Home Made Vietnamese Beef Pho Noodle Soup

On Friday, Isabel came back from her lunch break carrying a bunch of groceries. I was curious what she brought so I went up to her and asked. She said she was going to make Vietnamese Beef Pho Noodle Soup (aka the #1 on every Vietnamese restaurants menu). She told me that the soup take around 4-5 hours to make and has alot of ingredients in it. She was telling me how to make it but it sounds quite complicated and I didn't know half the ingredient in it. I told her I'll probably stick with ordering it from the restaurants but I wonder how the homemade one taste like and how similar it would be from the restaurant's. I jokingly said oh how I wish I can taste hers and being an awesome coworker and friend, she surprised me with her delicious beef pho noodles soup a few days later....

She packed the noodles and soup separately:
The noodles nicely packed, it has viet noodles, thin sliced beef, bean sprouts, beef balls and cilantro.
I heated up the soup first then I added the noodle packet into the soup and heat it up some more. Another coworker caught me taking pics in the kitchen area...it was quite awkward. See what foodies have to go through to bring you guys pics of food but I don't mind at all!! ahha...

When I opened the cover to the container, the aroma of the soup filled the air and made my mouth water from just smelling it. I think it taste better then the viet restaurants because it wasn't as salty and I didn't taste alot of MSG so it was light but yet very flavorful. The noodles wasn't soggy or over cooked because she separated it in the beginning. The beef was fully cooked not raw like how they would serve you in the viet restaurants (they usually give you thinly sliced raw meat on top of the noodles and the boiling hot soup suppose to cook it for you). This was exactly what I needed on a freezing cold day like this. I hate Mondays but she made this one a very warm and delicious one. I <3 Isabel!

I found a recipe, if anyone would like to make it! Enjoy and let me know how it goes....