Veteran Charleston chef Thai Phi of Pink Bellies is launching a brand new pho eatery right inside of his popular King Street restaurant. Aptly named Pho King, the concept will center around a perfect bowl of the beloved soup.
For the uninitiated, the mainstay Vietnamese dish pho (pronounced “fuh”) is a complex, aromatic experience: Savory broth is complemented by chewy noodles, refreshing herbs and any combination of thinly sliced beef, tender brisket or chicken.
While Pho King (Cue teenage-like giggling) will be hosted as a pop-up within the existing Pink Bellies space, Phi explains there is a key difference between the two projects.
“Pink Bellies, for me as a chef, is kind of more just my expression [of] growing up in America and traveling. … Pho King is straight from Vietnam, more specifically Saigon,” he said. “I thought it’d be the perfect venture for one of our closed days. [The Pho King pop-up] helps our team, gives us more hours, [and] helps us build this passion project step by step.”
More specifically, Pho King directly draws from Phi’s extensive time in Vietnam and acts as a showcase for real-deal pho.
“I live in Vietnam for about two to three months out of the year. [Pho King] is an expression of the time I’m spending out there.”
While Phi emphasized there are more than 10 pho restaurants across Charleston, each bowl presents a distinct interpretation of the dish.
“This is my uncle’s recipe mixed in with some of the other chefs that have taught me their versions,” he said. “It’s the flavor and the palate that we love. With this one, it’s our recipe.”
Got to have good bones
The complex broth base is created through a step-by-step process that Phi has spent time practicing and perfecting.
“It starts with washing the bones, you want to be really thorough about it. Then we simmer the broth for about 10 hours,” he said, adding that specific kinds of bones are crucial to creating pho broth.
“We like to use a good combination of marrow bones, small femur bones, knuckle bones, and bones from the spine or the ribs. Each one has a different flavor or texture that imparts into the broth.”
Through this process, Phi said he has found an opportunity to feature Lowcountry farmers throughout the dish.
“We use lots of local bones, brisket and tri-tip, so it’s a true expression of what’s in Vietnam for my family while using local ingredients,” he said. “We got lucky and we found a local farmer here in Charleston who doesn’t use their bones, and they’ve given us their supply of those bones.”
After slowly simmering for hours and never letting it get to a boil (an incident that would cause the broth to become cloudy), Phi removes the slow-cooked brisket to be sliced and included in the final plating and adds additional aromatics to finish cooking the broth: shallots, ginger, onions and dried worms.
“Dried worms are a very Cantonese thing,” Phi said. “We import all of ours from District Five in Vietnam. My cousin has been exporting for me and sends it over.” The delicacy is difficult to source and even harder to afford.
As Phi explained, “here in the States, [dried worms] go for about $200 a pound. It’s super expensive. It’s small details like that that I don’t think a lot of restaurants in Charleston are doing, [so] hopefully people can appreciate ours.
Making the broth is such a big deal, but also the herbs that you serve afterwards,” said Phi. He finishes the pho with Vietnamese mint and Italian parsley.
Outside of the centerpiece pho, other standout menu items like fish sauce chicken wings and a Vietnamese Lobster Thermidor-inspired dish bring Phi’s favorite dining experiences from Vietnam directly to Charleston.
Pho King is open as a pop-up from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. every Wednesday in the Pink Bellies storefront at 595 King St.
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