California Love: Loving Pho the First Time
21 January 2011 - James BooFor the next week, I’ll be writing short posts on the meals I enjoyed during a two-week vacation in my native California.
By the time I discovered truly good Pho, I was miles away from one of its best sources: the Orange County neighborhood of Westminster, where signs for the popular Vietnamese noodle soup outnumber Golden Arches by a proud margin. While my peers partook in the ritual pho run, packing into cars after school and showing up to class the next morning smelling faintly of beef broth and cilantro, my parents completely excluded this Southern California rite from our household, and I wasn’t cultured enough to appreciate my loss.
Now that I’m fully aware of Little Saigon, pho is the smallest of temptations dragging me out of the house on trips to my hometown. Half an hour from my high school, Quan Hop serves a fantastic bowl of the subtle staple in the trappings of an upscale suburban restaurant. The atmosphere here speaks volumes for the experience of eating in Westminster – here, Vietnamese noodle urges aren’t associated with a cordoned-off Chinatown, hole-in-the-wall shop or random strip mall, but with an expanse of city blocks that is – in all senses of the word – owned by Vietnamese America.
The house special, a large bowl of pho with raw filet mignon served on the side, is pure in every sense of the word. The accompanying bean sprouts, basil and chilies are nothing short of lush. Quan Hop’s filet mignon, plated atop a small bowl of piping hot broth and waiting to be cooked to whatever rarity the diner desire, is damn near better than a steak of the same stock.
The small supply of filet only appreciates in value after every each luscious strip finds its way to the main event. Quan Hop’s beef broth, rich in collagen without becoming slick or heavy, is Vietnam’s best answer to the full-bore approaches of Japanese ramen and Korean chigae – when prepared this well, pho broth is aromatic and savory on its own, needing nothing more than a splash of nuoc mam and the oil from fresh basil and chilies to achieve a sublimely simple flavor. The rice noodles are supple and satisfying, and the well-done scraps of brisket and springy bits of beef tendon are possibly the only ones I’ve ever enjoyed in a bowl of pho. The only letdown in Quan Hop’s pho is the beef ball, but after experiencing such triumphant filet, brisket and tendon, how can I blame a meatball for anything?
Quan Hop also offers a short list of Vietnamese refreshments. Chanh Muoi, a drink made from salt-brined lemons, sugar and soda water, is overwhelming first sip. Letting the sweet-and-salty cloud of sugar and brine settle as I down the last of my broth makes the next oneentirely refreshing, and by holding down the potency of the mixture, I happily start to acquire a taste for the drink and polish off the glass.
Pickled lemon drink may not as immediately satisfying as a good bowl of pho. But like every other part of this meal, it’s something that has taken far too long to become a part of my appetite.
Quan Hop
15640 Brookhurst Street
Westminster, CA 92683
714.689.0555
February 7th, 2011 at 2:57 pm
I like chanh muoi, but my mom never let me drink it when we were still in Vietnam, and now when I can eat on my own I can’t find any place that has a good glass. Maybe things taste better when you can’t have them?
February 7th, 2011 at 5:07 pm
This is nothing close to your experience with chanh muoi, but I never appreciated Taiwanese bubble tea until after I left my hometown, which is part of ground zero of its popularity in the U.S.
It doesn’t look that difficult to make at home, though! Get some meyer lemons, brine in salt and sugar, then mix with soda water and maybe some simple syrup. I bet you wouldn’t even need a strict recipe :]