Global noodles + soup 6: This week I focus on a Vietnamese national dish of noodles + soup called Phở (or Pho). There are some “reasonably good” instant Pho, although I definitely prefer making my own. I have a post, Making Phở at Home, where I provide my own homemade broth instruction. (Like any national dish, the exact ingredients vary by region and family.) Any connoisseur knows that this soup of noodles is actually all about the broth.
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Phở (or Pho)
Wikipedia indicates this dish was invented sometime between 1900 – 1907. But now, this national dish is a phenomenon that has been shot all over the world.
What makes this noodle + soup dish so special is the care and time given to preparing a very specific, deep meaty umami and flavorful broth. Let me state my bias up front, there is no way that an instant soup broth can replicate the wonderful flavor and aroma of a long cooked Phở broth. So I am looking for something good enough, but all the while knowing it cannot match the real thing.
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√ Vifon Vietnamese Rice Noodles + Beef Phở
Vifon’s Phở Bò is a medium width rice noodle and beef broth soup. After properly cooking them, the noodles were soft and chewy. The broth had a light beefy bullion taste, with chopped scallion and a few pieces of revived dehydrated ”beef” (actually textured wheat gluten). Not bad for a very inexpensive package.
- The whole package serves 1.
- Nutrition per serving: 210c, 43k, 4p, 0f and 1640mg sodium.
- Total time was ~5 minutes.
- Contents: a pack of noodles, and two packets of broth powder and oil.
- Heat: None to very mild.
- $0.99 USD
Cooking: Boil 1.5C water while placing the noodles and packets in a bowl. Be sure to break the noodles in half to make eating them easier. Once boiling, pour the water into the bowl, mix, then cover and let stand for ~3-4 minutes.
Contains soy, wheat, artificial flavors, palm oil and MSG. Plus, may have exposure to peanuts, but no synthetic colors.
√ Vietnamese Pho: Rice Noodle Soup Bowl
Assi Pho: Vietnamese Rice Noodle Soup Bowl is a self-contained package of noodle + soup. This was an easy to make soup that was rather large. The noodles were vermicelli wheat and rice noodles, very slurpy, but hard to break with the teeth; so if I had a large amount on my fork, I had to eat all of the since they did not break easily. The broth had heat, and a slight after taste of salty beef bullion.
- The whole package serves 1.
- Nutrition per serving: 340c, 73k, 8p, 0f and 1880mg sodium.
- Total time was ~5 minutes.
- Contents were a bowl, broth powder with some dehydrated veggies, and a spicy sauce.
- Heat: Very mild.
- $2.99 USD
Cooking: Boil water, roll back the cover to the halfway point, dump the soup powder onto the noodles. Once boiling, pour into the bowl to the mark, mix, then recover and let stand for ~4 minutes. Then open the top all the way, pour in the chili oil and mix.
To make this taste better, add thin slices of beef to the noodles before you pour the boiled water into the bowl. Then add some basil or cilantro, and bean sprouts. I ate all the noodles first, with my face over the bowl so the soup clung to the noodles, slurped, and chewed. Drank the broth from the container.
Contains MSG, wheat and soy, and made in a factory that exposes the product to eggs, milk, fish, peanuts, tree-nuts, and shellfish.
√ Mama Phở Gà
Mama Phở Gà is a vermicelli rice noodle (rice + tapioca flours) chicken soup. The noodles were like other rice noodles, chewy. The broth was a very good, light chicken broth. If you check the photo above you will see little blobs of fat floating on the soup, which helps with mouthfeel and taste.
- The whole package serves 1.
- Nutrition per serving: 200c, 39k, 4p, <1f and 1370mg sodium.
- Total time was ~5 minutes.
- Contents were a bundle of rice noodles, a powdered broth + veggie packet, and an oil packet.
- Heat: None.
- $0.69 USD
Cooking: Boil 1.5C water while placing the noodles and packets in a bowl. Be sure to break the noodles in half to make eating them easier. Once boiling, pour the water into the bowl, mix, then cover and let stand for ~3-4 minutes.
Contains fully hydrogenated palm oil, soy, MSG, and some coconut oil. So this is not the healthiest Phở, but is tasty.
√ Vietnamese Vifon Chicken Rice Noodle Pho
Vifon’s Vietnamese style instant rice noodles with artificial-Chicken flavored Pho. The wide rice noodles were great, the soup base was light and tasted okay. Overall, this was a great breakfast by a well known company.
- The whole package serves 1.
- Per serving: 210c, 43k, 4p, 0f and 1640mg sodium.
- Total time, including cutting some herbs, was ~5 minutes.
- Contains a bundle of noodles, and packets of ~1t veggies (scallion, cilantro) + textured wheat gluten, and seasoning oil.
- Heat: None.
- $0.99 USD
Cooking: As with all rice-based noodles, I heated the water and meanwhile added the noodles and packets to my bowl. Then poured the boiling water over the noodles and covered for ~3 minutes to “cook”. Since I added food, I placed the mushrooms in the water prior to boiling so it helped flavor the broth, and added the chopped parsley and chives to the bowl.
The cover shows chicken slices, Thai basil, onion and lime slices, cinnamon sticks, cilantro (or parsley), and two round things that could be cooked egg yolk but I am unsure. It also has something red that is peeled back, but I do not know what that is. I noted the expiration date was actually 24 moths from the date I had it in my hand. So this has an extra long shelf life.
This is a halal soup, without artificial coloring. But it contains artificial flavors, MSG, and palm oil. It prints that it contains antioxidants, but I do not know what that is actually. Another thing to note, this contains no fiber, something I do want with each meal. Overall, this is a low cal, cheap and quick soup, especially if you add veggies and fiber to the dish.
—Patty
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Articles in this series.
Global Noodles + Soup 1 Intro on the series + reviews
Global Noodles + Soup 2 History + packages commonalities + reviews
Packaged Instant Noodles 3 Info on noodles + Koyo reviews
Instant Noodles + Soups Healthy 4 Info on health + reviews
Instant Noodles + Soups Feed the World 5 Emergency food + Lotus reviews
Focusing on Instant Phở 6 Discussing this soup + reviews
Making Phở at Home December 13, 2019
Noodles + Soup Etiquette 7 How to eat noodle soup + reviews
Instant Noodle + Soup Makers 8 Info on the manufacturers + reviews
Vita Ramen Noodles + Soup 9 Review on Vita Ramen packages
