One should be so lucky as to live surrounded by pho shops. If you live in the eastern part of Los Angeles County, east of Monterey Park, on the edge of the San Gabriel Valley, in the sleepy working-class town of El Monte -- you'd think that Vietnamese pho restaurants had popped up like mushrooms. We had a discussion earlier after Jonathan Gold's LA Weekly article on those pho shops. I spoke with LA Times reporter Hector Becerra a few months ago about the traditions of pho and the hyper-entrepreneurial spirit and competition that's inherent in Vietnamese business owners.
Then I went to taste for myself. In one hour, I power tasted four (4) bowls of pho in South El Monte. They're all on Garvey Avenue. Drive east on the 10 freeway and exit on Rosemead in El Monte, take a right and then turn left at Garvey. The street is peppered with 10 pho shops for about a 3-mile-stretch. In the main, the basic pho was quite well crafted. I'd gladly eat on this street any time. Things that stood out included:
Multilingual menus -- On the farthest edge, Viet Huong had the best quadralingual menu I'd ever seen in a Vietnamese restaurant. The Spanish translations were sophisticated and spot on, and so was the Vietnamese, Chinese, and English. This is the future of mult-culti America, folks. The soup wasn't the best of the lot, but the resto was clean. There were old Viet people eating there which was why I went in!
Pho Bac (nothern pho with filet) -- Then I went to Pho Huynh and entered through the back door as many others do. It was dark and the ceiling low, nightclub like. The room was packed and rowdy with people slurping. Service there was rough and not particularly congenial. "What do you want?' were the waitress' first words. I asked about the dac biet pho Bac (special northern pho bowl) to see what all the hype was. (Gold had waxed eloquently about it.) "Have you ever eaten pho in Hanoi?" the gal asked. "It's made this way.This has filet, filet mignon."
"Yes, I have but they don't use filet mignon. They don't have that," I responded. She nodded and then asked me what I wanted to order. So I tried it and well, it's not like northern pho that I've had but it's a nice "new" version as was explained to me by a woman at Pho Minh down the street. The cooks on Garvey are taking filet and hand chopping it (like a cubed steak) and then putting it raw atop the noodles with a heavy dose of shredded ginger. Then they ladle the broth over it. It was good but not any more authentic than regular pho. By the time I got to Pho Filet,
I'd eaten 2 bowls of filet mignon northern pho. Despite the shop's name, I couldn't fathom another bite of filet. And all the ginger was overwhelming the other aromatics of the broth. So I cleansed my palate with an old-fashioned bowl and Pho Filet's basic pho hit the spot.
In the olden days (at the earlier part of the 20th century), all you got in terms of pho was broth, noodles and cooked meat. In January 2004, that's what I was served in Hanoi, at a packed pho stall where we sat on tiny wooden benches and tables. The rare stuff was added much later on as people got their hands on more tender steak. If you've tasted such a filet rendition of pho in Hanoi, do let me know.
Hot bowls -- All the shops served scalding hot bowls. Like blistering hot. I liked that. That's totally old school. My tongue paid dearly.
Ultra-low prices -- I didn't pay more than $6.50 out the door for a bowl -- that's with the filet and in the fancy Korean double-layered metal bowls that keep the broth hot. How do people survive? I don't know. But Hector Becerra's article today in the Los Angeles Times sheds some light on the struggles of one family -- the Lam family -- to make Pho Minh a success:
Pho Minh was the much-lauded pho shop in Jonathan Gold's LA Weekly piece. Westsiders innitially flocked to sleepy El Monte for the Lam's pho noodle soup. That tsunami of customers is hard to sustain and on the drizzly March afternoon when I was there, I was among 3 customers. The sound of the cook's cleaver hacking away at the filet mignon in the kitchen was clearly audible.
People who work this hard should charge more so that they can survive. Competition is great when it boosts quality but there's a limit. When is competition good and when does it work against you? How much would you pay for excellent, well-crafted pho? In the 'hood? Outside of the 'hood?
Jaden
Well, because I'm nowhere near a good pho shop, I'd pay a plane ticket!
Lân
When you mentioned "the hyper-entrepreneurial spirit and competition that's inherent in Vietnamese business owners" I couldn't agree more. My own parents have always been a bit paranoid about competing businesses and the pressure to keep prices low to ensure customer loyalty. It's a pretty vicious cycle that never seems to end, even when the economy is booming.
Andrea Nguyen
Jaden, you can make it at home, woman!
Lan, how do the Japanese do it? I've paid up to $16 for a bowl of ramen. I'd pay the same for an amazing bowl of pho. Granted, you'd have to take the pho out of the 'hood and use high-quality ingredients, like grass-fed beef, freshly noodles, organic vegetables, and exceptional fish sauce. In San Francisco, I've spent $10 on pho and was sadly disappointed. It was at a restaurant that served many other things. How about just a pho joint, with a small menu, serving pho. That's worth $10, $12, maybe even $15 a bowl.
thuy
Andrea, over the years I have asked myself that same question on how "white Asians" restaurants can charge so much for food (when I don't think that bland food should be that price.) I found out why the prices are so high and it is called price fixing and it violates the laws of free enterprise.
In college I hung out with alot of Korean people and once a week, Korean business owners would meet up and set the price of products and operation times. If another Korean wanted to open a business, they would have to present themselves before the "council" and ask for permission where they could open the business so that competition wouldn't be an issue. If the Korean business owner didn't present themselves before the council, the business owner would be harrassed in forms of violence (like setting up robberies, paying people to come in and steal products, and I have heard acts of arson.) In Florida the majority of sushi restaurants are owned my Koreans and the price is ridiculous. And because there is no real competition, the quality of the food isn't that great. It happens at the Korean owned beauty supplies too.
Competition isn't made to hurt a business but it makes a business learn to adapt. If your pho taste like dirty dishwater, then you have to make it taste better or learn to target a different group of customers. Why do you think that nail business is suffering now? Oversaturation of the market with 9million nail salon on one square block.
Sam Banh
I would not mind paying for a higher priced pho as long as it is justified. If you look at majority of the pho restaurants in the country, they did not put a lot of capital into the shop making it look good. As matter of fact, there is none but one vietnamese restaurant I have seen that looks exceptionally nice - and it is called Lannam Vietnamese Cuisine in Manhattan. It is a fancy restaurant. I haven't tried it myself. I myself paid for a $16+ bowl of Japanese ramen noodle and it is worth it. So, even though the market is saturated, I believe people will pay for a more expensive bowl of pho given that it is worth the money. Everything in a restaurant must click. I have owned a little shop before and I know besides having a great product, exceptional customer service is necessary. One good example I can give that proves that higher price works is from this bubble tea shop in toronto (Markham to be exact). Anyone who has visited toronto knows that it is overly saturated with bubble tea shops as it is pho shops in LA. You can't walk a block without seeing a boba stall or a restaurant selling it. Well, Ten Ren, opened this BIG restaurant with private rooms and high ceilings that has a capacity of probably 200-250 patrons. Given that this company sells tea leaves and bubble tea only at their other stores in US and Canada, this one upped the ante and sold good food, great variety of bubble teas, great atmosphere, great customer service. I have been in there twice and it was packed.
If you have the capital, a great chef, and a great business model then you have a successful business.
That's my two cents.
UGG Amelie Suede
I think not, for three reasons. The first is that even the adjustments that every economist would favor in principle, such as subtracting depreciation from market value, involve contestable judgments (there is a measure called Net Domestic Product that subtracts normal depreciation from GDP).
UGG Amelie Suede
I think not, for three reasons. The first is that even the adjustments that every economist would favor in principle, such as subtracting depreciation from market value, involve contestable judgments (there is a measure called Net Domestic Product that subtracts normal depreciation from GDP).
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Nothing is impossible to a willing heart.
marlon
The first is that even the adjustments that every economist would favor in principle, such as subtracting depreciation from market value.