Tonight was a big night for me. I took one step forward into becoming a true Washingtonian: I had Pho for the first time. Why is this such a big deal? Well, let me tell you, for someone to live here for a year without ever eating Pho is a bit hard to do. There are pho restaurants everywhere! I don’t know why I never tried the Vietnamese soup, I guess I was just never around the moments in freshman year people could obtain a car for long enough to go off campus for a pho run.
Tonight, though, my housemates and I were out and about, running errands, when we found ourselves in the same parking lot as Pho 38th. We decided that we didn’t want to cook and that I should try this delicacy that is ever present in the whole of Washington.
We went into the very lit restaurant and were seated and handed menus. My housemates were pretty annoyed with all of my questions because I thought that it was going to be a process, that there was a right way to eat this. But, I learned that you can eat pho however you want, as long as you can enjoy it. So, I chose a pretty standard dish, Pho Thai Chin Nac, which is raw beef and brisket with the noodles and cilantro and onions. When they say raw, that just means they cook the beef in the soup, so it wasn’t beef tar tar in soup or anything.
The verdict: Pretty good. It was super filling and I really liked the noodles and the cilantro and the meat. I have to admit, I was a bit nervous because I’ve never had Vietnamese food, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. But I was very happy with it, although it did make me sleepy because it was filling. I’m excited to go back to Pho 38th to try their other food, because they seem to have an array of dishes other than just Pho. When visiting Tacoma or Seattle and you don’t know what to do, I suggest hitting up a pho restaurant because I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
Literally, my first bite of pho ever.