So Good Pho You

Pho Ga Dakao
11778 Bellaire (near Kirkwood)

Last week, Hubby and I were both recovering from summer colds. After a long day of annoying errands including flu shots for the kids, everyone was exhausted and cranky. With prickly dispositions and stuffy heads, this seemed the perfect night to test out one of Houston's Vietnamese restaurants.

When I lived in Arlington, Virginia, I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by tons of great Vietnamese places and Pho 75 was my go-to place whenever I was feeling under the weather. There's just something restorative and comforting about that slow cooked beefy broth steeped with jalapenos and a healthy serving of Sriracha. But, when I moved to Maryland, I was disappointed to find a lack of fabulous Vietnamese venues. Knowing we were moving to Houston, the city that boasts the third largest Vietnamese population in the U.S., I had high hopes for finding fabulous pho once we relocated.

After conducting some pho-related research, I decided on Pho Ga Dakao. Pho Ga Dakao is located in a shopping plaza in Houston's Chinatown. Unlike most American pho places I've encountered, Pho Ga Dakao serves chicken pho instead of the usual beef variety. In fact, the name "pho ga" is Vietnamese for chicken pho. I was a bit unsure about chicken pho, but according to the ever reliable Wikipedia, chicken pho has been served in Vietnam since the 1930s and may have been invented as a result of the unavailability of beef in the marketplaces on certain days of the week. Ultimately, I decided that since pho has medicinal qualities and chicken soup also has medicinal qualities, combining the two could only be a good thing.

We picked up takeout from the bare bones, family run establishment. Hubby selected the dark meat pho, and I opted for the white meat variety. We also ordered some spring rolls and two iced Vietnamese coffees. With the early October temperatures soaring up to 90 degrees, the creamy, rich iced coffee was the perfect beverage to enjoy on our ride home.

Once home we unpacked the plastic takeout bags and started the search for our largest serving bowls. You need a big bowl to eat pho properly and we've found that we each require serving bowl-sized vessels when we do takeout pho. The broth, meat, and "fixin's" were each packaged separately. Here are a few action photos:

Delicious chicken broth.

Adding the broth to the chicken and fixin's -- Thai basil, vermicelli noodles, cilantro, generous portions of lime juice, hot sauce, and jalapenos.

The perfect bowl of pho.

While the pho flavors melded, we enjoyed some spring rolls.

Full disclosure: While perhaps not "cool" to admit, I really prefer the deep fried spring rolls that occasionally appear on Thai and Vietnamese menus. But, these spring rolls were very fresh and the shrimp were flavorful. These were an acceptable appetizer before the main event.

Finally, it was time for the pho. We tucked in with our chopsticks and spoons. Our sinuses cleared and we slurped our noodles loudly. At one point, I just picked up the entire bowl and started gulping down the broth. "This is the best chicken soup I've ever had in my life," Hubby said. Perhaps that's not surprising. According to an article that appeared in the Houston Press in 2011, this particular restaurant's broth simmers for 14-16 hours, which allows for plenty of time for the rich, salty, chicken flavor to develop.

We ended our meal with very full stomachs, clearer heads, and the belief that the next day, we would be feeling much better. The summer colds provided the perfect excuse for an initial journey into Houston's Chinatown. As anticipated, we were quite pleased by what we discovered and eager to return for more Vietnamese culinary adventures in the near future.