Without a specific shop in mind, I visited one of Hanoi's best-known "pho streets." This place looked promising.
Not only from the bustle of the clientele, but also from the seriously large vessel in which the beef broth simmered. A big pot makes room for many bones and deep flavor, especially if it's kept cooking overnight (nowhere the case in New York, I don't believe) for the benefit of breakfast and lunch crowds the next day.
I recall the big pot, but little more — a computer failure several weeks later into this Southeast Asian excursion did away with many of my notes. Below, my bowl of pho tai lan, noodle soup topped with stir-fried beef, likely cost a relatively grand 10,000 dong, or about 60 cents at the time.
Also shown below is a nearby shop that specializes in pho ga, a noodle soup featuring chicken rather than beef; the better pho restaurants in Hanoi serve either pho bo or pho ga, not both. At bottom is another shop that sells no soup at all.
Gia Truyen
49 Bat Dan, Hanoi
(From a November 2006 visit)
