day in Vietnam, but particularly as a breakfast meal.

Pho originated in Hanoi, but spread in the 1950s when people who opposed communist rule began moving to the south. The traditional southern soup, ‘hu tieu’, was made with chicken, pork or fish stock - pho was an interesting new variation. Southerners generally prefer bolder, richer and spicier flavours than their northern neighbours. They began embellishing the soup, including more meat and rice noodles and adding garnishes, such as fresh herbs, chopped chillies, squeezes of lime juice, to their individual servings. Today pho is served in noodle soup shops all over the country. A steaming bowl of well-seasoned beef broth with soft rice noodles and various kinds of fresh and roasted fillet beef, plus bowls of condiments, is a gourmet meal for around 7,000 Dong – about 35 cents US!

At local restaurants, pho may arrive with a range of garnishes, some included and others presented separately in bowls, herbs, crisp bean sprouts, lime wedges, chopped fresh chillies, scallions, cilantro, and so on. Condiments such as hot chilli sauce and fish sauce are usually on hand, together with pepper and crispy sticks of deep-fried rice dough.

There are a few varieties – for example ‘pho ga’ is based on chicken, ‘my’ uses a similar beef broth and ingredients but adds thin dried noodles instead of the soft white sort. The southern variety has a distinctly different taste to northerners – more complex and muted. We prefer the clear sharp taste of good Hanoi pho – the undisputed king of noodle soup!