pho(k) yeah

Woke up this morning at 5:00 am. Still groggy I take a look out my bedroom window still snowing and still dark. I Walk to the bathroom and blow my nose for like ten minutes and coughed up phlegm for another ten after that. I hate winter. Everyday I wake up sick. Every thing is dead, gray, and so goddamn cold.

What could possibly make this day enjoyable (aside from that chickenshit sun showing itself)? I can't go back to bed because I have to go to work. I can't get drunk because I have to go to work. I can't even go look for a suitable bridge to go jump off because I have to go to work. Oh and to top things off I have to go to goddamn work.

And then I have a revelation.

Pho. I can have Pho for lunch.

Pho (pronounced fa) is a Vietnamese soup made with rice noodles with a beef broth. Mouth searingly spicy and yet so comforting with its fresh Thai basil, lime, and cilantro. Typical to Vietnamese dishes the herbs and lime are served on the side along with nuclear red chili paste, raw chilies, sugar, and fish sauce all to be used and abused at the discretion of the diner (hint if it doesn't hurt a little you aren't doing it right).

I got my fix at Thai Star's new location on Thompson Lane. Whats that Sam, Thai place for Vietnamese? Hey Sam, isn't their chef from Laos? Yes and yes. But guess what people? They have amazing food and more importantly amazing pho.

I mean just look at this folks!

I enlist my friend Gattis for the trip, both being a big fan of Thai Star and in town for the weekend. This a first time for both of us at the new local (when we roomed together we both frequented the E. Thompson store). We arrived at restaurant at 3:30. Typically this is a very slow time for any restaurant and I am surprised to still see plenty of people in the dining room. I Take this as a good sign. Our server seated us promptly and as a bonus was pretty funny. After taking our drinks she asked us if we were ready to order.

"Beef Pho please!" I say maybe a little too quickly.

Gattis orders the yum neu (a very very spicy beef salad) and a small bowl a of tom yum (a seafood stock soup with lemon grass.) While we wait for our food I check out the new digs. The dinning room is much larger than the previous building's. The decor is tasteful if a little sparse with a nice hand made bamboo entrance at the main door. A small shrine to Buddha sits in the corner and at the register a TV plays Thai music videos with English subtitles. The only thing I miss from the old place is a calender with Thai pin up girls.

Our food arrives and I quickly get to work making the Pho my own. Adding a generous amount of Siracha, a spoon full of sugar, some lovely but smelly fish sauce, and of course the chili paste, herbs, and lime but leaving out ice berg lettuce and hoisin sauce. The first bite is both heaven and hell.

I say to John, "May have been a little too heavy handed with the chili."

Even the steam from this stuff is unstopping my once impenetrable nasal passage. Hints of anise and coriander make it past the lava like heat and the freshness of the basil and cilantro. The beef is tender and not overcooked. The noodles soak up the broth and round out everything nicely.

The pleasure centers in my brain seem to be running on over time. Endorphins are starting to kick in from the heat and I have to stop myself from picking up the bowl and drinking the broth like cereal milk. This shit is that good.

I suddenly realize why I go to work. Like a junkie it's cop. Shoot. Cop.

Go to work to make money for pho.

Eat Pho.

Start all over again.