Valentine's Day

pho??

 

Moses Malone swears by it.

(It's funny now as a transplant from the Midwest to see people with those puzzled looks about unfamiliar Asian foods.)

 

I never know if I'm from the Midwest...is the Great Lakes area part of the Midwest???

 

It's a Vietnamese soup with noodles, a light broth and some sort of meat (be it chicken or beef) and some herbs and other veggies. It's very similar to Japanese udon where you can mix and match.

 

Was sick as a dog. We weren't sure if we could get a babysitter and decided to play the restaurant reservations by ear. Turns out that my aunt, who had agreed, backed out watching the kids when she heard I was sick. Ended up having takeout Korean. Opened a very good Cabernet, which Mrs. W enjoyed while I had NyQuil. Asleep by 9:30.

 

Mostly fed the baby and changed diapers. My mom watched the kid so that we could go out to lunch. Also did a quick stop by a local chocolate stop and picked up a couple chocolates. But mostly bottles, diapers, and Netflix.

 

We got the kids to bed without major incident and were asleep ourselves by 10 p.m.

Major, major win.

 

Just the best soup on the planet. Doubt there's a Pho restaurant within 200-300 miles of you, which is unfortunate.

 

Had my first pho in Vegas this summer. Meh.

 

There are probably 100 pho places within 30 miles of my place. I like the spring rolls and chicken and rice dishes. Not much of an actual pho fan.

 

I could eat pho just about every day. Vary with the flank steak, brisket, meatballs, tripe and tendon (in some combination or another) then add lots of thai basil, sriracha and a bit of hoisin. Can't beat it, especially on a cold evening.

There is one small Viet enclave in my metro (near my office but 20 miles from home) but we found out there was a pretty solid pho spot less than ten minutes away in the least likely 'burb to have one. That's been our go-to, though I like the broth better at a couple other places (but the staff at close pho is wonderful and have treated us like gold since our first visit). The close one doesn't do banh mi though, which is a bummer because I love to break things up with that every so often.

 

There's a pho place near me that's outstanding, and it's called Pho Kim*. The name alone is enough for me to order exclusively from there.

(*For those who don't know, "pho" is pronounced "fuh.")