Pho

Pho emerged in northern Vietnam in the early twentieth century, in and around Hanoi and the province of Nam Dinh. It is a young dish by the standards of most national cuisines, and its emergence is tied to specific historical circumstances.

Cattle were traditionally working animals in Vietnam and beef was not a major part of the diet. French colonial demand for beef cuts created a supply of bones and trimmings that had little other use, and local cooks turned them into a long-simmered broth served over rice noodles. The result borrowed from Vietnamese, Chinese and French influences without belonging entirely to any of them.

Migration spread it. After the division of the country in the 1950s, northerners moving south brought pho with them, and it acquired the sweeter, herb-laden southern style. Later waves of emigration carried it worldwide, which is why pho is now one of the most recognisable Vietnamese dishes abroad.

Everything in pho serves the broth. Beef bones are parboiled and rinsed to remove impurities, then simmered for many hours with charred ginger and onion, which add a subtle smokiness. Whole spices — star anise, cassia, coriander seed, clove, cardamom — are toasted and added with a light hand. Fish sauce provides the savoury backbone.

The aim is a broth that is clear rather than cloudy, fragrant rather than heavily spiced, and deeply savoury without tasting of any single spice. Skimming the surface patiently throughout the simmer is what separates a good pot from a muddy one.

Flat rice noodles are blanched to order, raw or rare beef is laid on top, and boiling broth is ladled over so the meat cooks in the bowl as it reaches the table. Spring onion, white onion and pepper finish it.

In the south the bowl arrives with a plate of herbs and vegetables — Thai basil, bean sprouts, sawtooth herb, lime, fresh chilli — for the diner to add. Northern purists serve it far plainer, with little more than a dish of chilli and perhaps some pickled garlic, on the grounds that a good broth needs no assistance.

Pho is traditionally breakfast. Shops open early, sell until the pot runs out, and close for the day, and a queue outside at seven in the morning is the surest sign that the broth is worth waiting for.