Since the influx of Vietnamese families into North America in the last 100 years, pho has held its own in Canadian cities as a beautiful dish shared by all cultures. Visiting cities like Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, Winnipeg, and Halifax, you’ll find a mix of comforting, affordable pho joints oftentimes preparing these dishes in the most authentic ways.
Pho is a restorative, balanced meal usually incorporating a protein source – such as beef, pork, chicken, or a vegan substitute of some kind – alongside rice noodles and flavorful broth. It’s a great meal to have when you’re out on a winter’s night but it’s also great to start your day with. It’s healthy, light, and very heartwarming. As a dish, these are just some of the reasons why it’s so popular today.
Read more: Seeing the Rise of Pho in North America beginning in the 1990s to Today
Vietnamese cuisine comes in many forms, whether it’s pho or a regional specialty. As you venture across the different parts of Vietnam, you’ll notice subtle changes in the culinary traditions, the ingredients used, and the different ways they prepare what many consider to be traditional cuisine.
For example, in northern Vietnam, there’s a colder climate so the availability of some spices is tough. Northern Vietnamese foods tend to be less spicy, with black pepper used in place of chilis and similar substitutions made. The use of meats are generally sparse, although the people in the region enjoy pulling from pork, beef, chicken, freshwater fish, and more. A lot of notable Vietnamese dishes from the north are crab-centered, occasionally include limes, and are templates for contemporary traditional Vietnamese food.
Browsing Vietnamese street food, to this day, among the wide varieties of different cuisine you’ll find pho. Naturally, in North American, when we think of pho we may not necessarily connect it to street food. After all, do you see a lot of North American street vendors offering pho-esque dishes – not really. Despite that, Vietnam is a completely different culture than what is seen here in North America.
Pho is a dish that has won the hearts of many foreigners in Vietnam as well as Torontonians. Experienced foodies love pho, as do Vietnamese cuisine enthusiasts. If you’ve ever travelled to Vietnam, for those that have had a bowl of genuine Vietnam-made pho, they’ll tell you how absolutely tasty it is. To some degree, pho represents so much about what Vietnamese cuisine is. Pho contains the ingredients you expect to find in Vietnam food and incorporates a lot of the guiding philosophies which go into creating Vietnamese dishes. Browsing different Vietnamese recipes, you’re also likely to find a lot of inspiration taken from pho.
Pho is so much more than soup. Even so, to some Canadians, they look at pho and that might be all they see. The story of pho is so very interesting, coming from decades of Vietnamese history and traversing the globe in the post-Vietnam War era. Perhaps more than any other Vietnamese dish, pho is a constant in the lives of the Vietnamese. It can be customized according to the ingredients available, delivering some of the most amazing aromas and tastes in the world.
Going back some fifty years or so, how Vietnamese pho came to mean so much to North Americans, it can all be traced back to the Vietnam War. As the war reached its conclusion, Vietnamese families left the company and immigrated to regions all over the world. The Vietnamese moved internationally everywhere from Canada to the United States, Russia, India, Mexico, the UK, France, Germany, and Australia. With them, these families brought customs, traditions, and yes, their pho.
Read more: Where did Vietnamese Pho Come From and How was it Invented
The long list of Vietnamese foods and Vietnamese-inspired cuisine is not just some list of dishes made from ingredients native to the region. There’s a lot of philosophy that goes into crafting perfect Vietnamese dishes.
Vietnamese cuisine focuses on five elements which are meant to create the perfect balance. Furthermore, as you’ll find out in this article, the rule of 5s is common in this category of ethnic cuisine. Vietnamese dishes, for this reason, oftentimes have more balanced fragrances, tastes, and colors compared to other cuisines like Chinese, Thai, or North American. As an example, pho is one such Vietnamese food focused on implementing balance. Similar to stews and soups in North America, there are many different ways to make pho. As a maker picks and chooses their ingredients, they must maintain balance.
Read more: What are the 5 Elements of Vietnamese Cuisine Used in Every Dish
In its most simplest form, pho is a mix of rice noodles, broth, a small portion of meat, and select additional ingredients. The story of how the Vietnamese-based dish though is so much more than simply what’s in it. As pho continues to gain popularity in North America, we thought we’d shine a light on not only the ingredients used to make it but the story behind it.
Pho is originally thought to have come from northern Vietnam, through a mix of French, Chinese, and Vietnamese cultures. In the early 1900s, the French occupied Vietnam and with this occupation, beef was commonly used in pho dishes. That’s because the French had an affinity for beef, making requests on the regular to have it incorporated into traditional dishes like pho. Prior to the French occupation, cattle in Vietnam were used only for livestock rather than for eating. Also, in this time, being so close to the Chinese border a lot of street vendors in Vietnam were in fact Chinese. Thereby, these three cultures were at the centre of how pho came to be.
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