What the PHO?!

The MAIN KEY THINGS to look for when it comes to PHO:
- It's ALL in the broth! The broth should be clear, not opaque and bits of meat should not be present initially when served to you. If you get the "tai" meat (uncooked until the boiled water hits it), obviously your broth will later have pieces of meat and become more opaque.
- ratio of meat to noodle should not be chinsy (Pho Binh in Houston is the freaking best in Texas. As a result, they can get away with little meat, because their broth takes them to a home run anyway.)

TIPS from a purest who used to eat pho 1-3 times a week and once went a month eating frozen homemade pho in college:
- If you want to REALLY test the quality of pho, you should try putting your sriracha in one of the little dishes (may have to request, otherwise should be with the big spoons on the table). If you HAVE to have it spicy, try adding jalapenos into your broth. The sriracha has many other ingredients that makes it difficult for most people to separate the flavor from the actual intended broth, whereas the flavor of jalapenos can easily be separated.
- When you become more advanced, you can add basil, the long jagged leaf (don't know english name), squeeze some lime juice, and ask for a side of thinly sliced onions (preferably red onion) in vinegar. You will take these red onions and eat a little with every bite.
- Proper Pho etiquette is to CONSTANTLY drink the broth throughout the eating experience. It makes me very sad when I see Americans with a big ass bowl of broth untouched b/c they were silly and decided to drink sriracha and then spend the majority of their meal blowing their nose instead of truly enjoying the pho broth.

Short film by Christina Tran: http://www.uarts.edu/a...

Let me know if you have any questions. Clearly Pho is something I hold very close to my heart. When people tell me they have never had it, I'm pretty sure my heart skips a beat. I almost had to break up with someone once when they told me they did not like pho.