Pho in a glass: cocktail based on Vietnamese beef noodle soup a hip success for Hanoi bartender (meat not included)
In beer drinking Vietnam’s capital, a bartender is selling a gin cocktail that pays tribute to the national dish. Featuring cinnamon, star anise, cardamom and coriander, but no beef, the drink is Pham Tien Tiep’s hat-tip to his heritage
With his daring pho cocktail inspired by Vietnam’s signature beef noodle soup, Hanoi’s leading hipster bartender, Pham Tien Tiep, is hoping to elevate the drinking scene in a city better known for its raucous outdoor beer dens.
There is no meat in his version of the national dish, but the aromatics remain: cinnamon, star anise, cardamom and fresh coriander, plus a generous splash of gin and triple sec for good measure.
Beer is the drink of choice for most Vietnamese, who downed 3.4 billion litres of the cold stuff in 2015 compared to 70 million litres of wine and spirits, according to an EU-Vietnam Business Network report.
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“It was a bit hard for me to promote this, to beat the bia hoi or rice wine, but we are making it for a different level, it’s more luxury and more elegant,” says Tiep at his cocktail bar, NE, tucked away in Hanoi’s Old Quarter.
He developed the cocktail six years ago while working at the French colonial-era Metropole hotel, inspired by his time working in a pho restaurant as a teenager.