• = Don’t bother.
•• = Good, not great.
••• = Bingo!
The meat counter sold pork uterus, but no marrow or knuckle bones—at least as far as I could tell. So on my quest to make pho, the Vietnamese beef noodle soup, I headed to another Asian grocery store. The bones are crucial for the broth—the heart of the soup. At the next shop, the Korean Korner in Wheaton, I found them.
After eating pho (rhymes with “duh,” not “doe”) at five Rockville restaurants, I wanted to see what went into cooking the soup—a homey, cold-weather dish rooted in northern Vietnam. My experiment turned into a two-day affair, starting with making the pho broth—charring onions and ginger, parboiling and rinsing the marrow bones, then simmering them in water for more than three hours with star anise, whole cloves, a cinnamon stick, fish sauce, salt, sugar and chunks of brisket. Lots of skimming and straining was needed to ensure the broth was debris-free. Then it spent the night in the refrigerator so the fat would rise to the top and be easily spooned off.
And what was I aiming for? A broth that was clear, fragrant and savory, with a slight touch of sweetness. A balance between beefiness and spice. “It’s a very interesting, nuanced soup,” says Andrea Nguyen, a California-based cookbook author and cooking teacher whose recipe I used.
It’s also an activity in a bowl. Springy rice noodles, chopped scallions, cilantro and thinly sliced lean, fatty or raw beef (or chewy tendon and tripe) are added at the last minute. Then diners help themselves to toppings of bean sprouts, Thai basil, sliced chilies and lime. All of these add texture and complexity, and for purists like Nguyen, that should do it. Drizzling in hoisin or the ubiquitous hot sauce called sriracha “is like squirting ketchup into matzo ball soup. It’s an insult to the cook,” she says.
Given how long it took and the ingredients that went into it, my first-time pho broth was surprisingly bland—not unlike a few of the bowls I had at area restaurants. It needed sriracha. Maybe that’s why it’s so hard to find really fine pho. It’s tricky to get it right.
But my matzo ball soup? It never needs ketchup.
At each restaurant, I ordered pho with the works—usually some assortment of eye of round, well-done brisket, fat brisket, flank, tendon and tripe. I limited my tasting to five restaurants on or right off of Rockville Pike, all of which offered multiple combinations of pho. And I paid closest attention to the broths, which turned out to be the biggest variable.
• Big Saigon
My neighbor, Marie-Noelle Hunt, who grew up in Paris, remembers how her Vietnamese mother would make pho every Sunday for lunch or dinner, tasting the broth repeatedly to adjust the flavoring before adding condiments (in her house, marinated red onions were added at the end).
When we tested the broth at Big Saigon, the year-old restaurant that occupies a large, brightly colored space on Rockville Pike across from Wintergreen Plaza, Marie-Noelle and I agreed that it needed work. It lacked depth, richness and clarity, and the beef was dry and not particularly plentiful. I kept trying to resuscitate my bowl with sriracha, but it just made the whole thing taste like—well, sriracha. One positive note: Unlike the other soups I tried, this pho was steaming hot.
•• Ba Le
A couple doors south from Big Saigon is Ba Le, the popular Vietnamese deli known for its reasonably priced banh mi, or Vietnamese sandwiches. It’s small, cozy and kind of hip.
For this lunch, I invited my friend Gail Forman, a retired English professor at Montgomery College who has traveled extensively in Asia and works as a consultant to the Smithsonian Associates in coordinating its cuisine and culture programs. Forman says that pho is sold on the streets in Vietnamese cities—in big pots on low tables—and that its flavor should not be “one-note.”
The pho here had the best beef, both in quality and quantity. But the broth, unfortunately, was “one-note.” I really like this place, but it’s probably better to order dishes other than pho here. Forman covets the sweet and sour shrimp soup.
•• Pho Hoa Binh
Pho Hoa Binh’s dark brown broth was far from delicate, and slightly murky. Nevertheless, it was definitely not “one-note,” being both beefy and perfumed with star anise.
Most pho restaurants are décor deserts, but efforts were made to cheer up this modest space, with yellow walls, orange tablecloths and artificial flowers. And the Vietnamese iced coffee was divine.
•• Pho 75
This pho chain, with locations in Hyattsville, Northern Virginia and Philadelphia, has a loyal and longtime following. Web chatterers often debate the merits of this pho versus the bowl at Pho 95, south on Rockville Pike.
I ate at both, one right after the other, on the same day. And wow, what a difference!
The broth here was a much darker brown, with a good beefy flavor. But where was the hint of sweet? The star anise? The beef was rare and high quality, and the swiftness of the service couldn’t be beat. But while this was a good bowl of pho, it lacked personality, like the large, spare dining room. Even the sliced jalapenos didn’t add enough zing.
••• Pho 95
With yellow and white tile on the walls, this small pho shop resembles a restroom. That’s just fine by me, since the pho here was precisely what Nguyen described as the ideal: a clear, fragrant, slightly sweet broth with notes of star anise. A juxtaposition of flavors and textures, with nuance and depth.
I knew it when I tasted it. It was the only pho that didn’t need a squirt of sriracha.
Highlights: Finding the Pho
Big Saigon
838-A Rockville Pike
301-251-0066
Open 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
Pho: $6.99
Ba Le Vietnamese Restaurant & Deli
842-A Rockville Pike
301-294-7808
www.baleofrockville.com
Open Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sunday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Pho: $7.50
Pho Hoa Binh
11782 Parklawn Dr.
301-770-5576
Open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sunday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Pho: regular bowl, $6.15; large bowl, $6.95
Pho 75
771 Hungerford Dr.
301-309-8873.
Open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.
Pho: regular bowl, $5.95; large bowl, $6.95
Pho 95
785-H Rockville Pike
301-294-9391
Open Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Closed Tuesday.
Pho: regular bowl, $5.95; large bowl, $6.95.
Other places to find pho
Bethesda
Rice Paddies Grill & Pho
4706 Bethesda Ave.
301-718-1862
Green Papaya
4922 Elm St.
301-654-8241
Rockville
Taste of Saigon
20-A Maryland Ave., Rockville Town Square
301-424-7222
Silver Spring
Pho Hiep Hoa
921-B Ellsworth Drive
301-588-5808
Pho Hung
13633 Connecticut Ave.
301-438-6060
Pho Real
13876 Old Columbia Pike
301-879-9700
Gaithersburg
Pho & Grill
18310 Contour Road
301-740-7728
Pho Bistro
239 Muddy Branch Road
301-990-0011
Pho Nam
15942 Shady Grove Road
240-632-9500
Pho Fun
www.phofever.com: Everything you ever wanted to know about pho, including shopping opportunities (T-shirts with “Phonatic,” “Pho Eva,” “Phogettaboutit” and more).
www.vietworldkitchen.com: Cookbook author and cooking teacher Andrea Nguyen includes information on the history and background of pho, plus recipes and cooking tips.
Carole Sugarman is Bethesda Magazine’s food editor. She previously wrote for The Washington Post.
