Pho Ta

So my friend M has a hot date coming up.  We were discussing what he should do.  Not a movie, I said - the most overrated first date, having to sit in the dark for two hours wondering if you're sitting weird or crunching your popcorn too loud, and god forbid a sex scene comes on.  How about a restaurant, we mused?  Avoid anything with spinach, we decided, and avoid pho.  That "I have a squid hanging out of my mouth" dangling noodle look is so not attractive, and the "bite off and let splash back into bowl" even less so.

So pho eating is for relationships that are like stretched-out old trackies - life partners and besties.  Thinking about it, I tend to eat at pho places on my lonesome.  In truth, I'll eat anywhere alone, but pho is the place I feel least like I'm on a clapped-out old nag, riding into Loserville, population me.  If eating yum cha by yourself is the dining equivalent of having your fly undone in front of a packed lecture theatre, pho is like a safe zone for solitary diners.  No one would ever think you're odd for eating beef soup alone, and you don't need to subject anyone else to dangling noodle squid mouth.

Pho Ta have fairly recently opened in the lower part of Nicholson Street.  They have the classic menu on the wall thing going on, but the kitchen is totally open.  There you can see the bubbling pots of stock and all the fixings, ready to come to life as generous bowls of soup.

The couple who run Pho Ta are gregarious and just gorgeous.  I got an impromptu Vietnamese lesson and a plastic bag to hold all my Savers finds (I was too cheap to buy their reusable bag, so was rocking the "have run away from home with only my best clothes and mismatched Tupperware" look).  Everyone who came in for a bowl of soup seemed to know them, and there were quite a few (and, may I say, that every one of them on their lonesome).

Wow, such rich broth.  I prefer mine a little lighter and more aromatic-y in flavour, but it was very good nonetheless.  What struck me was the quality of the beef - extremely tasty and tender.  The noodles were fresh and perfectly al dente.  Big points for lime, not lemon.

Pho Ta do Vietnamese coffee and have an espresso machine too.  So bring your first date for a coffee.  Or put it this way - if you go the pho and despite the soup splatters and perilously dangling noodles, you still think your date's cute - then you know it's love at first sight!

Pho Ta
131 Nicholson Street, Footscray
Hours:  TBA


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A little community announcement for you.  There's a huge undercurrent of permaculture and green things going on in the western suburbs - regular "Fermentation Fridays", vegie swaps, food co-ops, permablitzes and more.  I'm working on a post about it, but if you're interested in plugging in, check out the fundraiser for our local CSA (community-supported agriculture), 40k Farm in Melton.  I get my eggs through them and they have redefined how I think an egg tastes.