Etymology and origins
What is in pho?
Pho
Reviews of 19th and 20th century Indochinese literature have found that pho entered the mainstream sometime in the 1910s. Georges Dumoutier's extensive 1907 account of Vietnamese cuisine omits any mention of pho, while Nguyễn Công Hoan recalls its sale by street vendors in 1913. A 1931 dictionary is the first to define ' as a soup: "from the word '. A dish consisting of small slices of rice cake boiled with beef. "Possibly the earliest English-language reference to pho was in the book "Recipes of All Nations", edited by Countess Morphy in 1935: In the book, pho is described as "an Annamese soup held in high esteem ... made with beef, a veal bone, onions, a bayleaf, salt, and pepper, and a small teaspoon of "nuoc-mam"". "There are two prevailing theories on the origin of the word "" and, by extension, the dish itself. As author Nguyễn Dư notes, both questions are significant to Vietnamese identity.