How pho, Vietnam’s national dish, is evolving, and why chefs won’t take the soup makeover too far
- Vietnam’s beloved pho, a fragrant noodle soup traditionally made with rare beef, can now be eaten with beef brisket, flank steak, chicken and other ingredients
- In Hanoi, fans can try a fine-dining version and a pho cocktail; there was even briefly a McDonald’s pho burger. But most chefs stay close to the original
I am in the tiny open kitchen of a restaurant in Hanoi, watching a chef use tweezers to place a minuscule sprig of herbs atop a wafer-thin square of noodle sheet resting on a slice of Wagyu beef.
The dish in question is a modernised version of pho: rice noodles in a fragrant broth, regarded by many as Vietnam’s national dish.
It is the creation of Hoang Tung, the Vietnamese head chef and co-founder of T.U.N.G Dining restaurant.
Last year, Tung was asked to create a menu for the launch party of the inaugural Michelin Guide Vietnam (in which his restaurant is listed), and his bite-sized pho was the dish that generated the biggest buzz among attendees, most of whom were Vietnamese.
The dining area is on the first floor of his Tardis-like restaurant, but guests enter at street level, squeezing past the open kitchen that occupies most of the ground floor.
When I visit the restaurant on a Friday night, it is filled with tourists and locals.
