Ocean's Halo - Pho Noodle Bowl

Y'all know I'm friggen obsessed with Pho. I'm pretty much at my fave spot with my girl once a week. We just adore it and it's also an opportunity for us to catch up over a hot, steamy, brothy noodle bowl. With that being said, I'm always interested when I spot a take-home product from the grocery store like this one from Ocean's Halo.

Ocean's Halo is an American company focused on sustainability, cleaning up the ocean through minimized waste, and promoting their vegan, kelp based product line that ranges sauces, seaweed snacks, and broths. I love the message behind their line and their commitment to cleaning up our planet's oceans. Their packaging is eye catching and I was extremely excited to give this product a go! Let's chat about it!

Packaging & Taste

Right off the bat, when I started unpacking everything, I just adored how it was all put together. You had your compostable bowl to heat everything up in, your cute little container of broth, and two separate pouches for the dehydrated veg and spicy topping. 

I hate the microwave, I'm not going to lie. How is it that something can be both hot, and cold, after a 2 minute cook time? It just weirds me out. Anyhow, you basically add your noodles and veg to your bowl and pour your broth over, making sure the noodles have had broth contact. Then, it's as simple as microwaving for 2 - 3 minutes, covering for 2+ mins, and enjoying. Super simple.

Taste 

While I am familiar with Kelp and have had it a few times in my past, it was very kelp forward when I removed the cover and took a peek at the product. It was kind of all I could smell if I'm being honest. I started tossing everything together and that's when I realized that a large amount of the broth had been soaked up by the noods which were not completely cooked in my opinion. 

I went in for a taste and as expected, the noodles were unfortunately undercooked and kind of stuck together. After I gobbled up my first taste, I was left with an after taste I simply wasn't fond of. I went in for just a taste of the broth and although it had a decent flavour, it wasn't giving pho and I just couldn't wrap my head around it. I ended up discarding the last half of it unfortunately. Such a bummer.

BYPASS or BUY?

B Y P A S S - Ugh, it pains me to give this one a no, but it just wasn't what I was hoping for. I wasn't getting any of those familiar Pho flavours, instead, it was mostly kelp and the spicy Togaroshi. Also, as stated, the noods were undercooked, but if I had cooked them longer, the broth would've been entirely soaked up leaving me with no broth and just a big old bowl of barely cooked noods.

I love their message and they have quite an extensive product line, so I'm not writing this company off entirely. I'll definitely be on the lookout for some of their other products and we'll see how those ones pan out.

Visit oceanshalo.com/ to learn more about the Ocean's Halo products and their commitment to sustainability.

HAPPY VEG