Not too long ago, I was craving Vietnamese beef noodle soup, pho. What better way to warm myself up on these cold rainy days than a hot bowl of wonderfully delicious bowl of pho? So during lunch at work, I decided to try a new restaurant and headed to Mama’s Vietnamese Food Restaurant on 19th Street in Oakland, in between Webster and Franklin. Three words, "What the pho?!"
I should have known better than to enter a Vietnamese restaurant that was filled with everyone except your Asian folks. Since I was immediately escorted to my seat, I felt my time to escape was forfeited. I browsed through the menu and put in my order for the Pho Dac Biet, beef noodle soup with all the fixings.
The wait was short and out come my bowl of pho. I frowned as I peered down. I waved down the Vietnamese-speaking waiter as I assume he would agree with me that there was a mistake. I ordered the Pho Dac Biet I said. This can’t possibly be it…a bowl of beef noodle soup with a couple of way-too-thick-to-eat pieces of brisket? Where my rare slices of beef, tripe, and tendon? The waiter surprisingly confirmed that it was the Pho Dac Biet. Apparently he was mentally challenged so I continued on with my meal.
I didn’t get far. The soup was horribly lacking and there was no usual "fish sauce" readily on the table to band-aid up the lack of flavor. On top of that, they provided a meager amount of the traditional pho condiments, Sriracha and Hoisin sauce. Not only do I like to add these sauces into my pho, but I like to dunk my meat in them as well. I sent the waiter off to get more sauce. After 10 minutes of waiting, a significant time loss that quickly made my noodle mushier than I liked, I was brought another meager amount of sauce. Thinking my pho would turn into complete mush by the time he got more sauce, I decided to just continue with the eating part of my meal.
After a good 15 minutes trying to chew on my tough pieces of brisket, I gave up, paid for my meal and called it a day.
Lesson learned: Unless it’s a hole in the wall and have pho in their
restaurant name, I will never order pho again.
Next post: My recipe for pho
wow, what a bad experience! nothing like a bad bowl of pho to get you to make your own!
ravnouscouple
February 1st, 2010