- Flat rice noodles (banh pho)
- Beef (brisket, flank, rare slices) or chicken
- Clear broth: beef or chicken bones, charred onion and ginger, star anise, cinnamon, cardamom, fish sauce
- Herbs: green onion, cilantro, Thai basil; lime and chili on the side
Pho
A bowl of pho bo (beef noodle soup). Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
Pho is Vietnam's gift to the world: flat rice noodles in a clear, deeply savoury broth, topped with beef (pho bo) or chicken (pho ga) and a tangle of herbs. The broth is the whole dish: bones simmered for hours with charred onion and ginger, star anise, cinnamon, cloves and fish sauce.
It was born in the early 20th century around Hanoi and Nam Dinh, and the north still eats it the classic way: simple, with green onions and a squeeze of lime, and never the hoisin-and-Sriracha bar of the southern and diaspora versions.
Key ingredients
Where to try it
- Pho Bat Dan (49 Bat Dan, Hanoi): the old-town institution, queues from 6am.
- Pho Thin (13 Lo Duc, Hanoi): the stir-fried-beef pho that started a trend.
- Pho 10 Ly Quoc Su, near Hoan Kiem Lake.