Dumb argument with my friend... Thoughts? page 4

[Ellie_Miller]

Hah, truth. But to some people, food is just such an important sacred cow that to say anything contrary to their beliefs is to invite trouble.

True. But my health is the most important sacred cow of them all. No one better F**K with it! LOL!

My guess is, other than this pho issue, he's a cool guy? You want to keep him around?

[Drumroll]

According to wiki, the term "pho" could also come from the cantonese word for noodle -- fun -- not necessarily from the french broth component, though that is also an interesting idea. Perhaps it is both -- pho refers to both the broth and the noodles.

I don't know why he got so offended. Perhaps he is also on the spectrum. Spectrum folks hold things to be quite precious, right? Anyway, it's a strange thing.

I get pho so rarely that I do eat the noodles. In fact, it's a special treat to go out and get pho or even thai noodle soups that are available here. . . or any noodle soup for that matter. Since rice is no big deal to me -- and I eat it so rarely -- it's just extra special.

Don't get me wrong, normally I eat the noodles, but today I wanted to try a variation and he got all uppity about it. Kinda like, "don't mess with the Vietnamese guy who's the expert on pho here." As if because I am white, I couldn't POSSIBLY have any sort of respectable or knowledgeable opinion on pho at ALL. Totally rude.

And he said pho translates to "noodle broth" so the combination of the two terms would seem to be the case. But he was implying that because pho means "NOODLE broth" and not just "broth", it MUST have the noodles or it is not pho at all.

And from my experiences with him, I doubt he's on the spectrum. He's normally WAY too sociable and outgoing for that...

[zoebird]

Ok, so it's not pho. Big deal?

[Drumroll]

Ok, so it's not pho. Big deal?

I said that it's close enough, so what's the big deal if I call it pho. I mean he's the Vietnamese guy and even he couldn't give me a name for the noodleless pho, so what else was I going to call it?

Besides, it was still amazing. I nommed that whole thing down even if it bothered him the whole time.

[zoebird]

i think 'canh' means soup in vietnamese, so that's probably close enough.

[Drumroll]

i think 'canh' means soup in vietnamese, so that's probably close enough.

True, although I've read the broth is made in a special way unique to pho and I would have been having that style of broth I suppose.

[Damiana]

I'm Vietnamese and I can't stand pho. Overrated POS. we have so many superior food in our cuisine.

[jaczor]

Your friend is an idiot, plain and simple. There's no reason to get all worked up about that, it's not like you were making him order his the same way.Maybe make fun of you or joke about it? sure, but to actually get mad?? I wouldn't waste a second stressing over this if I were you.

[not on the rug]

I had pho once. I don't remember any noodles. I remember a little bit of vegetables and some meat balls. It was not good. I've never had pho ever again. I really don't see why people like it.

i'm guessing what you ate wasn't actually pho

[not on the rug]

to the OP, your friend may have overreacted, but i'm guessing that you actually did offend him. and probably the waitress and the chef as well. if you're going to a pho restaurant, eat the pho. if you're going to a vietnamese restaurant, order something else from the menu.

also, they are rice noodles. eat them and enjoy them. there really aren't any nasties in white rice. it's pretty harmless stuff.

i see this type of post over and over on this forum and it drives me nuts. unless you have a serious medical condition, don't let arbitrary dietary choices get in the way of real life. i eat pretty damn clean 99% of the time, but if i'm out near my favorite neopolitan brick oven pizza place, i'm eating pizza that night. if i go to a vietnamese reataurant, i'm eating pho. no reason to offend a friend, a waitress, a chef and a culture. for all you people who are suck sticklers for the rules, remember even mark preaches 80/20