What the Pho?
“I’d rather eat GONG JAI MEEN!” — (a requested and inspired post for Roy)
(“I’m so angry, and still hungry! the food was so crap at that restaurant! the company paid for it but still! I ordered lobster ravioli and i got 2, TWO!! and it wasn’t good, now I’m back to my hotel room eating instant noodle. Can u post it so no one ever goes there?!” Well my dear readers, if you’re ever in Albany, NY, i guess pack some instant noodle on your trip just in case…)
An Ode to the Instant Noodle.
“PHO IN A BOX!” – B screamed in excitement when she got home from both ‘metro’ & ‘the galleria’ (a huge korea plaza / supermarket) today…
first off, i guess that’s what i love about a million different markets in toronto and having a car — you can go to all your specific markets to get a million different things. :) and me and my family fully take advantage of this! no one stop shop — we gots choices! ;) organic, local, commercial, ethnic, ethnic organic, farmer’s markets, you can shop it all!! :)
– i highly recommend “the butchery” (at Yonge & Eg, beside “Dufflet” one of toronto’s top bakeries right next door!) has awesome fresh and frozen organic MEAT, anything you can dream of, Game, fouL, alligator, kobe. even the pre marinated cuts, and a selection of already cooked/roasted chickens, it’s a bit pricey but you know exactly what you’re paying for and that’s quality from local canadian farms)
Yum: chinese supermarkets, korean ones, indian, russian, iranian, a tiny selection of japanese markets (i know of two right now,..please let me know if there are others fellow torontonians!!)…etc.etc
And ‘metro’ is the newly turned over chain (that used to be dominion’s, bought by a company from quebec in the summer… and like what seemed to happen over night, they all changed their signs at the same time, it was kinda intense…(imagine all the ralph’s in LA turning into rudolph’s overnight – or like all the massive wholefoods in manhattan turning into ‘JloFoods’ yeahh, kind of like that, once super iconic, super corporate, and crazy…all of a sudden, changed to a new label, management, and people are still feeling it out.
ahh i can’t handle it! haha — like when all the 76 balls in california turned RED instead of ORANGE, like WHY ruin a branded image like turning your golden arches from yellow to green?
anyway… that is probably the last time you’ll hear me vouching for corporate branding — haha, or at least it won’t be the last time you’ll see me bring it up to your attention as something to think about always especially with food…
Secondly,
back to my instant asian food in a box.
i say ‘asian’ mindfully as not to clump all the cultures in one, but i don’t believe the idea of instant noodles belongs to any one culture either.
but can u imagine?
Pho in a Box! and the box is huge!
When i saw it, i was almost as excited as B was because i thought it was like a kit to teach you how to make your own PHO!
but HAHA, silly janet, alas, that only exists in your own culinary mind…*dream, how i would love to learn how to make Pho.
So i tear the thing open and inside are tiny single sized individually packaged instant meals in plastic containers designed to withstand heat, probably from the hot water you pour into it after removing the “flavour” packet form inside when you inspect your instant goods.
Instant Pho… aww, i was almost disapointed.
B’s face was still beaming.
The box is hilarious though, because of the cartoon image of what a smiling vietnamese lady – with long black shiny hair wearing a rice hat and a long old fashioned traditional dress – would look like to a korean person (really?!)
The text on the box was all in korean (picture to come, i need to fix my camera) and it’s awesomely interesting ;)
but imagine the convenience factor — of INSTANT-NIZING Pho!
it’s like, here, let’s turn a 12 hour long preparation and make it into something condensed, in powder form so you can pour boiling water over it, steep it like tea for one min, and then eat like you’re at grandma’s kitchen in vietnam. (not the same really. but imagine all the late drunken nights, or quick office lunches that could throw a lil variety into your food court extravaganzas)
Ohh, how i would love to have pho made the 12 hour way right now…*drooL,
I was only so blessed with this experience once in my life in san diego in ‘04, (and the promises of many more) at My’s house, her mom cooked all day just for us since she got the “hi ma! i’m in town & i’m coming home for dinner” phone call the day before… it was like a dream, and i still remember me asking — “how do i ask for seconds and thirds in vietnamese without sounding rude??? and yes PLEASE!” :) Her mom had been cooking the pho broth for 14 hours, and fully appreciating that fact, i had three “train head’s” worth in (chinese toronto talk) of homemade pho. uhhh man, it was sweetness and a half, and pho anywhere else hasn’t been the same since…*i am literally salivating while writing this, and it’s different at every restaurant i go to no matter which north american city i’m in. ;)
So…why not have Pho in a box, cuz how often can i go to vietnam to sit in grandma’s kitchen?!
Also, with weather like this outside, people stack up on “emergency” food here a lot more than i did when i was in the states, especially in canadian winters, man, so much time trying hard to fight the cold, drive 5 km/hr in the snow and ice to go to markets and restaurants to eat and to break free from this igloo that shields my house from the winter blues… (it was minus 11 when i woke up this morning — that’s 12 degress in F, TWELVE!!!)
So it’s no big surprise that i often see instant noodles in other’s pantries ;) families, college kids, even cook’s who go home after a 14 hour day of cooking and the last thing they want to do is cook more food to feed themselves –
I even pack these ‘meals’ with me on long trips — in fact, that’s the one constant factor that i’ll know i’ll be getting on the questionable airplane food on flights to and from asia!! (and i’ve heard it from many people a like) any trip longer than 11 hours on the plane is gong jai meen time!
I remember busting open my bowl of Instant Japanese Curry Udon (yeah!) when I first arrived in Australia and was waiting for the rest of my family to meet me there… it was a looong trip, and I was STARVING…I had been traveling for over 20 hours at that point, you know somewhere between a red eye flight, crossing the international date line, gate changes, the taxi ride from the airport to the hotel in sydney and the time difference was just a huge stomach confusion. I don’t think i’ve ever inhaled instant noodles that fast before, and if i remember correctly, I couldn’t even get the hot water to boil in the coffee machine in my hotel room, i think i just used semi hot water from the tap where the water drains the opposite way, hahaha– and it was still fine! :)
And the many many after school meals i would have with my sister — we would go through BOXES of instant noodles in months…that was always my first incentive when i got home, with backpack and coat still on, i would grab a pot and put water on to boil. it was kind of gross now that i think about it, that we’ve tried every kind on the market — the egg noodle ones (actual meen), the rice noodle (mi fun) ones, the one with that actual cartoon “gong jai” on it to which all branding “gong jai meen” cultural references pay homage to like calling tissue kleenex.., the korean spicy ones where you can crack an extra egg in the end, the japanese “ramen” ones, the cups that you can buy at costco that say “noodles” on them, etc…
man it became an art as to what we could add to it to make it a full meal – cha siu, hot dogs, lettuce, corn, anything you could find really…
maybe that’s why B was so excited to see Pho in a box! it would now serve as an instant afterschool lazy meal when she has no time but t put on boiling water and get cracking on her work or get back to rehearsal of some sort., and why my dad let her buy it — a) B didn’t grow up eating that crap ALL the time like me and my other sister did, and b) my dad’s tried every kind on the market with us and was probably like, mmm, a new one. interesting…
i even remember once bonding over an instant hot lunch during high school, when court and i had a spare period and we ran back to my house down the street to boil, cook, and eat really really fast – two piping hot bowls of gong jai meen. mmm, and thus a beautiful decade of friendship was born…
and for any other kind of instant meaL — i think it would be my meal of choice — other than ordering hot fresh pizza, wings and beer.
“cynthia! what is the point of boiling your noodles for ten mins?! it’s not so ‘instant’ anymore! that and it turned into a paste!”
“Yeah but there’s so much wax in it!! Ever hear of those horror stories from hk, there was one guy who died from eating goong jai meen his whole life and they found a layer of wax in his stomach in the autopsy?!” –
umm, ok first off, if he ate instant noodles his entire life — he probably never ate a single piece of ruffage aka lettuce or veg, and probably never exercised, and wasn’t really healthy!! lol. Fine eat your noodles raw like a cookie straight out of the package! (which i’ve also seen people do)
but yes, true, everything in moderation… and there’s nothing wrong with a lil or (a lot) of msg once in a while, when you’re in a bind and need some good ole instant meaL in a cup.
one of my friend’s used to think that the bad part was the “flavour” packet, so he would boil the noodles and eat those plain.
another friend of mine would do that as his carb option when camping!! :) He would grill steak and or whatever protein, and eat it with the instant noodles out of the “soup” water like rice.
One of my aunties also taught me to make the soup broth in one pot of boiling water, and blanch the noodles in another, so that way, you can run the instant noodles under cold water (go lang ho, in canto, meaning to run it through a cold river) to stop the cooking process, and remove some of the wax, (the way you can cook pasta if you want to remove some of the starch when al dante) and then return the noodles to the hot soup when bowling it up. few, so much work for an instant cup of noodles ;)
it’s an art…
and purely nostalgic for me now.
and the variety out there, esp in our fast paced conveniently packaged and preserved world…!…. man o man…i’ve lost track of all the varieties i’ve tried and haven’t tried. but i do have my favourites that do occasionally live in my chef pantry as an “emergency” when i go to my favourite chinese / jap / korean supermarkets in town.
So, i leave you with this,
Q. What’s Your favourite brand and way of eating instant noodles?
