Friend or pho?
I had some pho last night. You know, that Vietnamese noodle soup that everybody seems to love.
While talking with a friend of mine, though, she told me that my pronunciation—as in “foe”—was incorrect, and that it’s actually pronounced more like “fuh.”
So of course I raced to trusty Google and found this rather complex explication, which I now pass on to you so that you don’t commit the same terrible faux pas I did.
The authentic Vietnamese pronunciation at the link sounds a bit to me like that venerable and nearly-all-purpose Yiddish expression “feh.” But you wouldn’t want to say “feh” to pho.
And here’s the history of pho, which is a more recent invention than I’d previously thought. The origin of the name “pho” is a bit of a mystery, it seems:
The origin of the word was one subject of a seminar on phở held in Hanoi in 2003. One theory advanced was that the name is from French feu (fire), as in the dish pot-au-feu, which, like phở, uses the French method of adding charred onion to the broth for color and flavor, one of the techniques that distinguishes it from other Asian noodle soups. Some believe the origin of the word to be Chinese fen (粉)…
Anyway, whatever you want to call it, it was very yummy.
“more like ‘fuh'” seems more correct – like it really matters
my favorite is pho tai (with really thin pieces of beef that cooks/steeps in the hot pho)
no need for a soup nazi if there is a good vietnamese joint around (live in orange county ca so there is an abundance of fuh- among other things)
It’s ok, but nothing special.
I’d say that it the pho was faux you could probably say “feh.”
I remember from a trip to Phucket, Thailand, that in Thai the “ph” is pronounced as a “p”. This makes the pronunciation of the nearby Phe Phe island a bit silly. However, my son was quite amused to learn that there really is a a place called “pee-pee” island and that his mom had gone snorkeling there (eww!).
Slightly OT but for a rollicking good time involving noodles check out the movie Tampopo. sort of like Liberty Valance with ramen.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092048/
Vietnamese food … nothing better. Especially real Vietnamese spring rolls. Or those veggie pickles made with just a teensy splash of fish sauce…
I’ve had pho once, thanks to the assistance of vanderleun, who helped me find a local pho restaurant from 2000 miles away. (Gotta love the internet!)
I stopped in after work one night, but I didn’t want to eat there since I was looking forward to going home and having a beer. So I ordered it for takeout. They handed me a bag, I paid my money, and off I went.
When I got home, I opened the bag to find a bewildering variety of ingredients, all impeccably packed separately. I had no idea how to put them together, so I did the best I could.
It was pretty good, but one of these days I’ll have to eat it in the restaurant, or at least ask them how to assemble the thing.
Pho is awesome!! There are pho restaurants popping up all over here in Denver…one is called…pho natic! Seems quite healthy too. Geez, I haven’t ordered the large portion as it seems that it would be served in a kiddy pool!
The bean sprouts, basil, lime wedges and jalapeno slices are odd, I must agree…but there’s no ‘proper’ way to enjoy your pho. Use the extra stuff if you feel the need. I crush up about half a lime, a handful of sprouts and shred up every bit of basil available for mine….sometimes they have that red ‘chicken’ sauce that could take the place of the jalapenos, depending on how spicy they are. Once, I bit into a jalapeno with my pho and it was so hot I was hallucinating.
Naw, it must have been some other kind of pepper. Jalapenos won’t make you hallucinate. They’re on the low end of the scale.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoville_heat_units#List_of_Scoville_ratings
I agree that Pho is delicious, and Vietnamese food is even starting to gain a foothold here in Indonesia, where it is vastly different than the local cuisine. Indonesian food tends towards the fried and the heavy; it tastes good, but you can feel your arteries hardening as you eat it. Vietnamese food is generally more subtle, unless you douse it in nguoc mam (spicy fish sauce).
I don’t speak Vietnamese, but I do Thai, and the “ph” English transliteration from Thai is always used to denote a “soft” (i.e., non-“explosive”) p sound, but never an “f” sound. So, yes, “pee pee Island”, or Ko (Island) Phi Phi, would sound funny to a child. Phuket, pronounced properly, not so much.