Emit a single value

A lot of the stuff is tucked away in: import 'rxjs/Rx'; You might try Observable.of for a single value.

This works for me (plunker):

import {Component} from 'angular2/core';
import {Observable} from 'rxjs/Observable';
import 'rxjs/Rx';

@Component({
  selector: 'my-app',
  providers: [],
  template: `
    <div>
      <h2>Hello {{test | async}}</h2>     
    </div>
  `,
  directives: []
})
export class App {
    test: Observable<any> = Observable.of("I'm an observable");
    constructor() {
  }
}