Canned Pho Soup or Instant Pho Soup Mixes

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good canned pho soup or instant pho soup mixes? I've seen them at the Asian markets but don't know which brand(s) are better than others.

I've been so disappointed by the Vietnamese restaurants lately that I'd like to make it at home the fast and easy way. I'll reserve making the soup from scratch until I can find a good pho recipe.

A Vietnamese colleague of mine used to use "chicken stock/broth" and these "instant pho mixed herbs" in prepacked tea bags (kinda like the 5-spice mixes for braising in Chinese braised meat/poultry dishes). Many chain pho places use pre-made bouillon (sp?) cubes for their soups (from another Vietnamese colleague who used to work in the restaurants). Interestingly enough, the "instant pho herbs in a tea bag" thing were packaged in China. I don't receall the name of the herbed packages, I'd go the route of the packed tea bag herbs boiled along w/ some prepackaged chicken broth (Costco once carried this organic chicken broth in rectangular paper cartons that had signif less sodium than canned broths which was fairly good).

Peety,

I think you might find it useful to take a look at:

http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t= ... hlight=pho


Read it all the way through--packaged mixes get discussed fairly thoroughly.

Geo