The Red and Black

Issue date: 4/29/08 Section: Variety

Media Credit: JON KIM A specialty Pho Tai Nam with Vietnamese meatballs is just one of the many noodle bowl dishes at Just Pho, a new Vietnamese restaurant located on Baxter Street. [Click to enlarge]

With numerous Chinese, Japanese and Thai restaurants dotting the local cuisine scene, it was only a matter of time before someone thought to add Vietnamese fare into the mix.

And that someone happens to be freshman An Nguyen, an international affairs major from Marietta.

Nguyen and her parents recently opened Just Pho, a small restaurant on Baxter Street that specializes

in Vietnamese noodle soup, or pho (pronounced "fuh"), and boba (or bubble) tea, a drink with tapioca pearls added.

As a few employees milled around after hours on Thursday night, Nguyen found time between tallying receipt totals to talk about the restaurant.

The idea, she said, was born "after three months of dining hall food, having no car and realizing that the nearest Vietnamese restaurant was 40 miles away [in Atlanta]."

"Forty-five miles!" interjected a voice from the kitchen.

"That's a pretty large circumference of nothing," Nguyen continued. "My two favorite things are pho and boba [tea], and so many people were saying how successful it would be here."

After convincing her parents of the idea, Nguyen's mother began to perfect the family's pho recipe.

Pho is a noodle soup made of a specially seasoned broth with either beef or chicken added in. Raw vegetables often are provided on the side to be stewed in with the soup upon serving.

"It's comprised of all the different food elements - vegetables, starches, meat and broth," Nguyen said. "It's easy and light, but also filling."

Unique to Vietnam, the soup is considered the country's national dish.

"That's what Vietnam is known for," said Peter Dinh, a junior biochemistry major from Marietta, as he finished his bowl Wednesday afternoon.

"It's about the same as most pho restaurants in Atlanta," he said afterward.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools