Pho, 'nuff said

When John and I lived in Tahoe our favorite place to dine out was a cozy little Asian restaurant named Pho 777.

It was in Reno, hence the "777" (jackpot!) name. Yeah, I thought it was their address for a while, but really, it's clever. We found Pho 777 on recommendation from a friend who had also traveled in Asia and who shared our love of cheap eats. Not only was the food there delicious, but it was also dang cheap. We instantly fell in love with the little place and dined there on every trip to Reno.

John and I are "good faith vegetarians." So we eat veggies most of the time but we make exceptions for home-raised animals, wild game, meat while traveling and Pho. At Pho 777 we ordered our dishes with veggies and tofu only, even though the same waiter told us nicely each time that the soup is made with chicken broth. We smiled and said, "yes, still, tofu only please."

Pho is a nest of rice noodles and veggies floating in a hot sumptuous clear broth. An added and required bonus is the little plate of fresh bean sprouts, fresh Thai basil, sliced fresh green jalpenos and lime wedges. This plate is not a side salad, you add these acoutrements to your bowl of Pho. It is absolutely my favorite soup in the world. I ritualistically slurp and sip it down until my belly is uncomfortably full. But it's worth it. It hits those happy buttons deep down inside.

Pho is amazing. It satisfies the soul of hunger like a hearty stew and yet is as fresh as a spring salad of peat shoots. It feels so healthy to eat that I find myself craving it after a good yoga session. It is so warming that I want to inhale it's beautiful aromas on a chilly central Oregon winter's evening. You get the idea, it's everything you want and need from one bowl of soup.

On our last trip to Reno we found our dear dear Pho 777 boarded up and closed. It had shared the building that burned down and killed 12 people in that Reno hotel fire. We were saddened by the horrible deaths but we had to admit that we were even more sad to find our beloved Asian restaurant gone.

When we returned home to Bend we vowed to quench our desire for Pho by making it ourselves. It turned out to be very possible to replicate Pho with a couple of key ingredients: chicken broth and a little special spice bag from an Asian market. The spice bag contains star anise, fennel, coriander, cinnamon, sugar and cloves. So it adds a little spicy sweetness to the broth that is hard to identify. It makes the soup Pho.

The chicken broth we got from work when we cooked a few free-range chickens in a big pot of boiling water. The bakery used the chickens for their chicken salad and we brought the broth home and cooked it down for a couple hours with onions, carrots, celery and the spice bags. Our windows were steamed and out house smelled great, AND we now had our Pho soup base. Once we added salt, honey and a dash of soy sauce it was ready.

Next we steamed our veggies and tofu and boiled our rice noodles separately from the broth. We arranged our noodles and veggies in our bowls and ladled the soup over it, floating the tender morsels and finding so much joy in the little rising bubbles of tasty oil. We sprinkled some green onions, bean sprouts and fresh basil on top and squirted our lime wedges over our steaming bowls. It was perfect. John and I both grinned and looked like we had discovered gold. We had our Pho once more.