Mother of the grace-brown broth
Closed her kitchen last April
A small shop with orange vinyl and mirrors
Everyday she slow simmered bone
From a Vietnamese family recipe, pulling
Marrow like espresso
From a contentment of herbs—
Star anise, Saigon cinnamon, charred ginger
And cloves
Her brew was not for the fainthearted
Served with brisket or tripe
Fatty flank, tendon and meatballs
But her shop was our mid-winter apothecary
Where we accepted her steaming distillation
Like a spa treatment
Lovingly garnished each bowl of soup
With the kindness of Thai basil
Bean sprouts and lime
We still mourn the closing of her store
Looking all over town for something to compare
We suspect we will have found it
When the Pho tastes like silk
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5 comments:
Oh Pho how I love thee! :)
Couple of thoughts, which I always seem to have.
1) Stac tends to like the broth that is "sweeter" and I think its the star anise, which you can find in Seattle at Tamarind Tree. I tend to favor slightly saltier pho broth with less of that sweet anise flavor.
2) Limes. To me they are the secret ingredient. I am a 4 lime squeezer. That isn't 4 whole limes but 4 of the wedges.
3) For me its all about Pho Tai, the raw beef with the broth poured over.
Today its raining all day long in Seattle and it'll be a pho day for lunch for sure.
Mattson would agree on the limes! For me it is pho tai bo vien--yes fairly hardcore!
But really in the end it is the broth, of the great wonderful broth.
I love the very first line about the brown broth. Reading this I now need some Pho. I need to put my face over the bowl as the steam rises and breath in a deep deep breath. Hopefully it will clear the sinus's. Love this Ode.
looks delicious; sound's even more so
I remember the day we found this place.......
How fortunate we were to stumble across the best Pho in the state of Utah purely by accident. We had tried every other Pho place in the city over the years, but somehow missed this one as it was never listed in the yellow pages we used as our guide. How many years went by with this place right under our noses ? I shudder to think how many meals we missed in this little priory of Pho, the most perfect soup on the face of the earth.
Tay-Ho please come back!
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