There was a recent submission on HN about ramen. While I love ramen/udon/soba, I prefer pho. Perhaps I find pho more "crispy", I like the sprouts/lime/mint/jalapeno. Ramen puts me to sleep. Ramen definitely has more pedigree, this isn't about what's better.
They are both some of my favorite foods. I've made pho probably 4 times at this point. It takes 8 to 10 hours but is totally worth it.
Something I started doing was occasionally taking the rare thin meat out for use with the sriracha and sweet sauce. I never added then to the soup because I found it corrupts it.
There's also Northern Vietnamese Pho which I haven't tried but I'd like to. It's supposed to be less sweet and less spiced. In the US it seems southern sweet style is the norm.
Do you mean after the meat sat a bit in the broth? I’m no stranger to tartar or raw meats, just not clear.
Yeah. Cook it to how you like it and then dip in Sriracha and or the sweet one. But you could also do it with the braised meat or anything as well
I love the meat straight from the broth so I mostly do that but the sauces are a traditional option it seems.
Thank you. If you have a Trader Joe’s near you (it’s a chain in the states for anyone wondering), they have a pretty good chilly paste named “Bomba Hot Pepper”. It has a punch, but it’s not EMP level, not too sweet, not too acidy. Half a teaspoon does it for me.
I do have some Asian markets near me within reasonable driving distance, but I can’t try all the sauces and the ones I have tried leaned toward the sweeter side, and that’s not for me. This Bomba hits me where it matters.
https://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/pdp/italian-bomba-h...
I'll check it out. Although I didn't like their sriracha or chilli oil.
Their peanut butter cups are my favorite sweet. The ones in the plastic bags are better than in thr large container. (Darker chocolate and more salt).
The ubiquitous Southern-style pho in America is due to historical reasons, when Southern Vietnamese diaspora fled Saigon en masse in the aftermath of the fall of Saigon.
Southern Viet Pho is not supposed to be sweet.
Northern Pho is in almost all ways inferior to Southern Pho. Even Northerners tend to prefer the Southern style. Something important to understand is that the Northern style is essentially the starvation version of the Southern style. The south is the main agricultural region of the country, so they had ready access to ingredients, like meat, that were difficult to come by in the North. The styles reflect this reality.
Thanks for the info.
Yeah I don't like it sweet but it has sugar. Worse Pho places in the us will be sweet.
Northerner here, and Southern Pho is sweeter. Probably not noticeable to non-natives, but we always detect a slight sweetness in Southern food. Pho originated from the North, and I don't know anyone who actually comes from the North and prefers Southern pho. They exist, I'm sure, but while living abroad, the most common complaint with Northern Vietnamese is the lack of Northern-style pho.
Not sure about being inferior, but we like our broth to be clear. If you want heavy broth, you'll need to tell the restaurant to give you "fat broth". Maybe it started with us being poor, but we're not anymore. We want the broth flavor to come mostly from high-quality bone broth, not overly spiced. Same for the meat; most Hanoi Pho restaurants don't serve meatballs. We prefer high-quality rare beef over a random mix of beef. Northern Pho always comes with fresh, flat, and wide noodles. Outside of Vietnam, restaurants usually use narrower noodles, and usually not fresh. Sometimes they charge more for fresh noodles. It’s very common to eat Pho with a fried dough stick in the North. We dip them into the broth.
As a lover of both pho and ramen I feel I can compel with you on the crispy factor - like pho is more for a jungle - and also on the food coma factor of ramen - a meal for the monsoons, perhaps - but nevertheless need to point out to you that there are also crispy ramens, with sprouts/lime/mint/japaleno, too.
In fact there is no ‘one ramen’, it has to be said; there are regional variants where the “scrap food” of the area is used as the decoration to the base, where a noodle and boiled-meat leftover soups/stock are combined …
I have very sleepy pho’s in my neighborhood, also .. just sayin’. Both are great, you’re right, they are a wonderful branch of food.
Particularly tonkotsu, which basically has fat emulsified into it. My understanding is that ramen was originally a workman's meal -- inexpensive and calorie rich food for laborers.
Instant (4 minutes in microwave) tonkotsu @$2.79 is surprisingly good:
https://www.doordash.com/products/nongshim-tonkotsu-premium-...
These come in a 6 pack at Costco (not black garlic though; Costco's comes with hot oil). They're surprisingly tasty for instant.
I had a Japanese teacher a few years ago who explained that Japan's ramen is the US's "burger and fries". It's calorie-rich processed food that's available everywhere. They are prepared in advance, served very quickly (usually within a few minutes), and people finish their meals within 15 minutes. It's far closer to "fast food" than most Westerners realize. The average ramen outside Japan is far more elevated than within Japan.
The average ramen, yes, but in the same way that many people in the US obsess about the perfect burger, there is a serious ramen scene in Japan with obsessive ramen devotees and chefs pushing the envelope.
I would say the average ramen in the US is instant ramen, so I think that the "cheap easy food" angle still goes on here.
Best pho I had was in Tokyo, thinly sliced raw wagyu melted into the soup. Though theres as many ramen styles as there are cities in Japan, some style would likely suit you.
Yes, tori paitan is one nice light alternative to the popular and heavy tonkotsu.