The simple no frills beef noodle soup (pho)

So many times my sis & I go to get a pho and we get the death stare for trying to customize the simple dish. But hey...we're customizing it to make it even SIMPLER! >_<

"Can I please have a pho...with no shallots....and no onions...in fact no garnish at all please...and cooked sprouts...not that much beef...and oh...1/4 of the noodles and more soup please!"

That's why I decided to attempt my own no frills version of the pho.

Ingredients:
1kg beef bones
Star anise (a few)
Salt & MSG
1 packet of flat rice noodles
300 grams of beef (thinly sliced)
4 small red chillis
Mint, onions, shallots, sprouts etc as required (they're optional extras which are supposed to spice up the noodle soup, but to me, they just steal the taste away...)

The steps then become way easy!
1) Cook the 1kg beef bones & star anise in a large pot of water for 1-2 hours
2) Add salt & msg as required
3) Filter out the bones & star anise to leave a pot of nice & clean beef stock soup
4) Add noodles & sliced beef
5) Add additional garnish (the chillis, mint, onions, sprouts, whatever you felt like) as required

And voila! It might seem like a too simple/too plain version, but I'll just end the post by saying that all family members I fed cleaned their bowls and there wasn't enough for seconds :)

To think I once thought cooking a pho was the most difficult thing in the world :p