Vietnamese Pho Soup Immigration reform has many Americans worried about the effects this would have on our nation. Most outstanding are the arguments against the reform. From past to present times, we have heard of the fear of contaminating the American gene pool to losing American democracy. What is usually forgotten is that our current identity was shaped by prior immigrants. We would do well to remember that to deny citizenship to immigrants, we would stand to lose so much more. We would lose our identity as America the Land of Opportunity. With such a bold promise it is no wonder that people from all over the world come to find their fortune. My essay is dedicated to what the Vietnamese have introduced to American cuisine, in particular…show more content… One of the first variations of the recipe was between northern and southern Vietnam with two different recipe names of Pho Bac and Pho Nam. Pho Bac started in Northern Vietnam with the colonization by the French in the late 1880’s. Prior to their arrival, Vietnamese used animals for heavy work. Once introduced by the French on using cows for food, they found it to be just as scarce as all other food. Instead, they would use the beef parts the French did not use. It was known as the common people’s food or street food. It consisted of a simple and clear broth with subtle flavor with its main ingredients of rice noodles and rare beef that was thinly sliced. No toppings or embellishments were ever used on Pho Bac. When Vietnam split after the Second World War, many Vietnamese from the north fled to South Vietnam. With them came their recipe for their Pho soup. This is where it began to change from the original northern recipe and became Pho Nam. The contributing factor in the Pho soup recipe change is that in Southern Vietnam food was readily available. South Vietnam was able to try different herbs, spices and ingredients as they pleased. They tried chicken and tripe as a different meat for their soup. They also experimented with different toppings for the soup, including my favorite bean sprouts. The one thing that did not change is that it was still considered food of the…show more content… Although I personally do not know anyone that dislikes the soup, there are a few online articles of people publicly admitting their hatred of Pho soup. They simply describe the soup as bland, salty, soggy, tasteless and flavorless. Their unity is in their inability to understand why so many people really like Pho soup. Perhaps their dislike of Pho soup concurs with their location since this soup is made better in larger Vietnamese communities and also tends to adapt to local availability of herbs and
