3.027

1 (Wed) February 2012

Brisket Pho

1.5

at What the Pho

-Bundang, Seongnam, Gyeonggi, Republic of Korea-

solo

In comments following a prior post, reader DC questioned my decision to dine at a sushi restaurant called “Little California” (see comments at 2.326 Salmon/California Roll).  She wrote: “Why would you want to go to a place where the owners couldn’t even trouble themselves to come up with an enticing name? It points to an uncreative menu and food not worth tasting.”  Aside from the issue of whether “Little California” constitutes such a terrible name for a sushi restaurant, I replied that the notion of choosing/avoiding a restaurant on the basis of its name had never occurred to me.

Here, for the first time in my life, I chose a restaurant on the basis of its name.

Unfortunately, the name was the only value of the experience.  While pho has undergone radical change in Korea, the beef broth at this restaurant was dark and opaque to the point of being murky.  It was a far cry from food worth tasting, enticing name notwithstanding.

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