Regular readers know I’m a big fan of Viet House. Of the six or seven Vietnamese places in the area, I’d say it’s one of the top two. So I eat there a lot.
Today, with Melanie and Shannon, I noticed an interesting offering on the menu for the first time: “angry pho.” For an extra buck, they’ll make your pho spicy, from 1 (mildest) to 5 (hottest).
Hmmm.
Now I love pho. I wrote a love letter to pho a long time ago. One thing about pho though, and really Vietnamese cuisine in general, is that most of it isn’t particularly spicy out of the box. Rather, it’s served with numerous accompaniments—sriracha, chili oil, peppers, and so forth—to enable you to heat it up yourself. And I generally do so with my pho tai, adding all of the sliced jalapenos and a goodly squirt of sriracha.
However, if I’m going to give the angry pho a whirl, I’d better hold off until I have a taste (particularly because you know I’m getting 5).
When it arrived, it looked like pho tai, but it was considerably darker, and maybe a bit red. It smelled wonderful. (And I felt it in my eyes a bit too.)
I had a spoon of the broth. It was delicious, and oh my, did it light up on the back end. I decided to go with my standard dress, but omitted the sriracha as superfluous:
Our waiter indicated there was quite a bit of sate sauce present, and I’m here to tell you, there were a ton of red chiles in said sauce. This bowl of pho went from temperate to searing in about three bites, and just like a good basket of wings, it got more formidable the lower I got. I got an excellent sweat and endorphin dump, and I was back to normal in about 10 minutes.
I’m going with a 7 on my usual heat scale. (That’s hot. If you don’t have experience with superhot peppers and sauces, you shouldn’t order this.)
And I’m definitely getting it again.
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