“Here baby. Here’s the straw,” my wife lured our little son. I looked over just in time to see my one-year-old son suck some brown liquid with tiny green chunks from a paper cup through a clear flexi-straw. My jaw dropped.
“What’s that?” I questioned.
She said with a blank stare, “phở.”
“Through a straw?” I asked. “How is he drinking meat and noodles through a straw?” My wife glanced at me with that what-planet-is-my-husband-from stare.
She asked me, “do you see any noodles in the straw?” It was a good question. I didn’t see any noodles, but I was still astounded that the baby was “drinking” phở. He looked at his puzzled dad and smiled.
“He likes it honey,” my wife retorted. “Don’t rock the boat. He can drink his phở if he wants.” She was right. As long as he was enjoying it, which he was, there was no reason to object. With my chopsticks, I pincered a savory mouthful of noodles and slurped it into my mouth. It was clear that my wife, the baby, and I all were enjoying this meal with whatever utensil suited our abilities.
For those of you that don’t know, phở is a delicious Vietnamese noodle soup that is typically composed of rice noodles and tofu or meat in a tasty beef broth. Rumor has it that the dish is a Vietnamese transliteration of the French pot au feu, which is a traditional French meat and vegetable stew. Apparently during the 300 years of French occupation prior to the American war, some of the French culinary tradition was accepted, adopted, and altered by Vietnamese chefs, cooks, and households. The result is a number of delectable foods, including phở, which have become iconic for Vietnamese cuisine in the United States. Phở connoisseurs can customize this culinary delight by tossing in some vegetables from the plate of fresh cilantro, basil, and bean sprouts. Hot pepper, fish, soy, chili pepper, and plum sauces can also be added to personalize your bowl’s flavor. While you can eat the soup without all of these fixings, each individual can also make their bowl taste however they like. The combinations are endless.
Phở is an excellent dish for carnivores from adults to babies that are ready for solid foods. Vegetarians who don’t mind beef broth can order a bowl with tofu or veggies. There are a couple of concerns if you plan on feeding it to babies. In some bowls of phở the beef is cooked in the hot broth. This isn’t a problem if you are eating in the restaurant because the broth is very hot near boiling and will thoroughly cook the thin beef slices. Sometimes if you order phở to go or if you accidentally order a bowl featuring rare cuts, the broth doesn’t always cook the meat all the way through. So you might want to make sure the meat is thoroughly cooked unless you aren’t worried about feeding your baby rare or medium beef. Another concern for most babies is making sure spicy peppers are not already mixed in with the broth. Its best if a baby-sized portion is set aside before the adults start mixing hot peppers in their phở. Also, parents concerned with how much salt their baby is eating may want to focus on feeding their tykes the rice noodles, meat, and vegetables because I’m not sure how much salt is in the broth.
At the restaurant I continued watching my little son slurp up phở broth, smiling widely with every mouthful. We had tried feeding him the noodles and meat with chopsticks, but it didn’t work out so well because he kept trying to grab the strange wooden utensils. We also had to chop the noodles and meat into smaller bits and feed that to him with a fork. His little mouth was too small to eat the broth from the ceramic spoons, so my creative wife poured some broth into a paper cup and let the baby slurp it up with a straw. I was so hungry I barely noticed what those two were up to until I saw what was going on. The baby was happy. My wife and I were enjoying our phở too. Everything was right with the world during lunch that day.
If you want to know more about phở, check out this article.
Here are a few of our favorite phở restaurants:
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