Late last week, after enduring another cold, rainy, dreary day of near-evangelical shaming proportions, all I wanted was a warm hoodie, a hot drink, and, most importantly, to put my waiting mouth around a big bowl of phở to steam the hours away.
Fortunately, Oklahoma City has me covered.
Thanks, in part, to the influx of Vietnamese refugees and immigrants who made their way here in the 1970s and 1980s, Oklahoma City has one of the most vibrant phở districts in the country along the NW 23rd and Classen corridor, offering what seems like dozens of various places to get a hot bowl of the famed soup, its prescribed pile of fresh basil, mint, and bean sprouts, and other hot Vietnamese and Chinese entrees.
For this brothy trip, I decided to have a big bowl of that wonderful stuff at Phở Thái Nguyên (3221 N. Classen), the yellow and red spot located just across the street from the mail center.
As the warming atmosphere of its innards thawed my frozen bones, I ordered the Vietnamese Coffee ($6.00), a blended cold drink that brought me a huge buzz after a few sips.