I am so very, very late with jumping onto the ‘pho’ bandwagon, but it doesn’t bother me because it’s almost as if I was waiting for Hanoi Hannah to come into my life before I tried, and loved, my very first pho. It truly is a pho-nomenon! (totally can’t take credit for that one, I borrowed it from Hannoi Hannah’s uber cool website) 

As Melbourne has been doing it’s best to remind us all that it is in fact almost winter, not summer like that stint of sunny days last week had us thinking, it has become clear that the time for wooly bed socks, multiple cups of coffee and tea and comfort food is here. And that includes pho. Luckily we didn’t have to walk far to Hanoi Hannah because my nose had just started to hurt from the cold when we arrived to this cosy little eatery. It was a Wednesday night so we got a table to ourselves straight away and promptly ordered slushies. I think mine was lychee and mint and I tell you, even though I kept on getting brain freezes because I was drinking something frozen when I was already cold, it was the modest slushie taken to the next level. It was all kinds of amazing. And this is all before the handmade rice paper rolls and of course, the pho. 

We ordered the peking duck rice paper rolls and the fresh tofu, shitake, pickled cucumber and carrot rice paper rolls. They came out really quickly and they were devoured even quicker. The peking duck were especially delicious, even more so after being dunked in the sauce that came with them. I don’t know what it was (good food blogger right here!) but it was rich and intense and almost smokey. Omnomnom

Then came the pho! We ordered the tender beef pho and the poached chicken pho and they came with a plate of bean sprouts, thai mint and lemon wedges to add to our pho’s according to our own taste. I loved the extra little touch and the fact that our massive bowls of pho, plus the toppings, cost only $10. Talk about value! The pho was phantastic (it doesn’t really work as well as pho-nomenon does it. Eh!) and it felt like my body was being wrapped in a warm fury blanket, or someone wearing a snuggie was giving me a big hug. It was full of flavour and was just so tasty. It’s like a Vietnamese equivalent to chicken soup, and I swear there’s a little part of me that is looking forward to getting my first cold of the winter season just so I can go and devour some more pho.