homemade pho ga

When you have a summer cold and it’s rained two days straight, pho ga will fix you right up.  Unfortunately, I live 12 miles from the nearest pho joint, so I had to learn to make my own.  Thanks to Andrea Nguyen’s Vietnamese Kitchen cookbook, my pho ga is at least as good as Pho Bang’s.  The backyard garden supplies holy basil and hot peppers for garnish, and I buy fresh rice noodles (bahn pho) from Hong Kong Market in Terrytown.

Charring the ginger and onion before making the broth make a dramatic difference in flavor.  Now I’ll have to master pho bo (beef pho).