Pho

I love ethnic food. When my husband and I go out by ourselves, we rarely eat at an "American" restaurant. Tonight we ate at our favorite Vietnamese restaurant. Vietnamese cuisine is so fresh and unprocessed, and eating it is kind of a ritual/cultural experience. The most popular Vietnamese dish is called Pho which is a huge bowl of steaming hot broth with rice noodles in it. The fun part about Pho is that when they bring out your bowl of soup, you get to add all of this stuff too it. If you want to try Pho I suggest bringing someone with you that knows what to do, because otherwise you will be lost. The condiments in the picture above are soy sauce, hoisen sauce, sriracha (which is like an Asian hot sauce), and fish sauce (fish sauce is fermented fish and salt. Don't knock it till you try it). On the plate is lime, beansprouts, Thai basil, jalapenos, and some other herb/leaf I don't know the name of. You add all of this to the soup and eat it with a big spoon and chopsticks. (chopsticks in dominant hand and spoon in the other) If you think you need a fork, you will have to ask :-)