Arctic blasts drive me pretty predictably down the gumbo/ramen/pho path so I hit Bao last week. I’ve never tried their soups, though I’ve enjoyed several vermicelli dishes there as well as their banh mi. I was going to go straight pho, but again found myself chasing the delicious won ton soup I had in Huntsville, Alabama. I will probably have to learn to cook it for myself instead of driving all the way to Huntsville to have it again, because so far I’ve been unsuccessful in finding a similar rich, deep pork broth. The Bao soup was good in every other aspect–the wontons were spicy and wonderful, the unexpected slices of rare beef were good as well, but the pork broth was barely deeper than the normal pho broth. There’s no real way of knowing whether the broth is tamed down for the BR market or just traditionally not as intense as the one I encountered in Huntsville, but I’m thinking of taking a smoked ham hock and a quart of Swanson’s beef broth with an onion and some garlic cloves and letting it ride in the slow cooker all day for me to do something with when I get home from work. Until then I’ll continue to beef up all Vietnamese soups with the condiments provided on the table. The servers really hustle at Bao, but their green tea, while an attractive service, is just a tea bag in hot water. The interior has interesting wall art and is not as traditional as most Vietnamese stores. All in all, very good place to hit when the mood strikes.
