Food: Pho Hoa Seafood Noodle Soup

Like what I mentioned in my previous Pho Hoa post, here's my review of their Seafood Noodle Soup.

Whenever available, I always pick beef-flavored noodle soups because I like the strong and savory taste of beef broth. But Pho Hoa's branch in Festival Mall  in Alabang, doesn't have the usual beef noodle soup varieties. What they have on the menu is a beef stew soup, which based on the image of the chili beside it, seems to indicate that it is a spicy soup. And I'm not fond of spicy soups.

So I settled on a seafood noodle soup.

One, because I love seafoods and two, because the picture on the menu looks inviting. And when it was served to me, it didn't disappoint. I love that the bowl was full, not only of broth, but of so many other things.

As you can see in the photo, my bowl are filled with shrimps, seafood balls, slices of onions, and an assortment of greens. The noodle soup was preceded by this curious plate of fresh ingredients: bean sprouts, basil leaves and lemon wedge. Condiments was for the soup, the waiter told us.

I didn't put any on my soup though as I thought my bowl had enough fresh ingredients in it. Also because I don't particularly like to add anything sour on my soup and I'm not sure how everything will taste together. So just I munched on some basil leaves while waiting for the noodle soup to arrived. Try it, it's fun

The noodle is rice noodles, which should not be confused with Chinese vermicelli or what we know as sotanghon and rice vermicelli or bihon. Actually, it's closer to a bihon than a sotanghon (correct me if I'm wrong here), but the one used in the soup has thicker strands -- kinda like the bihon used in pancit malabon. It's soft but not soggy and has a slippery, resilient texture.

Comparing this with the regular egg noodles used in most Chinese noodle soups, I would say I like the latter better. The rice noodles do not absorb flavors as well as egg noodles do, which make them less tasty. And because this is a seafood noodle soup, the broth is milder. So everything was a little blander, a little less flavorful than my preference.

A single serving, good only for one, costs P195. Reasonable enough, I think because the noodle soup is a complete meal in itself. But honestly, I didn't enjoy it that much. Not that it's not good, but I really prefer the strong flavor of a beef noodle soup. So I will most probably try another kind of noodle soup if we eat at Pho Hoa again.