Pho Tan Vinh, Silver Spring, Maryland

On a bitter cold day, Nancy and I ventured to Silver Spring to try a place that, unfortunately, was much too crowded for us to feel comfortable, and too loud to boot. We continued up to the next corner where a benevolent Providence had placed Pho Tan Vinh. In cold weather, a bowl of pho is perfect, and Pho Tai Vinh serves delicious pho.

Pho Tan Vinh is a small family run place. Nancy ordered a small bowl of Pho Tai Nam (with medium rare eye round and slow cooked brisket, $11.95), and I ordered a large Pho Tai Nam, Gan, Sach (adding tendon and tripe, $12.95). A small bowl should be plenty, but for another dollar you have the prospect of leftovers that will freshen a soup you have at home.

The pho came with lots of basil, bean sprouts, limes, and jalapeño slices. Nancy added some of everything, and I added everything except the bean sprouts. Here’s my bowl before I added the basil leaves:

First, the broth was delicious. It had that wonderful blend of seasonings that distinguishes good pho, and adding lots of lime juice and basil leaves takes it to another level. Note that I took a judicious approach to the jalapeños. I am a big jalapeño fan, but they’re best with solid food. The heat seems to explode in liquid, which is why drinking water after eating a too-hot pepper is a bad idea: have a bit of a starch. I just added a couple of seed-free slices, just the right amount for the broth.

A word about the beef tendon and tripe. Beef tendon (in the lower left) has little favor on its own, but takes on the flavor of the broth. It also adds a lot of collagen and protein, and has a nice melting texture once it’s thoroughly cooked. It’s a great addition to a beef broth.

The tripe in pho is the very delicate lining you can see in the upper part of the photo. Like the tendon, it has little flavor on its own but is a magnet for the pho seasonings. And it has a nice texture. It is a far cry from the steak-like tripe — tablier de sapeur — I had in Lyons at Aux Trois Petit Cochons. The beef mouth and veal foot salad there was a revelation, delicious, but the Lyons tripe was pretty heavy on the offal flavor. As I say, a far cry from the tripe in my pho.

We both enjoyed our respective soups immensely. We could hardly have chosen better. I’ll note that Nancy and I approach pho from opposite directions. She starts with the meat and noodles, while I start with the broth, and only attack the by then srirachi-soaked solids after the danger of randomly chopped, bony chunks of roast duck falling off my chopsticks and splashing the broth has passed. Many is the tie I ruined while dropping randomly chopped, bony chunks of duck in a bowl of Hong Kong style noodle soup at the late Full Key in the DC Chinatown during my working days.

We lucked into a wonderful meal at Pho Tan Vinh. We’ll be back for more pho as winter continues, and I look forward to trying their bahn mi when the weather become more clement. Give them a try. You’ll thank me.

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