My love affair with Pho...

I did not actually taste my favorite food in the entire world until about two years ago. I spent four years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Go Heels!) and during the end of my sophomore year I was introduced to a little Vietnamese restaurant on Franklin Street named Lime and Basil. I think the first three times I went to Lime and Basil (which is the cutest little place with lime green walls) I got things like the curry or lemongrass chicken. Those dishes were all well and good and I was afraid to try the mysterious bowls of Pho which are pronounced "fuh" which just threw me off and upset me more because, personally, FOH sounds really cool. On top of that my Chinese friend ordered the pho with everything, which includes tendon, meatballs (which are NOT meatballs) tripe (stomach lining of the cow) and brisket in addition to the shank flank and eyeround which, to me, were normal cuts of meat. I did finally try her broth which led me to order my first bowl of pho. I was pleasantly surprised by the broth and how it mingled with the noodles. I also loved the eyeround steak. I did not, however, enjoy the shank and flank, and thought they kind of tasted like the meat you get in frozen dinners.

Therefore, my perfect bowl of pho is simply with eyeround and this is how they make it:
The broth is made overnight from oxtails and beef bones. Lots of spices, including: ginger, charred onion, cardamom, corriander, cloves, cinnamon sticks and, most important, star anise. It has kind of a licorice scent and some people say it has a licorice flavor...but it's not sweet at all, so I don't know about that. Rice noodles are put into a bowl and very thinly sliced pieces of raw eyeround are assembled on top. The boiling broth is then poured over the noodles to cook the meat in the bowl and it is topped off with sliced onions and cilantro.  The way you eat pho is also very important:

Every bowl comes with a plate of toppings, which typically includes bean sprouts, basil, jalapenos and a lime wedge. Any or all of these things can be added to the soup to change and add to the flavor. The table is also equipped with a bottle of sriracha and hoisin sauce (if the restaurant doesn't have these, don't even bother going). What I like to do (which isn't saying much because I don't even use the toppings anymore) is put a line of hoisin and a line of sriracha next to each other in a separate little dish to dip my meat in. My friend, on the other hand, enjoys putting the sauces directly into the bowl (I personally think this messes up the original taste of the broth). If you do like the toppings, I recommend adding them while the broth is hot to allow the basil leaves to wilt, the heat of the jalapenos to disperse and the sprouts to cook.

In my experience, I always thought the darker the broth, the better the pho that day. However, after having a bowl at Pho 75 in Aurora, CO today, I can see that a lighter broth can still be made just as flavorful as a dark one.

Pho 75, while located in a strip mall next to an adult store, has AMAZING and authentic pho at a cheap price. While this is the first place I have tried in the Denver area, it has already lived up to my previous pho experience in Chapel Hill. Although the original taste of Lime and Basil cannot be championed, I would say that this pho may technically be better. The bowls at Pho 75 come in small medium and large and you can order extra noodles or meat. They come out hot and when you lean over the bowls you get a pho facial that smells a little bit like Christmas. Initially, you think "yuck. this is gonna taste sweet".  Luckily, the broth is not sweet, but really savory. One review on google maps said that the broth tasted "complex" and I would agree. Each bite tastes a little different from the last, and the many different flavors mingle together to create a great tasting pho. The meat is of a very high quality and the basil is extremely fresh.

Well, that's enough of me rambling about Pho. If ya'll have any comments about pho where you live or how you make it just let me know! Happy Pho hunting!

nomnomnom,
Marnie