When temperatures dip, thoughts turn to steamy bowls of soup, and here we have the option of soups of Eastern and Western origin.
The first thought that might pop into one’s head is the soup that’s most familiar, whether it’s Campbell’s Chicken Noodle, clam chowder, instant saimin or a trip to the ramen shop with the most soup flavors and toppings.
Some of my favorites include Le Bistro’s French onion soup, tomato bisque from Aloha Salads, Floating Market Noodles from Siam Garden, and split pea with smoked ham at Covenant Books & Coffee.
But there is always something new to try, and the opening of Mama Phó in the Aina Haina Shopping Center provided the excuse to warm up with a bowl of phó.
Once you start heading east, it’s obvious you’re not anywhere near Chinatown anymore, and the distance is not only in miles, but style. The food at Mama Phó has been cleaned up and watered down to become Vietnamese-lite or, some would say, haole-fied. Not that there’s anything wrong with that for a majority of people, but the hard core might want to stick to their current favorite restaurants.
As if acknowledging and compensating for area tastes, the restaurant offers an array of sauces at every table for those who do appreciate stronger flavors. These include Sriracha, red chili, chili and garlic, fish sauce and more.
There’s also a little more care in presentation here than is typical, but that made it easier to see the relatively scant offering of vegetables accompanying spring rolls ($4 for two rolls, $8 for four). Instead of the usual pile of vegetables, there was one sprig of basil, a small mound of bean sprouts and no mint. I wasn’t going to cry about it, but at a nearby table the men were not as reserved with their long list of wants to accompany their phó.
"Can we get more vegetables? Can we get some onions? Do you have cilantro?"
Ask and ye shall receive.
I noticed that sawtooth herb had been crossed off the menu as an accompaniment to the phó. I don’t eat it myself since looking at the tough, serrated leaves makes me feel like it’ll cut my throat. I imagine a lot of other people feel the same way and the greens were simply going to waste.
THE PHÓ ($8.75 for various beef and meatball options) here has a milder anise flavor than elsewhere, but Mama is generous with the beef, brisket and flank steak that register as pre-cooked roast beef because of the dryness factor. The beef ends up more chewy than elsewhere, where thin-sliced morsels are usually cooked within the hot broth.
Chicken in a shredded chicken salad ($8.50), with plenty of cabbage, is similarly dry. A better option is the green papaya salad ($8.50), beautifully arranged in a mound encircled with four boiled, chilled shrimps halved lengthwise, and sprinkled with crushed peanuts.
Rounding out the menu are rice plates and vermicelli bowls. Rice entrees include tofu and your choice of grilled pork, beef or pork chop for $9. Lemongrass chicken ($9) on a rice plate was mild as expected, without the scary "hairiness" of dishes served elsewhere that are saturated with the woody, lemony herb.
Charbroiled beef, grilled shrimp, grilled pork and Vietnamese barbecue pork, all with a spring roll, are the vermicelli bowl options. If ordering the pork, most people will want to stick to the thin-sliced strips of grilled pork. Barbecue pork sounds like the same thing, but here the pork is minced to form a bouncy luncheon meat-like patty that’s marinated in fish sauce, sugar, herbs and garlic before grilling. This would be a hit with Spam fans, but if you’re not expecting it, you might be caught off-guard.
Also offered for soup fans is oxtail soup ($12), though it’s only available Sundays, so I wasn’t able to try it.
Afterward, stay for dessert of deep-fried bananas with vanilla ice cream and peanuts ($3.50) or Four Seasons ($3.50), a halohalo-style dessert of longan, coconut jelly, green jelly, tapioca seeds, red beans, fruit and peanuts.
Or, you can walk over to Uncle Clay’s House of Pure Aloha for shave ice.
