Hey what's up guys, it's Cory here.
I'm in the alley right outside of my apartment building.
And I wanted to make this video for you guys about Phở. (Phở is pronounced like "fuh")
I ordered a bowl of Phở bò, and that's pho noodles with beef.
And the reason I'm doing this kind of a video, instead of going somewhere like
"The best Phở of Hanoi" or somewhere like that,
is to just show you guys what like common, regular Phở looks like.
They sell Phở everywhere, it's one of the most common types of food you can find in Vietnam.
You know, people eat it for breakfast, they eat it for lunch, they eat it for dinner.
It's just all around, you can eat Phở any time of the day.
It's not like a "rare" thing, or some kind of a "unique, exotic" kind of food.
This is just a normal common street food that you can find anywhere in Vietnam.
This is the place right outside of my apartment, it's really good.
And it's northern-style Phở, so it's a lot more simple.
It's not like southern-style Phở, that's just loaded with like all kinds of different herbs and spices.
On the side, you'd have all kinds of Hoisin and Sriracha and stuff.
Here, in the north, it's very simple. There's just the pho noodles, the rice noodles.
And then you get, for me I have the beef, just some beef slices.
Got some onions, green onions, and that's about it.
It's super simple. A lot of people don't expect that northern Phở is going to be very simple.
They think that Phở, in the way that they think of it in the States, a lot of Phở in the States is southern style.
So it's loaded, there's all kinds of stuff. So this is kind of how you doctor up northern-style Phở.
They do have a hot sauce here, but I don't really use it.
Because this is vinegar with chili and garlic.
And this is a great condiment that you can find in almost every Phở shop around Hanoi. And in northern Vietnam.
I didn't really see it too much in southern Vietnam.
But I like to add just a little bit of that. Little bit more vinegar.
And some places will have calamansi, this place has limes.
And you just kind of add that in there for a little acidity.
So here you can see the bowl after I've added just my few condiments of the vinegar with garlic and chilies.
Pieces of garlic, pieces of chili.
And, obviously you can't see the lime juice.
But this is it. Very simple.
Nice rice noodles.
Some slices of beef.
Some green onions.
Green spring onions.
And that's pretty much it. It's super simple, but the broth...
this is the key thing. The broth is really good.
So because it's so simple, you have some more time to actually concentrate and think about
the different simple ingredients in it. The broth, let's go ahead and check that out.
Oooooohhhh
It's clean, that's what I hear a lot of people say about northern-style Phở, it's clean.
And it's not overly rich or anything like that. Yeah, so let's dig in guys.
I already failed on my first bite. I was trying to get a mouthful of noodles, and then they broke.
I don't eat Phở all the time, but when I do, I definitely prefer the northern style.
And that vinegar with garlic and chili, it's just the right touch for this.
I don't know, it's just so simple, but everything just matches so well, you know?
What I like about this place in my alley... let me turn the camera.
So you can see
it's pretty quiet now.
That's because I came here before 12 o'clock.
So most people take their lunch break at 12pm, or maybe just like 10 minutes before,.
And this place is usually packed!
Just full of people. So it's really hard to film when it's so loud and everyone is sitting next to each other.
But I came here early to make sure I had a nice spot where I could talk.
You guys could hear me, and I could just film freely.
Uhmmm... yeah.
See how I'm using this spoon and chopsticks together, like this?
This is how everyone in Vietnam eats any noodle dish.
Same like in Japan and stuff, they have the soup spoon.
You just kind of always have them both in your hands.
That way you can eat and then chase with some soup.
It's just a good way to eat, very efficient.
You know, because I do post photos and I've made videos about food in Vietnam,
I get questions all the time from travelers about "What is the best Phở in Hanoi?", "Where's the best Phở?"
and I just wanted to point out that every shop is slightly different from each other.
Like this shop, they put some black pepper on top.
So everyone has like their own little version of Phở.
But it's all, essentially, very simple northern-style Phở.
So I tell people I don't really have a favorite Phở restaurant, you know?
There's just so many options out there, why limit yourself to one and then say it's the best.
There are some good Phở places, but I highly suggest that if you do come here,
just eat anywhere. Like literally walk down the street, if you see a Phở little shop,
on the side of the street, just sit down and try it out.
It's going to be really good.
I promise, I've rarely had Phở where it was just bad and I didn't finish it.
There are some places that put a lot of MSG in it, so you can definitely taste that.
There's nothing wrong with MSG, it's just sometimes when you put too much,
you can tell they're trying to over compensate for the lack of flavor in the broth.
This place, I like them a lot. They're using fresh ingredients to make this nice clean delicious broth.
So I'm going to go ahead and stop talking now because my noodles are starting to absorb
the soup because I'm not eating them fast enough. So I'll get back to you guys after I finish.
So I am a bit full from all the rice noodles in here.
I'm trying to eat as much as possible, but I know I'm not going to finish this.
But I am trying to finish some of the pieces of the beef that are left, so there's not much left at all.
I think this is the last one right here.
Ahhhh
That was nice.
So like I said in the beginning, I didn't put the hot sauce in there.
Because just with the vinegar chili and garlic, that already has kind of a nice kick.
I think anything more than that is going to overpower the dish and ruin it.
Ahhhhhh
That was a good lunch guys.
I hope you enjoyed this video, if you're interested in finding out exactly where this specific shop is,
and kind of like where my neighborhood is, I'll have the address in the description box down below.
This is just normal, neighborhood, local commoner style Phở.
See you guys in the next video, please Like and Subscribe, and I'll see you later, bye!