Welcome to Vietnam

The origin of phở is uncertain, and is mostly culled from oral histories. The specific place of origin appears to be southwest of Hanoi in Nam Dinh province, believed to harbor both a Chinese and French connection. The noodles comes from China, and the broth appears to be French in origin, making use of bones and lesser cuts of beef. Some have suggested that phở is derived from pot au feu, the classic French beef stew. Phở did not become popular in South Vietnam until the mid-1950s. Linguistically, however, this is unlikely. In the Vietnamese language, the word phở carries a non-flat category, whereas most French loanwords carry a flat tone, sắc or nặng tone, depending on the end consonant except the loanwords are ended with -t, -p, -c, -ch consonants. Phở does not match this rule.
a plain Cantonese Hofan

a plain Cantonese Hofan

Some observers believe phở may come from the Cantonese rice vermicelli Hofan (河粉) which are interchangeably abbreviated as either fan2(粉, phấn in Tự Hán Việt) or Ho2(河, Hà inTự Hán Việt ), the two sounds giving the name "phở".Both fan and pho refer to the same rice noodles found in Vietnam and Guangdong, China, suggesting that rice noodles may have been brought to Vietnam by Cantonese immigrants from the Guangdong province in the early 20th century. The noodles are cooked identically in both places, and are often seasoned using fish sauce, garnished with bean sprouts, and served with meat balls and sliced beef. Vietnamese phở, however, is further garnished with fresh mint, cilantro, basil, bean sprouts, limes, sliced chili peppers and sliced raw beef[9]; this is especially true of Saigon-style phở. Furthermore, the broth of phở is made of beef bones and fresh onion, whereas the Cantonese broth of fan is made of dried flatfish and other seafood. In some regional varieties, the Vietnamese broth may also have a mildly sweet flavour from Asian yellow rock sugar, but the Cantonese version is not.

Vietnamese phở noodle soup with sliced rare beef and well done beef brisket
Possibly the earliest reference to phở in English was in the book Recipes of All Nations edited by Countess Morphy in 1935. In the book, phở 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-man."

With the Vietnam war and the victory of the Viet Cong, phở was brought to many countries by Vietnamese refugees fleeing Vietnam from the 1970s onwards. It is especially popular in large cities with substantial Vietnamese populations and enclaves such as Paris in France, the West Coast of Canada[10], the East and West Coast of the United States, Sydney and Melbourne of Australia, and Hong Kong.

Typical garnishes for phở: cilantro, basil, lime, bean sprouts and onions.