Reddit reviews Gia Vi Nau Pho (Pho Hoa) Beef Noodle Soup Spices

FYI, this is the actual stuff the guy is talking about.
https://www.amazon.com/Pho-Hoa-Beef-Noodle-Spices/dp/B003GRMUCU

The ingredients are anise, clove, cinnamon, ginger, all spice. It is not "pho powder--chicken and beef'. It is a time saver to use the packaged spices instead of measuring them out.

So he is just completely wrong.

From one of my comments in a different post...

Ingredients

• Oxtail (2-3 lbs)<br />

• Short Ribs (1-2 lbs) or Beef bones (1-2 lbs) or Beef Shank (1-2 lbs)
  
• 3-4 Medium Onions
  
• 4 inches of Ginger
  
• 1 large lump of rock sugar (about 1 inch cube)
  
• 1/2 cup salt
  
• 2 Pho Hoa Pho spice bags
  
• Salt and sugar to taste
  
  Directions
  
  

1. Bring small pot of water to boil.<br />

2. Parboil beef for about 1 minute.
   
3. Rinse with cold water and hand clean the meat and bones to wipe away any surface scum.
   
4. Over open flame or under broiler, blacken onions and ginger. No need to peel. Get surface nice and blackened.
   
5. Add beef, onions and ginger, salt, rock sugar and 1 Pho Hoa spice bag to large pot. No idea what size I have.. just the biggest I have.
   
6. Fill pot with water and bring to a boil over medium heat.
   
7. As the water heats up, scum will rise to the surface. Skim it off every 10 minutes for the first hour and then periodically after.
   
8. Don't bring pot to hard boil... should just be a rolling simmer.
   
9. After 8-10 hours the meat should be fall apart tender and the pot should have reduced.
   
10. I turn off the heat and slowly transfer the broth from the cooking pot to a new pot. During the transfer, I run it through a fine strainer (I've used cheese cloth as well) to catch any little particulates. You end up with a very clean broth after this step. Discard the onions and ginger.
    
11. When I get to the bottom, I carefully take the oxtail out and separate the meat from the bones. After all that, you should have a pot of relatively clear and clean broth and a separate container of delicious oxtail ready to add to your pho.
    
12. Bring the pot to just below boil again. Now you will finish your seasoning. Taste the broth... too bland, add some more salt. I also add the 2nd Pho Hoa spice bag.
    
13. Let it simmer for another 20 minutes.
    
14. Prepare your bowls with rice noodles and oxtail and just ladle the broth over it. Garnish with green onions, onions and cilantro and serve.
    
    Note: Need a little more sweet, add a very small lump of sugar at a time. Remember that sipping the broth alone without any noodles in a bowl, you will want it to be a little saltier and sweeter than you would expect. When dip your noodles in the boiling water and drop in your bowl, it will water down the broth slightly.
    
    Note2: My family does not use fish sauce in pho as it adds too much of a funk to long cooking soups/broths like pho. We add it at the table to individual bowls if the diner wants it.
    
    Note3: The Pho Hoa spice bags are the same spices you would use to make pho, but ground up and put into little tea bags. Sure it is better to have all fresh spices, but it's just more convenient to have these little bags in the pantry. This is an amazon link, but go to your local Asian/Vietnamese market. It'll be a lot cheaper there.

I've gotten Gia Vi Nau Pho (Pho Hoa) Beef Noodle Soup Spices sachets from Amazon.