[Sca-cooks] Pho

[Stefan li Rous]

Guenièvre replied to Phlip with:
=====
 > So, R&M, in their quest for easy foods to take to work for lunch,  
came
 > home
 > with something called "Pho", which is an Asian soup, rather like
 > ramen,
 > except it uses rather wide, flat rice noodles, and comes in its own
 > pastic
 > cup for nuking or eating at work. And yes, it's rather good, as such
 > things
 > go- has reasonable spicing, comes in chicken and beef.

Microwaveable pho? This seems like a travesty, and yet I am intrigued.
Though if you can find a REAL pho place, I highly recommend going - it's
wonderful stuff, and served with fresh lime and basil and bean
sprouts and chili paste so you can alter the spicing however you like...
=====

We seem to be getting more and more Pho type places here in Austin. I  
assume because of a growing Vietnamese population. One is just a few  
blocks down the street from my work. $4.25 to $5.75 buys you a large  
8 inch? or larger 10 inch? bowl of soup with a plate of the extras  
which Guenievre mentions to pile on, although with sliced peppers  
instead of chili paste to add. The chili paste is usually among the  
condiment bottles along with the hoesin(sp?) sauce. The smaller soup  
is usually more than I can eat, but I often buy the larger one and  
take home the leftovers for that evening or the next day.

I don't expect there to be much meat in the packaged soup Phlip is  
describing if it is anything like most of the oriental, or other,  
dried soups I've bought. The restaurant version had a variety of or  
combination of, different meats. That is part of the reason for the  
price range mentioned above. The meats I can remember are tripe(!),  
meatballs with a very finely ground consistancy, and thinly sliced  
meats ranging from barely to well cooked. Quite a variety of textures.

For a while the cafeteria at my old company (Motorola/Freescale) had  
pho soup every week or two. But the quality started going downhill  
when they started using spaghetti instead of Asian noodles in the  
soup and lemons instead of limes. Just not the same as using the real  
thing.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
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