Mam From Hanoi, the Vietnamese restaurant where you can eat good pho

How about a good, home-style Viet restaurant? Head for mắm from HanoÏ, this family-run restaurant in Paris 2e, which serves good nems and pho, accompanied by Vietnamese coffee.

It's one of those days when you think you could do with a good Vietnamese soup - you know, pho with rice noodles and a fragrant broth cooked over a long, loving heat? So no, we're not going to get depressed because the weather's bad, we're going to enjoy ourselves! And in Viet-Nam, pho is eaten even when the weather's fine, because it's always warm. In fact, did you know that pho is a popular soup, eaten in the street after breakfast?

When we think of a Vietnamese restaurant, we inevitably think of the 13th arrondissement or Belleville, but fortunately, the rest of the capital also hides little scattered treasures. This time, let's head for Mam from Hanoi at 39 rue de Cléry in Paris's 2nd arrondissement to discover a small, human-scale restaurant serving authentic, traditional cuisine. Recently reopened after some much-needed refurbishment, it welcomes us back to warm our hearts.

First, a little history. What is pho and what are its different types? Pho soup is a staple of Vietnamese cuisine, consisting mainly of fresh rice noodles, broth and thinly sliced beef or chicken. It is usually eaten for breakfast, but can be enjoyed throughout the day. The spices used vary from region to region, but often include cardamom, aniseed, cinnamon and pepper, to name but a few.

The origin of Pho soup is uncertain: some believe it originated in Nam Dinh, a town in northern Vietnam, while others believe it originated in Vietnamese-French culture in the early 20th century. Whatever the case, it is certain that it originated in the north of the country before spreading to the center and south.

Today, there are many variants of phở soup, such as Phở Bắc (northern Pho soup), Phở Huế (central) and Phở Sài gòn (southern). Pho soup from the north is generally saltier, while that from the south is sweeter and accompanied by vegetables.

The secret of a delicious phở soup lies in the preparation of the broth. Traditional broth is made from beef bones and spices such as cinnamon, aniseed, ginger and cardamom, but the exact recipe is often kept secret. Phở soup is particularly popular in Hanoi, so this is the one you'll find at mắm from Hanoi. While the pho of the south is characterized by a denser, sweeter, fatter broth soup accompanied by herbs such as basil, onion and bean sprouts, the pho of the north is purer and clearer.

Anyway, all that to say that if you're used to eating in the 13th arrondissement and for you, phở soup is necessarily denser, more colorful, sweeter with lots of herbs, it's not necessarily that they're off the mark but that, like pizza in Italy, each region has its own specificities.

In any case, at mắm from Hanoi, we've got a good northern pho, with good homemade broth cooked with marrow bones (which you can ask to taste for the fine connoisseurs), melt-in-your-mouth beef (minced flank steak and flat side simmered), everything we finally need to have a good time. For starters, we treat ourselves to home-made egg rolls, which have the particularity of being richly stuffed with a thin, yet crispy, sheet of rice.

The menu:

There are also two other pho soup options on site: a ginger version and a Vietnamese lemongrass bourguignon version. Bo bun aficionados also have something to enjoy, whether you're beef or vegetarian.

Don't forget to accompany your delights with a good cup of Viet coffee, those filter coffees traditionally blended with condensed milk that get us all fired up. We've tried the softer, very tasty version with coconut milk, which is a welcome change from the usual. We finish with a homemade dessert or a Vietnamese affogato, and we're well on our way.