Description
This is the best pho in Orange County, bar
none. Thanh Lich's broth is brown with the drippings of beef, fragrant of
star anise, teasing with cinnamon. The cuts-whether smoky brisket, fatty
tendon, or luscious tripe-taste as if they were just shaved off a steer.
Cooking in the boiling soup, the broth becomes even more concentrated-and
that's before the inclusion of lime, jalapeños, Thai basil, sharp ngo gai,
and all the other herbs that ratchet the broth from extraordinary to
transcendent. And that beef! Each brisket slice has a length of fat as thick
and pale as the whitewalls on a Corvette; each tendon begs a slurp, each
tripe slice an extra chew.
