Pho c/o Pho Ha

This past weekend I thought it was about time to return to Pho Ha for a round of pho with LW. She agreed, and so on Sunday we made our way to South Philly. This was made a little more complicated than it usually would be because of the Broad Street Run. LW and I live west of Broad, but the restaurant is just east of it, which meant that we would need to cross Broad at some point. Of course, this was made more tricky because of the race. With just a little planning I avoided the issue by taking 76 until we had crossed over Broad. LW exclaimed when she saw all the runners making their way towards the stadiums.

The last few times I've had pho I've been a little disappointed by just how cooked my steak is by the time it arrives at the table. To remedy this disappointment I asked for my steak to be brought on the side. This worked out quite well.

The broth was still super hot and the steak cooked properly, but had just a little more liveliness as a result of not being quite so steeped in broth before arriving in my mouth.

Mmmm. So good. So, so, so good.

I also ordered the grilled pork rolls because the pork within them is ridiculously flavorful. I basically just picked the meat out of the rolls.

At the end of the meal I still had a nice mix of brisket, steak and broth and asked our server if I could get a to-go container. He then took the bowl away to do it himself, a moment or two later he came back and said that my leftovers were only filling up about half of the container...would I like to top it off with more broth? The answer to that was, of course, a resounding YES PLEASE. What magic. What magic lovely magic times. That leftover broth/meat became a dinner and a lunch for me this past week.

While we managed to avoid any consternation as a result of Broad Street Run traffic on the way to our meal, we weren't quite as successful on the way back. I had assumed that just doing the same thing in reverse would be a fine plan, but hadn't considered that by the time our meal was over that most folks were done running and were all getting into cars and attempting to leave the area. This led to LW and I getting stuck in traffic for a good 45 minutes. I think we managed to stay in relatively good spirits.