Fish sauce and pho

[Janine Costanzo]

Hi all,

Today is my first day of the Whole30! So far, so good.

I have two unrelated questions...

1. I have the Thai Kitchen brand of fish sauce. The ingredients are "Anchovy extract, salt, unrefined cane sugar". Normally that sugar wouldn't be allowed, however, it says on the bottle that there are 0 g of sugar in a serving. A serving is 1 tablespoon (so I assume there's less than 1 g but more than 0 g of sugar in a tablespoon). The only recipe that I use it in (so far, anyway) is fried cauliflower, and I only use 1 teaspoon in the whole batch, which makes ~4 servings. So presumably, I'm getting a very tiny amount of sugar. Is it worth throwing it out and getting the Red Boat brand, or is this okay?

2. Is pho without noodles okay? I looked online at standard pho ingredients and don't see anything about sugar or oils, so I think it's okay...but I wanted to check to be sure. I wouldn't be making it--I'd be getting it at a restaurant.

Thanks!

[Susan W]

I wouldn't use something that had any sugar at all. The government lets companies say zero, when it clearly isn't since it is an ingredient. Here's a brand that is spendy, but compliant. Maybe others know of one that isn't quite so expensive. Actually, it's for two bottles, so that's not bad.

http://www.amazon.com/Boat-Fish-Sauce-40%C2%B0N-2-250/dp/B0037J1YO2/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1346555917&sr=8-5&keywords=fish+sauce

It would depend what the restaurant uses to make their Pho. I probably wouldn't for the Whole30 time. It might be fun to make your own though.

[missmary]

red boat fish sauce is compliant (and very good!).

I would not eat pho from a resturant (even without noodles) during a W30. It almost certainly would have soy, and likely MSG and sugar as well. It might be a good time to test out making your own pho at home, though! just add more meat and basil and cilantro (maybe bean sprouts too?) to make up for the noodles.