Rainy Day Blues? Pho-get About It!

I know it's a gross pun. Sorry, not sorry. I'm not always a fan of puns, but when I am, they are pho related. There are so many great ones, and the best are totally NSFW. You can goggle it yourself. I'm not going to spoon-feed you.

Although my mother cooked a wide-variety of cuisine growing up, Vietnamese was not one of them, and growing up in New Mexico, there wasn't a whole lot of exposure. Of course, there was a growing population of Vietnamese immigrants when I left, and now I hear that pho is pretty popular in NM. My first exposure to Vietnamese food was through the home cooking one of my coworkers would bring to shift. I remember, vividly, choking down florescent-green rice and seafood(?) that required more chewing than I was comfortable with at the time. I have a huge problem with wasting food, and I also hold a personal value that food offered should not be refused. I ate the meal, and smiled politely, but my pregnant belly was not happy.

Fast forward a few years. I'm working in Seattle, in an office setting, and I have a cold. I'm most likely disgusting, but I can't go home. My employee offers to get me pho. What? He says it's like chicken noodle soup, but better. Better? It's amazing, and this one moment is not only my introduction to pho, but the start of my love affair with sriracha.

Pictured above is 1/10 of the sriracha I like to put on my Pho, I was sharing with a friend, and had to add more to my spoonfuls.

Pho is delicious. It really is a more perfect version of chicken noodle soup. I actually think it very similar to posole. I suppose almost every culture has developed their own comforting and inexpensive soup with a plethora of toppings you can do with or without, depending on your resources at the time. All I know is that this beautiful dish led me to my favorite hot sauce, and have I mentioned that amazing bahn mi (also banh mi)!?

These beautiful dishes were most recently tasted at the South Everett Pho 36 (AKA "Golden Pho"). You should check it out. Definitely worth your while. Eat up my Friends!