IMHO you can keep your laksa and your gumbo, just pass the pho.
The Vietnamese fresh rice noodle soup is the best meal in a bowl soup there is.
Stock fragrant with ginger, garlic and star anise; fish sauce; fat fresh noodles; a few bits of rare beef or poached chicken; and a bunch of leafy greens and crunchy sprouts: a complete and balanced feast.
Easy to whip up at home. Good for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
picmr
I dunno, man…can you count the Asian noodle soups as “soups” ? Seems to me the soup is just an excuse to scarf the noodles.
I often take my midday meal at the local Greasy Chopstick on W. 49th Street, a Japanese noodle shop. While I clean my bowl of noodles, fishcakes, bean curd, and veggies, I often leave a fair amount of the broth behind.
To pick a soup where I REALLY scrape the plate, then mop up with a crust of bread…hmmmmmmm…I’ll say…split pea. Hearty and nourishing and brimming with protein. And afterward, you KNOW you’ve eaten. Pass the salt n’ pepper.
Fair enough Uke, but Japanese stock is pretty thin. I wouldn’t blame you for leaving it. Pho on the other hand is loaded with protein (mmm, chicken carcass, sawn beef shin-bone) and aromatics - ginger, lemongrass, star anise, garlic.
picmr
And the best thing abot Pho ( To bad can’t do the special character over the o ) is that if you eat enough of it, you don’t have to worry about the expensive embalming procedures when you die!!!
Personally, I don’t mind Pho, but it is not my favorite. I prefer Hot and Sour Soup, or Udon.
I’ve never had this stuff! I will definitely have to find some to try, now.
My favorite soup-that-eats-like-a-meal is War Wonton.
Mmmmmm. Hot and sour soup; it’ll cure what ails ya.
Narile said:
I ate a shitload of pho in Hanoi, so my corpse is gunna sit in the sun smelling sweet.
For those who don’t know, it turns out that many a noodle vendor in Vietnam was using formaldahyde as a preservative.
On the “special character” front (“pho” has various squiggles, think “fur”) I’d love to say I searched character map, but really I couldn’t be arsed.
picmr
Never heard of it, sorry. Have you got a recipe, or even just a general idea? Does it use ingredients available at your friendly local Kroger store? I live at the bottom of a mine shaft, and don’t have access to a lot of exotic Oriental ingredients. I know I’ve seen star anise at Kroger, but I’m not sure about “fresh rice noodles” or “fish sauce”.
Never had Pho.
Always liked French Onion, with that big slice of bread with the cheese all melted all over it, just floating merrily in the salty brown water. Whoooeeeee!! That’s good.
Best summertime soup: Vichyssoise
Cool,refreshing, a meal in itself
mmmm, now I’ll have to make a huge batch this week
I just moved to the San Jose area, where there is a large Vietnamese population. I came equipped with exotic taste in foods, so I was happy to see a pho shop DIRECTLY ACROSS THE STREET from where I work: Dac Phuc. I eat there at least once a week. $4.89 for a big bowl of rice noodles, BBQ pork, shrimp, Thai basil, bean sprouts, and onions. Somebody pass the fish sauce – I’m starting to drool. Pho fo’ me!
My wife discovered pho while she was on jury duty, and has ben a big fan ever since. We get it whenever we go to Chinatown, and she makes a faux pho at home using canned broth.
Oh, yeah…pho…yum…
That’s it. One man’s tribute to pho.
Hot and Sour soup is my favorite, unfortunately it is frequently neither.
Thom Yum Goong
Thai rules!
Please note that I thought the discussion was about noodlesoups. If all soups are allowed into the discussion, the I’d have to say my favorites are a good navy bean soup, a good french onion soup (Never managed to make it at home right though. 
) miso soup, and of course good old potatoe, cheese and ham soup.
The best soup is Burgandy Beef Stew. Thick chunks of beef, green pepper, onions, and carrots.
Well, if you are in the San Jose area, try Wing Wah’s on Capitol Expressway near Montague. Has very good hot and sour, and the food is also good there.
Then I also like the Sarovar off of 237, decent indian buffet.
I’m with SunSawed. Thai soups are the absolute best! I’m a big fan of Tom Khai Gho (sp?). Love that coconut milk flavoring.
As a southerner, I have to put in a plug for Brunswick stew (if that counts as a soup), and am also a big fan of corn chowder.