I’m sure there are many ways to kick up the heat in any soup. For me, I’ll just have mine the good old traditional way. That pineapple still bothers me a little though…

If you want to try a “fusion” or a spicy pineapple chicken soup sometime, I think the heat may have come from Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce. Not positive, but there you go.

When I was living in the San Francisco area, there was a restaurant in Palo Alto that made an incredible spicy-hot pho ga with pineapple. I have looked all over the Internet for such a thing, but have never found it So I was wondering if you experiment with different flavors in your pho ga. Would you be interested in trying to make it? Or do you consider yourself more of a purist?

http://likethatscenefromrocky.blogspot.com/2011/04/vegan-challenge-day-1.html

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Thank you so much for talking about Happy Pho in your blog. It’s really a tasty, healthy version of Pho and as someone who grows up eating Pho I will say that it tastes just as good as the real thing. But really, I’d love for you to try our product and see for yourself You can find the nutrition facts here. Our product only has brown rice, spices, water, salt and a touch of green tea, and nothing else. You can see our nutrition facts here http://staranisefoods.com/our-products.aspx

Have a great day
Thao

I’m going to sound critical but that’s my job plus I’m all about the good authentic pho so I should be critical about anything that is not but tries to be.

The sales and marketing materials looks and reads very good, though I would not serve the lime wedge right in the bowl as some of the photos suggest. The product looks and sounds like another instant-type noodle, albeit with healthier ingredients compared to the typical instant pho or instant noodle.

I would question the link to pho Nam Dinh, however, as pho Nam Dinh is very specific in the way it’s prepared, and its quality depends entirely on the love of the Nam Dinh chef to make it the traditional way. I’ve seen many attempts to modernize Vietnamese pho to make it convenient for the American or other markets outside of Vietnam, but so far I’ve seen only one succeeded for very specific reasons.

Furthermore, the company’s website uses lots of images taken from the streets and markets of Vietnam. While this does give an aura of authenticity, I’m sure Happy Pho does not taste anywhere close to those sold at pho stalls depicted in the photos. (I’m a little picky here, I admit.)

So let me get this right. Here’s what I can gather from the information from Amazon and Star Anise Foods website: Each pack has 6 4.5-oz BOXES (2 servings per box). This makes a pack containing 12 servings. At $32.90 from Amazon, each serving costs just under $2.75, not including shipping. This is on par with most instant noodles, the better than average kinds. So if someone if looking for something healthy (as claimed by the maker of Happy Pho) and quick, this may do better than another instant pho. Or this may be a good vegetarian pho alternative. I would be very curious to see the nutritional labels on this product.

Overall I think this shouldn’t be called pho. It looks more like another kind of hủ tiếu to me. I’ll try it when I have a chance.