Fun with pho

Last night I made beef pho and it turned out much better than the first time. It still is missing a certain heartiness to the broth, but it's much closer now to the real deal. I couldn't get the bottle of fish sauce open, so used some soy sauce and dried shiitake mushrooms to go for a similar flavor. And this time I used a richer cut of beef and sliced it thinner so it turned out properly tender. (my biggest complaint about the beef pho in the restaurant here is that the beef is tough - hence some motivation to make it on my own.) So this time it merits a picture.

Also... I realized I'd missed the part on the rice noodle instructions that said to soak for an hour before cooking. Whoops! So next time should finally be the desired tenderness.