Yesterday we meant to go to Chinatown with a classmate of mine. Due to his work schedule he had to cancel and so we instead travelled to Argyle Street and met Jon for lunch at Tank Noodle, supposedly famous for their pho – essentially a Vietnamese beef noodle soup garnished with bean sprouts, lime juice, basil and hot pepper.
Erin and I were determined to try the pho on our inaugural visit. I ended up going all out and ordered the pho with sliced beef, well done brisket, well done flank, soft tendon, bible tripe and meat ball and an order of a fresh pork skin spring roll. Erin & Jon each ended up ordering fried egg rolls and pho with sliced beef, well done flank & skirt steak.
The pork skin spring roll arrived along with a dipping sauce that contained peanuts, shredded carrot and at least some sort of fish or oyster sauce. This was definitely a good way to start the meal, highly recommended for any pork lovers in the crowd.
The pho arrived before I could even finish the two spring rolls, but this was alright. I have to admit my reluctancy to just dig into the soft tendon and tripe, so I focused my attention on the various meats to start. Eventually all that was left was the tripe and tendon though. The tripe was neither good nor bad, just simply there. The texture was fine by me but there really wasn’t any flavor.
The soft tendon however was the star of the show and I’m not sure I’ve ever tasted anything like it. The texture was indeed soft, not normally what you think of when you think of tendon. How this is achieved I have no idea, but hours (if not days) of braising is a possibility. The flavor was a surprise as well in that it had any flavor at all which was mildly beefy.
Needless to say this winter I’ll be making regular trips to Argyle Street to satisfy my new desire for soft tendon.
Red Devil in the Kitchen 
Highly recommend Tank Noodles though it’s hard to get a seat on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. We live right down the street and go there often.
Does anyone know what part of the animal the tendon comes from? And what animal is it? Curious.
I’ve seen tendon at a few Asian markets and it comes from cattle.
From which part of the animal I have no idea, but I suspect that it’s not body part specific.
The tendon is from the cow’s lower leg area. If it were human it would be the area from your elbow to your wrist. I had some today and asked this very question of the chef. That was her explanation. It’s certainly delicious wherever it comes from.
It is certainly delcicious. I found some at an Asian market and plan on making some this autumn.