My passion towards pho dates back to the years I spent in Houston, where there are 94 listings on phofever.com. I longed to find a “true” Vietnamese pho restaurant in New York. I’m not a Chinatown regular, so I probably overlooked this Pho Bang on 157 Mott as recommended by my colleague.

Arrived at 2:15pm on a weekday afternoon, I still saw a full house that I need to sit at a small table in front of the restrooms. The menu is just standard (probably worldwide) and I ordered #7 on the menu, my regular raw eye round + tripes + beef balls. Together with a Vietnamese coffee, totaled $11 only. The $6.75 price for the “extra large” bowl is really ok comparing to Houston prices years ago, but one drawback comes here… the quantity of noodles is not that much as an “extra large” size. Nevertheless, it still happily fills up my asian-sized stomach.

My habbit is to taste at least 2 spoonful of soup before anything goes, mainly for knowing its real taste. Bang’s soup is full flavored, without the obvious hint of MSG. By the way, I would call MSG a “core ingredient” in Houston pho soups. The soup was not as hot as I always see. I asked for meat on the side, and I afraid it couldn’t get cooked enough. However, this turned out to be nice. The meat took a while to turn beige, and stayed medium rare until I finished the whole thing halfway. Boiling hot soup sometimes overcook the raw eyeround. This eyeround here is fresh and tender, the best part of the whole bowl.

The coffee is nice too. I’m not sure what the “correct” quantity of water and condensed milk to make a perfect cup, but it usually fills up a bit more than halfway in the glass full of ice cubes. This one here filled up to 1 inch down the rim in the full glass of ice, and still strong and smooth.

As I recall, there was also a Pho Bang in Houston. I enjoyed their bun bo hue so much, but I’m not sure they are still in the business.

食完仲買番枝久遺既是拉差辣椒醬

好彩呢筒只係得幾張既片尾, 見今次帶左Pen F出來, 半格半格影, 都影到6-7張出來, 不過唔記得原來駁口無貼膠紙, 成條拉左出來都唔知, 又無黑袋係身, 唯有放棄, 換過第筒菲林繼續影。 不過要一個菲林人放棄任何一格, 感覺有如推自己D仔女落海。

呢個牌子既車, 出名車殼堅固! 車身鐵皮特厚, 大熱天時三十幾度拖到拖車都爭D水滾… 不過呢款車殼設計又幾好喎, 整野幾方便

都係跌少少錢, 加番條V弘弘響喉, 平衡番頭中尾段, 而家架車夠力好多啦! 仲申請埋個自動繳費, 過隧道唔洗排隊