Slurp du Jour: Pho Ga Xe Phay at PPQ Beef Noodle House

Strolling down Irving Street today, Pho Phu Quoc Beef Noodle House (a.k.a. PPQ) suddenly materialized in front of me.  I was fighting off the nasty tail end of a cold, and  "Aha! Chicken soup!" was the thought that leapt to mind. PPQ is a relatively stolid mainstay in the ever-changing pan-Asian fast food landscape of mid-Irving St. (have a look at K.O. Kombo, which mixes banh mi and Hong Kong milk tea with burgers and pizza slices).  It's also the older brother of the better known PPQ Dungeness Island on Clement St. The Irving St. PPQ is known for the best pho in the immediate area, but I'd never tried its pho ga (chicken pho with broad rice noodles).

PPQ's pho comes in two sizes, "medium" and "large" (to call the smaller one "small" would be false advertising). Their chicken pho comes in three varieties, including five-spice and curry versions in addition to the traditional chicken broth, which I chose. My medium-sized bowl of pho ga xe phay came with tender shreds of chicken (both dark and white meat, though I would have preferred more of the former and less of the latter) and supple fresh wide rice noodles.  The broth was beautifully balanced, deep in herbal flavor with a tinge of sweetness and a mere hint of peppery-ness.  Other than two slices of mild japapeno and some bean sprouts I tossed in from the garnish plate, I did not see fit to add any notes to its carefully coaxed bouquet.

I can't say PPQ's pho ga is the equal of Turtle Tower's iconic version (I think I'm due for another round of that one) but as Asian penicillin it was just what the doctor ordered today.

Where slurped: Pho Phu Quoc Beef Noodle House, 1816 Irving St, San Francisco