What are your thoughts on pho? I don't care for it and

>>9207830
it's a meme but I like it. If it's bland, hit up the sri racha and hoisin sauce. The basil and whatever other herbs help with that too

>>9207830
The flavors are subtle, so it could be you're just too used to heavily-seasoned things. Try what >>9207844 said, or order something else.

>>9207830
yeah

it tastes like nothing

and bean sprouts are fucking gross

File: $_57m.jpg (55KB, 600x800px) Image search: [Google]

55KB, 600x800px

>>9207857
I actually tried Bun Bo Hue today.

Still tasted bland to me.

>>9207830
idk man, put in the chiles, bean sprouts, and limes and it's fucking dope. Light, delicate, and comforting,

>>9207844
Honestly, this makes it worse in my mind. The sauces completely overwhelm the flavor. I like to dip the meats in the sauces, but I don't put it in the soup.

>>9207830
>I don't care for it and I feel bad about it. It's just so fucking bland.
1) Are you ordering chicken pho and calling it pho? Because many people get chicken pho and assume it's just a variation on pho. It's not. It's chicken soup minus flavor. Beef broth in pho should be aromatically spiced and pretty unique.
2) I have had watery pho, like end of day wizardry where I think they thin it out, mind you, but I wonder if you are consuming it AS IS, just how it is served with nothing additional. Are you?

You need to squeeze in those 3 wedges of lime (or ask for more), and swirl in those 15 sliced chilies on that platter. Mash them in there. Hit that bowl with a shake of fish sauce. Swirl it in. Tear off at least 3 leaves of basil into several pieces each. Swirl them in. Pick up that soup spoon and give it a taste now, and see if you don't want more of something. Sip a few more, and contemplate more lime, fish sauce, etc. Now, using your chopsticks, grab a little floppy piece of beef with a bit of basil and some noodles with it, and while you hold it above the broth to cool a second, with your other hand, you pick up the hoisin bottle and drop a couple drops upon the bite of beef. Just a small amount, a taste mind you. Then, you take a bite of your cooled beef and noodles. Maybe a second bite. Set down chopsticks. Pick up spoon. Sip. See if you can fit some bean sprouts into the bowl now that you've cleared some space. Maybe you have room for a little more basil at this point. Take a big breath of the aroma now, mmmm, bruised basil, that delicate sweet hint of allspice. Pick up chopsticks, lift up some noodles and bean sprouts, contemplate a drop of sriracha if you haven't made your nose start running yet, or just make sure to eat one of those whole chilies with this bite. Wooo, that was a hot one. S'ok, now you can take a sip of your vietnamese condensed milk coffee to cool the tongue. Sip Sip. Dab.

Were you doing all those things??

File: 1500254180456.jpg (44KB, 393x378px) Image search: [Google]

44KB, 393x378px

>>9207876
>you're somewhere with easy access to Vietnamese food
>I had to move somewhere whiter than snow
There is no justice.

>>9207921
This guy fucking gets it. Pho is awesome if you use all the toppings.

>>9207844
Maybe its meme because in flyoverland its becoming a thing.
I never had bland pho before.

ffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!

it's comfort food
quick, cheap & easy to make, pretty filling
basically the vietnamese equivalent of a hotdog lunch

nothing impressive but a nice standby

>>9207929
>>>9207876
>>you're somewhere with easy access to Vietnamese food
>>I had to move somewhere whiter than snow
>There is no justice.
I feel you man. I had a 3 year dry period after a similar move, where I was jonesing for it so badly that I was adding allspice, cloves and anise to beef ramen, big handfuls of onions, cilantro and slicing filet from my freezer into a microwaved bowl of steaming ramen, ahahah. It was a mockup you might want to try! I should have just made the stock myself. You can buy thai basil at most wal-marts and home depots if you want to try. Look closely.

>>9208291
>basically the vietnamese equivalent of a hotdog lunch
Well, I think it's more like breakfast/brunch.

>>9208330
BASICALLY THE EQUIVALENT OF A HOTDOG LUNCH

If your pho was bland, then they did it wrong. The broth should be rich and complex (beef bone broth, warm spices, fresh coriander) with added tang and spice from lime juice and sriracha and hoisin sauce.

>>9207938
If he wasn't being facetious I'm going to fucking lose it

I never found pho either savoury or spicy. Is it either? It was like tea soup.

>>9207830
It's bone soup with noodles. What are you expecting? Asian restaurants are hit or miss. Most of the time they're miss.
My mom makes it breddy gud, but it apparently costs $70 to make a big pot of that shit.

File: dweji.jpg (1MB, 3648x2736px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 3648x2736px

guys unrelated question
how do I make my Dwaeji Bulgogi so saucy and delicious like in restaurants

I always feel like there's not enough sauce left on the meat when I make mine and it's fucking annoying.

ramen is great, pho seems to be some bland mess.

File: condiments.jpg (115KB, 500x333px) Image search: [Google]

115KB, 500x333px

>>9208393
>I never found pho either savoury or spicy. Is it either? It was like tea soup.
The broth isn't spicy, but rather aromatic from the herbs and aromatics. You add your own chilies to it! See the platter! Or you can add sriracha, if you like the garlic with the heat (and that sugar, ick).

Vietnamese dish water
>dat will be $12 dorra prease

File: ACBAFA33-5F04-4337-BCB0-7F09846F2F72-5450-00000664EA8B5214_tmp.jpg (91KB, 1300x866px) Image search: [Google]

91KB, 1300x866px

>>9208458

Make more sauce you idiot

>>9208438

It being so overrated probably contributes to OP's disappointment. It can be really good but even when it is it's not going to blow your mind. I'm sure somewhere there's some amazing pho but all things considered it's just soup that people who don't explore much rave about.

Vietfag here,

Pho is comfort food; it's okay, always nice to have, but I wouldnt seek it out every day. And anon is right, chicken pho is like asking for tendies and cheese wich.

Regardless, I prefer bun bo hue cause richer flavor; I'd eat that shit every day.

>>9208464

I've had some good pho but the tonkotsu ramen I had at a restaurant in Nashville is one of the best dishes I've ever had.

>>9208487
but like
should I be cooking on low-ass heat for a long time or trying to sear it and then stir in more sauce

>>9208458
>I always feel like there's not enough sauce left on the meat when I make mine and it's fucking annoying.
You can deglaze a second time, and not let it evaporate too much, or yea double the sauce recipe.
Try halving your marinade and saving a portion of it (put the sugar in this portion, not the first one). Hit it with the second batch of juices near the end (meaning it wasn't the actual marinade, but some you set aside that doesn't have meat juices in it), or try a second deglaze of rice wine, bubbling all those juices off the meat again, and then remove once it is the consistency you like, ideally. You could also make your own dipping sauce. Is that traditional? Who cares, it's your recipe.

I know your feelings. I regularly double the yogurt sauce in marinated masala ginger yogurt chicken. I don't want it all absorbed and sucked into the chicken when it's done baking. I want it so saucy I can get a bit of the sauce into my rice as a topping. That's what I want. It isn't an indian tradition to have a bunch of curdled lemony yogurt juices, but I don't care. I know what I want! :D

bahn mi is a better hotdog lunch than a hotdog or pho

>>9208502

Actually I was just being mean so I don't really know. Probably try searing it and then tossing it in the extra sauce while it's still in the pan so you get a bit of caramelization in the sauce too.

>>9208523
>>9208516
thx m8s I'm gonna try this wed, I've got that shit marinating right now

>>9208500
>I've had some good pho but the tonkotsu ramen I had at a restaurant in Nashville is one of the best dishes I've ever had.
Two different beasts, though. I find japanese food the blandest of any asian cuisine.
However, I'll tell you if I was somewhere that had both Taiwanese pork noodle soup, and all the little toppings and accompaniments, and pho both? I would be ordering the Taiwanese soup. It's a choice of which is the harder perfect beast to make at home or find in a restaurant, and pho is more common and attainable elsewhere (where I live and travel).

All that fish paste with the pork, all that work to give the broth some weight, roasting those bones, that hot and sour component with the black vinegar, combined with the rich mushrooms. It's an oddity that is more heavily flavored.

Pho is about the stock, but so is taiwanese noodle soup, and both have that star anise aspect so I think of them as cousins. One is like sick person's food, very light, and the other is rich rich rich.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/taiwanese-beef-noodle-soup-231502

>>9208483

Oh, shit, so it's like Ramen basically. If I can add sriracha.

>>9208616
Adding sauces directly to the broth is heresy. It takes way too much hoisin or sriracha to change the flavor you get from the noodles, so when you drink the broth, shit's way too sweet or spicy

File: 1497862806971.png (5KB, 239x258px) Image search: [Google]

5KB, 239x258px

>>9207830
The broth is fine but those tendon meatballs are gross as fuck. Canned shit is better than that. Fucking vomit inducing garbage.

I've given it several chances at different places and it's all the same shit. Nope.

>>9208631
This.
Drop a couple drops in an individual bite of noodles or beef, but don't squirt it into the soup. It makes the help gasp in horror! Like you care! But, yea, it's heresy. Don't do it.

>>9208642
>tendon meatballs are gross as fuck.
Yea, vietnamese meatballs are tough since they're full of connective tissue, because that's how they actually like it. I don't. But, yes, stop ordering it because that's spot on standard way to make them correctly, to be tough and chewy.

>>9208291
>quick
A proper pho broth takes hours to make

>>9207830
ITs the fucking shit

>>9208978
About 16 hours to be exact