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Pho - A part of Hanoi's heritage

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No one know whether the other Pho Thin that dot Hanoi belong to Mr. Thin's relatives or not. After visiting these shops I feel that Pho Thin by Hoan Kiem Lake is best. The beef is of good quality, the broth is pure flavorful, and the noodles are white.

The servings are not as big as in some other places, but this seems to leave customers wanting to come back for more.

Hereditary Pho on Bat Dan Street serves colorful pho with a fatty broth. Pho Tu Don on Cau Go Street serves various dishes. In the morning Pho Tu Do is so crowded that it is hard to find a seat. A pho shop on Hang Buom Street stays open late. While it is expensive, pho lovers say it's worth the price for a tasty midnight snack.

If, unlike Nguyen Tuan, you appreciate chicken pho, try the shop on Quan Thanh Street, opposite the Hang Dau flower garden. It is very difficult to find a seat in the early mornings. Here, the broth is very hot, the first criteria for a good bowl of pho. While many pho stores use kumquats instead of lemons, this shop sometimes (but not always) presents diners with a dish of lemons. The sour taste of lemon juice complements that sweet broth.

Hanoi has a map unlike that found anywhere else in the world: "The Pho Map of Hanoi". I discovered this map at a workshop entitled "Pho - Vietnam's Heritage" held by a European delegation to Hanoi in lat 2002. Together with cooks from the Sofitel Metropole Hotel in Hanoi, participants in this workshop chose 80 pho shops in Hanoi that they felt represented this dish's true spirit. These 80 shops were marked on a map.

According to Nguyen Dinh Rao, the head of the UNESCO Eating and Drinking Club in Hanoi, pho originated in Vietnam's northern Nam Dinh province in early 20th century when workers, officers and French soldiers craved a dish that was more refined than the simple fare eaten by peasants in the delta.

The broth was made from shrimps and pork bones. Soft noodles were a local specialty. At the time, ordinary people ate beef just once a year, at the Lunar New Year festivities. European tastes - and customers with more money - called for his addition of beef to the broth. "Pho is a cross-cultural communication of local ingredients, traditional flavors and European tastes, all of which make a global dish", say Mr. Rao.

Whatever the true origins of this soup, there's no doubt that pho is now part of Hanoi's culinary heritage. Today, people talk about "material and immaterial heritage". Pho, I believe, represents both. Seek out this famous soup and you are experiencing Hanoi's heritage.

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