Pho-nominal Vietnamese soups are highlights, but don’t stop there

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This article was published 30/09/2015 (3994 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Was it something I ate, or was it a flu bug? Chances are it was a bug, since — amazingly, given my job — I’ve rarely had food poisoning. Whatever it was that laid me low, all I wanted on the road to recovery was the soothing comfort of noodle soup.

What I longed for in particular was a fragrant, nourishing pho, that long-simmered, mellow beef broth with soft, slippery noodles, thin slices of beef, bean sprouts and (optional) a squirt of lime juice, often the only Vietnamese dish known to some.

And when I thought of pho, I thought of Nhu Quynh, whose phos I’d remembered as particularly good. I opted on this occasion for medium-rare beef only (No. 27), but the usual other meats and combos are available.

In fact, when it comes to Vietnamese soups in general, Nhu Quynh often comes to mind. The menu isn’t much different from most others, but this one lists one of my all-time and less common favourites, the Special Pnom Penh Soup — a rich pork and chicken broth overflowing with slices of pork, shrimp, translucent rice noodles and (the icing on the cake) a crunchy rice-flour crêpe pierced by a single shrimp (No. 34). If I’m sharing it, I usually order an extra crêpe.

The tamarind-seasoned sweet-and-sour soup is another item I rarely pass up, replete with chunks of tomatoes and pineapple, bean sprouts and shrimp (chicken or fish are alternatives) and, always, the spongy-crisp texture of bac ha, i.e. taro stem, for which celery is often substituted elsewhere (No. 97). My latest love is bun bo hue, a slightly sweet, slightly salty and really, really spicy beef broth with vermicelli, beef slices and fish balls (No. 23).

There’s solid sustenance as well, and it’s easy to make a meal of appetizers alone. The salad rolls are top-notch — plump, moist and delicious, with more shrimp than most and an excellent peanut sauce that doesn’t taste like diluted peanut butter (No. 1). The coleslaw with jellyfish, shrimp and pork in a subtly sweet dressing is another worthwhile choice (No. 6).

So are some of the grilled meats, which come with rice-paper wraps and the usual garden of lettuce leaves, bean sprouts, springs of mint, slices of cucumber and lightly pickled carrots. Menu descriptions can be inadequate, though. If I hadn’t guessed, for instance, that “grill beef wrapping leaves” meant ground beef wrapped in la lop (i.e. wild betel) leaves, I might have missed these juicy and fabulously flavourful rolls (No. 11). A must.

Strips of the slightly caramelized charbroiled pork are also delicious (No. 14). On the other hand, char-grilled pork balls (No. 12) were moist but bland, and banh xeo — a crisp rice-flour crêpe flavoured with coconut milk and turmeric (No. 7) — was consistently under-flavoured and filled mostly with bean sprouts, only a few shrimp and just an occasional slice of pork.

Some dishes varied from visit to visit. The quality of the shrimp was consistently good, and chili-spiced shrimp with red and green peppers and lemongrass was excellent (No. 89). But Crispy Fried Shrimp (No. 141) — butterflied, flattened almost into scallops, panko-breaded and deep-fried — which had packed a miraculous, flavourful crunch on one visit, were pretty much like standard breaded fried shrimp on another.

I liked the comfort of the crisply fried chicken served over tasty fried rice (No. 50), and the beef stir-fried with onions and shiitakis in a light and slightly sweet sauce (No. 68). Not so much the Combination Chow Fan, which skimped on the shrimp, pork and squid (No. 56), or the Combination Chow Mein with shrimp (good), pork (tired) and unscored slices of not too rubbery but also not too flavourful squid (No. 52), and even less the dry pork chop on our broken rice (No. 48).

There’s no decor to speak of; it’s just a small, modest room, but clean and bright. Prices are modest, too, with almost everything under $11. Service is speedy, and at least one server has no communication problems.

 

marion.warhaft@freepress.mb.ca