Pho Report #3 - Miss Siagon

Miss Saigon gets it’s own entry in Pho report.

This is really more of a love letter than a review.

The reasons that Miss Saigon occupies this place are only in a small way about there Pho’ but since that’s what this series is about I’ll go over that first.

The Pho’s here is just on the earthy side of perfect. The noodles are always well cooked, the broth is deep and meaty and the beef is a fine, fresh cut. The noodle soup served here is completely satisfying for any Pho’ aficionado.

Pho aside what keeps bringing me back here (besides it’s nearness to sleepwalkers rehearsal space) is something much more ephemeral. I have spent many a lunch and dinner sitting in the open dinning room of this peaceful oasis on the gritty corner of sixth and mission. Something about the fact that they fill the air with a CD of muzaked American folk songs that have animal sounds for interludes while an old MGM musical plays silently on the TV makes me never want to leave. In fact this restaurants is one of the few places in the city I feel at ease. Somehow when I sit there with my bowl of soup the chaos outside slips away and time stops.

Of Ruebens, wheat and Jews

I may be vehement anti-Zionist and a borderline self-loathing Jew, but still one of the things I miss most since realizing I couldn’t eat wheat is the Reuben sandwich.

The Reuben, for those of you who don’t know, is a hot corn beef sandwich on rye bread with Russian or thousand island dressing, Swiss cheese and sour kraut. Incidentally, much like myself, the Reuben is often thought of as Jewish although in reality it isn’t. In the Rueben's case it’s not Kosher because it’s against Kosher law to have meat and cheese on the same plate. In my case, I’m not Jewish because my mother wasn’t and that’s what counts.

Anyways, I’ve been missing Rueben's for the past few years until something hit me the other night while watching the sandwich obsessed TV show Chuck. I can make a Reuben I can eat! My favorite non-wheat bread, after all, was a rye. How this had never occurred to me before I’ll never know.

So I assembled my ingredients, made a quick thousand island dressing (ketchup, pickles and mayonnaise) slapped that thing and a frying pan with a little butter on the outside sides of the bread and before I knew it I was reading eating a Reuben and reading about how Jew’s can be stupid too in the New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/opinion/06chabon.html