A Soup That Needs No Accompaniment at Just Pho

I just returned from 5 weeks in Hanoi and the mountains north of Hanoi. The food - especially the restaurants - was LOADED with salt and sugar. Swelling resulting from excess salt is no fun. I quickly learned to request the chefs NOT add the teaspoon or so of rock salt to every bowl. Not much I could do about the sugar in the broth; sugar is added liberally to virtually everything. No disrespect to this restaurant - I'm sure their version is great. Let's just stop rhapsodizing about Vietnamese food. As of just a week ago, it is heavy on salt, sugar ... and cheap oil. Pretty, but not very good.

I very much enjoy the Northern variety with those thicker noodles. In fact it was some years before I tried the sweeter Southern variety and I did not particularly care for it. Perhaps it is just because I came to the Northern first.

I see that the Just Pho kitchen will honor a request for lime. I spent a month in Vietnam and Laos (pho is popular there too) years ago and ate pho every day. Often for breakfast. (I'm a pho fan). On returning to Austin, a friend who is a pho chef wanted to know if I ever became sick during the trip. He voiced his surprise when I said 'no.' I confessed that I borrowed a practice started in Mexican bars serving tourists. To remove harmful bacteria from margarita glass rims by running a lime around the edge and adding salt to taste, and to 'show' the glass edge is clean. As the chopsticks were seldom the disposable variety, I would 'lime' my soup by squeezing and allowing the lime juice to drip down my chopsticks. The lime and a well-boiled soup kept me happy and healthy. צו דיין געזונט

Tried it. Meh. Same as other places, just tell them to hold the lime and sprouts and you get the same meal.

"Mr. Nguyen, 31, made the broth “very strong,” adding seasonings at the beginning and again before serving. This proved too much for some non-Vietnamese customers, so he’s eliminated the second dose. " I am truly sick of people complaining about how traditional dishes are served. I have seen this time and time again with new restaurants. The spicy dishes are too spicy so they make them weaker. How about eating the food the way it is prepared or go somewhere else. There are those of us who want to try the foods as they are intended to be made. That being said I will be trying this place this weekend when I go back to NYC.

Sounds delicious.

Had a great meal there today - perfect for the moody weather. Thank you NYT and glad to finally have a go-to spot next to Penn!

Just Pho sounds just right for the first fingers of frost in the northeast. I have added the restaurant to our list of places to eat when we visit Manhattan on one of our quarterly visits to NYC. I’m pleased the New York Times highlighted it.

For what it's worth, ordering those "diaphanous kerchiefs of eye of round" on the side allows you to swish each slice in the scalding broth until barely cooked but still tender. Left in the broth, the meat will seize up into toughness. It makes a difference. The downside is sometimes the broth cools before you eat all of the meat so slide it all in before that point.

Well, that sounds all kinds of good, as I like brothy soups. I did notice my local place uses a lot of star anise, which is related to clove. Many people are allergic to clove, including my sister, so I alerted her to that. Dang! And she loves Pho.

As many Vietnamese, I am a pho lover. Southern Saigon-style pho is much different to the North counterpart in ingredients, presentation, accomapanient spices and 5-type veget, the most distinctive choice with the Southern pho. To serve its Southern variety, take more time but it s worthy, so donot complain at paying more.

"Traditionally, Hanoi cooks toss in sa sung, dried marine worms, for a touch of funk." Well...a touch of something anyway. :-) I enjoy about half a dozen Vietnamese restaurants, both Pho and Banh Mi, about a 10 minute walk in either direction from my house (about a mile down the road, it turns even more densely Vietnamese as I'm in the more Chinese section of the district). Anyway, I'll have to look for the Hanoi versions mentioned in this article as all the ones I've visited thus far are of the Southern, "cluttered" varieties. Thanks for the education.

Having been introduced to Pho by chef friends of mine in Westminster, CA, my first bowls were of the southern variety. Then, one of them offered by contrast to take me to a small hole in the wall place where the family came from Hanoi and served the less cluttered, very beefy and almost earthy northern variety. From my first taste I knew this Pho would be what I'd want to take the chill off a cold, damp day in the Northeast. I still enjoy the southern variety but the less embellished style being served at "Just Pho" is my favorite. My wife and I bottle that variety of white vinegar using very hot Scotch Bonnet and Habanero peppers from our garden and locally grown garlic.

Dear Ms. Mishan, You, as the Grande Dame of ethno-regional cuisines in Food Section, should review The Sioux Chef. Without your review and his opening a restaurant in New York City, that food would remain unknown. By the way, I am opposed to calling Native Americans not all born in the US, but only the Amerindians or descendants of the first settlers from Asia. Signing off, Your humble and attentive reader.