Authentic Northern Vietnamese Dishes

Pho bo, featuring diced raw beef, meatballs and rice noodles

 

Today my colleague who is Vietnamese-Australian, took me to a small shop in Yau Ma Tei that serves northern Vietnamese food.

While he was not born in Vietnam, he has traveled there a few times. Here he is tired of the many Vietnamese restaurants that are more Hong Kong-style Vietnamese, and his girlfriend managed to find this place and he was pleasantly surprised. It is run by Vietnamese people.

Deep-fried spring rolls that are wrapped in lettuce

The place, called Pho Viet Authentic Hanoi Cuisine has many devotees, and my colleague warned we had to get there early to get in line as the shop is quite small. If you don't get seated in the first round, it will be a while to wait for a table.

So we got there just before noon and were the first ones to line up -- a few minutes later there were a some people behind us. 

The woman behind us said she liked eating the broken rice dish, featuring pork with a slice of omelette and rice that are mixed together. It was her second time there.

On Google it says the shop opens at 12.30, but the sign on the door says 12pm to 3.30pm. Luckily we got there early and within a few minutes the server lifted the metal roll top gate and let us in, but not before giving us hand sanitizer and taking our temperatures. He also insisted we keep our masks on until our food arrived. Very strict, but understandable.

The menu is very short for lunch, 19 items. We ordered three items, and I had a passion fruit soda, and my colleague an iced Vietnamese coffee.

bun cha Hanoi, a sour soup with grilled pork

The deep-fried spring rolls (HK$65) arrived first, three of the rolls accompanied with strips of Romaine lettuce, basil and mint, and fish sauce. The spring rolls were piping hot and a delicious start, filled with pork, carrot and vermicelli. 

Next came bun cha Hanoi (HK$76), where there was a soup bowl with what looked like a soup, with strips of grilled pork, and thinly sliced carrot and turnip in a broth that was sour and savoury. Also with the dish was a bamboo basket of balls of rice vermicelli and herbs.

My colleague instructed me to put a ball of the cold vermicelli in my bowl and then spoon some of the broth along with some pork on top of it. This was delicious and meaty. I liked the sour taste and interesting together with the thin slices of grilled pork. I had never eaten anything like this before.

Finally our bowl of pho bo (HK$79) came, and it's a large bowl! In it is the wide rice noodles, along with beef meatballs that were halved, and bits of raw beef. We mixed the beef into the steaming hot broth that had lots of scallions and herbs in it. A side dish had a wedge of lime and fresh chillis.

The bun cha has cold rice vermicelli in bunches

A guest next to us had ordered the same thing and asked the waiter why there were no beansprouts. He explained this was northern Vietnamese style. There were no slices of onions either.

The bits of beef were very tender, not chewy or sinewy. Amazing. It was definitely a comforting bowl of noodles, but I don't think I could have eaten it all on my own!

As we ate, some tables turned twice. Another guest next to us ordered takeaway. The server asked why so many, and she sheepishly said it was for her children. "Oh are they still asleep?" he asked. She was surprised he was so smart. "They are all night owls," she said. Luckily to have a mom bring delicious food for them.

When we left the bill came to HK$302 and well sated. 

Hope to visit again, maybe for dinner? But good to know this legit place exists if I get there early enough...

Pho Viet Authentic Hanoi Cuisine

G/F, 99 Portland Street, Mongkok (Yau Ma Tei MTR Exit A1)

6884 8898

A Pho to Remember?

Dinner last night -- rare beef pho at Chua Lam's Pho in Central

Yesterday my colleague and I finished an assignment in Central just before 6pm and she was wondering where to get a cheap bite to eat.

I suggested Tsui Wah, the cha chaan teng chain, but she said "no" right away. Then I remembered the famous food writer Chua Lam had opened a pho shop nearby and suggested we check it out.

Food critic and restaurateur Chua Lam at his restaurant

Called Chua Lam's Pho, with the tagline "A bowl of pho to remember", is on Wellington Street in a two-storey building with minimalist decor, complemented with beer bottles cut to have plants in them. There's a variety of seating and even more upstairs so we went up to get a table near the corner. The menu is pretty straight forward.

If you want to splurge, there's the "special beef pho" for HK$128, apparently with wagyu beef, but we stuck to the "rare beef pho" for HK$88.

Or you can have a basic beef pho for HK$68 and add toppings like raw beef, beef shank, brisket, tendon, beef ball, and tripe.

There are also other dishes like fried spring rolls, or rice paper salad rolls with fish and mango, or Thai pomelo salad -- what is that doing there! We ordered a dish of stir fried morning glory.

While we were waiting for our food to arrive, we sipped on the complimentary glasses of water and quickly realized they had a sweet peanut flavour! It's obviously a ploy to get customers to order drinks as well, which is what we did -- a young coconut for my colleague, a preserved plum and lime soda for me.

The ground floor interior of the shop

The food arrived quickly and in large bowls, and come with small cups filled with basil leaves, bean sprouts, lime wedge and fresh chillis. When the place first opened, everyone was raving about the soup base, and I have to say it has a round, flavourful beef taste, and wasn't oily.

Meanwhile the portion of morning glory was much larger than we expected and a bit on the spicy side, but still delicious.

My drink had a fake green syrup in it, probably a lime syrup which was completely redundant, while my colleague enjoyed her drink and the thick coconut meat inside.

In the end our bill came to HK$360 for two, a cheap and cheerful dinner.

Chua Lam's Pho
UG/F, 15-25 Wellington Street
Central
2325 9117