How to Eat Pho

In order to eat Pho you have to have Pho.
So you go to a Vietnamese restaurant and order it.
If it is your first time order Pho Tai.
Also order hot tea and cafe suda.
This is iced coffee.

First will come the hot tea.
Pour a cup and sip some.
Then will come the cafe suda.
It is served differently at different restaurants.
But here it is sweetened condensed milk covered with
chicory coffee from Cafe du Monde in New Orleans.
This is poured over ice.
All during lunch you should stir the cafe suda.
But do not drink it.
But keep drinking the hot tea.

Ok, now the waiter brings the Pho Tai.
It is in a big bowl.
Everything is floating in special 24 hour to make beef broth.
It should be a nice clear broth.
There will be rice noodles.
They like to be called rice sticks.
There will be white and green onions.
There will be thin slices of red raw beef.
They will cook in the hot broth in a few seconds.

The waiter will also bring a plate full fresh ingredients.
Put some sliced chile in the bowl.
Tear up the Thai basil and other herbs and put them in.
Pick up some bean sprouts and put them in.
Squeeze the lime juice in.
Add a little Hoisen sauce to one side of the bowl.
Put some Sriracha hot sauce there too.
Stir it all up with the chop sticks.
Sip some tea.
Stir the cafe suda.
But do not drink it.

Now with the chop sticks in your right hand
and the Chinese spoon in your left hand begin.
Eat some beef first.
Then sip some broth with the spoon.
Sip some tea.
Stir the cafe suda.
But do not drink it.
Eat some noodles and herbs.
It is very good to slurp your noodles.
Keep doing this for a few minutes.
Then you have finished the Pho.

Now you should drink the cafe suda.
This will have been served in a tall glass.
You will have been stirring it with a long spoon.
Some people drink it with the spoon still in the glass.
Others take it out.
I like to leave it in so I can feel the cold metal of the spoon on my cheek.
The drink is sweet and cold.
If you have done all this right you should be feeling very satisfied.