Updated 03-14-18. There's nothing like enjoying a bowl of pho at your favorite pho shop with your pho companions. But there are times, for various reasons, you'd like to make pho yourself at home.
Most good pho recipes like Andrea Nguyen's or Didier Corlou's call for cooking the bone and meat in broth for up to 2.5 to 3 hours. Other recipes call for even longer simmering. Adding other preparation time, including the time to bring water to boil, drain and reboil, and you're looking at maybe 4-5 hours total cook time at least. So for those who want to take a shortcut and shave off a few hours, try the Quoc Viet Foods Beef Flavored "Pho" Soup Base option.
Looking for a solid beef pho recipe? Check out Lovingpho’s own Beef Pho Recipe infographic.
Quoc Viet Foods makes shelf storable soup bases, seasonings, coffee and tea. When it comes to authenticity, it's always a challenge to find ready-made food products, including Vietnamese pho. Yet Quoc Viet seems to achieve the impossible for pho, that is to "convert the traditional Vietnamese products into a convenient form" while maintaining the flavor expected of such product. This means for those who never made pho or tasted pho, they can now get very close to the real thing, easily.
You can read more about my other post on Quoc Viet Foods. But enough about the company. Let's get to the goodness of their Beef Flavored "Pho" Soup Base.
The package comes in a compact round plastic container. The wraparound label clearly describes the content and includes an ingredient list, nutrition information and cooking directions in English, Viet and Chinese. While the nutrition info states that there are 32 servings per container, the cooking directions indicate it makes 20 bowls. Confusing, but still very nice! At a price of US$ 6.99 per container, I'm paying US$ 0.35 for the broth in each of my pho bowls, excluding a few other ingredients of course.
Inside the container are the powdered soup base with marrow, and 2 bags of spices. I should point out that the soup base itself is not loose powder as you may expect. Rather, because there is beef fat included (to give you the correct flavor), what you have is actually more like a grainy paste with a greasy consistency.
But don't let my description scares you. This is normal and it is the good stuff. The soup base is the key part of the pho broth and is essentially your "instant" bone/bone marrow solution that you didn't have to cook for 2-3 hours. As already mentioned, it packs plenty of beef fats which you can skim off at serving time if you wish, but I wouldn't do that. It's the good stuff (I know, I already said this).
The spice bags are your normal star anise, cinnamon, and various other spices. What's awesome about the soup base/spice bag combination is they give you all you need for the broth, including all seasonings that you need-I added some fish sauce but it's really not required. The only other things you'll need are the ginger and onion which should be charred or grilled before use in the broth, and the meat.
Quoc Viet Foods Beef Soup Base
Quoc Viet Foods Beef Soup Base Nutrition Facts
Quoc Viet Foods Beef Soup Base cooking instructions
Quoc Viet Foods Beef Soup Base package content
The direction is very easy to follow. You'll have to buy your preferred meat to cook, but this whole process entirely does away with having to buy the bone/oxtail and cooking them to get to the marrow, and to purchase the spices separately. For my broth I bought 2.8 pounds of beef flank, a piece of ginger and a medium size onion. The required ingredients list and cooking directions can be viewed from the photos above, but here's a recap which is better to follow:
- 3-4 lbs, beef flank or brisket, cut into 4-5 inch pieces for better cooking,
- 1 lb, beef tendon*,
- 1 bulb, onion,
- 2 pieces, ginger.
DIRECTIONS:
- Blanch meats for 15 minutes. Discard dirty water and rinse meats.
- (Step not in package direction): Char or grill the onion and ginger pieces. I cut my onion in half, but it’s your choice to do so or not. You can char over open flame or broil in your oven. It’s okay to char (let burned or blackened) the outside a little bit.
- Put meat pieces in a large pot and add enough water to cover them. Bring to boil then simmer at medium flame for 1 hour. Add onion, ginger about half way through.
- After about 1 hour, add spice bags and content of soup base. Important: Do not tear spice filter bags.
- After 15 minutes, remove spice bags. Continue simmer at medium flame until meats are softened. Note: you can leave spice bags in longer for more pho flavor, and remove when you think ready.
- Remove meats, onion and ginger pieces.
- Adjust water to 2 gallons or to taste.
- Also add fish sauce per your preference. Remember: start with small amount and add more as needed.
- Bring to boil and serve.
* The meats and tendon are optional, or you can also substitute/add tripe, meatballs, etc. depending on your preference, just as you would order in a restaurant. See my “Tips on Ordering Pho Your Way.”
NOTE: The above constitutes recipe for the broth only. To serve a complete pho meal, you’ll need to separately prepare other ingredients such as the banh pho noodle, chopped scallions and cilantro, etc.
For me I ended up with so much broth that I had to divide into 3 smaller containers, put 2 in the freezer and enjoy the third portion over a few days. Again the key was the soup base which is all inclusive. There are no seasonings required as the soup base is super concentrated, and you can add water to adjust to taste.My total cooking time was about 3 hours, but that's just me because making and eating pho is a religion for me 😉 so I took my time. For others who just want to get quickly to a nice steaming bowl of pho with chopsticks and spoon in hands, you can probably do it in 1.5 hours or less. The determining factor will be how tender you want the cooked meat to be.
Actually, the 3 hours that I spent to create the large volume of broth means that the next time I want to eat pho at home, I can have it as fast as I can prep the ingredients, cook the noodle, and re-thermalize (fancy word for reheat) the broth. Awesome!
To speed up cooking time even more, an alternative is to cut smaller pieces of beef (hence cutting down cooking time further) and/or use pre-cooked meatballs instead. The latter option means that you wouldn't be cooking any meat in the broth at all, as you depend totally on the soup base for the flavors. By the way, for those unfamiliar with meatballs, you don't cook them in the broth for the whole duration. Just heat them in the broth just before serving.
Finally I rate my pho broth creation using Quoc Viet Foods' Beef Flavored Pho Soup Base as follows:
- Quality and taste: 8/10.
- Convenience: 10/10.
- Affordability: 10/10.
- Total value (quality & affordability): 9/10.
You can find this and other Quoc Viet products in many Viet and Chinese food markets in the 50 U.S. states, Denmark, Canada and Japan. Quoc Viet's website indicates their products include
- Chicken Flavored "Pho" Soup Base
- Beef Flavored "Pho" Soup Base
- Beef Stew Seasoning
- "Hue" Style Beef Flavored Soup Base
- Chicken Flavored Soup Base
- Pork Flavored "Hu Tieu" Soup Base
- Pork Flavored Soup Base
- Tamarind Soup Base
- Vegetarian Soup Base
- Crab Flavored Soup Base
- Thai Tom Yum Soup Base
Unfortunately Quoc Viet is a wholesaler and does not sell directly to consumers over the Internet. The company is also very active at local demos, festivals, and charity fund drives, so if you're lucky you can catch them in action serving pho to hungry pho fans at these events.
They would agree too, but they owned a restaurant first and got so many requests to do private parties etc., they sold the restaurant and went 100-percent catering. From my amature observations, serving food to the public in any capacity is not an easy task.
@Beachmaster: Sure, and I can understand once they went the catering route and can make money from it, why go back to restaurants.
Well Cuong, I made the pho using the Quo Viet product this weekend, followed all your instructions. I made the stock the night before. Started it about 6 pm and finished about 9 pm (I could have done it in about 2 hours but did it slow). I used a big piece of bottom round in the stock. Served it the next evening with the noodles, thin sliced filet of raw beef, basil, mint, sliced jalapenos, hoisin, hot sauce, bean sprouts, scallion and limes. Everyone flipped. It was awesome. The Quo Viet stock/seasoning packages are a winner in my book. Only change I will make next batch is going with the 3mm northern noodle as you suggested earlier. I just like a larger noodle. Also, as you said, using the entire container I was left with plenty of left over stock which we put in containers for use later this week. Thanks again.
@Beachmaster: Congratulations!!! I’m proud of you. Keep in touch about opening a pho shop. I’m interested.
Will do.
Cuong, just wanted to let you know, the last time I made Pho was 03/15/14 and I had 2.5 quarts of broth leftover. I never froze the stock I just put it in plastic quart containers and kept it in the frige. This weekend I decided it was time for a second round of Pho using what broth I had leftover from three weeks ago. Happy to report the broth was just as good as the first time, perhaps even a bit more flavorful as it sat in the frige all that time. I did leave a thin layer of sediment in the containers and by doing so the broth was a dark, clear rich color. It was excellent. Made two full bowls of Pho and still had about a half-quart left. Quo Viet produces a great product.
You guys are Extreme! And funny! Wow, what pho fans.
Just so you know, you are missing the whole point of the convenience of Quoc Viet Foods soup base. I can make a bowl of pho in 10 minutes! Yes, it can be done. Boil hot water for 1 serving. Scoop in 1 table spoon of product. Done. Pour the soup in a bowl, add cooked noodles, add tiny slices of beef, add vegetables. Enjoy.
You do not need to cook the entire container at one time. The product has a very long shelf life in the refrigerator after opening.
BTW, I am QV owner’s sister..
The only reason that I am surfing the internet on the topic is because I just got home from Quoc Viet’s company party. They were celebrating their win in a Trademark infringement lawsuit against VV Foods, who is ran by my cousin, who stole my brother’s company idea. Federal court ruled in favor of Quoc Viet Foods!
So celebrate on that the fake imitator/copycats will have to change their labels & not confuse consumers with subpar products & MGS ingredients!
You order whatever noodle size that you like. I always like large because more surface to absorb the liquid flavor.
Hi Tracy:
Thanks for leaving your comment. I did congratulate your brother Tuan on the success of the trademark infringement lawsuit. I’ve acquainted with a few people there at Quoc Viet but I guess I never had a chance to meet you.
What you said about the 10 minute pho is certainly correct. But this is true only if you want to have only bò tái (rare beef) and bò viên (beef balls) with your pho. If you want well-done flank or brisket then you must spend the time to make the broth in the proper way, because the meat has to be cooked and tenderized properly. This is why I wrote that Quoc Viet products enable consumers to shave off some cooking time but not totally eliminate it.
If you read the Quoc Viet product cooking instructions and marketing materials, you will see that the company never advocates or even suggests the 10 minutes (or whatever short time) cooking benefits. Personally I think this is an oversight on Quoc Viet’s part to communicate its product’s benefits to both the Viet and non-Viet consumers. My guess is Tuan and the QV staff have their own reasons for not promoting such benefits but obviously I’m not privy to such decision. In any case, I don’t think it’s fair to the customers when you say they’re missing the point. You (Quoc Viet) never sells its products as such.
A good analogy and lesson is the Arm and Hammer baking soda product. It started out as, guess what, baking soda, for baking! But along the way the company realized that the product has so many more side benefits such as its cleaning or odor-elimination power that they started to promote these as major benefits. I think QV should do the same and step up its marketing message. I’m sure this will help increase your sale.
In my consulting work to pho restaurants, I find that there are tons of ways people are using QV products. Each restaurateur has his/her own reasons. A few do actually use QV products the way you suggested, but not all. A true sign of a good product is how many ways it can be used, and I still think QV soup base is a good product.
Lastly, this may be considered a little bit nitpicking, but for the benefits of those who are not familiar, the proper way to plate up a bowl of pho is not add banh pho to the broth. It should be the other way around. The blanched banh pho goes in the bowl first, then protein ingredients and garnishes, then the hot broth is poured over last. This will ensure the best bowl of pho.
Again thanks for stopping by Tracy.
Hey Tracy,
My name is Jenny and my father is one of the owners at VVFoods. I too, was surfing the internet and stumbled upon your comment.
Thanks for attempting to publicly shame my family’s soup base company but in case you haven’t heard as of today, all 16 trademarks that your brother filed has been cancelled by the federal judge. You guys celebrated too soon…. x__x
It’s a shame that you guys would wrongfully file a trademark claiming that the word “cot” was something your family came up with. The word “cot” does not belong to your family. It belongs to the ENTIRE Vietnamese community. For the last decade, my family (VVFoods) has done everything in our power to fight and stand up to what we believe is right. And after today, we stand tall and proud as ALL of those trademarks have been removed.
We will not be changing our labels after all 🙂
Jenny
Who is your father? Anh Quyet? Brian’s cousin? Or is your father Anh Quyet’s relative? Maybe you should sit down & have a serious conversation with your father to learn the truth behind how your father’s company got started.
I was there, in the beginning, when Brian spent every weekend cooking pots & pots of pho, while Mr. Quyet came over for free lunch. Maybe he should have said, “Thank you for the free lunch.” Instead of taking advantage of Brian’s generosity & trust to steal his business ideas & cooking method secrets, only to pass it on to Mr. Quyet’s other relatives.
As a disclaimer, I am not an employee of Quoc Viet & I do not represent them. I only speak for myself & personally, I think that my brother & his company were way too nice on your father’s company. If it were up to me, I would not sue you guys for the trademark “cot”, I would sue your company for the entire company & go after every penny of profit, along with punitive damages. Maybe you should go back & read the original trial transcript. Yes, a company with 13+ products line stole ideas from a company with 4 products line. And yes, how is it that the 4 labels are nearly identical to the other 13+ labels? Is there anything original about your father’s company? Really? Stealing all the way down to the label. Have they no shame?
You are worry about public shaming on a website of what a readership of 1 million or so? Really? The only court that matters is the day when your father & company meet their maker.
Tracy,
You are free to say whatever you would like on this blog. However, I do not agree with you speaking so ill of a company that my family worked SO hard on building. Instead of allowing you to post false information about VVFoods in your prior post, I just wanted to correct your previous post and share with everyone who reads this blog that the most recent developments state that my family won the court ruling as of today and we will continue to use the word “cot” in our brand. There was no trademark infringement whatsoever. That’s all 🙂
From what i heard, Quoc Viet is actually appealing the case and the appeals court will determine whether who is ultimately correct, the jury (who ruled in favor of Quoc Viet, finding that VV Foods infringed the Cot trademarks) or the judge (who overturned the jury’s verdict).
The appeals court could affirm or agree with the Judge’s ruling,
However, the appeals court could also find the jury’s verdict was correct and decide to reverse the Judge’s order and require the jury’s original verdict to be followed.
So the case is far from over and there is no “winner” yet….
@Duy: I’d appreciate if you provide sources or background info on what you just wrote, or maybe even identify yourself if you’re not just an interested (but very knowledgeable) member of the public. Your post has the type of information that not every layman off the street has access to or has good understanding of. You seem to know the process well. Are you associated with either companies or the case itself?
Editorial note:
First off I want to thank Tracy, Jenny, and Duy for leaving your comments. So far I haven’t joined in this topic regarding the VV Foods versus Quoc Viet court case, but I do keep an interested eye on this thread.
At this time I just want to take this opportunity to clarify the following in hope that the discussion does not go where it shouldn’t.
– In general, any self-promotion or self-advertising on lovingho.com will not be tolerated. As long as the discussion gives value to readers about pho or anything related to pho, then we’re all cool.
– Healthy debates are always welcome as long as they 1) don’t get out of hand, 2) do stay civil, 3) do not stray too far into fantasy land, and 4) do provide reference sources to back up an important point being made. Personal opinions are ok as long as they are reasonable and do not cross a line, which I reserve the right to decide on but not have to tell anyone about it. We’ll know it when it does come.
Below are some of my general observations on this thread:
– Like Tracy alluded to in one of her posts, I was a bit surprised that the dispute was about the word “cot” and not about the product itself. From my own vantage point and understanding of the product line, I think it’s a lot more than just the word “cot”. But it’s possible that Quoc Viet did not have proper IP protection so this is the only possible way to take to court.
– As long as the participants are willingly sharing their views on this subject publicly, I’d encourage you to at least provide some detail and back up info so that readers understand what’s going on. It seems Tracy did share some important background info, while Jenny is all about winning the case of the word “cot”, which I don’t really care much about, TBH.
– @Jenny: I’d love to hear more about how your family worked so hard to bring the products to market. If you feel Tracy’s got the facts wrong then please provide the right facts or at least provide correction. For me, it’s not about winning or losing the case of the word “cot”. I’m more interested in how VV Foods developed its product line. If a VV Foods representative is open to an interview then I might even write a post or two about it.
I wish all business disputes can be resolved peacefully and privately, especially between family members, and doubly especially between Viet family members. Unfortunately I also realize that this is not always possible. But as long as you’re willing to “talk” in a public forum and don’t mind being judged by the public, then let’s have the facts.
Looks like that Quoc Viet Foods vs VV Foods case has been finally decided and Quoc Viet Foods won in the appeal.
Just saw this: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rhema-law-wins-ninth-circuit-appeal-for-quoc-viet-foods-in-trademark-case-300804300.html
@jenny
Looks like VV FOODS are the ones that celebrated too soon. Apparently COT is a valid trademark and VV FOODS infringed by selling copy cat products which they stole from Quoc Viet…Be careful when u gloat and shame other people, karma is a B
@Pham: You should read the editorial notes above. Rules 4) states that all discussions and debates are welcome if posters provide “reference sources to back up an important point being made”.
The point you just made is “VV FOODS infringed by selling copy cat products which they stole from Quoc Viet”. Unless you provide proof or information to back up your claim, this discussion thread will end here.
Trolling is not tolerated on Lovingpho.com.
@cuong
I am not a family member of either quoc viet foods or vv foods and i am no picking sides. But from just reading the comments from @jenny, she seemed in my opinion to be very rude and gloating about vv foods winning the case etc…
My opinion and comments come from me reading the press release and then reading the actual appeal court ruling that the press release referenced.
You can find the actual appeal court ruling here: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/memoranda/2019/02/22/17-55331.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjsl62J-ufgAhUPVa0KHVTMAuMQFjAFegQIARAB&usg=AOvVaw2I2paJoTVMFkQTgIbzHldj
The appeal court ruled that VV FOODS “intentionally copied Quoc Viets products and labels with the intent to decieve.” And they “reinstated” the jury verdict’s that found the COT mark a valid trademark and infringed by VV FOODS.
This is not my opinion but the appeal court
@Pham: Regardless of what @Jenny said or how you feel about her comments, that was more than 2 years ago and she hasn’t made another comment since. Why suddenly jump on the thread as soon as a new verdict is out? The best thing is to let sleeping dogs lie.
Personally I don’t have time to read court rulings, but from glancing through the new verdict plus from my understanding of this dispute from the beginning, it is a trademark dispute and not a product or product content dispute. I’ve clearly pointed this out in one of the posts above.
Your statement “VV FOODS infringed by selling copy cat products which they stole from Quoc Viet” implies that VV Foods products are copies of QV products (using copied formulas or other protected trade secrets in product formulation and production). This is still baseless and requires proof.
Cuong
1. First, the girl Jenny (who claims she’s from VV FOODS) hasn’t commented in 2 yrs because the COT case has been on appeal for 2 yrs so that’s why. The reason i am commenting now is that i stumbled on this website because of the discussion of the COT product and case and it makes sense to update this thread with the final conclusion,
2. I am not implying anything but just re-stating what the appeal court ruled. THEY said that VV FOODS intentionally copied Quoc Viet foods products and labels. Unlike other people, i dont care about people’s comments bc that’s just people’s opinions. But i do care about evidence and i think you should take the time to read a court’s ruling bc THEY set and decide the laws that we follow and ultimately decide what’s right or wrong under the law.
Just like here, opinions or comments aside, its important (to me anyway) to find out that our court system has found VV FOODS copied Quoc Viet’s COT mark by intentionally copying the products and labels. What VV FOODS did is illegal and there’s no question on that anymore.
@Pham:
1. Thanks for updating the thread. I’ve been personally informed by QV’s attorney of this latest ruling, and it is my decision to not update or do anything about it at this time. If your aim is to update then it is appreciated and should have ended with your first post.
If you’ve read the thread fully, then you’d have seen that I asked Jenny to back her story/claim with information and facts, and she went MIA. Enough said here.
2. Unless someone confirms to me (or I see it myself) that ALL VV Foods products ARE ACTUALLY PULLED from the market as a result of this ruling, this is again just a branding/labeling dispute. It’s good that justice is done about the trademarks for one party. However, VV Foods can just remove the word cốt from all their products and they should be fine to continue selling. And as such, it is a trademark issue and not a product copy issue. I’m open to be corrected on this.
When Jenny said in her first post: “We will not be changing our labels after all” it was clear to me that this is just a labeling dispute. They would not be out of business if they don’t win. IF they lose then the only concern was that they have to change labels.
It’s fine if you do care and take time to read court rulings, but I don’t read court rulings and a vast majority of people don’t either. This is a moot argument, and again you did inform with your first post and it should have ended there.
If you do have things to contribute to subject of item 2. above then I’m open to it since it brings useful content for the readers/consumers.
Further discussion on this subject without adding substantially new or useful information for lovingpho.com readers and meet lovingpho.com’s editorial focus will be strictly moderated.
@Beachmaster: For me, 3 weeks may be a stretch to keep anything in the fridge then still eat it, except for some very good cheese that is 😉 Anyway, that’s awesome, the way your broth turns out in terms of color, taste, etc. That’s the way it should be, yeah! Just wondering: did you get a thin layer of white fat on top and did you keep it for reheating and eating? Beside the fact that that layer has a lot of flavor in itself, it is what keeps your flavors in the main broth, preventing the broth from reacting directly with the air and making it tasting bad, even when you have a cap or cover on. Thanks for checking in!