Mr. Noodles Pho

I think most everyone has tried, and possibly consumed, many instant noodle packages - probably through college and into bachelor/bachelorette days. We even have a dish we make once a month or so based on the noodles. Other than that, there isn't much to recommend about them other than cheap price. So much to my surprise, browsing the grocery store the other day I came across a new Mr. Noodles food item - a soup bowl, supposedly instant Pho.

Now, I'm instantly skeptical. There are many good pho restaurants in Ottawa. Over the past 15 years or so, my colleagues and I have regularly tried a large variety of them, one of our number even created a blog dedicated to our amateur reviews of pho. So while not experts exactly, we certainly knew a bad soup from a good one.  But it's all about expectations, right? So I bought a couple of them and one day tried it out.

Mr. Noodles soup bowl with spice packets

First thing to notice, it comes with 4 little packets instead of 1. There is a spice package, one with little bits of dehydrated veggies, and two tiny ones with hoisin and Sriracha. And when I say tiny, I mean probably 1 tsp worth. The instructions actually say to heat in the microwave, but I'm not sure I wanted to try that so i just boiled some water and poured in the bowl. After a few minutes, a good stirring up of the noodles and contents of the packages got it looking ready to eat.

Mr. Noodles Pho soup bowl.
Might as well eat like you do in a restaurant.

To me it tasted exactly like the other regular instant noodle packages, except a bit spicier thanks to the Sriracha. But on the whole, not to bad for $1.49 or whatever it was.

Asian Noodles with Beef and Snow Peas

Asian Noodles with Beef and Snow Peas

Updated - see below.
Right off the top, I have to say this one is as low-brow as it is tasty. It is about as Asian as chicken balls. We're talking middle of the week comfort food, cooks up in less than 15 minutes start to finish. And the best part is that it makes fantastic left-overs to bring to work the next day (assuming you have a microwave).

This could be made fancier by using "real" noodles and not the instant $0.99 packages, "real" beef slices and not supermarket extra-lean, and fresh ginger instead of powdered. But who is going to do that when you just got home late at 6:45pm, and are starving and grumpy? Not me.

The recipe comes from SO's former co-worker and friend. It got published in one of those small-town raising money for something coil-bound cookbooks you buy for $10. Fantastic deal if you ask me. There are a few questionable things in there, but it is worth the price for this idea alone plus there are lots of other "my momma's recipe" dishes. I mean, even Julia Child's cookbook has a section on Aspics. Yikes. Good luck trying to find a copy of "A Taste From Our Homes" though, from the Goulbourn Jubilee Singers Community Choir. This link (familyoven.com) is almost identical to the one from the book.

Update:
So we needed something for lunch, and I had 10 minutes to make it. I saw a couple of the $0.99 noodle packets in the cupboard, so thought I'd make this again. We always have ground beef in the freezer. No snow peas, but that was my inspiration to do it a bit differently. Not having something is often great for inspiration. The difference? Started with diced onion and garlic, then added green beans, frozen peas, and a few shakes of Worcestershire sauce. Turned out excellent!

Slightly different version, with garlic, onion, gr. beans,
peas, and Worcestershire sauce

Next time: this is so simple, there is nothing to change or do differently. Maybe make a bigger batch.

Me: 9/10
SO: 8.5/10
SSO: n/a, but I would guess 5/10 once he tried it

Pad Thai

 Time to finally try making Pad Thai, or at least fake Pad Thai.  This ubiquitous dish seems to be everywhere...as expected in Thai restaurants, but also the asian place in the food court, the Vietnamese place run by the nice Indian lady, and even that take-out deli lunch place near your workplace. For some reason, actually probably that reason, I've never bothered trying to make it at home.  Well here is my chance, SO bought a Pad Thai spice packet from the supermarket.

Pad Thai spice packet

Hmmm, should be OK. Basically the recipe is up to you in terms of your protein choice, and what other fresh stuff you want to put in. The suggestion was some peanuts and sprouts, along with the spice packet which you mix with water, milk, and peanut butter. Excellent, I love improvising - lots of other stuff I can try adding. And even better, a family friend was coming over - the perfect guinea pig scenario. So I settled on chicken and tofu (the firm kind, so it wouldn't fall apart when cooking), lots of sprouts, and the suggested rice noodles, called Banh Pho, a.k.a. rice sticks. I also love fresh herbs, so a bunch of cilantro (here's a link for an explanation of cilantro vs coriander). There were also a couple eggs.  I ended up cooking too much chicken, so I had to make more sauce. I just supplemented the given recipe with some fish sauce, white wine vinegar, water, and a bit more milk and peanut butter. 

The finished Pad Thai dish, with chicken and tofu

 All in all, it turned out pretty good. I should have put in more cilantro leaves. I'd read lots about how it can be tricky to cook the noodles the right amount, I was worried about overly chewy noodles. So at the appointed time I drained and cooled them off with cold water. They had to be thrown in and mixed with the rest anyway, although it took longer to heat through. 

Next Time:  hmmm, lots of things.  More cilantro, different brand of noodles, more crunched peanuts, another egg.  I'd also slice the chicken finer, and make it a bit more saucier.

Me: 7.5/10
SO: 7/10
SSO: 1/10  (hard time with this one, had to separate the chicken and a few scraped off noodles)