[dropcap size=big]A[/dropcap] bowl of good pho has the power to break you down.
On the right day, its fumes of aromatic steam, chewy rice noodles, juicy slivers of beef, and that grassy basil edge can uplift, satisfy, and deeply satiate an individual’s hunger like few other foods can.
Especially, if that bowl is from PhoKingNgoc, the first street pho stand to pop up in a sidewalk in Los Angeles.
“Moving to L.A. from Sacramento, seeing all the taco stands and being here to see street food become legal, I wanted to test the waters to see if people would also be down to eat pho in the street,” says Ngoc Nguyen as he carefully ladles some of his homemade beef broth into nondisposable pho bowls on a Sunday afternoon. We’re on the northeast corner of Ave 57 and Figueroa, the historic location of L.A.’s first legitimate street bowl of noodles by way of himself and his wife, Cynthia Gong.
“I don’t know anywhere else in California or even the U.S. where this kind of food scene exists. The streets are conducive to it, why not pho?” Nguyen and Gong did their research on current street food laws in the city, found the perfect corner that wouldn’t disturb other brick and mortar businesses nearby (there is no other pho restaurant for miles), and decided to do it. They currently offer one thing: brisket and rare beef pho. A dish that he grew up eating at home, cooked by his grandmother. Nguyen's grandfather had a pho stand in Vietnam. This generational love for pho made him unable to find a version up to his standards at Vietnamese restaurants in L.A.