Faux Pho - Rhymes with D'oh - Spicy Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup

This video recipe is my fairly weak attempt at the famous Vietnamese spicy beef noodle soup, Pho. As I shopped for the ingredients, I had a nice package of beef oxtail in my hand, but since I was just making a small batch, and I already had two beautiful beef shanks in the basket, I decided to not get them. That was a mistake.

While this beef noodle soup wasn't bad, it wasn't spectacularly great which is what Pho should be. The signature of this soup is a very rich, deeply flavored, collagen-infused beef broth. I overestimated the beef shanks, and it was lacking exactly what the oxtails would have added.

Also, to add to this Pho's fauxness, I went pretty light on the spices. Real Pho has more of the aromatic spices you'll see in the video. I also didn't add the extra sliced beef that is traditional, like brisket, flank, and thinly sliced, rare filet mignon. I also didn't char the ginger, which is recommended. I also didn't pronouce Pho correctly - I say, "Pho," when it's actually more like, "Fuh." Despite all this, I still had a pretty nice beef soup, but it really made me crave a real Pho.

Don't get me wrong, I encourage you to make this recipe - the technique you'll see is fairly accurate, but I advise you to add a couple pounds of oxtails, and maybe twice the spices. Also, for homework, find the nearest Vietnamese restaurant and order a bowl of Pho so you can see what we are trying to do here. Enjoy!

Ingredients: (these are not what I used in the video, but what I wish I did):

• 2 beef shanks, and 2 lbs oxtails
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 onion
• 2 whole cloves
• 6 clove garlic
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 cinnamon