Vietnam!

Vietnamese food has been a favorite of mine for a long time. My son and I ate pho from every Vietnamese restaurant in Columbus and held strong opinions on whose was best. (RIP Indochine Cafe) 

When you're sick: pho. 

When you're sad: pho. 

When you want to celebrate: pho. 

The broth is so comforting and the ritual of tearing the basil leaves, squeezing the lime, adding in the bean sprouts for crunch and the jalapenos for heat, slurping up the noodles... ahhhh. There's nothing like it.

When I saw a post on a local food group that claimed that Pho Lee's had the BEST pho broth, I had my meal plan for the week. 

Pho Lee's is located inside the Asian Town Center Plaza at 38th & Superior in Cleveland. Don't make the same mistake we did and go into the building on the corner. It's behind that in a building on 38th that looks like you're going in for martial arts, not the best pho in Cleveland. Inside the enormous building, there is an Asian grocer, massage clinics, bookkeeping offices, martial arts studios, and Pho Lee's. 

I brought my trusty sidekick, Jason, with me again so we could order multiple things: Gỏi Cuốn (cold, fresh spring rolls with shrimp), Phở Tái Chín (rice noodle soup with rare beef and brisket), and Bánh Mì Thịt Nướng (barbequed pork sandwich) along with a pot of hot tea to wash it all down.

Order in, time to research! 

Instead of facts about the country like I've been doing, this time I wanted to research Asiatown in Cleveland and how it came to be. Chinese people who were brought to the country to work on the railroad established the area in the 1860s. It became known as Chinatown in the 1920s and then large numbers of people from other Asian countries settled in the area in the 1960s and 1970s, leading the neighborhood to expand eastward. Asiatown now straddles the border between Downtown Cleveland and Goodrich-Kirtland Park neighborhoods.

The heyday of Cleveland's Chinatown was from the 1930s to 1960s and was largely confined to Rockwell Avenue between 21st and 24th Streets. White Americans were drawn to locally famous restaurants serving chow mein and chop suey, which had tastes and textures similar to Western European countries. After the Communist revolution in China in 1949, there was an influx of new Chinese residents and the number of Chinese living in Chinatown grew significantly. 

Between 1960 and 1970, the Korean population of Cleveland began to grow and in 1980 to 2000, so did the number of Vietnamese immigrants. As the residents of Chinatown grew, the area began to expand eastward. Asia Plaza and Asian Town Center provided indoor shopping, restaurants, a homeopathic medicine pharmacy, dance studios, art gallery, etc. 

Asiatown hosts the Cleveland Asian Festival, one of Cleveland's most popular events in the spring. 

Okay, that's enough research. Time to eat! 

Gỏi Cuốn is one of my favorite Vietnamese bites - the crunch of the lettuce, the sticky rice paper, the peanut-y sauce. This version included some crunchy spring roll wrappers mixed into the roll and it added a really great component to the normal textures. We chose the shrimp option, but you can get them with pork, pork + shrimp, or tofu. 

Next up was the Phở Tái Chín. I am not kidding you when I say that I had to take a moment after tasting the broth for the first time. It's everything you want in pho broth: the ginger, cinnamon, star anise, coriander, clove, cardamom, fennel hit heavy. The richness of the beef stock with the crispness of the green onion. Sorry, I might need another minute. We inhaled this in silence, only taking brief breaks to utter oh my god this is good to one another. 

The beef and brisket were plentiful and tender and with a few fresh jalapeno slices added into the broth, it gave it all a perfectly spicy kick. I've eaten 

a lot of pho in my life, but this was the best bowl I've had. Proof: 

Bánh Mì Thịt Nướng was my first introduction to Vietnamese food. The chewy baguette, pickled vegetables, and grilled meat combine into what I think may be the world's most perfect sandwich. The version at Pho Lee's was a pretty solid one. I'd probably up the fillings a bit, but this was our third dish of the day so I wasn't feeling too deprived. They serve it in butcher paper with a rubber band around it, a nod to its street food origins.

A month of eating my way around Cleveland. 48 weeks left to go. It's been a wonderful way to learn more about the city and its people. And of course, it's been delicious. I haven't had a bad meal yet!

P.S.  10 pounds of noodles/meat/veggies and one gallon of broth. I got this. 

Pho Lee's
3820 E. Superior Ave.

Cleveland, OH 44114

Operating Hours:
SUN - SAT | 9:00am - 8:00pm