Pho Isn’t Just Hot in Little Saigon
Nguoi Viet , News Feature, By Katherine Nguyen, Posted: Aug 06, 2004
SANTA ANA, Calif. -- Three or four times a week, Miguel Torres stops by the small Santa Ana restaurant for his favorite meal. Before he can sit down, the waitress beckons: “The usual, Miguel?”
The usual is a steaming bowl of Vietnamese pho (pronounced “fuh”), a simple soup filled with rice noodles swimming in a transparent, flavorful broth. Torres, 32, was introduced to it a few years ago and says he’s addicted now.
“Nothing beats it. It’s better than my mom’s posole,’’ he says, slurping the silky noodles from his spoon. “But don’t tell her I said that.’’ The first to open in Orange County in 1980, Torres’ favorite shop, Santa Ana’s Pho Hien Vuong, represents how cross-cultural and mainstream pho has become.
Pho Hien Vuong owner Chanh Hoang now marvels at the many judges and lawyers from the nearby courthouse who regularly lunch at his eatery, which has a predominately Hispanic clientele. At Pho 54 in Westminster, the typical lunch crowd includes young professionals, city officials and police officers.
And pho shops have opened well beyond Little Saigon — in Anaheim Hills, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Orange and Placentia, among other cities.
Perhaps the most obvious sign of pho’s coming of age: Chicken soup powerhouse Campbell Soup Co. is testing a pho soup base that may wind up in grocery stores soon .
“Thirty years is just about the right time for an ethnic community to start getting mainstreamed,’’ said Mai Pham, restaurateur and author of “Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table’’ cookbook. ‘’And pho, for the Vietnamese, is the way to do it.
“Consider the Chinese and other immigrant communities that have been here longer with foods that have become popular with the mainstream,’’ she said. “As people became more open to the foods, they also become more open to the cultures. Food is the way to connect people to different cultures. It’s part of the mainstreaming process.’’
Its simplicity and affordable cost – at around $4 a bowl – has helped pho join the ranks of other mainstreamed ethnic fare like tacos and sushi.
The painstaking preparation of the soup belies its simple appearance. It takes about eight hours of simmering a cauldron of beef or chicken bones to create the pho broth, cooked with aromatic spices like star anise, cinnamon, charred ginger and onion.
“It’s all in the broth,’’ said Hoang. “A good broth should be as clear as possible and have the deep aroma and taste.’’
Hundreds of pho shops have cropped up in the Vietnamese business district of Little Saigon since Vietnamese refugees arrived in Orange County in the late 1970s. The names — Pho 54, Pho 79 and Pho 88 — indicate what year the restaurant opened, although Pho 54 commemorates the year in which the soup became popular in South Vietnam.
A quick glance in the Yellow Pages shows at least 50 pho restaurants in Orange County — though pho addicts will tell you there are a few hundred in Westminster and Garden Grove alone. At Pho Hien Vuong, Hoang says he’s noticed his customers make the pho their own by the way they flavor it. His Hispanic customers love to douse the bowl of pho with plenty of chili sauce, lime and cilantro.
Hoang even began serving Pho cama-rones, with shrimp added to the soup before serving, after his Hispanic customers kept requesting it. It’s now the most popular pho ordered by Hispanic diners at the Santa Ana shop.
“They also asked me to make a lobster pho,’’ Hoang said, chuckling. “But I said, ‘Do you want to pay $10 then for a bowl of pho or continue paying $4?’”
Daughter Trang Hoang said Laotians add sugar and a sweet hoisin sauce. White diners prefer boneless, skinless chicken strips in their soup — hold the giblets and egg yolks.
Other Asian entrepreneurs are capitalizing on the popularity of pho shops. In Garden Grove’s Korean business district, Korean restaurateurs have opened pho shops sandwiched between Korean eateries. Pho shops have also opened in Los Angeles’ Koreatown, staying open until 3 a.m. to catch the after-hours nightclub crowds.
The shops springing up in other parts of Orange County often adopt names to suit their clientele. In Los Angeles, the new pho shops have names like Pho-topia and Pho Express.
On a recent overcast day, surfers in wet suits and town locals crowded the 9-month-old Pho My Man shop near the corner of Main Street and Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach. Owner Soai Nguyen said he has always loved the beach, so he was excited to open a pho shop near the pier. Nguyen said most of his customers are white.
“They come in here already knowing how to eat pho,’’ said Nguyen, who owned a pho shop in Florida before moving to California. “It’s pretty neat. Then they bring their friends to try it and teach them how to eat it. It happens all the time.’’
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