They are both some of my favorite foods. I've made pho probably 4 times at this point. It takes 8 to 10 hours but is totally worth it.

Something I started doing was occasionally taking the rare thin meat out for use with the sriracha and sweet sauce. I never added then to the soup because I found it corrupts it.

There's also Northern Vietnamese Pho which I haven't tried but I'd like to. It's supposed to be less sweet and less spiced. In the US it seems southern sweet style is the norm.

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jandrewrogers 20 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Southern Viet Pho is not supposed to be sweet.

Northern Pho is in almost all ways inferior to Southern Pho. Even Northerners tend to prefer the Southern style. Something important to understand is that the Northern style is essentially the starvation version of the Southern style. The south is the main agricultural region of the country, so they had ready access to ingredients, like meat, that were difficult to come by in the North. The styles reflect this reality.

	▲	hvng24 7 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Northerner here, and Southern Pho is sweeter. Probably not noticeable to non-natives, but we always detect a slight sweetness in Southern food. Pho originated from the North, and I don't know anyone who actually comes from the North and prefers Southern pho. They exist, I'm sure, but while living abroad, the most common complaint with Northern Vietnamese is the lack of Northern-style pho. Not sure about being inferior, but we like our broth to be clear. If you want heavy broth, you'll need to tell the restaurant to give you "fat broth". Maybe it started with us being poor, but we're not anymore. We want the broth flavor to come mostly from high-quality bone broth, not overly spiced. Same for the meat; most Hanoi Pho restaurants don't serve meatballs. We prefer high-quality rare beef over a random mix of beef. Northern Pho always comes with fresh, flat, and wide noodles. Outside of Vietnam, restaurants usually use narrower noodles, and usually not fresh. Sometimes they charge more for fresh noodles. It’s very common to eat Pho with a fried dough stick in the North. We dip them into the broth.
	▲	Cider9986 16 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Thanks for the info. Yeah I don't like it sweet but it has sugar. Worse Pho places in the us will be sweet.

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madhacker a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The ubiquitous Southern-style pho in America is due to historical reasons, when Southern Vietnamese diaspora fled Saigon en masse in the aftermath of the fall of Saigon.

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stasomatic a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Do you mean after the meat sat a bit in the broth? I’m no stranger to tartar or raw meats, just not clear.

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Cider9986 a day ago | parent [-]

Yeah. Cook it to how you like it and then dip in Sriracha and or the sweet one. But you could also do it with the braised meat or anything as well

I love the meat straight from the broth so I mostly do that but the sauces are a traditional option it seems.

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stasomatic a day ago | parent [-]

Thank you. If you have a Trader Joe’s near you (it’s a chain in the states for anyone wondering), they have a pretty good chilly paste named “Bomba Hot Pepper”. It has a punch, but it’s not EMP level, not too sweet, not too acidy. Half a teaspoon does it for me.

I do have some Asian markets near me within reasonable driving distance, but I can’t try all the sauces and the ones I have tried leaned toward the sweeter side, and that’s not for me. This Bomba hits me where it matters.

https://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/pdp/italian-bomba-h...

	▲	Cider9986 16 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I'll check it out. Although I didn't like their sriracha or chilli oil. Their peanut butter cups are my favorite sweet. The ones in the plastic bags are better than in thr large container. (Darker chocolate and more salt).