Here's a new one -- a pho kit sold at Tan Son Nhat airport. It all comes in a box and makes 2 bowls. The box contains:
Dried noodles - rice, salt, sugar, MSG
Stewed beef pack - pre-cooked beef with palm oil, ginger, shallot and salt
Soup base pack - salt, sugar, MSG, disodium 5-guanylate, disodium 5-isoninate, caramel
Vegetable pack - green onion, eryngium (culantro)
Chile sauce pack - chile, modified cornstarch, salt, sugar, citric acidDirections: Put content into bowl and add 600 ml of boiling water. Ready to serve between 3-5 minutes.
The cost is 6 USD. "Who buys it?" I asked the young saleswomen. Many Japanese visitors, they just love pho. Is it sold outside of the airport? Not to the young women's knowledge.
Wow that's expensive!! Especially for Saigon standards, even if it does serve 2 bowls.
I had a ridiculously over priced, small bowl of pho for $9 once. They bragged about it being infused with lemongrass, the noodles were overcoooked, did not offer hoisin or chili sauce and it did not come with a sprout/basil/culantro plate. Not even a wedge of lime!
It was in a "trendy" LA Viet joint . Maybe they think Amnerican's don't know their Pho. Wrong! I was extremely irritated after the meal.
Posted by: White On Rice Couple | March 27, 2008 at 06:43 AM
Lemongrass in pho? Did they confuse it with Bun Bo Hue?
Posted by: Lili | April 01, 2008 at 02:11 PM
Was it Taiwanese manufacturers that produced it in the first place? Instant beef noodle soup with real beef in a pouch was invented in Taiwan about 20 years ago. Before that time even the Japanese were not confident to put in real meat in wet form into instant noodle packs.
Posted by: Joel | April 13, 2008 at 01:18 AM
No, Joel. I believe the manufacturer is Vietnamese. The box was actually rather heavy to travel with. They may have gotten the idea from the Taiwanese. I thought it was rather bold to have the meat in there too.
Lemongrass... I don't know. Maybe the soup need punch?
Posted by: Andrea Nguyen | April 13, 2008 at 11:42 PM