Pho for Thought

Bombs explode in the distance as clouds of thick, black smoke fill the sky and the American planes fly low overhead. Minh Loi, 11, holds his younger sister's hand so as not to lose her in the crowd of their classmates. The train that will take them to their hiding spot in the mountains away from the bombs,the soldiers and the war in Vietnam, waits in Hanoi.

Twenty-seven years after the bombs and escape to the mountains, Loi, now 38, sits in his Irving Street restaurant discussing the origins of Pho, a staple of Vietnam. A refugee from North Vietnam, Loi owns one of the original North Vietnamese restaurants in San Francisco.

"When I first came to the U.S. with my mother and my sister we were very poor and I went to work in a cafe, washing dishes. I saved money for six years to buy my own restaurant and when we first opened we were the only Vietnamese restaurant in the Sunset District," he says with a proud smile. "Our business did so good, five more restaurants opened up right around us in the last couple of years."

"The difference between Chinese food and Vietnamese food, Loi says, is that Vietnamese food is much more healthier. Many of the dishes use boiling techniques to cook the food so the amounts of grease and fat are minimal. Everything we make is low on salt and very plain. If you want spice you add it later so you don't destroy the real flavor of the food."

Loi's Vietnamese Restaurant at 2228 Irving Street is a small but quaint place filled with wooden tables, matching wooden chairs and Loi's family. Like the food, it is plain but pleasing. It is specifically North Vietnamese style and Loi stresses there is a difference.

"The food in the South is very different than the kind we make in the north. The people from the South copied our food but it is certainly not as good," Loi says with a laugh. "Just ask people who know the food, they can always tell whether it is from the North or not. They also tend to barbecue the meat they use as well as cook with more grease and spice."

Vietnamese food consists of variations of three main courses: Pho, Bunh(cold noodles), and Com(rice). Pho, is noodle soup and made with a choice of chicken, beef or pork. The meat is cooked by the boiling water of the broth along with vegetables and noodles. Bunh is a type of barbecued meat, again with chicken, beef or pork as the main ingredient and it is served over dry, rice noodles. Com consists of barbecued meat over rice, with the same choices in meat as the others.

Loi's does have two specialty dishes made by Loi and only Loi. Pho Tan Lan Ha Noi which is a beef noodle soup made Ha Noi-style and Cha Ca La Vong which is Southeast Asian catfish in dill sauce, mint and fried hot oil at the table. No other Vietnamese restaurant serves these types of dishes in San Francisco and you'll find no other chef quite as charming or friendly as Loi.

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