Pho Club field report Adelaide

\<!\[CDATA **Attention:**  Jason Kwan, Home office   

From: Jurgen Schaub, international man of mystery meat

The following is a report on the quality of Pho in the South Australian capital city of Adelaide. Adelaide is a small city, roughly the size of Victoria, BC. There is an area of about three square blocks designated as “Chinatown”, in which one can find all manner of Asian foods. This covers everything from Szechuan to Kimchee.

Most of the better fast-food type places are crowded into one of two indoor food malls. This is where I found this apparently nameless Pho shop. My regular Pho Tai wasn’t on the menu, but they happily made me one anyway. Service was brisk and efficient, just to the left of rude, fairly typical for Vietnamese establishments.

Note that the bean sprouts, an essential part of the Pho experience, were not included and had to be asked for specially. There was no additional cost, however.

The Pho itself was quite good. The broth was especially lovely, probably due to the kitchen’s proximity to the male toilets. While I don’t tend to like oily sauces, it seemed to enhance the delicate flavour of the broth. The portion of meat was fairly generous, given the smaller than average size of the bowl.

The noodles were the undoing of this otherwise excellent Pho. They were far too thick, and they huddled together in the bottom of my bowl as if afraid to meet the meat, which was floating around on top. My hunch here is that the noodles were boiled too long before being dumped in the soup: they were too soft and too thick. Pity about them, for if the noodles had been any good, I would have no problem giving this establishment the final star of Pho Pherfection. 4/5 stars.

Pros: Excellent, if slightly oily broth. Generous meat.

Cons: Noodles too thick. Long commute from Pho Club Home Base.

Submitted for your approval,

…jurgen]]>