Beef: Rinse the beef under water, with a bit of salt rubbed on the skin. Then, you can parboil it if possible. In a large pot, bring water to a rolling boil. Add the beef and let it cook for about 2-3 minutes. After parboiling, discard the water and rinse the beef pieces to remove any residue.

Vegetables: If you opt for white onions, you need to prepare them first before proceeding with other steps, as they need 1-2 hours to chill and reduce pungency. Dice the onion thinly, then rinse with salty water 2-3 times before soaking in cold water and keeping it in the refrigerator for the next few hours, until finishing the broth and starting to assemble the bowl. Also, chop spring onions, wash, and let other vegetables dry if any.

Aromatic Spices: Using an open flame (stovetop or grill), char the star anise pods, cilantro seeds, cinnamon stick, and onion/shallot halves until they develop a slight blackened exterior. This step imparts aromatic depth to the broth. If an open flame isn't available, you can achieve a similar effect by roasting them in a pan.

After charring them, use a small bag or pod (if available) to put all small spices like cilantro/coriander seeds, star anise pods, and cinnamon stick in. You can even use a stainless steel tea infuser, but because it's quite small, just add cilantro/coriander seeds. The rest can be added directly to the water to cook the broth.

It’s recommended to use a pressure cooker or instant pot to reduce the cooking time. Pour around 2.5 liters of water into the pot and gently add your beef and beef bones. Bring it to a boil. Then, close the lid of the pressure cooker and cook under high pressure for the next 30 minutes.

After that, open the lid and add all your charred aromatic spices: cilantro/coriander seeds, cinnamon sticks, star anise pods, onion/shallots to the broth. Cook for an additional 15-20 minutes.

Once the broth is flavorful, strain out and discard the solids. Return the clear broth to the pot and bring it back to a gentle simmer. Simply season with salt or other specialized seasonings.

If you are using dried pho noodles, you don't have to soak them, just add the pho noodles directly into the cool water and cook on high heat. Once boiling, cook for about 3-5 minutes or until they're just tender, then turn off the heat. Carefully drain the boiling water and immediately rinse with cold water for a firmer texture of the rice noodles.

Cut the beef into thin slices. If you would like to add medium-rare beef slices (so your beef pho becomes “phở tái” – indicating that the beef is cooked to medium rare only), take another piece of beef sirloin or tenderloin, slice it very thinly, and blanch it in the broth for 10-20 seconds.

In individual serving bowls, add a portion of the cooked noodles. Top with beef and onion slices. Pour the hot broth over the noodles and beef in each bowl, ensuring that it covers the ingredients and fills the bowl. Top with chopped spring onion.

While eating pho, you can adjust the taste of your bowl by adding hoisin sauce, sriracha sauce, chili sauce (e.g.Hoi An chili sauce or sweet chili sauce), and pickled garlic slices.