huynh
I love noodle soup. My favorite noodle soup will always be Japanese ramen but since there is a ramen shortage in Houston (and Texas in general for that matter), I’ve grown quite accustomed to Vietnamese Pho — which is plentiful here in Houston.
For the longest time, my favorite Pho was the famous “Trailer Pho“. I haven’t been in about 5 years so I can’t vouch for the quality but it was once upon a time served me the freshest and tastiest Pho I’ve ever had in my life. The place is literally a trailer home with no frills and so packed that you rub elbows with strangers. Wow, just writing about it makes me want to go back. It’s one of those places that have been memorialized (is this a word?) in my mind and I’m having a hard time deciding whether it was really that great or if it’s just been built up in my mind over all these years. That HIMYM burger episode comes to mind and another thing that comes to mind is the way older UT grads will reminiscene about “Jester Late Night”. The husband likes to do this with his pals and they glorify the burger and the “chicken rings” way past their actual merit.
Anyway, recently Jin shared on Google Reader this post from Food in Houston about good Vietnamese food in Midtown.
Our Pho spot in Midtown is usually Pho Nga (which serves a weird healthy version of Pho, but is super fresh and has awesome made to order spring rolls) but I was excited to find something new.
I’ve got to say, I haven’t been as excited about a Pho place in all these years as I am about Huynh (912 St Emanuel Street Houston, TX 77003).
I think I annoyed my friends this weekend because I brought it up at least twice in every conversation.
First of all the decor is surprisingly nice! The colors match, there’s nothing really gaudy and the atmosphere is peaceful.
This, of course, raises red flags. How authentic or delicious could this place be? Would it be Americanized? Had the Blogger been to Trailer Pho before? It didn’t help that there were a lot of yuppies inside.
I ordered Pho with all the fixings (tripe, fatty brisket, eye round beef, etc) and the husband ordered the Bun Bo Hue as suggested by the blogpost. We also ordered the Cha Giao with the special house sauce. The egg rolls weren’t all that great but the sauce was pretty fantastic. I couldn’t tell exactly what was in it but it looked like it had 2 or 3 things mixed in it with a bit of a kick. If I REALLY had to pick, I think I might pick it over Bodard’s sauce. *Gasp* I know, that’s huge.
And then something absolutely wonderful happened, the waitress brought out our plates:
The middle plate with the Pho fixings was smaller than usual but the ingredients were fresh and the leaves were nicely pre-plucked for us so that was nice. The leaf shaped plate was a nice trendy touch but the miracle was the little square dish. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve been to a Pho restaurant where they give you a little dish to put sauces in so that you can dip your meat. Most Pho restaurants skip this and people just load up their soup with Hoisin and Sriracha sauce. I usually use a soup spoon in lieu of the little sauce dish. I don’t even remember where I learned to eat Pho like that. It’s pointless if the place is serving boring Pho broth, but if a place is proud of their broth, they don’t want you to mess with it.
Our noodle soups arrived in surprisingly small bowls (I’d probably be tempted to order the large next time) but the broth and contents more than made up for it. The presentation was a nice touch with the eye round beef slices artistically placed in the middle of the bowl with the pink parts giving a normally drab looking dish a bright splash of color. The husband’s Bun Bo Hue was pretty amazing. He graciously gave me a slice of pig’s feet and it was so flavorful and tender. The broth is what really impressed me. Flavorful, complex, and almost perfumed. Unfortunately, they don’t serve Bun Suong here so we’ll still have to go to Pho Danh for that. Also, now I’m curious to try Pho Danh’s Bun Bo Hue.
Just in case you’re wondering, the other restaurant highlighted in the Food in Houston post, Thien An Sandwiches, was incredibly disappointing. The place was packed during lunch on Friday which gave us hope but the Bun Suong and Bun Bo Hue was bland and unexciting. Maybe we should have ordered that huge yellow pizza thing. And they’re probably good at making Banh Mis since Sandwiches is in their name, but the noodle soup is just below par.
Pho is kind of like burgers in that anytime you try to declare a all-time best, lots of people want to counter it with other suggestions. I’m open to other suggestions but try Huynh first to see if it doesn’t impress you like it did me.
2 Comments