25 July Thursday

First, it is 6 months to the day to Christmas, and that’s not too early to begin thinking about what we may like to do. In fact, I should really start the pudding today if I intend to serve on Christmas Day. Well, a day or two won’t hurt. Will it?

What is your first memory of Pho? I think I remember mine. I say think because it seems that Pho exploded, metaphorically, on the scene, whatever that is, world wide at around the same time. Or, I encountered it twice in a short period of time in two different cities. The first Pho I remember eating was in London. I was with a couple of friends on a rainy evening, we’d spent a few long hours at the public house, we were hungry. London must be the best city in the world for late night dining. So many streets, so many choices. Have I had Pho? What? Pho? Oh, we must go you will love it. It’s noodle soup!

We ducked in to a lively, well lit open floor restaurant, with large glass topped round tables and tanks filled with little fish. We were enthusiastically seated and handed heavy, plastic matted menus. There is only one thing to get here for sure, I am told. Beef Pho. There was a lazy Susan on the center of the table, which had dishes of mung beans, Thai basil, lime wedges, and hot peppers. I ordered the soup. Thinly sliced beef, broth, spring onion, and the additions from the Susan. Heavenly beyond description, yet I must describe it. Could there be any place in San Francisco that serves such a dish?

It turned out there were many places. Some of the were great. Some of them were meh. I’ve never had a truly awful one, but. But……

Last week, my whole family came for a visit. One night, we decided to have a chicken version of Pho. I got home from a day of pounding tunes on the piano, arms full of chicken backs and tootsies for the broth. Next, oven roasted onions and ginger fingers, two cinnamon sticks, six star anise, ten cardamom pods, a small palm full of black peppercorns, salt. Simmer and simmer and simmer, but not as long as you’d think. Maybe two hours, three, allowing the house to fill with the nourishing scent. Tenderly chop some chicken bits and Gai Lon, which I describe as a mostly spinach like green, with a little nod to broccoli or broccolini. Strain the stock, throw in the bits, stir for about twenty minutes and spoon over some cooked rice noodles with lots of broth in there. Get that broth in there! Lots of crunchy mung beans, the lime juice. Oh, the wonderful tastes and textures.

Now, when I eat Pho, I make it at home.

A little note: This morning, I finished off the Pho. There were no more noodles, a few greens, and a few little bits of now dried out chicken. I ate the greens and few bits of chicken. Then, I strained it again into a large coffee mug. I drank deep into that mug of the most healthy and healing substance on this whole earth, brothers and sisters etc. Drink deep at dawn, and you will be rewarded with a most pleasant morning.