Đằng-Giao/Người Việt
GARDEN GROVE, Calif. ― After the fall of Saigon in 1975, hundreds of thousand Vietnamese were forced to leave everything behind in search of freedom.
Or at least they thought they did. They did take one thing with them: phở.
The iconic Phở. (Photo: Ngoc Lan/Nguoi Viet)
In fact, today phở is cooked everywhere in the world. It’s the international rock star of soups.
“The only fear I had when leaving Vietnam in 1975 was that I’d never be able to slurp a spoon of phở broth again,” said octogenarian Huy Tram, a resident of nearby Fountain Valley.
Reality proved his fear was in vain; more phở restaurants have blossomed than any other kind of Vietnamese restaurants, and all of them have tried to recapture the flavor of pre-1975 phở.
Among them, Phở 86 in Garden Grove is committed to upholding the tradition.
“I can’t be quite sure if Phở 86 has the flavor of phở as I had before 1975 but I can say that it’s good,” said Kim Hoa Nguyen, woman of 86 from Long Beach.
Khanh Nguyen, the young owner of the restaurant, said the name was symbolic in the family business.
“Why Phở 86? Because that’s the year my parents started the first joint – 1986,” he said. And Phở 86 has been stewing beef bone for broth ever since. Now, there are several Phở 86 restaurants, the newest of which is located in H-Mart Plaza.
When he got into management in the business, he did “tinker with some new things for the recipe, but after a while, I realized, if it’s not broken, why fix it? Something became tradition for good reasons,” Khanh Nguyen said.
It was a tradition born of trial and error.
“We didn’t have a definite recipe for about five months,” said Khanh’s mother, Quan Nguyen, a petite woman who opened the original Phở 86 with her husband, Tay Nguyen. “I was asking customers for their opinions and taking notes all the time.”
The result: Her phở is flavorful, heart-touching and soul-warming. Phở 86’s offering has a very subtle aroma and a delicate taste, not overpowered by spices like others.
“It’s all in the broth. And a pot of broth takes eight hours of simmering,” Quan Nguyen said. “And it has to have a nice balance of beef and bone.”
With rightful pride, she boasted, “My broth has the elusive golden tint from the bone and beef brisket.”
Phở 86 has been an all-consuming business for Quan Nguyen, whose day starts at 4 a.m. and doesn’t end until 10 p.m., she said. She does take a two-hour break in the afternoon, but she still finds herself working “15 hours a day, seven days a week,” she said.
“Cooking phở is brutal work, I tell you.”
Xi Quach – the tender tendon. (Photo: Ngoc Lan/Nguoi Viet)
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Eating it is easier. To enjoy phở, you don’t even have to be chopstick-proficient. Nobody pays any attention to you if you ask for a fork.
If you want to have it all at Phở 86, order a phở đặc biệt, the house combination that has every cut of beef cooked to perfection: rare steak, lean brisket, flank, fatty brisket, tendon, crunchy flank and tripe.
With an already loaded bowl of phở comes a large plate of mung bean sprouts and herbs. Now, that’s a well-balanced meal.
Phở can be enjoyed anytime – breakfast, lunch or dinner. For a lot of Vietnamese, phở is their all-time soul food.
“I’m an engineer for IBM so I travel a lot,” said Thanh Le of San Jose. “And whenever I get to a new place, the first thing I do is to find a phở restaurant. Then I think about work.”
“My wife is Vietnamese. She thinks phở is like a classic feel-better soup,” said Kevin Miller, a Santa Ana resident. “Every time she’s under the weather, I automatically get two phở to go – one for her and one for myself,” joking “I don’t mind if she feels sick all the time.”
“I can see why Vietnamese find comfort in phở. I can eat it when I feel down,” said Faye Schmidt of Anaheim. “I can make it my pick-me-up food. I sure can.”
Beside phở beef soup, Phở 86 also serves phở gà, a Vietnamese version of chicken soup. In all, the restaurant sells about half beef, half chicken, Khanh Nguyen said. His mother said phở gà is harder to cook as the broth must be watched more closely to retain its appearance and taste.
Chicken soup with young eggs. (Photo: Ngoc Lan/Nguoi Viet)
Diners notice the care the family takes with phở.
“I’m very picky about phở gà because if done wrong, the flavor of the broth is thin and just like instant noodle (soup),” said customer Timmy Phan of Huntington Beach. “But I love it here. I come here almost every week. My daughters like phở bò (beef soup); I do phở gà.”
And, the Nguyens said, customers also get a helping of good customer service.
“A lot of old Vietnamese don’t care about the service as long as the food is good. But I care,” Khanh Nguyen said. “And I always treat my customers with respect and friendliness. I try to remember their names, their favorite of soup and check back on them often.”
His mother added: “ At lunch time, I make it my mission to have their bowls ready in two minute.s and they appreciate it. I give them less waiting time and more time to enjoy their meals.”
In fact, customers think so much of the service and the food that the experience could even change their lives.
“I wouldn’t mind marrying someone like him,” said Lucy Vu, 26, of Garden Grove, glancing at Khanh Nguyen, “so I could eat phở every day.”
