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Fast Food? Fast Pho-ward!

Just come from a Big 5, Southland Plaza, Palm City.

Got me a pair of $18 shoes. Can’t beat ’em.

Ten minutes to catch the 933. Promised Carla I'd bring home a meal.

This is eight at night. Humping back towards Saturn Boulevard when I spot the lights of Pho Anh Vietnamese Grill (675 Saturn Boulevard, Suite F, 619-423-6138). It’s a pho place, meaning soup, often with beef.

Oh man. That would be perfect.

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/apr/25/23509/

I haul inside. Can’t believe I’m doing this. Can’t afford to miss that bus.

Linh, the server, is ready and waiting.

“What’s the fastest pho!?” I ask.

He grabs the menu. There are hundreds.

“Number 20,” he says.

Think it says “Rare and well-done steak.”

It’s only $5.75.

"I’ll take it.”

I swear, I’m standing around two, maybe three minutes. Linh brings out a plastic bag loaded with, well, stuff.

“That’s $6.25, please,” the owner, Anh Lee says.

And four minutes after I came in, I’m out.

Cut to an hour later.

Lovely Carla’s looking on. Put big pot of gingery, beefy broth in a saucepan. Start heating. Open box of, oh wow, thin-sliced beef, onions, basil, cilantro, green onions, other green things, all sitting on a cube of compressed noodles. And then a bag of bean sprouts, a slice of a wicked-looking green jalapeño pepper, a wedge of lime, and a big branch of fresh mint leaves. Plus hoisin and sriracha sauce.

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/apr/25/23504/

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/apr/25/23505/

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/apr/25/23507/

I heat the soup up to boiling, dunk the noodles, dunk basically everything, put the sauces and the mint on top, and man! Beautiful, complex aromas, soup-soaked beef, the soup itself .

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/apr/25/23506/

Bottom line: it’s enough for Carla and me, and the taste: to die for. For – how much - about three bucks each? We’re suddenly both in love again, with Vietnamese soups.

I’ll be back - when I have pho or five minutes to spare.

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Just come from a Big 5, Southland Plaza, Palm City.

Got me a pair of $18 shoes. Can’t beat ’em.

Ten minutes to catch the 933. Promised Carla I'd bring home a meal.

This is eight at night. Humping back towards Saturn Boulevard when I spot the lights of Pho Anh Vietnamese Grill (675 Saturn Boulevard, Suite F, 619-423-6138). It’s a pho place, meaning soup, often with beef.

Oh man. That would be perfect.

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/apr/25/23509/

I haul inside. Can’t believe I’m doing this. Can’t afford to miss that bus.

Linh, the server, is ready and waiting.

“What’s the fastest pho!?” I ask.

He grabs the menu. There are hundreds.

“Number 20,” he says.

Think it says “Rare and well-done steak.”

It’s only $5.75.

"I’ll take it.”

I swear, I’m standing around two, maybe three minutes. Linh brings out a plastic bag loaded with, well, stuff.

“That’s $6.25, please,” the owner, Anh Lee says.

And four minutes after I came in, I’m out.

Cut to an hour later.

Lovely Carla’s looking on. Put big pot of gingery, beefy broth in a saucepan. Start heating. Open box of, oh wow, thin-sliced beef, onions, basil, cilantro, green onions, other green things, all sitting on a cube of compressed noodles. And then a bag of bean sprouts, a slice of a wicked-looking green jalapeño pepper, a wedge of lime, and a big branch of fresh mint leaves. Plus hoisin and sriracha sauce.

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/apr/25/23504/

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/apr/25/23505/

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/apr/25/23507/

I heat the soup up to boiling, dunk the noodles, dunk basically everything, put the sauces and the mint on top, and man! Beautiful, complex aromas, soup-soaked beef, the soup itself .

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/apr/25/23506/

Bottom line: it’s enough for Carla and me, and the taste: to die for. For – how much - about three bucks each? We’re suddenly both in love again, with Vietnamese soups.

I’ll be back - when I have pho or five minutes to spare.

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