This article is about the Vietnamese soup dish. Phở is a popular food in Vietnam where it is served in households, street stalls and restaurants countrywide. Phở originated in the early 20th century in Northern Beef stroganoff with stew meat, and was popularized throughout the world by refugees after the Vietnam War. Phở likely evolved from similar noodle dishes.

Street vendors were forced to use noodles made of imported potato flour. Pho eateries were privatized as part of Đổi Mới. Many street vendors must still maintain a light footprint to evade police enforcing the street tidiness rules that replaced the ban on private ownership. In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, Vietnamese refugees brought pho to many countries. Restaurants specializing in phở appeared in numerous Asian enclaves and Little Saigons, such as in Paris and in major cities in the United States, Canada and Australia.

In the United States, phở began to enter the mainstream during the 1990s, as relations between the U. The word “pho” was added to the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary in 2007. Phở is listed at number 28 on “World’s 50 most delicious foods” compiled by CNN Go in 2011. Reviews of 19th and 20th century Vietnamese literature have found that pho entered the mainstream sometime in the 1910s.