A friend of mine settled down in Germany in the 1990s and runs a large chain of restaurants in Berlin. He returns to Vietnam every year and has pho for breakfast every day. He always has Nam Dinh pho.

Nam Dinh pho belongs to the Co family, prepared by the chef with the last name ‘Co’.

Many people believe that the Co family from Van Cu village of Dong Son commune in Nam Truc district was the origin of this special dish. However, the argument about its true origin has not been settled.

At Van Cu Temple, where it is said that people visit before leaving their hometown to earn a living elsewhere and visit again to show their gratitude, there are documents that say that in the late 19th and early 20th century, Van Cu villagers visited after harvest time to sell food for breakfast. One of the dishes created by the villagers was pho bo, or noodle soup served with beef.

Later, Van Cu villagers not only sold pho bo at wharfs and workers’ villages around the textile factory, but carried pho to other provinces as well, and prospered in Hanoi.

In 1920-1930, there were two Van Cu villagers famous for their business in Hanoi – Co Nhu Than and Co Huu Vang. 

Vang set up a stove to make rice noodles in Hanoi in 1930, which provided noodles, a material to make pho, to vendors.

Every day, from 5am, each vendor carried 5-10 liters of broth, noodles, beef, spices and bowls to his familiar place and began selling hot bowls of delicious pho.

Hanoians were called ‘pho vendors’, but sellers did not peddle throughout the streets of Hanoi. They just sat at their places and sold pho to loyal clients.

Later, their business scale expanded. They leased large retail premises to sell pho. The best known pho seller at that time was Co Nhu Chieu, the son of Co Nhu Than, at No48 Hang Dong street, in 1945.

Co Van Tuyen, 50, a member of the Co family, told VietNamNet he left Nam Dinh for Hanoi to help his uncle sell pho in 1989. At that time, one bowl of pho sold for VND1,000 and only wealthy people could eat pho.

“My uncle’s pho shop was always crowded. People had to queue to get pho. Later, he opened one more shop on Thuoc Bac and Ngo Gach streets and all of the shops enjoyed large custom,” he recalled.

Following the footsteps of their grandparents, the next generations of Van Cu Village continue to bring fame to Nam Dinh pho and Van Cu pho, making it popular throughout the country.

Co Nhu Doi, 49, the grandson of Co Nhu Dat, who sold pho for state-owned pho shops during the subsidy period on Luong Van Can and Ta Hien streets in Hanoi in the 1950s, said he was lucky to witness the golden days of Nam Dinh pho.

“From early morning, customers lined up in front of the shops to buy pho. Every day, my grandpa could sell 500-600 kilograms of noodles,” Doi said.

At that time, Doi was just 15 years old, but his grandpa trusted him and assigned him to cut beef into slices. Doi was very proud of this, because it was difficult work, and newbies were only assigned simple work.

“The pieces of beef placed into the bowl of pho must be large and thin,” he explained, adding that he is now so skilled that he doesn’t need to look at a knife, but can cut up standard slices of meat.

In 2001-2004, Doi ran a pho shop in Hanoi. It was a small shop, just tens of square meters. It was always full of customers and he sold 200 kilograms of noodles a day (1 kilogram of noodles could be used to make 6 bowls of pho).

Vu Lua - Lam Giang