Soup not war
Pho Meets Borscht at One Table
There is a Wednesday quality to soup. Not a weekend thing, not a Monday thing. Wednesday soup carries a particular kind of patience in it, the way a broth that has been going since Tuesday carries its hours without complaint.
I was at a small counter place in Footscray called Ngoc Huong, nothing fancy, a laminate menu and a window that steams up by eleven. I ordered the Hanoi-style pho, beef, clear broth, the kind that doesn't perform itself. Across the table I had brought a jar of cold-press borscht from Lesya's, a Ukrainian kitchen two streets over that sells from a converted garage on Wednesdays and Saturdays only. Lesya's borscht is deep and beet-forward without being sweet. She ferments it slightly, which is either ancient or very now, depending on which century you are standing in.
The pho arrived first. The broth was bone-clean and long. You could taste the star anise without being lectured by it. The beef was thin, properly rested, and it yielded without argument. The herbs on the side, the basil, the bean sprouts, the little wedge of lime, these are not garnish. They are instruction. The soup is asking you to finish building it yourself. That is good theology, as it happens. The mat is provided. The work is yours.
The borscht from Lesya came to temperature slowly in my hands. It is a soup that rewards patience. The cabbage has integrity. The beet does not overwhelm the carrot, the carrot does not forget the beet. There is a small amount of dill at the end that lands like a quietly confident argument. I did not stir it in right away. I let it sit on the surface for a moment and watched what that looked like. I recommend this practice.
Here is what I want to say about these two soups together. One is built on clarity. The other is built on depth. Neither approach is wrong. East, gents, is not a direction, its a method. The pho knows this. The borscht, coming as it does from a tradition closer to the continent's eastern margins than most people remember, knows it to. Two kitchens. One table. No argument that a ladle couldn't settle.
I have been told this kind of framing is naive. I thank whoever says that for the object lesson. The church was told the same thing about the paralysed man's mat, and we know how that one resolved.
The Rating #
Pho from Ngoc Huong: 8.5 out of 10. Honest broth, properly long, not rushing anywhere.
Borscht from Lesya's: 8 out of 10. Patient, slightly fermented, dill deployed with purpose.
Vendor #
Ngoc Huong is at 87 Hopkins Street, Footscray, Victoria. Counter service, cash preferred, open from ten. Lesya's Garage Kitchen operates Wednesdays and Saturdays from a converted garage on Droop Street, same suburb. Jars available from nine until sold out, which is usually before noon.
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