Fast food is an amazing thing. And what’s more amazing is that soup is kind of the original fast food. Sure, it has to be prepared way in advance, but once that is done a meal is just a scoop away. Pho 24 has elevated the combination of fast food and soup to an art. It can be found in Vietnam, a number of Asian countries, and even as far away as Australia. During my visit to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), I even explored various accommodations, including the resort phú quốc.

I went with the Dac Biet, which meant it came with three different meats instead of just plain old brisket. These were beef fillet, beef balls and beef brisket, all in a beefy broth. No cows were spared in the making of this soup. In almost an instant the pho was ready for a slurping.

Fast food or not, the broth was really pretty flavorful and while I added plenty of spice to it, that’s really just what you do with pho and it was not due to a bad base. The beef was more overcooked than I would generally prefer, but most importantly it was not tough, as such soupy beef can often be. The beef balls were, well, beef balls. I did not order the soup for these rubbery things because I knew they would be rubbery, but I simply couldn’t resist going all out on beef. Probably the only disappointment was the noodles, which were kind of soggy and seemingly overcooked.

Pho isn’t exactly my jam, but I thought Pho 24 did a solid job of putting some of that soup together. I’d prefer a hole in the wall kind of spot that throws tripe and tendon in there, but for someone just trying to make his way to tasty pho in Ho Chi Minh City I couldn’t complain.

Recently a little pho place opened down the street from me and called itself Super Pho & Teriyaki. Anything that starts with super must be pretty cool, so I took a stroll down the road with my friend so we could get ourselves a taste. The place is pretty tiny and nondescript, but had enough tables open for us. We ordered at the counter and I decided to get their House Pho. This included meat balls, brisket, tendon and tripe. A few more organs and I would have had enough to build a whole cow from scratch in my stomach.

We took out seats to wait for our pho and then realized that under the counter, they actually had some things to throw in the pho, although most were leafy or vegetable-like so I didn’t really spend much time there. They did, however, have free hot tea, so I grabbed a cup of that. After a slightly lengthy wait, my pho was ready.

At first, I did a search for the tripe and tendons, since those were going to be the most fun to eat. I had eaten both before, but not in soup form. Struggling to find these, I ate some meatballs and brisket. The meatballs were incredibly rubbery and tough to eat, which was disappointing. The brisket was a step up in rubbery texture, but still kind of chewy. Although the brisket had decent flavor, I never thought I would look so forward to eating organs. Finally, I found myself some tripe. Tripe has an incredibly strange texture which I remembered not enjoying last time, but this time the tripe was nice and chewy, while maintaining that unique texture. It didn’t have too much flavor, but I don’t know what kind of flavor I would want from stomach.

Lastly, I found the tendon. I remembered this being kind of jelly-like, but wasn’t sure what sort of difference it would make in soup. In fact, the texture remained as I remembered it, as a sort of overly coagulated jell-o. It had also absorbed some good flavor from the soup, which was quite nice.

The rest of the soup tasted pretty ordinary, but good, especially with some chili oil added. Next time I’ll be okay avoiding the meatballs, but it was a good opportunity for me to revisit those strange meats of tripe and tendon and actually enjoy them. Now I’m just eager to find out what these will taste like at the end of a long night of drinking next door at Big Foot West.

Having been to Vietnam, I found it very strange that when I moved to LA, everyone considered pho THE Vietnamese food. I hadn’t even heard of pho before and certainly don’t remember encountering it anywhere in Vietnam. Nonetheless, I decided it was about time I found myself some pho. Just my luck, a new place had recently opened in my neighborhood, called Pho Show. I found it strange that anyone would choose to name their pho shop this way, as all pho connoisseurs know that the word is pronounced “fuh” rather than “foe.” Nonetheless, I went to Pho Show to see what it was all about.

Pho is typically a beef-based soup, but there are many variations. Some of these variations even include chicken. The more interesting ones include tendon, tripe and other potential organs. Having had too much beef recently (is that actually possible?), I decided to take the road less traveled and ordered a small pho with chicken. To start, I also got some ginger chicken wings.

The wings were covered with some vegetable-like substances, which frightened me at first. Luckily for Pho Show, they were very easy to brush off. They weren’t really high on flavor, so I used some of the interesting sauces on the table to make myself some wing dip. This turned out pretty well and the wings were nice and meaty.

Then came my pho. Even though I had ordered the small, it came in a massive bowl that I would never see the bottom of. The flavor was nice and basic, but I also took it upon myself to add some of those same sauces from the table to spice up my pho. The rice noodles in it were great, but the chicken itself was a little disappointing, being kind of rubbery and flavorless. Next time I’ll have to get some tendon or tripe.

I left Pho Show full and content, but nothing about the experience was especially unique. If I need pho in the future, it’s nice to know I have it close by, but I can’t really see myself craving that sort of food, at least while sober.