Comments on: Phở Chu The, Footscray

By: Ray

Ray — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 11:51:34 +0000

Pho Chu The is the best I have tried in Footscray, but there is one in Geelong that stands out. It was called Pho Noodle Geelong but now it’s Bay City Noodle. It’s on Ryrie St, just along from the old T&G Building. Outstanding Pho, even comparing it any of my seven food exploring trips to Vietnam. You must try it.

By: Gem

Gem — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 23:34:08 +0000

Try Pho Tam , 7 Leeds st Footscray. It’s the most popular amongst actual Vietnamese people

By: Stacey

Stacey — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 23:01:38 +0000

I ate here many times and enjoyed it,, but last night i went to eat with a few of my work friends and was disgusted how there were two big rats just ran out of the kitchen to the tables and of course we were scared! we told the waiter and the boss he ended doing nothing, she ended laughing and just walking in the kitchen.

I notice they recently renovated the restaurant, but it was disgusting how two rats just runs out of dining area while we were still eating! Awful!!!!!!!!!!

By: mycookinghut

mycookinghut — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 19:19:34 +0000

Hi,
Stumbled upon your blog through Real Thai. I definitely love Vietnamese food and this bowl of noodle soup is just what I need!

By: penny aka jeroxie

penny aka jeroxie — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 01:32:54 +0000

have to give this a go this weekend. I usually head to Phu vinh for my viet noodle fix. No MSG. :) I believe it is on hopkins street as well

By: Love Pho

Love Pho — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 08:09:30 +0000

Without a doubt, this is the best Pho (imho) in Melbourne.

I haven’t been blessed with the opportunity to try home-made Pho, but compared to the other Pho places I have tried here in Melbourne, Pho Chu The undoubtably gets my vote as Melbourne’s best Pho.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 03:56:47 +0000

I hadn’t been here yet…just tried a pho for lunch on this recommendation.

As Phil says, even for a Tuesday lunch, it was packed out. No menu in english here, so you gotta know what to order, which is OK for most people these days. (just gotta know what to expect if you order the ’special’ meats!). Fairly light on the MSG/Salt quotient for those wondering.

Really good stuff too…thanks for the heads-up.

By: Phil Lees

Phil Lees — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:45:30 +0000

Tammi - cheers. I'm a big fan of poking holes in authenticity while I inadvertently uphold certain notions of it (although, probably more so over at SBS than here or on Phnomenon).

By: Tammi Jonas

Tammi Jonas — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 08:39:24 +0000

Thanks a lot, Phil. I agree about who makes street food and why, and have already included examples in my chapter, however, would love more stories about Vietnamese Australians (1st, 2nd, etc generations) and their ways of maintaining homely identities around food. So maybe I’ll get in contact with you after I finish this chapter (due Friday of next week), as I am on the lookout for possible people to interview.

As for the instant pho, et al, as a devoted ‘home cook’ (meaning as you say), I ‘personally’ shudder at these things, but as I am theoretically interested in notions of authenticity, I find such foodstuffs very interesting. I’m currently working on authenticity as site-specific, contextual, subjective and contingent. Which is a huge movement from where I started, which was just ‘fraught category’. :-)

I really like this blog of yours, btw, and only recently discovered Phnomenon (brilliant name, as you know!) via Anne (above), and really really liked the entry on “Why Travelers Dislike Khmer Food”. Lovely to read your stuff.

By: Phil Lees

Phil Lees — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 05:35:38 +0000

The only Vietnamese people that I know well are obsessed about food – which is probably a bad, distorted sample – and they tend to make a huge batch of pho every few weeks and freeze it – I can put you in touch with them if it helps your PhD (and they agree). I get the feeling that making street food at home for any migrant group increases when you leave your home country. You wouldn’t make these things back in VN because labour is cheap and practically nobody owns a freezer. It’s also worth noting that the boundaries between home cooking and street food tend to get blurry – pho is amongst the minority of examples of a food that is rarely cooked at home (from scratch) because you need to make it on a grand scale to make it economically.

Most other street foods do get cooked at home if they don’t require specialist equipment or an economy of scale. People also cook simpler home versions, or just instant from a pack, but arguably, these are different dishes. Is instant pho really pho? Andrea Nguyen eats it over here and it also turns up on the menu at many shitful roadside Vietnamese restaurants. Maybe instant pho doesn’t count as “real” Vietnamese food because it doesn’t fit within our accepted notion of authenticity, even though real Vietnamese people eat it. And when we say “home-cooked”, we tend to mean “cooked from scratch” rather than “poured from box”.

Your home cooked pho looks great, by the way.