.. pho!! ..

As promised, here's my mom's spectacular beef Pho! So amazingly deliciously. In case you don't know, this is a very famous traditional Vietnamese noodle soup. My mom makes the stock from scratch and it cooks all day with tons of beef bones, charred onions, garlic, herbs, and spices (including star anise, fennel, clove, cardamom, Saigon cinnamon, coriander, and lots of fresh cracked pepper).

Here it is cooking in a huge pot, and you can see she's added the meatballs in at the end. Most of the time, she's bending over the pot and skimming all the excess fat and impurities on top, so that the broth becomes clarified.

Today, she cooked down beef neck in the stock as well, and the meat surrounding the neck bones were so succulent, tender, and flavorful. Amazing!! She also has the raw thin slices of beef, plus the tripe, tendon, flank, etc, along with the meat balls. For the condiments, some pickled onions, bean sprouts, mint, basil, cilantro, scallions, sawgrass, and a couple of other herbs/greens that I have no English name for. You dip the meat in Sriracha hot sauce and Hoison sauce.

My mom's Pho is the best, and you're missing out if you never get a chance to try it.