Pho Viet

Hi. I tried Pho Viet today for the first time,located at 4941 N. Broadway. The only other mention i could find about it was in the thread describing laikom and turkob's pho crawl.

I went in specifically to try the mi quang. When I placed my order, my server looked at me and asked "you know about mi quang?" Perhaps this is a comment on how few people order the dish. I'll admit I didn't know about it until I read about it on LTH.

Anyhow, the mi quang came out with chicken, shrimp, some pork belly, and a couple quail eggs, chopped peanuts, and green onions. The broth was good, but I found myself adding fish sauce and white pepper to liven up the noodles themselves. Underneath the noodles were bean sprouts, banana blossom leaves, red cabbage, and some type of dark green that almost looked like spinach. It was missing the cilantro and fried garlic that tops Nha Hang's version and helps provide a lot of flavor.

The one thing that I really loved was the pickled shallots sitting on the table along with the fish sauce. I've never seen these in a Vietnamese restaurant and it was a happy discovery. There were thai chilis in it so it had a little kick and was perfect for giving the mi quang the extra kick it needed. I think I ended up using half the container in my dish. Very tasty, and definitely something I want to learn to make for myself.

I googled Mi Quang!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mì_Quảng

Here are a couple pictures of the Mi Quang and the shallots. I hope they upload properly.