Pho

It's pronounced like "fuh," so I probably should have called this entry "What the Pho?!" But hey, there are already 743,000 results when you google "what the pho," so none of that for me. I prefer my original title: Pho. SO LAZY.

It's a vietnamese soup with a bunch of topping you add in right before eating. It's one of the simplest, yet most flavorful and delicious things I've ever eaten. And perfect for when you're under the weather in any way; headache, body aches, cold, fever, broken spirit - whatever you like. Fortunately, I only had the first two of those (my spirit is wonderfully grand right now, thank you), so I got some pho from Ha Long Bay down the street - my favorite restaurant in Madison. I was knocked the hell out after my first couple of weeks of teaching hilarious, but really really gross children, as well as a weekend with zero down time and tons of busyness. So I got this soup as a l'il treat. The ingredients are so pretty, and I like documenting anything that involves a process, so here you go:

Container of chicken and broth, rice noodles and scallions in the other container, and the bag of bean sprouts, basil, jalapeños, and lime.
The noodles and onions and some parsley.
You dump the noodles and onions into the broth and let the noodles soften.
I am a wiener - I only used one jalapeño and I only let it sit in the broth for about five minutes, and even then, it was almost too spicy for me.
Put in a few basil leaves, a good squeeze of lime, that one temporary jalapeño, and the bean sprouts. Delicious.