I noticed during the time I was there that the pho and the hu tieu tastes so much better in vietnam than here in the states. Anybody got any idea why it tastes better ?
Probably because the chickens used to make the Chicken broth in Vietnam is made from chickens that have grown up eating only grass seeds, rice and had far greater room to move, therefore they are skinnier and naturally grown. The Chickens used in America are cage bred with grains which have growth hormones in them so the chickens grow faster and fatter so they can be sold earlier.
With the beef broth in America there is very little "offal" used unless the soup restaurant has a deal with a special abattoir or butcher who has a special order with the abattoir. In Vietnam there is a lot of offal and other meats used in the Pho. These give the broth a deeper, stronger flavour. Also, in the US the meat may be days, if not weeks old before being used while it is freshly killed in Cambodia and Vietnam.
The noodles made in America are made from American rice which tastes horrific compared with the rice species used in Vietnam and Cambodia (and Thailand). Even during the Second Indochina (Vietnam) War, the Cambodians and Vietnamese preferred to give the donated American rice to the pigs and chickens and spend hard earned money on the better local species of rice grains.