move over chicken soup...

..phở is without doubt soup for the soul.
An unexpected day with T and we trotted off down to Vic Park, street food and tiny restaurant central, to Vietnamese restaurant ToTo for a shared steaming bowl of broth, noodles and thin sliced raw beef popped in and quick cooked in the stock.
Topped off with bean sprouts, squeezed lemon, mint leaves and chilli.


Origins of delicious dishes as always are debated.
Possibly the word pho is a corruption from the French 'feu' and an adaption of 'pot au feu' ( pho is based on a LONG cooked broth base) the northern province of Nam Dinh is thought to be the 'geographical cradle of pho'.
There is was a simple noodle soup of water buffalo beef and rice noodles in broth and then became enriched with beef bones available during the years of French colonialism.
In Hanoi beef replaced water buffalo and ' beef bones, flank steak oxtails, charred onion, charred ginger and spices including star anise, cinnamon, cloves, black cardamom and coriander were used to make the slow-cooked broth.'


ToTo's menu now ranges over a variety of beef cuts, including rare beef (tai), flank (nam), brisket (gau), tripe (sach), tendon (gan) and meatballs (bo vien) and chicken (pho ga).
Ours the pho tai...and we will be back!