Tom Sietsema Dining


Phi Nguyen, left, and her husband, Minh Chau, bring pho to the District.


Playing at Pho Viet: T


‘Soup and the City’ Homey restaurant offers intoxicating broth


he sign announcing Pho Viet quickens my pulse. There are two reasons for this. In a city that’s


rich with assets, Vietnamese cooking is not one of them. With few exceptions, if you’re craving a good banh mi or vermicelli bowl, you need


to head to the suburbs, best of all Northern Virginia. Second, the name flags pho, the classic Vietnamese rice-noodle soup that’s eaten indiscriminately throughout the day on its home turf and is so beloved it can attract a crowd to a restaurant all by itself. Pho Viet, which opened in upper Columbia Heights last December, has one of the tidiest dining rooms I’ve encountered. Its faux-wood tabletops are spotless, as are the tile floor and the small counter prefaced by a handful of bubble gum-pink stools. Sit on a stool near the cash register, and you can catch a cooking show by peeking through the door into the kitchen; the graceful animation is courtesy of Phi Nguyen, who goes by the nickname “Nina.” Settle for a table, and you’ll see more of Nguyen’s husband, Minh Chau, whom regulars know as “Mike.” Except for Tuesdays, when Pho Viet is dark, the couple’s presence is as constant as the bricks on the walls and the beaded curtain that separates dining room from restroom (also immaculate, by the way). Previously, Chau, who left his native Vietnam in 1981, was an


examiner with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Nguyen, who came to the United States 16 years ago, has since worked retail, managed the office of a nonprofit and served as a prep cook at Raku in Dupont Circle. She’s also a seamstress. (Guess what she does on


Tuesdays?) The chef’s teacher was her grandmother, known for cooking for home parties when she lived in a small town in southern Vietnam, where French and Indian influences surface in the form of curries, potatoes and pâtés. Pho shares the uncomplicated menu with honey-kissed grilled pork, chicken and shrimp, offered with noodles or rice. But it is the soup that gets prominent billing, with 10 varieties. The differences are mostly minor, involving cuts of beef (eye of round, brisket, flank) and their degrees of doneness, although vegetarians will feel some love at the sight of a meatless broth culled from cabbage, carrot, broccoli and cauliflower. Entree No. 16, which fits in quartered beef meatballs, is as good as any pho here. It’s pretty, too, with a snowy mound of vermicelli topped with rosy petals of raw beef tendon that darken and intensify in flavor as they make contact with the hot soup. What makes the broth from


this kitchen so intoxicating is its clarity. If it weren’t for the fine white noodles occupying the center of the bowl, a diner could see straight to the bottom. Dip your spoon into the pale golden liquid, raise it to your lips and taste: Nguyen says it can take 12 hours for her to make the stock, which starts with beef bones and water and develops with onion and ginger, and I believe it. The result is limpid yet rich. Some pho restaurants smell


like butcher shops. The air at Pho Viet is free of any aroma, save when the bowls of soup and their fresh accessories are set on the table. The add- ons include cool bean sprouts, pungent cilantro and bright lime wedges, although the soup by itself is so compelling that (Continued on Page 40)


★ ★ (Good)


Pho Viet 3513 14th St. NW. 202-629- 2839.


OPen: 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday; 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Sunday. Closed Tuesday.


Prices: appetizers $3.95 to $6.50, soup and rice plates $7 to $8.95


sOund check: 66 decibels/ Conversation is easy.


sAY iT riGhT


The correct way to pronounce the noodle soup pho: fuh


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tomsietsema. December 26, 2010 | The WashiNgToN PosT MagaziNe 39


PHOTOGRAPHS BY STACY ZARIN GOLDBERG


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