Chad Kubanoff, 37, an American chef who lives in HCM City, likes Vietnamese pho and has tasted many versions with unique variations.

Chad said pho is delicious, but he doesn’t eat it regularly, and just orders it for breakfast, or late at night, or when he falls sick.

Most recently, he visited a well-known pho restaurant on Tran Quoc Toan street in district 3 to sample the special pho, with noodles made manually on the spot.

Chad ordered a serving priced at VND80,000. He said: "The broth is rich in beef and cinnamon flavor.".

“It is made northern style, but the interesting thing is that the pho is served with spices popular in all three northern, central and southern regions,” he noted. “So diners can season pho to obtain the flavor they want."

The American chef revealed that he prefers northern-style pho, so he added garlic vinegar, herbs and chili sauce. He said the seasoning created a pho version with quite a different flavor, as if he tried a new dish.

The noodles were small, thin and very soft, and the broth contained stewed beef ribs.

The special characteristic of the pho was the strong flavor of beer and cinnamon. Noodles are made manually on the spot. And though the pho was prepared northern style, it tasted like it was a central or southern style if using different spice recipes.

In addition to pho, another dish at the restaurant suggested by Chad was ‘pho tho da’ (hot stone pho), priced at VND100,000.

The broth is created with simmered bones and oxtail and served in a hot stone pot. The rice noodles, beef shank and onions are put separately in other dishes, and diners dip ingredients in the broth while eating.

Chad said he likes the variety because this allows him to have different versions of pho.

Le Duc Truong, 49, the owner of the restaurant, confirmed that there are spices from all three regions, including chili sauce from the north, black bean sauce from the south and vinegar with onion from the central region.

Thao Trinh