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Pho Saigon offers many variations of traditional Vietnamese noodle soup dishes. The restaurant is located on 2141 North College Avenue, which was Hunan Manor's former location.

Vietnamese food? Yes, please.

By: Robert Garner

Posted: 9/19/08

From the adventure last week with Korean barbecue, let's head south to the beautiful country of Vietnam.

And by that, I mean continue north on College Avenue until you arrive at Pho Saigon.

Before I precede any further, let me correct how I'm sure you just read "pho." For most Americans, including myself, the natural way to say it is "foh," sounding like the first part of the word "phone." However, because my Pho Saigon experience was shared with a good friend who just happens to be a connoisseur of all things Vietnamese, I now know that the word "pho" is properly pronounced "fuh."

"Fuh" as in "fudge" or "epiphany."

Now we're cooking.

Elocution lessons aside, I now move on to the most pressing topic: the food.

Pho is a traditional Vietnamese soup containing noodles and your choice of meat.

Noodles and meat? Yes, please.

My friend boasts about her expertise in Vietnamese cuisine and I allowed her to choose the "pho xao ap chao" without really knowing what the dish contained. In an effort to seem cultured, I attempted to order my food using spoken Vietnamese. A few incomprehensible syllables and mumbles later, our friendly waitress decoded my message as order number P9.

Much simpler.

My friend's shrimp chow mein awkwardly arrived earlier than my P9, but she patiently waited as she let the steam clear from her mound of noodles. When my food did arrive, I immediately knew that I had made a good choice in letting my friend choose my order.

P9 is, according to my friend, essentially a pho with less broth and more noodles and meats.

The dish featured traditional white rice noodles combined with a delicious concoction of chicken, beef, shrimp, broccoli, mushrooms and water chestnuts, garnished with green and white onions and cilantro. The rich broth serves as the main base, and is generally made by simmering beef bones, onions and many spices, my friend told me.

I found the dish to be spot-on. Each component of the dish was cooked just to my liking. The meats were tender, the noodles were just right and the broccoli was tender, yet crisp. Per the recommendation of my friend, I liberally applied two sauces she told me were required when eating pho: hoisin sauce and Sriracha, a Thai hot sauce.

The only slight problem with an otherwise perfect meal was that the shrimp tails were still on, which was a little inconvenient. But c'est la vie, no?

After our meal, my connoisseur friend insisted that I try the Vietnamese coffee. It's another must for Vietnamese-cuisine enthusiasts, she told me.

When the waitress brought it out, I was utterly confused. On top of a normal coffee cup sat a strange metal cup-type thing - it looked like a miniature version of my idea of a UFO.

As my more coffee-savvy readers probably already know, the petite UFO was nothing more than a strainer atop the cup.

My ignorance aside, the coffee was also just the way I like it: perfect. It was served with what is, I was told, essentially condensed milk that you simply have to stir in to the fresh-brewed coffee. Doing so gives you a mixture that is "not too bitter, not too sweet, just perfect," as my friend stated it.

It was definitely a light and sweet ending to the meal, of which I ate too much because it was just that good.

Any time you have an urge to eat Asian food that's not from an overpriced buffet, I recommend trying Vietnamese at Pho Saigon.

And here's where I want your help: if you have any restaurants in mind that you think I should write about, please let me know. My e-mail address is rtgarner@uark.edu and I would love to dine at any recommendations.

Happy eating.

Robert Garner is a columnist for The Arkansas Traveler. His column appears every Friday.