One of my favorite meals is also the simplest - a bowl of hot noodle soup, some fried stuff, and a good strong coffee. This meal is especially appreciated after a night of debauchery. For the most of my adult life, I've depended on a nourishing combo to revive me. Pho, spring rolls, and vietnamese iced coffee, you guys have never failed me.
Pho is a fragrant clear broth rice noodle soup, usually made with beef and usually eaten as breakfast in Vietnam. Well, I suppose it can still be considered breakfast if you wake up at 1:00 and eat pho at 2. The pho broth is complex yet light, flavored with kafir lime, lemongrass, and star anise. It's at the same time citrucy bright with dark meaty licorice notes. YUM.
The #2 comes with all kinds of goodies - fresh eye of round, brisket, tendon, and omosa. I told you i love the funky parts. My favorite is the tendon, melts in your mouth. I throw in as much of the veggie accompaniments as the bowl can contain - thai basil, bean sprouts, and a generous squeeze of lemon.
Everyone has their own way of eating pho. I like to squirt a little sriracha and hoisen sauce onto my soup spoon, mix the sauces up, and dip my noodles in them. I do that with every bite. Yes, it takes me about a year to eat pho.
Vietnamese spring rolls are awesome. Fried to a blistering crisp. The uber-friedness is somehow less heart attack inducing because you wrap them in nice healthy lettuce leaves topped with mint. They cancel each other, I swear. Then the whole thing is dipped into a yummy fish sauce. I like mine with another squirt of sriracha, of course.
Cafe sua da is the reason J-me and I will always have a soft place for Vietnam. Dark, rich, bitter coffee sweetened by a swirl of condensed milk. The perfect way to start a day or end a meal. Le sigh....
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