05/08/2007
Hao L. says:
Melissa, see the Pho SF thread:
http://www.yelp.com/to...
Northern Vietnamese Hanoi-style pho tends to be more delicate and less spicier, with less star anise and no herbs (horror to my Southern ears!!!). Southern-style tends to have more spices, such as star anice. In either case, the broth should be clear and not too sweet (a sign of MSG, referred to as "sweet powder" in Vietnamese). Broth to noodles (which should not be in a clump) should be 4 to 1. You should get lime wedges, not lemon, in addition to the basil, bean sprouts (ask for them to be pre-boiled like my mom does to avoid e. coli), jalapeno slices, rau ram (only available at Ngoc Mai on Hyde St), mint (also only available at Ngoc Mai), saw leaf herb (sold in local markets, but only the pho joints in the greater LA area offer it with pho), and various other rau leafs (not leaves in this case, I'm well aware of the plural for leaf, thank you) only available in Viet Nam. Turtle Tower, being Northern-style, offers no herbs, but an otherwise decent pho as Monkey S suggested.
Pho'? (this is the V-ASCII method of writing Vietnamese with correct diacritical tonal marks, blame the French for the world's worst orthography, it's actually proven amazing at boosting literary rates, however), is pronounced like fuck without the CK or fuh, as in rhymes with huh, and the proper tone should be like asking a question, hence the question mark diacritical mark. In Unicode, this is describe as an "o" with a horn and hook above. The tone is described as "low rising". Yes, so you may now make all the Pho-King and Pho-get about it jokes you want. Even Jay Leno posted (last night I think it was, yes I should be watching Letterman) a Mo Pho menu from some place in LA. :)