Benley - A Vietnamese Kitchen in Long Beach, and how I learned the history of Pho

I'm not going to go on at length about Benley, because of two reasons: (1) much has been said about this restaurant on the blogosphere, and if you want to read some of these thoughts, you can go to clayfood.blogspot.com or just google Benley Long Beach and read professional and lay reviews of the place at length, and (2) the owner doesn't really care for blogs about his place, probably because so many bloggers come in and take pics of the food and blog right there on their handheld devices, and he thinks it is silly and takes away from the enjoyment of the food. I agree and I would never blog while dining out, but I have been known to snap a pic or two. But I didn't do this at Benley!

Suffice it to say that if you want some Asian food in Long Beach, you are limited to Korean sushi from Yen on 2nd Street in Belmont Shore, and Vietnamese French fusion at Benley in a strip mall at the corner of Norwalk and Wardlow. Tucked away in this tiny location, Benley offers up some great eating to the few people who have found it. It seats only about 30 people. The offerings are tasty, aromatic, unique, and perfect for sharing, family style. And did I mention, very wine-friendly foods (drink German or French wines with these foods, this is the key to happiness).

Now, onto the history of Pho. This is where it gets interesting. Benley owner Fong told me about this, and if he had not, I would be ignorant about this important food-history note possibly forever. Did you know that Vietnamese Pho (pronounce "Fuh") was from the French???

He shocked me with this. He said that the French colonialists brought over a beef-based soup that is like the soup for French onion soup, and I said HUH? To me, there is little resemblance of French onion soup, with its overflowing bubbling hot gruyere cheese atop big crouton over a dark broth that I thought was basically caramellized onion water and a Asian rice noodle soup with thin slices of rare beef and aromatic basil and bean sprouts and lime and what have you.

But yes, he continued! It is French!! He said even the name comes from the French "feu" which means "fire" from the soupy stew dish called pot-au-feu. Wow! Pho = feu!

So I did some google searching, and learned, he is right! Pho is a relatively nouveau Vietnamese cuisine, brought over by the French, who introduced an aromatic and rich beef stock to the Vietnamese. There were noodle soups in Vietname prior to the French, but they were like in the rest of Asia, made from pork. Beef stock was a new thing, as cattle were not used for food, but for farm work. But according to this story, this new beef stock, with its aromatic seasonings of maybe caramellized onions and things, intrigued the local Vietnamese, and they adapted it by adding local ingredients: rice noodles. The original Pho, which according to the internet source I read, came from Hanoi in the northern part of Vietnam, and it was just that - beef soup and rice noodles. When North and South Vietnam split, the southern Vietnamese began adapting the recipe and adding all those extra fresh veggies that we associate with Pho - those side items that come raw and get added in.

I loved this, this rich history of a noodle dish! Maybe some of you out there have heard this story before, but not me. I enjoyed it very much. Who knew that Pho was feu and had some French roots? Who knew that Vietnamese cuisine was by definition fusion? Who knew?