When you go out with a bunch of folks you’ve invariably made friends with thanks to Twitter and engage in any form of social activity, everything becomes <insert activity here>TUB because many of us will have met each other via MTUB. This was the case one evening when a bunch of us decided to check a pho house in Preston called Pho Hung, a few doors down from the more esteemed Noodle Kingdom (review of that place coming soon! edit: here we go!). It all started with a Foursquare update – someone had gone to Pho Hung earlier in the day, declaring they’d had the best pho ever there. One person read it wanted to go and before you knew it, spontaneous pho party.
As can be imagined, pho was had by all but before that we ordered some entrées, many of which were to share. There was one serve of spring rolls, but seriously once you’ve seen spring rolls, you’ve seen them all so no photo of that. My choice was beef wrapped in vine leaves. I generally like to order my bun topped with this, but it’s too cold for bun.
Our chum Anthony had the crispy chicken. Not so shareable, alas, but boy does it look appetising. Deep fried chicken never fails to please.
The standard rice paper rolls with pork were also ordered. If I were smarter (which I sadly I wasn’t), I would have taken a picture of these mid-chomp so you could see inside. Whoops.
Jon and Tristan both chose the beef brisket pho. Tris reports that it was okay, but not as awesome as Pho Chu The in Richmond.
I decided to stop being the second worst Asian ever* and challenged myself by ordering the beef with tripe pho. In fact, I was so excited, I sent Billy a text message to inform of this fact. I’m not particularly rad with offal though as a kid I loved blood pudding (bit of a Brit delicacy). Go figure. We lose so much adventurousness growing up. Anyway, the pho. Not as flavoursome as some I’ve tried, evidenced by the fact that I went nuts adding chilli to it. Yep, the chilliphobe hit up the chilli hardcore.
Pho Hung is okay, but it’s not serving pho I’ll be dedicating sestinas to (and sestinas are pretty fecking hard to write). However, it’s casual, cheap and filling. I’d go again to hang with my PhoTUB crew.
*in conversation with dear friend Lindsey, it transpired that I apparently wasn’t the worst Asian ever because he knew an Asian that got lost en route to the casino. By my own admission, that’s pretty bad.
It looks all pretty decent. I like the big chunks of tripe you’ve got going on there, though it looks like the thin (and less deliciously chewy) type that they serve there. Which is pretty common – even Pho Chu The do it. Try Co Do on Victoria st if you like your tripe chewy/chunky. Mmmm, tripe. I hope you dipped it in chilli and hoisin – tripe’s best friend. Hey, let’s go southside at some stage – Vodka, Borscht and Tears do a mean tripe soup. And, well, vodka. 😉
@Billy baby steps for this crappy Asian 😉 Alas no, I did not dip it in hoisin and chilli though I had plenty of fresh chilli floating about in my pho, mmm. I believe Co Do is on my list of places to try and of course VBT trip can be arranged 🙂