Over the long weekend, a friend came over and taught me how to make one of my all-time favourite dishes: Vietnamese Pho Soup. This special dish taught me how to eat with chopsticks - a skill I've mastered so well I can catch flies in the air. This special dish is also my WMD against the common cold, which brings to me to a little story of how I first got exposed to this wonderful meal ...
One day in the late 90's, I came to work on Monday morning very sick and dehydrated. I had been coughing all weekend, I had a runny nose, I was puking - everything. I was a mess. The guy who worked next to me (Nick Lee, if you are reading this, e-mail me!) suggested that I should try something called Pho which might make me feel better. So for lunch we went to Pho 88 at Steeles and McCowan in Toronto for my very first bowl.
It was soooooooo delicious. Up until then, my idea of a good soup were instant packages of Lipton's Chicken Noodle Soup or 33¢ per pack Mr. Noodles. What a load of crap! Anyway, as I was fiddling with these two stick-type utensil devices ... my sinuses started to clear up ... my coughing ceased .... the inside of my body felt saturated ... I think my IQ even doubled and my biceps grew by two inches ... it was amazing.
The next day I felt 100% healthy and ever since then, whenver I would feel like I was going to be sick, I would have pho. And I didn't get sick again for years until I moved to Europe (I didn't find one decent pho place anywhere in Europe). And now I can cook it myself :)
6 comments:
And no Pho at all in Stockholm? :)
Recipe?
It's actually not mint. It's basil :)
I agree, it's basil leaves and it's also cloves and anis. i suppose everyone has their own recipe. :D WHere I go they serve it with Basil Leaves, onion, green onion, cilantro, it has a taste of anis and cloves, green limes, fresh jalapeno slices, and the bean sprout.. mmmm so good!
Kids, it's mint And basil And lemongress, fuckers.
:)
And BTW, the Belleville stop (corner of 10th, 11th, 19th and 20th arrondissments) in Paris has a small collection of the best Pho on the planet.
Berlin also has good ones.
So none of that "Europe" crap.
Recipe please
Post a Comment