Cuong Le, an Australia-based friend who curated "I love Pho" -- a wonderful, multimedia exhibit on pho noodle soup that's touring globally, tracks practically every related to Vietnam's national dish. He just emailed that pho has been officially added to the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (SOED). The SOED is just a scaled down, two-volume version of the Oxford Dictionary.
Rachel Ray got EVOO in there a little while back so why not pho? I usually have to put pho in italics but now that it's officially part of the lexicon, I don't have to any more. Yippee!
Now, I'd love to get the word Viet in there . . .
For more words that were added, read the Associated Press article by Kate Schuman
wow! that brings the soup into literary stardom. famous as the famed Bouillabaisse Marseillaise.
Posted by: k.pham | September 22, 2007 at 05:54 PM
I know, it's really great. I fought for using pho as is (no accent marks) when writing my book and am glad that the term is now officially accepted.
Posted by: Andrea Nguyen | September 23, 2007 at 10:54 AM
i would love to see another term entering the Oxford - Pho-ism or Phoism, chủ nghĩa Pho - a gloval movement of making and eating Pho in a more or less fanatical sense; Andrea, perhaps you can make it happen. Now, it's utterly ambitious :-))
Posted by: k.pham | September 23, 2007 at 04:37 PM
Well finally Pho gets some respect! It's about time!
Posted by: steamy kitchen | September 30, 2007 at 01:16 PM