About a week ago, a white man from Philadelphia introduced the world to pho, a very popular Vietnamese noodle soup. Pho has only been around for a century, so I’m really glad that white people are finally catching up to things, just like cupping or adding raw eggs to ramen.
It sparked a whole debate about whether or not it’s proper to add hoisin sauce and sriracha into the soup, and left many people angry and confused. So as someone who is actually from Vietnam, I thought I’d set the record straight.
Before I begin, here’s a little fun fact about pho: it’s a breakfast food (Surprise!) Many restaurants in Vietnam open as early as 5am everyday, and pho is available until around 9:30–10am. So if you sleep till noon, you’re kinda SOL.