Go to the West to eat pho

Doan Van Binh - Vice President of Vietnam Real Estate Association, Member of Tourism Advisory Board (TAB)

We have been to dozens of countries to learn about the world situation after the Covid-19 pandemic. Everywhere is difficult. Everywhere we see shops, stores, shopping malls closed, signs for rent, premises for sale.

In every country we go to, we always look for Vietnamese restaurants to eat pho, not only to enjoy the familiar dish but also to support, to feel at home and to observe how our people do business. The joy we receive is that on this earth, wherever there are Vietnamese people, there is pho. Pho shops and Vietnamese restaurants are still crowded, with more and more Western customers.

Pho has long been the unofficial "global ambassador" of Vietnamese cuisine .

Many of my foreign friends and partners say that they ate pho even before coming to Vietnam.

Beef pho is most popular abroad, followed by chicken pho. Cuisine is a matter of taste, but if you are used to "domestic" chicken pho, when traveling, you should order beef pho. The weak point of "exported" chicken pho, in my opinion, is the ingredients and the habits of customers.

Let me tell you a story. When we started our hotel business and launched a brand in early 2016, we had chicken pho for breakfast. Seeing that the pho was made from industrial chicken, I asked the General Manager (GM) why we didn’t use local chicken pho, which is fresh, fragrant, and delicious.

Local chickens are readily available in the locality with a proactive and cheap supply; ensuring the quality of the food while supporting farmers. Investing in a place where labor, food, and agricultural products can be used right there creates a great advantage in business.

After asking, I found out that according to international hotel operating standards, local chicken is not stable in quality and cannot control diseases. Local chicken meat is tough so Westerners find it difficult to "eat". So that's how it is.

We respect that, but still remind GM that Vietnamese guests come to the hotel more. Vietnamese people have been used to pho ga ta since childhood. We need to find a solution to this problem. Or should Vietnamese guests use local chicken, Western guests use Western chicken? As long as food safety is ensured.

The GM and chef were asked to research and fix it. It's funny that many Western customers who have gotten used to Vietnamese chicken pho later say Vietnamese chicken pho is "authentic".

Pho is so appealing that I know of several Vietnamese restaurants in Scotland (UK), Vilnius (Lithuania), Wellington (New Zealand) and many other places where both the owners and the servers are not Vietnamese. They either bought the Vietnamese restaurant and continued to serve pho, or they used to work and live in Vietnam, like pho and want to "start a business" with this item.

Pho restaurants in San Francisco, Boston, Sydney, Paris and many others we stopped at were packed with Westerners. They held their chopsticks awkwardly like children.

Pho and chopsticks are our culture, a thousand-year-old East Asian cultural trait. Now Westerners are using them more and more. Vietnamese people earn more money from Westerners.

There are no official statistics, but I believe pho contributes significantly to the nearly $20 billion in remittances that steadily flow into the country each year.

In Vietnam, a bowl of pho costs between 30,000 and 65,000 VND. In 2006, I enjoyed a bowl of pho in the 13th arrondissement of Paris for 10 Euros. In 2022, returning here after 16 years and after Covid-19, inflation and rising prices have increased the price of a bowl of pho to 15 Euros.

Pho in America and Europe usually comes in medium and large sizes. Some restaurants call "big bowls" Xe lua (named after XL clothing size). XL is 10-20% more expensive. Western pho in Riga (Latvia) converts "size" to "liter". Small bowls are equivalent to "half a liter", large bowls are equivalent to "1 liter") to make it easier for customers to visualize.

Pho is really close to Vietnamese people and follows Vietnamese people around the world.

Mentioning pho is mentioning Vietnam. Thanks to pho, the cultural similarities between Vietnam and other countries are elevated and blended. Also thanks to pho, Vietnam expands opportunities for cultural exchange and assimilation on a global scale.

Vietnam's culture and tourism industry can give pho a title that it deserves, to spread Vietnamese cuisine and culture to the world even more. Is this a suggestion?

Malaysia's foreign ministry is promoting "durian diplomacy", similar to how China conducts "panda diplomacy", Japan and South Korea increase "soft power" through movies and pop culture, and Thailand promotes its cuisine.

In that way, if pho officially becomes the "global ambassador" of Vietnamese cuisine, it will be an opportunity to convey a strong message about attractive Vietnamese tourism through cuisine.

Pho represents thousands of years of rice farming culture. Through the "pho ambassador" we will tell the story and honor Vietnamese rice - the second largest export product in the world.

Pho "diplomacy" can gradually take shape from Vietnamese pho festivals and celebrations around the world. The ambassador's main role is to connect Vietnam with the world; do economic diplomacy (earn money for the country); connect overseas Vietnamese; help foreigners understand more about Vietnam and support Vietnam. "Pho ambassadors" will perform all of those functions.

Many people may think that pho is a culinary product, seemingly small compared to trade agreements. However, when deployed on a global scale, the commercial value will be enormous. In particular, the love for pho is a vivid expression, proof of Vietnam's culinary success.

We can help Pho go global, tell subtle stories about Vietnam to international tourists, which is also a way to attract tourists to Vietnam.

Doan Van Binh

Vnexpress.net