Episode 203: Venison Pho: A Wild Game Twist on the Vietnamese Classic

Wild Fish and Game Podcast

With winter still holding on fast, a hearty, warming soup is always a go-to meal in my household. Pho, a classic Vietnamese soup served with a broad accompaniment of proteins, fresh herbs, and lime, is the perfect way to balance the warmth of the soon-to-be winter’s end and the incoming spring. Here, we’ll dive into the simple yet profound pleasure of preparing pho with thin-sliced venison sirloin, a wild game twist that fits nicely with this traditional comfort food. The protein choices used here can vary – I encourage all to try this recipe and use whatever wild game you’ve got available (avoid eating rare wild pig or bear). The robust and complex flavors of the broth of the pho complement a wide swath of proteins, and this dish will come together relatively quickly, which is bound to become a favorite weekday staple.

Read the written version of this recipe as prepared by Brandon Dale

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About Pho

Pho is a beloved and ubiquitous Vietnamese soup consisting of a colossal bowl full of heady, deeply flavored broth made from marrow bones and charred aromatics, full of bouncy and slithery rice noodles, a combination of meats contributing contrasting textures, temperatures, flavors, and bite sizes, evocative herbs and spices, all served with a side plate of fresh garnishes, providing a choose-your-own-adventure of crunch, herbaceousness, heat, sweetness, pungency, acid, and bite.

In truth, no one really knows how Pho came to be. There are plenty of hypotheses, though.

Most culinary historians and pho enthusiasts agree that a rudimentary version of the soup first appeared in the Hanoi region sometime in the 1880’s.

This soup consisted of a few slices of tough water buffalo in broth with vermicelli rice noodles. Water buffalo and cows were working beasts then and would have been eaten only if they could no longer work, meaning they were probably old and tough… perfect for a long-simmered soup.

By the early to mid-1900s, the soup had evolved from a watery meat broth to a subtly complex soup with a clear and simple bone broth, lightly spiced, and for those wealthy enough, a pile of thinly sliced rare beef poached in the soup while it was served.

In 1954, under the Geneva Accords, Vietnam was split into two countries: the communist north and the democratic south.

During this time, many northerners fled south to escape communism and settled into new areas, bringing pho and their foodways.

The soup quickly caught on in the South, becoming popular with street vendors everywhere. Without the North’s staunch conservative inflexibility, the soup was quickly altered to suit Southern tastes and liberal ways, with all sorts of unconventional ingredients being added to the horror of some of the purist Northerners.

The Americans became involved in the conflict between North and South, and in 1963, the Vietnam War began.

By 1975, America had pulled out of the war, and Saigon had fallen to the north, creating a mass exodus of over 2 million southern Vietnamese people who mainly eventually found asylum in the US, Canada, Australia, and France.

Of course, these refugees, many of whom were stuck on rickety boats for a miserable amount of time, brought their beloved pho recipes with them and quickly found ingredients to make it in their new homes.

About Adam Berkelmans:

Adam Berkelmans, also known as The Intrepid Eater, is a passionate ambassador for real food and a proponent of nose-to-tail eating. He spends his time between Hull, Quebec and a cozy lake house north of Kingston, Ontario. When not cooking, he can be found hunting, fishing, foraging, gardening, reading, traveling, and discovering new ways to find and eat food.

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