Pho-Pas

While I am Vietnamese, I don't usually eat Pho when I go to Vietnamese restaurants because it's typically not very good. Here are some reasons why:

The broth. A good broth is an all day thing. That is, it has to be simmering for 8 hours. This fundamental property should be familiar to anyone who enjoys sauces, stews, and other slow-cooked dishes. This is the minimum requirement, yet is often not met. Unfortunately, the other requirement of possessing an excellent broth recipe is usually lacking too. Your home-made broth might be tasty, but may not be restaurant worthy. Protip: Try to find out if a Pho cook/place can trace its familial roots back to a well-known Pho shop back in Vietnam.

The noodle. There are 2 kinds of Pho noodles: "fresh" and "dried". They have different texture and mouth-feel. Sometimes you want this, sometimes you want that. Most places don't even given you this choice. Other noodle problems: a pile of cooked noodle is plopped into the bowl before the broth is poured on it. This leads to clumped noodles that have to be disentangled. Also, the cold noodles cause a significant drop in the broth temperature. Instead of a nice hot bowl of Pho, it's merely warm. The professional Chinese and native Vietnamese noodle shops use noodle strainers and a bubbling giant pot of broth to re-heat your noodles.

The veggies. Historical fact: the proliferation of basil, mint, bean sprouts, etc. was introduced when Pho migrated to South Vietnam. However, it is not the authenticity of Pho styles I'm against. Rather, yet another group of cold ingredients to further cool your Pho. Protip: ask for your bean sprouts to be blanched. Also useful if you are travelling to a 3rd world country and is leery of eating raw vegetables washed in the local water.

The meat. Once again, the dumping of meat nilly-willy causes un-sightly clumping. The merely warm broth is insufficient to cook the raw beef or warm the cooked beef. The thick slices of beef in North America are a drawback. Though the meat is sliced paper-thin in Vietnam primarily because of cost, sometimes less is more. Anyone who enjoys a smoked meat or corned beef deli sandwich can relate. There's a reason they shave the meat thinly instead of giving you a big hunk, and not just because it adds more volume.

The time. Pho is a breakfast food. Like a warm bowl of oatmeal or porridge, the heat wakes you up, and the content keeps you full until lunch. Here, people eat it for lunch (not too unreasonable) and dinner (why?) Unlike a stew, it's not substantial enough and your bladder won't be thanking you for downing so much liquid before going to bed. Consider this food equivalent: Who wants to eat a giant bowl of chicken noodle soup for dinner? Yeah, me neither.

Living Dances

I attended "An Evening of Contemporary Kudelka" dance recital by the Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie at the Fleck Theatre down in Harbourfront. You can get a more insightful review from Paula Citron. This is what I got out of it.

The first piece, a premiere, called Beautiful Movie is about a man singing to a doll. But it's no child's play (ha ha). Music can be found here.

The second piece, see #1, is about a woman with Tourette syndrome. Violin solo.

The third piece, Soudain L'hiver Dernier, is about 2 hobos. Music.

The last piece, In Paradisum, is about a socialist paradise where men and women dress the same.

In all seriousness, although the 3rd and 4th piece were easier to understand, all 4 pieces were rather mysterious to an unsophisticated attendee like myself. Instead of the pages and pages of biographies profiling the dancers, composers, and so on, it would be nice to have a detailed artist statement or literary critique that details the dance vocabulary and themes of the dance pieces. In video game parlance, I'd like a walkthrough please. This is not the first time I've been rather bemused by dance recitals.

Yes We Ken

I finally tried the ramen at Kenzo Ramen, a small ramen noodle shop at the corner of Elizabeth and Dundas. It can seat about 25 people divided into two levels. The open kitchen is at the back of the 2nd story area so you'll want to grab a seat there if you want a peek at the kitchen. The specialty of the house is ramen, although they apparently used to offer kushimono (food on skewers), too.

I ordered the biggest bowl they had, the King of Kings, a spicy ramen. The bowl came with very tender, lean but still juicy slices of pork, both soft and dried seaweed, half an boiled/marinated? egg (with the yolk still slightly runny), and various other toppings. The ramen was chewy and toothsome. The broth was rich but next time I'll have to order the plain ramen to really taste that broth. This was the most expensive at $9.95 but the other ramen bowls are only between $6-8. A very cheap and satisfying lunch.

Next time, I will have to try the side dishes including tacoyaki and Japanase pancake.

Between here and manpuku, which has Udon and other non-sushi Japanese dishes, only about another 5 minute walk west, Dundas and University should satisfy your craving for Japanese noodles. Now if someone were to open a soba and izakaya joint in the area ...

Odds And Ends

Some belated blog posts that I'm too lazy to write up. So to summarize:

Toronto Yoga Festival: Had some interesting chats with atheistic/agnostic Yoga practitioners/teachers about their approach to the more mystical and supernatural claims of Yoga. It'd be nice if I could find a committed Yogini with a secular world-view.

Pedestrian Sunday At Kensington: If you are young, dress "bohemian", and have a CD then you are an artist. If you are old and wear cast-offs then you're just a beggar and people will avoid looking at you.

Kathak is great with traditional tablas, it looks ridiculous when paired with new-agey synth music.

Boo-zu: Last omakase dinner at Yuzu was disappointing. The dishes are still all different from previous visits, but this time all the fishes and preparation were rather bland in taste or texture.

I Dream of Google: I had a dream where a 50s style professor and his audience, Jimmy, discussed the latest in search algorithms. Some of the professor's points can really only be solvable if we had AI. However, he's right that Google should provide a "similar to this url" search option.

Harvest Wednesday at the Gladstone: It was $35 before tax and tip. I would have paid $27.

Bright Star: John Keats and Fanny Brawne were hot to trot. But Abbie Cornish and Ben Whishaw didn't quite have the same spark. Makes me want to read those love letters. Also, they dressed a lot better back in the old days, probably makes it easier to put pen to paper when your beloved isn't wearing a hoodie and jogging pants.

A Serious Man: A very funny movie to this gentile. Apparently, loved by some Jews and hated by others.

I Dream of Lesbian Twins?: Took a nap on Sunday and had a dream that I was engaging in some superbly witty repartees with Sara of Tegan & Sara. My wit was such that as I woke up, I got a speculative look from dream Sara (as in, "Damn, that's a funny dude. Hmm."). This is odd for two reasons. Firstly, she is a lesbian so "turn them straight" is just a myth. Secondly, though they are identical twins with the same hairstyle, I actually prefer Tegan.