A new pho, or Vietnamese noodle, shop opened in Atwater Village. It's simply called Viet Noodle Bar. There are plenty of books lining the wall behind one of the long communal tables. Patrons are welcome to peruse the tomes while they wait for their food. I was told that the restaurant owner wanted to recreate the family-style atmosphere that envelops all the pho places in Vietnam. If that was the case, he would have charged 50 cents instead of $8 for a bowl of noodles, and used brightly colored plastic chairs instead of these sturdy wood ones. Something must have gotten lost in translation.
The people don't smell here so there is no reason to fear sitting next to a stranger. But the kitchen crew doesn't look very Vietnamese.
The Latin Americanization of the kitchen and the neighborhood was reflected in the description of the rice flour crepe steamed in banana leaves. The menu called it a tamale stuffed with ground shrimp. The crepes that I'm used to are actually four times thicker than the envelope-thin portion we were served. Still, the taste was authentic, right down to the chili peppers soaked in the fish sauce.
Viet Noodle Bar serves two kinds of pho made in the Hanoi style: chicken and vegetarian. The chicken version is bereft of bean sprouts. The broth was what my relatives wouldn't describe as beo, or fatty. Beo is also a cute nickname for a little kid. Though I was a skinny and little child, I knew of others who were called Be Beo, or Baby Chubby. My mom had a friend who, after she grew up, never lost her baby fat and so had her nickname changed later to Ba Beo, or Granny Chubby.
This is the vegetarian pho. The broth is seasoned with wild mushrooms. The little rolls resting on top of the wide noodles are made of tofu skin. Much yummier than the chicken pho, the vegetarian version tasted just like soup that I used to eat at the strictly vegetarian Buddhist temples.
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