Pho

 

This is the restaurant version.

This is not a food blog, gentle reader, but for a slice of novelty, I'm posting a recipe.

I first discovered this tucker about fifteen years ago on a journey back to Vietnam, when I saw Vietnamese scoffing it down, usually as the first meal of the day, which we call "breakfast".

People could be seen in streetside cafes and restaurants huddled around steaming bowls of the stuff using chopsticks to manage the solids, and drinking the liquid from the bowls in which is was served. It always smelled wonderful, and they seemed to be enjoying it, because the incessant chatter, a feature of this environment, paused during its consumption. Curiosity got the better of me, and I sampled a bowl in a cafe in Saigon*. It was worth the trip.

These jars make excellent storage.

On returning to Oz, I began to seek it out at Vietnamese restaurants, but it wasn't always easy to find fifteen years ago. It is now, and has become almost a Uber eats staple, even if transporting it is a bit of a challenge.

I've never been fond of cereal, so began buying satchels of Pho at supermarkets (where it had become popular) and microwaving them for breakfast. That was a little expensive, and being a retired gent with time on my hands, I experimented with making it at home. 

It worked well, and apart from being pretty healthy, is cheap, and uses up leftover protein as a base, whether chicken, pork or beef. I brew up a week's batch in a slow cooker, store it in jars, and heat up a batch each morning. It's  great way to start the day. My version is much less decorative than the restaurant meals, and the ingredients are less visually spectacular, but it smells and tastes much the same.

Ingredients

Method