This Is How We PHO It

Favorite Place:  Pho 99 on Walnut & Jeffrey in Irvine, 5 minutes from home

Mike

Large #8 with tripe, tendon, rare beef, other beef

Additives: basil leaves, but no sauce to soup  (to keep the flavor pure)

Dips beef and tripe, etc. into dish with mixture of sriracha & hoisin

For sides: raw jalepenos and onion mixture (refer to recipe below)

Technique:  eats all noodles first, then orders extra side of noodles to add to bowl while soup is still hot.

Sue

Large #2 with rare beef

Additives:  extra cilantro & sprouts, one basil torn up into pieces, no sauce

Dips beef into dish with 1/2 sriracha 1/2 hoisin, but not mixed together

Sides: sprouts & onion mixture

Technique:  eats noodles & beef together while adding sprouts continuously to add crunchiness

Audrey

Small bowl of Mommy's #2

Additives: sprouts

Sides: none

Technique:  tries to eat noodles with fork but then gives up and uses her hands, places end of noodles into mouth and then slurps the rest, lifts bowl to mouth to drink the soup occasionally and then asks for more.

Onion Mixture

Ask for extra side of sliced white onions

Add juice of 1 or 2 sliced limes

Add few spoonfuls of pho broth

Squirt lots of sriracha on top and mix well with chopsticks

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Our family pho history/background:

When Mike was a bachelor, he fell in love with pho.  The broth & noodle combination really satiated his appetite for a "home-cooked" meal.  It being inexpensive also encouraged him to buy pho several times a week, and sometimes twice a day.  He's been hooked ever since.  Now, as a family, pho is one of our favorite things to eat together.

During this pregnancy, pho has not tasted as good, so we haven't had it as often as before.  In fact, Mike had gone a whole 2 months without pho for my sake.  (What a husband!)  However, last weekend, while I was away for most of the day, he had bonding time with Audrey at the beach and then they had a pho date for lunch.

Audrey is truly a girl after her daddy's heart.

Like Father



Like Daughter



For those of you who don't really like pho, I recommend persevering.  Keep at it, try new (clean) places, and I guarantee you'll fall in love.  Even Pastor James likes it now!  Come on, Sanchez_Familia, you can pho it too!