Pho Kobe Report

I had a chance to bring my kids to Pho Kobe in Victorville.  It is the second of the currently open Pho restaurants that I have eaten at in the high desert. It is located at 15208 Bear Valley Road in Victorville, the former Walmart shopping center.

This place was pretty casual.  Ordering takes place at a counter and you seat yourself.  When it is ready your food is brought to your table.  The menu is printed on a large signboard with photos.  There were several items other than Pho on the menu.  Staff was helpful and the food was brought quickly.

We ordered spring rolls, two bowls of Pho and smoothies all around. The spring rolls consist of lettuce, carrot shreds, herbs and shrimp wrapped with elastic translucent rice wrappers. They were fairly large and accompanied with a dish of peanut dipping sauce. 

We shared these and the soup and the staff brought us extra bowls without us even needing to ask. Pho traditionally comes with a bowl of clear beef broth, thin rice noodles, onions, scallions, cilantro and your choice of meat.  It also generally is accompanied with a dish containing bean sprouts, basil, chiles and lime wedges that you can add in to your preference.  Chili sauce is also available on the table.  One bowl we ordered had beef, brisket and flank and the other had rare beef, tripe and tendon. Beef balls are also available but the dish we ordered came with three options so meatballs got short shrift. 

I split the soup in my bowl with my youngest son but was wary of sharing the tripe and tendon with him since they are not universally loved.  His brother donated some of his meat. We added bean sprouts, basil and lime juice to the bowls and rather than jalapenos I opted for some of the red chili sauce for a little heat. You might be hesitant to order soup with tripe or tendon.  Certainly don’t let that keep you from trying pho (you can always get just meat you are familiar with) but consider giving these things a try.  These are standard items and people all over the world love them. They are unfamiliar but by trying them them become more familiar and you can learn to like them. They add something to pho you don’t get if you only get the meat.  Their texture is unique and pleasant and after a few times you can grow to appreciate what they add to the experience of eating pho.  We each had a smoothie. Three strawberry and one jackfruit two of them with boba. My younger kids are still gaining an appreciation for boba but like pho I am encouraging them to keep trying.  I always have them try some of mine and they are slowly warming up to them. For the uninitiated boba are marble sized balls of black tapioca. When prepared for the smoothies they become smooth chewy textured nuggets that intersperse through the smoothie. You even get to use a extra large diameter straw so they fit.

There is a tendency in restaurants for us to associate one item for a whole cuisine.  Tacos for Mexican or sushi for Japanese.  These cuisines actually have many more foods available rather than the one item that becomes associated with it.  Pho is one of these items that for many has come to typify Vietnamese food in general.  Of course only a certain number of foods can be translated to a restaurant format and be made available in places far from home where available ingredients and infrastructure might be pretty different.  Because of this we get certain foods that seem to be able to transcend cultures and become a symbol of an entire culture.  Pho is a delicious symbol but remember that there is more to a cuisine than the one item that symbolizes it.