One of the largest food companies in Korea launches potato chips with Vietnamese beef pho flavor from the end of 2023. This product line carries the flavor of typical Vietnamese dishes, appearing for the first time in different categories. French fries are sold in Korea.
The flavor of Vietnamese pho is introduced as bringing harmony between the rich beef pho broth combined with potatoes.
Launched along with beef pho flavored chips are Sriracha sauce chips - with the taste of chili sauce often eaten with pho; and coriander-flavored potato chips. That means diners can eat a variety of snacks at the same time to have the experience of eating pho with chili sauce, or even cilantro.
The price of a package at a Korean convenience store is 1,700 - 2,700 won (about 30,000 - 50,000 VND).
Recently, Korean youth have spread word of mouth about this new type of snack. Enviableb, a Korean review blogger, shared a post after trying two flavors of pho and Vietnamese chili sauce. She was curious and bought it because she read a comment: "If you eat both at the same time, it will taste like real pho."
"Eagerly opening two snack packages, I was surprised by the different scent that entered my nose. As soon as I took a bite of pho-flavored snacks, I felt it smelled like real pho. But it didn't taste as fresh as just-cooked pho. I feel like I'm eating instant noodles. It smells like artificial beef bone broth, which is quite strange.
The taste of Sriracha chili sauce is clearly spicy. The flavor is very familiar, easy to eat and delicious, suitable for many people's tastes. It not only has the spicy taste of chili sauce but also has a sour taste so it is quite strange. Eating both delicious pho and chili sauce, the taste will be more harmonious, the pho taste will be less greasy," Enviableb shared.
The female blogger added that eating the above two types of snacks separately is not very impressive, but if used both at the same time, it will be much more delicious. It seems that this is the company's intention when launching two special product lines about famous Vietnamese dishes.
Another blogger, Kuint, also commented that beef pho-flavored potato chips have a different flavor than regular potato chips. The seasoning is evenly coated on both sides, making it very flavorful.
"The snack has the strange aroma of pho. It tastes just like real pho, with the sweet aroma of onion, bean sprouts and meat. The overall potatoes are a bit salty but better than I expected," Kuint commented.
Kuint said he later bought this flavor again and found it better than the first try. According to him, the taste of bim bim is not spicy so it is easy to eat. The unique combination of pho and potato flavors will appeal to many people.
Chadain, another user, said that as soon as she opened this special snack package, she felt very similar to real pho. This made her just want to immediately go to Hanoi to eat beef pho.
"When I tried it, I thought it was quite delicious, not too bad but... it made me want to eat a bowl of real beef pho right away. If you eat it with sriracha sauce, it tastes even more like pho. You should try it if you like pho Vietnam," Chadain wrote.
