Good “Phở” Your Health

Phở gà: Chicken phở

Setting back the clocks for daylight savings time makes the days shorter and nights longer. Due to the time change, Kim Vo, a San Jose local, seeks a hot steamy bowl of her favorite chicken noodle soup to alleviate the dark, cold and rainy day blues. For her soup fix, she goes to Phở Ha, a Vietnamese noodle restaurant located in the Little Saigon neighborhood of San Jose. Little does she know, she may also be protecting her health.

As frosty winter days approach and the sniffles begin, over one billion people in the United States will catch a cold virus. When they do, they may find themselves having the virus cold blues. There are over 200 viruses that can cause the common cold. The best medicine for the virus is prevention, this can be done by practicing, “good hand hygiene and avoiding close contact with people who have colds or other upper respiratory infections,” according to the Center for Disease Control’s website. But another prevention and care tool comes in chicken soup, and in San Jose its Vietnamese version comes in the form of phở gà.

Currently doctors have not found the cure for the common cold and can only suggest over-the-counter medicines or home remedies for symptom relief. Maria Sanchez, a Registered Nurse, at Regional Medical of San Jose says, “resting and fluids are key when you’re sick….[secondarily] have some chicken soup.”

Delicious chicken soup to alleviate the cold virus blues may seem like a hoax but, “the steam from chicken soup may open up congested noses and throats…and provides fluid, which is important for fighting infection,” writes The National Institutes of Health and the U.S. National Library of Medicine on their website.

Homemade chicken soup may be an especially great idea, if Grandma makes it, but what if Grandma lives hundreds of miles away or in another country? What can busy Silicon Valley people do when they are too busy or feel too weak to make chicken soup themselves?

“When my mom can’t make homemade soup, the best cure for a cold is phở,” a Vietnamese noodle soup, says Toan Nuygen, a San Jose State student. Although phở may not replace grandma’s yummy homemade soup, it can be a quick alternative. There are many phở restaurants throughout the county of Santa Clara; each has reasonable prices ranging from $6.00 - $8.00 per bowl.

Traditional phở is made with beef broth, and different types of meat can be added to the noodles. Meats such as brisket, round eye steak, meat balls, tripe, and or tendon are typical for beef phở. Most restaurants have phở gà, (chicken) and a select few offer vegetable phở with chicken broth.

Typical garnishes for phở: cilantro, basil, lime, bean sprouts and onions.

Typically the steamy broth is served with long thin rice noodles, green and white onions, and cilantro. The bowl of phở may be trimmed with fresh cut basil leaves, bean sprouts, fresh squeezed lemon, sliced jalapenos, Sriracha sauce, and or plum sauce, according to taste. “There is nothing better than a hot steamy plate of phở gà on a cold winter day with spicy Sriracha sauce,” says Vo, a regular at Phở Ha.

Some restaurants may add monosodium glutamate or MSG to the broth as a flavor enhancer. A number of people may be sensitive to MSG; those that are ought to ask the restaurant if it is an ingredient added to the soup before consumption. MSG may cause headaches in few individual like it does with Henry Pham, a local phở consumer. However, “chicken soup contains a mild anti-inflammatory agent,” according to a study conducted by the University of Nebraska, therefore, it may alleviate some minor cold symptoms. An individual may choose to overlook the MSG risks in exchange for the added anti-inflammatory agents the soup provides.

While medical doctors continue researching the cure for the common cold, for now, you may consider the quick, inexpensive, holistic approach to alleviate the common cold, with a hot steamy bowl of delicious phở gà to alleviate the cold virus blues.