Pho Hollywood
If you’re looking to try some authentic pho in the Los Angeles area, look no further than Pho Hollywood! This restaurant has been serving up delicious Vietnamese dishes since early 2016 when it first opened its doors.
Now, one year later, they have their own Yelp page where people can give them reviews and talk about how great this place is. It clearly struck a chord with other hungry customers because the number of reviews keeps growing every month.
Pho Hollywood offers classic pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) along with rice bowls and additional toppings like meat or vegetables. They are known for having really good rolls that are packed full of fresh herbs and veggies and served hot so that all the ingredients mix together and taste amazing.
They also offer chicken and beef broths, which many people enjoy to make sure there is not too much salt in the soup.????
What makes this place unique though, is that everything else they use in the recipes is mostly organic! That means none of these products contain large amounts of chemicals or sugar that could potentially be harmful for your health.
Popular pho dishes
Many people love pho because there are so many different ways to make it! While some may consider themselves full after only eating the rice and noodles, broth, meat, vegetables, and herbs all combine together to create an incredible taste experience.
Some of the most popular additions include bean sprouts, cucumber, fresh basil, crispy fried shallots, roasted garlic, dried mushrooms, lime juice, chili sauce, and coconut milk. All these ingredients mix and match beautifully with the rest of the soup and contribute unique flavors that make each individual batch special.
Many restaurants have adapted their recipes to suit what they know about the flavor profile of pho. This is why you will see slight variations in recipes and ingredient lists depending on which restaurant your bar food craving takes you to.
Thephoi restaurant
In early 2016, food blogger for Singapore Food Blogs, Chris Norngornted his followers to try phô (the Vietnamese noodle soup) at an authentic phở restaurant in Santa Monica, California.
He was impressed by not only how delicious the noodles were but also how fresh the ingredients used in the broth were. Since then, many other local restaurants have adapted the classic phô recipe and made their own unique variants of it.
What makes phô special is its wide variety of toppings like basil, roasted peanuts, chicken wings, mushrooms, and more depending on what kind of flavor you want to feature in the soup.
Most people agree that the best way to eat phô is with your hands! This allows you to mix and match different toppings as well as enjoy every taste bit by bit.
The culture of pho
There are many theories about what makes Vietnamese cuisine unique, but one thing that really sets their dishes apart is how they make their noodles. They use fresh herbs and spices to flavor the broth and then rinse off some of those additives before serving the noodle dish as part of the process known as rinsing your soup.
Many people associate this style of cooking with pho - which is an easy to identify noodle dish due to its rich cream-based broth and long rice noodles in it - however, you can find variations of this method throughout Vietnam’s diverse culinary landscape.
Thứ hai (fresh) or gà trang (roast chicken) phô is one such variation. In this case, the cooked meat is mixed into a spicy sauce and served over rice with thin rice noodles and toppings like cilantro and roasted peanuts. Another example is bún chùm (Vietnamese pasta salad), where dried rice noodles are mixed into a cucumber-yum sauce and garnished with pickled vegetables and sliced pork or beef.
The experience of pho
Even if you’ve had pho before, there is so much that can vary when eating at a new restaurant or street-style stall that it is impossible to know what kind of pho everyone uses. Some like their broth more salty, some less. Some add meat slightly later in the process, while others start with all dried beef and then stir in mushroom, chicken, and/or shrimp powder to give it body and flavor.
Some mix fresh herbs into their broth either at the table or as they eat, but most prefer using pre-packaged packets for convenience.
Tips for eating pho
While there are many different recipes for making pho, there is one thing that people usually get wrong.
The broth!
Most recipes call for water as their stock broths, but water does not make a good pho broth.
Pho is a salty soup so having too little salt in your broth will cause it to taste very bland and possibly even dangerous. Therefore, most authentic recipes require at least two gallons of rich, flavorful chicken or beef stock.
Too often, however, people do not have access to this large amount of stock so they use bottled stocks instead. These bottles contain less liquid than homemade stock and do not taste as good.
Popular pho ingredients
While some people may not like or understand how much salt is in their pho, one of the most popular additions to pho is something that many call “pho seasoning” or “secret ingredient.” This salty powder contains dried shrimp, ground beef, rice, and sometimes onion and/or garlic.
Combining pho with other dishes
There are many ways to make phở in America! What kind of broth you use, what toppings you add, and how you mix it all together is up to you. Almost every Vietnamese restaurant offers plain phô (no noodle soup) or rice-based phô that does not have any meat or vegetable ingredients added onto it.
That’s okay though because most people outside of Vietnam like eating more than just beef noodles! Most Americanized versions of phở offer chicken, pork, shrimp, or even veggie-based broths. Add fresh herbs such as basil or mint, and your meal is complete!
Many restaurants also offer specialties called bánh xèo which are soft white bread rolls topped with grilled egg, pickled vegetables, and dried chiles. These are usually cost $3 -$5 per roll depending on the size.
History of pho in the U.S.
Originally, phở was not an easy to find dish in America. There are very few authentic recipes made with it here.
In fact, most Americans have no idea what phở is or where it comes from! Most people assume Vietnamese food is just another style of Chinese cuisine. This isn’t too far off though because both cultures have similarities in ingredients and method.
A lot of people also believe that beef broth is one of the key components of phở. Many versions do use bone broth, but not all! That is definitely not true!
Beef bones can be tricky to use so some companies omit them altogether and instead use chicken or vegetable broths. Both of these are fine, but they may not give you the same flavor or texture as bone broth.