Food Profile: Pho

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I decided to do my food profile on pho because after watching Tampopo it made me thought about noodle soups. It inspired me to write my food profile about my own cultural cuisine. Pho is a dish that has a great connection to my memory and culture. I remember when I was a child, my family use to go out and eat pho during the weekends because it is a dish that takes a lengthy amount of time to prepare and cook. My mother use to work weekends, so instead of making pho for our family, we would go out to eat pho in Chinatown. Additionally, pho is like collard greens. It connections to my culture as it connects collard greens to African Americans because of its significance role in history. Pho also is a symbol of who I am. Eatting pho reminds me that I am not just American, but I am Vietnamese too.

Pho is a traditional Vietnamese rice noodle soup dish that is served hot. It is a simple soup consisted of a bowl of broth, noodles, and beef. It was created around the 1900's. This dish orignially came from the northern part of Vietnam. After the defeat of the French during the 1950's, most northern Vietnamese people tried to flee the communist that was ruling Vietnam's northern region. These people moved to the south, after that pho spreaded to the southern and central part of Vietnam in the mid-1950's.

After the Vietnam War in the 1950's, pho have also slowly spreaded to the Western countries as well. The refugees from the war had became immigrants to many Western countries and they brought along the recipe for pho with them. Additionally to the spread of pho around the world, the pho recipe have evolved and now there are many variation of the pho recipe. The most known variation is the northern and southern Vietnamese version of it. One region's pho may be sweeter and the other region may be more spicer. Northern pho usually uses the wider noodles and green onions. As for the southern version of pho, they usually uses thinner noodles and they add lots of fresh herbs as garnishes.

Also, there seems to be conflicts between how pho was originally created. Some believed that the arrival of the French prompted this dish because it is similar to the French beef stew dish called pot-au-feu. The broth for both the pot-au-feu and pho is prepared with lots of spices. Others believed that pho may have Chinese origins. China ruled Vietnam for over a thousand years and had great influences over the Vietnamese culture, including the Vietnamese cuisine. The ingredients for cooking pho included spices and rice noodles, which can be seen in Chinese cuisine.

For nearly a hundred years, the history of pho have changed a lot. The versions of it have varied a whole lot and the consumer of pho have also increased greatly. Pho have became one of the most popular and well known Vietnamese dish in Western countries. The pho soup can be found at almost any Vietnamese restaurant. It is a healthy dish, considering it contains only noodles, meat, and vegetables. Besides being a healthy dish, pho is also inexpensive.

Pho can be eatten at any meal, breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Pho is usually served in a bowl with white rice noodles in a clear meat broth with a variety of beef cuts, including steak, fatty flank, lean flank, brisket. It can also contain tendon, tripe, meatballs, chicken, mushrooms, and tofu. The broth of the pho soup is typically made from beef bones and spices that have been simmering in water over the stove for several hours. It is also seasoned with cinnamon, ginger, salt, and pepper. Before consuming the soup, some may garnish the bowl of soup first. The garnishes that usually is added to the bowl of soup are green onions, cilantro, basil, bean sprouts, and lemon or lime wedges. These garnishes are usually provided on a seperate plate for the soup consumer to adjust the soup flavor. Hoisin sauce, sirarcha, and fish sauce are also added to the soup as well for flavor.

Pho is a dish that I really like and probably is liked by others too. Making pho is a time consuming process. Here is a link to an article that gives more information on pho and how to make pho: http://www.vietworldkitchen.com/bookshelf/articles/pho_SJM.htm

Ethical Concerns

In one of the reading, Bovine Abominations: Genetic Culture and Politics in the Netherlands, it examined how people in the Netherlands tried to come to terms with consuming genetically modified animals and the use of this new knowledge of genetics. This article showed knowledge and practices of genetic modification is being aware by others. It seems like it is deeply embeded into the social ideal of tolerance and anxieties of the Netherland's population.

As for our country, how much tolerance do we have with genetic modified animals? Some producers seems to not have any problems with producing genetic modified food and produce for consumers in our country. I believe that we are still struggling with consuming genetic modified agriculture. Some have turned to organic and none GMO produce and food to show their disagreement with consuming modified agriculture products.

Ethical, I believe that modifing our food is not the right thing to do, if it is not necessary. It is like the saying, "If it is not broken then do not fix it." Modifing food is still a new technology. I believe we still do not know the affects of consuming the modified food in the long run. Having the current knowledge and practicing modification to the food should go under a lot of more research.