In Vietnam, the day starts pretty early, before their morning exercises, and work day – people opt for pho. Pho is a noodle soup, a breakfast soup, but can be eaten at anytime. As the national soup of Vietnam, Pho was born in the North, and consists of both influences of the Chinese (rice noodles and spices) and the French (popularity of red meat). The Vietnamese used these and their native influences to make pho their own. It worked its way South in the mid 1950’s when North and South were still divided. South Vietnam adapted the dish and made it their own. Northern style pho is very simple with less meat, where as the Southern style pho is more complex and contains an abundance of ingredients - this is the version that made its way to America in the 1970’s. People believe that pho was derived from “pot au feu” a French beef stew. In general the cuisine is filled with Chinese, French, Malaysian and Indian influences.
The foundation to this noodle soup is the broth which bubbles away for hours. It includes beef soup bones, onions, ginger, star anise, cloves, cinnamon stick, cardamom, fish sauce, rock sugar. When the order comes in, a bowl is filled with heated rice noodles, cooked beef slices and then slices of raw beef, topped with basil/coriander, onion – when the broth is ladled over top; it magically releases the fragrance of the herbs and quickly turns the raw beef to rare. Other items added to enhance the enjoyment of this hearty soup are bean sprouts, basil/mint and lime wedges. One can season the broth to your liking with red chili for heat and color, fish sauce to round off the flavor of the broth and finally a generous squeeze of lime. All you need is a set of chopsticks and a Chinese style spoon – then you can begin to slurp away…by the way – slurping is totally acceptable!
On my regular visits here with friends, we always order Goi Cuon and Cha Gio to start:
Goi Cuon translates to mixed salad roll – they are rice paper filled lettuce, carrots, mint scallions, rice vermicelli, pork and shrimp – and are served cold with a dipping sauce called nuoc leo. Nuoc leo is light peanut sauce made with chili, garlic, hoisin sauce, sugar, peanuts, tamarind water or chicken stock.
These are also known as Summer Rolls, and are a great light meal or in our case - a great appetizer...
Cha Gio are spring rolls wrapped in rice paper, deep fried until crispyand golden brown. The filling consists of ground meat, mushrooms, carrots, jicama and served lettuce, mint leaves, and a dipping sauce called nuoc cham. Nuoc cham is a dipping sauce made with garlic, red pepper flakes, fresh lime juice, sugar and fish sauce. The best way to eat cha gio is to wrap them in the lettuce leaf, this prevents you from cutting the roof of your mouth. You will come across different variations offered as a filling for cha gio, and that is the beauty of it.
The dipping sauces are used interchangeably and eaten with everything. Nothing is etched in stone, there is no right way or wrong way of enjoying these really delicious dishes at Thái Son!
Thái Son
89 Baxter Street
New York, NY 10013
(212) 732-2822
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