Pho served up as colourful sensations

Smooth: Pho noodles are made from unpolished rice, and variety of vegetables or fruits. — VNS File Photos by Phuong Mai Pho Hai Thien Address: 14 Bui Vien St, District 1, HCM City Tel: (08) 62711201 Hours: 7am-10.30pm Comment: Only restaurant in town offering pho noodles made of rice, vegetables or fruit. Very affordable.

Home-made pho noodles made from vegetables or fruit provide customers with a unique offering at this HCM City eatery, Phuong Mai tests the new product.

Being Vietnamese, I'm very fond of pho, one of my favourite dishes. I've eaten it in different regions of the country, from north to south, from big city to small town.

Recently, I had a chance to sample a new version made with Guinness pho noodles that contain rice and vegetables or fruit.

After seeing the dishes at a meeting of local Guinness Book record-holders in HCM City last month, I was hooked.

The natural colours of green, orange, yellow and brown really caught by eye, and I hoped to try it later in the city.

Nguyen Thi Thanh Nguyen, the inventor of the new noodles, owns the Pho Hai Thien Restaurant in HCM City, where she makes the noodles from unpolished rice, vegetables and fruit, including spinach, pumpkin, baby jack fruit or red cabbage.

"As the youngest daughter in a family that made pho for generations in Binh Thuan Province's La Gi Town, I wondered why couldn't I create a special coloured pho noodle," Nguyen said.

Last year, Nguyen and her staff from the Hai Thien Food Company succeeded in colouring noodles after making their own rice flour and designing a machine that can turn out noodles in only a minute.

"At first, the flour is mixed with ground vegetables or fruit and other ingredients to a pasty consistency before it is put into the machine to produce thin, coloured strings."

"If you want to watch how the machine works to create delicious and fresh pho, just come to the restaurant at opening time," Nguyen said.

Apart from the traditional pho, Pho Hai Thien offers one kind of coloured noodle dish each day. Some of them are soups and others are dry dishes.

Well done: Stir-fried pho is a colourful combination of seafood, vegetables, and pumpkin and baby jack fruit noodles. Mellow yellow:Pho rolls feature a rectangular piece of pho stuffed with shrimp, pork and vegetables, and served with peanut sauce.

Looking at the menu, we saw that pho with seafood was included among the restaurant's selections.

What a surprise! We had never thought pho could be cooked with other ingredients except beef and chicken.

The restaurant also offers traditional pho noodle dishes, including a pho roll, stir-fried pho and pho soup at prices ranging from only VND12,000 (US$0.6) to VND55,000 ($2.75).

At VND12,000, the roll was a nice start for us. It featured a rectangular piece of Nguyen's special noodles stuffed with shrimp, pork and vegetables, and served with peanut sauce.

The nutty taste of the sauce melted in my mouth and the fresh pumpkin smell of the home-made noodles was a real delight.

For the main course, we ordered a small bowl of pho noodles with broth and beef for VND30,000 ($1.5) and tried the restaurant's specialties, stir-fried pho noodles with seafood for VND45,000 ($2.25).

When a waiter brought us the bowl of pho, the smell and colour of the special noodles awakened all of our senses. The sweet taste of the beef and broth was delicious.

The stir-fried pho noodle dish was a colourful combination of seafood, vegetables, and noodles made from pumpkin and baby jack fruit.

The noodles are cut into medium-sized pieces so they become crispy when fried.

As a condiment, lemon juice was perfect with the dishes as it enhanced the flavours and cut the oily smell.

After finishing our meal, we felt full but still enjoyed glasses of ginger tea, which was a sweet but pungent end to our lunch.

Pho Hai Thien provides unusual pho noodle dishes offered at reasonable prices amid a nice atmosphere on Bui Vien Street, an area popular with foreigners and backpackers.

Like the Vietnamese idiom huu xa tu nhien huong (good wine needs no bush), both city residents and people in neighbouring provinces travel to Nguyen's restaurant to sample her unique fare.

Soon, her culinary creativity will be known beyond the country's borders. In late 2010, Pho Hai Thien began exporting its noodles to pho restaurants in Hawaii, according to Nguyen. — VNS

Pho served up as colourful sensations

Smooth: Pho noodles are made from unpolished rice, and variety of vegetables or fruits. — VNS File Photos by Phuong Mai Pho Hai Thien Address: 14 Bui Vien St, District 1, HCM City Tel: (08) 62711201 Hours: 7am-10.30pm Comment: Only restaurant in town offering pho noodles made of rice, vegetables or fruit. Very affordable.

Home-made pho noodles made from vegetables or fruit provide customers with a unique offering at this HCM City eatery, Phuong Mai tests the new product.

Being Vietnamese, I'm very fond of pho, one of my favourite dishes. I've eaten it in different regions of the country, from north to south, from big city to small town.

Recently, I had a chance to sample a new version made with Guinness pho noodles that contain rice and vegetables or fruit.

After seeing the dishes at a meeting of local Guinness Book record-holders in HCM City last month, I was hooked.

The natural colours of green, orange, yellow and brown really caught by eye, and I hoped to try it later in the city.

Nguyen Thi Thanh Nguyen, the inventor of the new noodles, owns the Pho Hai Thien Restaurant in HCM City, where she makes the noodles from unpolished rice, vegetables and fruit, including spinach, pumpkin, baby jack fruit or red cabbage.

"As the youngest daughter in a family that made pho for generations in Binh Thuan Province's La Gi Town, I wondered why couldn't I create a special coloured pho noodle," Nguyen said.

Last year, Nguyen and her staff from the Hai Thien Food Company succeeded in colouring noodles after making their own rice flour and designing a machine that can turn out noodles in only a minute.

"At first, the flour is mixed with ground vegetables or fruit and other ingredients to a pasty consistency before it is put into the machine to produce thin, coloured strings."

"If you want to watch how the machine works to create delicious and fresh pho, just come to the restaurant at opening time," Nguyen said.

Apart from the traditional pho, Pho Hai Thien offers one kind of coloured noodle dish each day. Some of them are soups and others are dry dishes.

Well done: Stir-fried pho is a colourful combination of seafood, vegetables, and pumpkin and baby jack fruit noodles. Mellow yellow:Pho rolls feature a rectangular piece of pho stuffed with shrimp, pork and vegetables, and served with peanut sauce.

Looking at the menu, we saw that pho with seafood was included among the restaurant's selections.

What a surprise! We had never thought pho could be cooked with other ingredients except beef and chicken.

The restaurant also offers traditional pho noodle dishes, including a pho roll, stir-fried pho and pho soup at prices ranging from only VND12,000 (US$0.6) to VND55,000 ($2.75).

At VND12,000, the roll was a nice start for us. It featured a rectangular piece of Nguyen's special noodles stuffed with shrimp, pork and vegetables, and served with peanut sauce.

The nutty taste of the sauce melted in my mouth and the fresh pumpkin smell of the home-made noodles was a real delight.

For the main course, we ordered a small bowl of pho noodles with broth and beef for VND30,000 ($1.5) and tried the restaurant's specialties, stir-fried pho noodles with seafood for VND45,000 ($2.25).

When a waiter brought us the bowl of pho, the smell and colour of the special noodles awakened all of our senses. The sweet taste of the beef and broth was delicious.

The stir-fried pho noodle dish was a colourful combination of seafood, vegetables, and noodles made from pumpkin and baby jack fruit.

The noodles are cut into medium-sized pieces so they become crispy when fried.

As a condiment, lemon juice was perfect with the dishes as it enhanced the flavours and cut the oily smell.

After finishing our meal, we felt full but still enjoyed glasses of ginger tea, which was a sweet but pungent end to our lunch.

Pho Hai Thien provides unusual pho noodle dishes offered at reasonable prices amid a nice atmosphere on Bui Vien Street, an area popular with foreigners and backpackers.

Like the Vietnamese idiom huu xa tu nhien huong (good wine needs no bush), both city residents and people in neighbouring provinces travel to Nguyen's restaurant to sample her unique fare.

Soon, her culinary creativity will be known beyond the country's borders. In late 2010, Pho Hai Thien began exporting its noodles to pho restaurants in Hawaii, according to Nguyen. — VNS