Pho preparations are intense
My girlfriend is a chef, which makes me a very lucky man. A few months ago, after a string of Vietnamese restaurant runs, she decided to get a recipe and make her own Pho. Pho is kind of a standard Vietnamese staple; it’s a hearty noodle soup with all kinds of fresh herbs and other goodies floating in it.
In theory, it’s a simple dish, as it involves a broth with a bunch of random stuff thrown in it, but in practice it takes a lot of prep. This is one of those things that is best served for a lot of people. The prep work involved is the same for one person as it is for a family of ten.
Her first attempt at pho was a great success, but it showed us just how much work was involved.
I’ve been sick for a couple of weeks now, so I kind of hinted that I would love a steaming bowl of pho to help get over the last hurdle of recovery. This time she didn’t even use a recipe, just made her own—and man was it delicious.
This morning I decided to make myself a bowl for breakfast. No problem, I just have to heat up the broth and add stuff, right?
- Heat up the broth
- Soak the rice noodles
- Soak the dried mushrooms
- Wash some bean sprouts
- Wash some basil
- Wash some mint
- Cut a lime
- Unwrap the thin-sliced beef
- Place raw thin-sliced beef in bowl
- Pour boiling broth on beef to cook in bowl
- Boil rice noodles
- Drain noodles, drain mushrooms, combine all ingredients, add sriracha, add hoisin, stir
By the time you’re ready to eat, you have kind of a big mess of bowls and pots and strainers. Cleanup is a chore, since so many bowls are used in the prep. This is a lot more complicated than pouring a bowl of cereal or frying an egg.
You can go to any local Vietnamese restaurant and get a huge steaming bowl of deliciousness for about $6 or $7. Sure, you don’t get the pride of homemade soup, but in the end… it’s probably just a tad easier.
Where is your favorite place to get a bowl?
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Photo Credit: Marcelo Träsel on Flickr.
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