By Tri Nguyen
First, visit Pho Bac on Rainier Avenue in Mt. Baker. (Even Chef Tom Douglas likes the pho here!)
Then, order a medium bowl of Tai Nam Gan Sach with the following special requests:
- hold the “fatty water”
- parboil the bean sprouts
- a little less rice noodles
- a dish of vinegared onions on the side
A steaming bowl of pho will arrive. Alongside it will be a small plate mounded high with garnishes. Please taste the soup before you dress it up.
I like it like this: toss in a handful of bean sprouts, a few jalapeño slices, lots of shredded basil leaves; then a squirt of hoisin sauce goes in, a squirt of Sriracha hot sauce, and a good squeeze of lime. (I keep the vinegared onions on the side for nibbling.)
All to taste of course.
Before eating, mix thoroughly using your chopsticks and Chinese soup spoon.
Now this is just how I like my pho. My regular order is Tai Nam Gan Sach (Tai is rare eye round steak, Nam is flank, Gan is soft tendon and Sach is tripe), but you’ll end up ordering whichever combination suits you—like your choice of garnishes, this is what makes pho such a delight. Some are meats are lean, some are fattier, some are rare and these you have stir in the broth before it cools. I’m not a huge fan of meat balls. A real beginner might start out simply, just Tai.
And if you’re not too stuffed, try the Vietnamese-style yogurt from the cooler. It’s a nice way to end the meal.
I’ve never even tried any of their non-Pho dishes. What would be the point?
Pho Bac is located at 3300 Rainier Avenue South in Mt. Baker. Photo/do communications, inc.
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{ 20 comments }
Yum! I’ve only eaten Pho Bac (to-go) once and it was when I was *really* sick. I’m down for an outing whenever you are
Pho is not the same to go. I like Pho Bac also but have been going to Thien Phat just south lately.
Okay, you got me talked into it. I’ve tried Pho a couple times and (I’m covering my face now)…I didn’t like it. Was like noodles in bland watery soup. And I didn’t try it at any of the above mentioned joints.
I’ll back up a minute. I’m .5 Korean. So, when you say noodle soup, I say Cham-Phong (literally translated into “I kick your ass with some seafood noodle soup”.) So naturally I concluded that Pho was too subtle a nuanced experience for my fried off taste-buds to fully appreciate.
I shall try again.
“Cham-Phong (literally translated into “I kick your ass with some seafood noodle soup”.)”
I have to try anything with “I kick your ass” in the name.
Lee’s on California Ave in W Seattle (across from Caper’s) is the closest. Tho it’s been a few moons, I recall they had very nice ass kick’n on the menu. Actually a Chinese restaurant, but owners have some Korean stuff snuck in there. If applicable, request they not to be fooled by any pale-ness of countenance on your part (if’n yer not Asian, they may tone down the ****hot request)
But if you want the serious KooKooKoreans, gotta travel southward to Fed Way, I recommend KoKiri on Pac Hwy. Can’t recall if they have Cham-Phong on the menu…but you can grill Korean BBQ at your own table and I recommend the Dol-Sot BeeBeem Bop=Hot Pot with tasty assortment of rice/meats and veggies+fried egg on top. Good tofu soup, which provides a similar rear end-rearrangement experience to Cham-Phong… yum Ask for it “Mah-Nee Mai-Whang” (Very Hot). Sorry if you end up with lots of peanuts or something, my Korean is terrible.
Make that Mah-Nee-MAY-Whang.
Phonetics not so good either.
So you have to got o Felony Way to get real Korean food?
Whoa now, hold yer horsies there MarkB.
I said, “serious”, not -real-. I would reserve such references to authenticity (not requiring a ticket on Asiana Air) to one place, and one place alone…my Mother’s kitchen. And that would be a long drive, indeed.
For a shorter excursion towards something approaching -real-, I’d say yes the Way of the Felon, Edmonds (Aurora Ave) or the View from the Bell are your only options. East Gate restaurant near Factoria off of i-90 ain’t bad. Come to think of it I do like their soups quite a lot. If stinky stuff is up your alley, the kim-chee soup (Kim-Chee Jhee-Ghae) is deeeeeeeelovely… And even stinkier, though milder is the Den-Jang Jhee-Ghae)-Bean Curd Soup. Plan no face to face meetings for at least two days.
I’ve never had kim-chee soup before, sounds interesting, but then again I’ll eat anything smaller and slower. Sorry about the “real” but now that you put it that way I have not had real Korean food since about 1977 at my friend Danny Kim’s house. (first time I tried squid too).
Actually I am going back looking for your Korean BB-Q recipe right now, I am thinking about doing it for my friends BB-Q tomorrow.
Pho Bac has been the best Pho I’ve had – used to eat there all the time when it was across the street by the Car Wash. It has changed a bit, but I still enjoy it regularly.
Tom A.
I’ve eaten Pho *everywhere* in Seattle, and this is the best place. In part because the staff is so pleasant. Think I’ll go today!
Another bump for Pho Bac at 3300 Rainier Avenue South
I don’ t claim to have tried every pho place in Seattle, but this one is head and shoulders above the ones I have tried. Why? Because unlike the others their broth is actually FLAVORFUL, with great depth and complexity. Also the beef is very tender.
Hope they never change.
(Hey, anyone know if this Pho Bac is connected to the one downtown in the Greyhound Bus Station? That one is pretty good too…but not quite up the the one at 3300 Rainier Ave.)
@Too
I was also wondering about all the other Pho Bac’s I’ve seen. Related in anything but name?
@Mark “I’ve never had kim-chee soup before, sounds interesting”
I love Kim Chee, but I had some Kim Chee soup at Owajimaya’s that was huge, and had only one dimention. Imagine liking pickles, then ordering a quart of Pickle Juice soup! I recommended it to someone that walked by as I was first tasting, then left before they could thow it at me.
@Ahow
I spent a month and a half in Pusan, riding the subway everywhere and loving everything I ate. Except at one place in a back alley called Viking Hamburger; their motto “hamburger taste good.”
It didn’t, but I loved all the other Korean food I tasted.
I still drop by the Asian grocery stores for a bag of dried cuttlefish, hot or not.
Hey M.F. ! Sorry, couldn’t help myself…
So you’re a fan of the stinky fish jerky, eh? Yeah, I am a closet cuttlefish eater too. Esp. doused in hot pepper paste. mmm mm good.
Pusan. My, my we’re worldly. My only memory of Pusan is finding a bunch of newborn “moles” in a bush outside my Aunt’s condo. Played with them for like an hour before my Mom came out screaming that I was playing with rats. bummer. Speaking of rats, I really don’t think that “tasty hamburger” was likely to be beef, get my drift?
Hey MarkB- How’d the bbq go? Sorry for the cryptic recipe. I never make that from a written recipe, and I’m usually lit on SoJu before I begin…
BB-Q went great, didn’t do your recipe though. We did duck, chicken, halibut, and some kabobs just to try to keep up with my quota of 2 cows this year.
ah, then Mission Go Viral;Korean Cuisine, was dashed…once again. Despite the decidedly funky factor of some of our dishes, I am hoping we will soon be understood and appreciated. Even the kim chee fried rice…
Nice assortment of fish n fowl though.
Thien Phat is much better all around.
“Thien Phat is much better all around.”
That’s where I have been going since they opened.
@Ahow
“My only memory of Pusan is finding a bunch of newborn “moles”
Pusan was wonderful, as was the train to Osan.
Korea is a beautiful country until you get within a half mile of an American military base.
The one thing I didn’t get to try was gae-go-gi.
Next time…
Don’t do it MF. Don’t do it.
Lassie, come home!
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