The Pho Soul Brother, Check It Out Now!

Hello gentle reader!  It has been several weeks since we have graced you with tales of travel and food, and other matters of the charmingly offensive persuasion.  Well, luckily for you, the wait is over.

The past several weeks have seen the Dry Fly and the Salty Dog traveling to tropical islands, stuffing our faces at a variety of wonderful food establishments, and cheering on the greatest football team on planet earth (despite that little trip up with 'Bama).

You may be wondering what is with this week's blog title.  Ever since the London Olympics, Fatboy Slim has been resurging in popularity.  For those of you who live under a rock, FBS is a DJ from across the pond.  He had a very popular track a few years back called the Rockafeller Skank.  I have no idea what a Rockafeller Skank is, but I'm sure it's funky.  For the uninitiated, please enjoy the video provided to me by my friends Anne and Robert.  Their adorable little daughter obviously appreciates the funktasticness of FB Slim.  After seeing this video, I figured it had to be incorporated into this week's blog. 

Funk Soul Brother, Pho Soul Brother?  What's the connection?  The connection can be found at a wonderful little eating establishment at 3636 Upton Avenue in Toledo called Pho Vietnam.  Their website is http://www.phovietnam.us/.  The prices are very low, but the quality is high.  Now you must be thinking, I get the Pho part, but what about the Soul Brother?

Are you sitting down?  You should be.  The Soul Brother comes from the fact that, in addition to serving a wonderful menu of Vietnamese sandwiches, Pho soup, spring rolls, etc., they also have a FULL MENU of Soul Food.  How is that for awesome?  Not convinced?  Check out this picture below consisting of Pho, Vietnamese Sandwich (Pork, Jalapeno Pepper, Cucumber, Sprouts), spring roll, and fried okra.

Now this is the Pho Soul Brother!

 The name of the game at Pho Vietnam is fresh.  The restaurant is a family shop.  The Salty Dog is a regular here and she tells me that the family bought the restaurant when it was just a Soul Food place.  Being from Vietnam, they decided (rightfully so) to cook Vietnamese food as well.  Thank goodness for that.

All of your regular soul food dishes are on the menu:  collard greens, fried chicken, fried okra, mac 'n cheese, etc.  For me, however, the highlight is Pho.  This is a HUGE bowl of simple beef broth filled with noodles, basil, sprouts, scallions, red onion, cilantro.  The broth is cooked down until it is clear.  This is no easy process because the fats and proteins that rise to the top of the pot must be constantly skimmed.  The result is a clear broth.  The clearer the better.  The bowl is served piping hot and immediately before being served, thinly sliced pieces of raw beef are added to the bowl.  The soup is so hot that the meat is cooked almost instantly.  This dish is great year-round, but I'm really looking forward to a bowl after cross-county skiing at Ottawa Park this winter (provided we have snow).

My goodness, there are little brown balls in my drink!

 One last note.  Try the mango bubble tea pictured above.  It is awesome and made from scratch (read: real mangoes).  The Dry Fly prides himself on being a daring eater.  I've eaten worms in Botswana, ants at camp, assorted chocolate covered bugs over the years, and myriad other things people may consider gross.  This one tested my adventurous spirit for no other reason than it felt weird in my mouth.  (Insert "That's what she said!" here.)  Essentially, the bubble tea is a mango smoothy filled with these little gelatinous balls.  The balls don't taste like much, but the texture is a bit weird.  The drink is served with an over-size straw so that you suck the balls up with the smoothie.  It's like a smoothie-ball-smoothie-ball pattern.  You get intermittent brown and orange sections coming up through the straw.  Very tasty overall.  Try it if you're feeling adventurous.  I think I'll stick with just the smoothie next time.  It was incredible!

Pho Vietnam is fully endorsed by the Dry Fly and Salty Dog!  Hope to see you there soon!