That night, we had our first major problem of the entire trip. We were trying to go to a place which some said made the best pho in Saigon. They described it as the best of both worlds of north and south... and rich, meaty broth of the north, enhanced with more spices and herbs from the south. After wandering around the residential area of Tan Binh for what seemed like forever, we found ourselves in the middle of this:
A dark alley in the middle of nowhere! Saigon is full of alleys - these are basically unnamed streets that run in mazes behind the larger streets. No matter how hard we tried, we could not find Pho Phu Vuong. We even tried to ask people - everyone who we asked seemed to know about the place, yet no one could tell us exactly where it was... we even asked a very nice young lady working in a clothing store, and she went so far as to go out onto the sidewalk with us, walk down the block to show us which direction to go, only for her not to find it either, and then she would ask others, and they would say it was in the other direction!!! So, alas, we were never to find the elusive pho... my white whale... after much walking, questioning, and bit of general frustration, we got in a taxi to head to another pho place, where a different blogger said they had the best pho....
This is what we found:
I don't know if I'd call it the best pho in Saigon - or even the best that we had on our trip.... but it was unusual in that it had a very strong spice aroma - star anise and cinnamon... I could taste it in my head for 20 minutes after we finished! This was Pho Phuong in District 1. Unfortunately, I didn't realize at the time that my photo of the sign was completely blurred...
