Pho Bida Saigon.

As I’ve explained before, Asian food in Paris bites the big one. Most Chinese restaurants call themselves traiteurs and offer silver-plated serving dish after silver-plated serving dish of gelatinous crap. I live near Chinagora and, surprisingly, even their nicest restaurant does not diverge from this tendency. Even some Thai restaurants here serve slime. So when I last complained about this, someone suggested I look into Pho.

Simply put, pho (pronounced roughly fuh, as in pot-au-feu) is a Vietnamese rice or rice noodle dish (or soup), with a grilled meat and fresh vegetable garnishes. Pho originated in North Vietnam and the recipe migrated south when the communist regime closed the pho restaurants, replacing them with government-run cantines. From Ho Chi Minh City to Paris, pho establishments abound.

In the 13^th arrondissement’s Chinatown, it’s not hard to find good pho. The most popular is Pho 14 on ave. de Choisy, but being one to shy away from what’s popular, I traveled deep inside Chinatown and found a dirty hole-in-the-wall full of Vietnamese people happily eating away. If I’m the only white face, I know I’m in the right place. Inside the Centre Commercial Les Olympiades, where you will find the huge Paris Store and a small Tang Frères, is an almost empty dark maze of stores selling Vietnamese DVDs and pho.

In the very back corner, after you’ve gone upstairs and turned right, then left, then right again, is an unappealingly bare cantine that serves huge bowls of excellent, fresh pho. Everything about the place is basic—from the chairs to the service—but you kind of feel like you might be in Vietnam. There was a small television playing a tape of Vietnamese music videos, from traditional to pop. There was a shrine with candles back in the kitchen. There were real wooden chopsticks. The place fills up before 12:30 and is hopping in the otherwise empty mall.

I ordered the bun bo nu-ong cha gio, which is a grilled beef and white rice noodle pho, and a pot of jasmine tea. The tea and pho were very good. First of all, the bowl was enormous. It’s the largest bowl I’ve probably ever seen that wasn’t actually a serving bowl, about two-thirds full of vermicelle, which is a white noodle cut from sheets of rice. About a third of the bowl was filled with fresh raw alfalfa sprouts, carrots, spring onions and mint leaves. Garnishing my noodles was grilled beef and cut nem rolls. There was no gelatinous slime! I got a small side bowl of nem dipping sauce, with peppers and garlic, which was a taste explosion. Also on the table were three different types of hot sauce.

My pho was so good. The vegetables were very fresh and cold. Everything tasted great and the combination of beef, nuts, garlic and mint leaves was unique. My bill was 8.80, which of course is a steal considering that it was too much food to finish.

Pho Bida Saigon might not be the place you want to take a date for a Friday night dinner, unless she’s adventurous, a starving artist, or a poor university student. It is a great place for a lunch on a weekend afternoon, though. The crowd ranged from elderly Vietnamese to Asian businessmen to families with strollers and noisy babies. Everyone is welcomed and my waiter offered me a fork, which I declined. Pho Bida Saigon is a fun place to go to experience a different type of cuisine in an authentic setting. They’re located in the back of the mall at 44, ave. d’Ivry in Chinatown (in the 13^th). Reservations are not needed. They’re open every day of the week from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m.