As usual, around 7 am, before opening time, Truong Minh, 22, carefully tastes the broth and examines the materials in his kitchen.

The first customer turns up. Minh quickly dips red noodles in a pot of boiling water, puts the dipped noodles into a bowl, skillfully filling it with beef, beef tendons, and simmered ribs and pouring the boiling broth into the bowl. The smell of the broth with faint aroma of artichokes spreads throughout the small pho shop.

Some months after launching the new pho, with noodles made of artichoke flowers, the dish has caught the attention of many diners. 

“Some customers dare not eat the pho when seeing the red noodles. They thought the noodles were ‘dyed’ with red color. But in fact, red artichoke flowers, after cooking, give the red liquid, which when mixed with powder create the special red noodles,” Minh explained. 

Red artichoke flowers and green artichoke stems are the main ingredients for Minh to create a new flavor for pho, the traditional dish of Vietnam.

Minh said it took him a lot of time to find a formula for making the noodles. “I gained success only after a lot of failures and loss of 200 kilograms of noodles,” he said.

At first, Minh selects fresh red artichoke flowers, treats them, dries them and cooks with water. Rice powder, after being soaked and ground, is mixed with a red extract in accordance with a specific formula created by Minh.  

In the north, people in the mountainous areas of Lao Cai and Ha Giang also make famous red noodles. However, the material used is red rice, or ‘gao huyet rong’ as called by the Vietnamese

“The color of the noodles I make depends on the quality of artichoke flowers (young or old, over-dried or less time under the sun). The color also depends on the powder mixture formula."

To make the broth, Minh uses green artichoke stems to create the flavor. He stews 30-35 kilograms of animal bones and the green artichoke stems for 12 hours to create the ideal broth.

Artichoke flowers and stems are brought from Da Lat to HCM City, where they are treated and cleaned before processing. 

Asked why he chose artichoke flowers as the materials for pho, he said the flowers have substances that are good for human health, including anti-aging, blood pressure reduction and liver detoxification. 

Vo Nhu Khanh