What's Pho Breakfast?

Some of you might be aware of my deep and abiding love for breakfast foods. You might even call me dogmatic when it comes to early morning eats. Maybe it's all those Sunday brunches after church I had with my family. Maybe it's the years I spend serving breakfast all day at Elmo's. Maybe it's just a deep and abiding love for bacon. But whatever it is, I love eggs and toast and bacon and potatoes. I love sausage gravy and light, fluffy biscuits. I love hot coffee and fresh orange juice.

And if there's one thing that I don't like so much about Asia, it's breakfast. Some things are sacred. For me, breakfast food is one of those things. And Asians just really don't get the whole "breakfast" concept. Oh, they eat food in the morning, but all too often, it's just like any other meal. There is nothing much special about it. And to add insult to injury, it's not very good food. It's cold. Or slimy. Or salty. Hung boo hao.


On our first morning in Cat Ba, we went to the Western restaurant that's located in the same building as the climbing guides. It just made sense. We had to be there anyway and we'd get real breakfast to boot! Sadly, the breakfast was crappy. The eggs were over-hard. The bread was stale. And the "sausage" tasted like fishy hot dogs. The coffee was decent, but a little lukewarm. Boo hao.

So on our second morning in Cat Ba, we had nothing much to do but kill some time and buy bus tickets. The hotel didn't have wireless, however, so we wandered down the street looking for a cafe. Restaurant pickins in Cat Ba Town are a little scarce to begin with, but there are even fewer options in the slow season. I saw one tourist-themed restaurant after another, and then I saw the holy grail of restaurants... a sidewalk full of locals sipping on coffee and tea.

If it's good enough for the Vietnamese, it's good enough for me. Of course, the waitress was petrified of us. She was exceptionally cautious about taking our order, even though the menu was printed in Vietnamese and English and was quite easy to understand.

To go with the (ubiquitous) coffee with sweetened, condensed milk, I broke with tradition and ordered a bowl of pho. I've had plenty of pho in my life, and it's lovely, but I usually have it for lunch or dinner. There is nothing much better than a bowl of hot broth with rice noodles, beef, topped at the last minute with fresh sprouts, basil, ciltantro, red pepper and a squeeze of lime. It is a sublime lunch. And I went renegade, and had it for breakfast.

And man, was it good.

The noodles were some of the most tender noodles I've ever had. The broth was rich and full, with just the right touch of saltiness. There were no bean sprouts, sadly, and the herbs were added for me, but it was still crisp and clean and refreshing. I could really get behind a country that treats their breakfast so lovingly, even if there aren't any eggs involved.