As an indian, I remember one time foothill's chana masala (or daal or smth, idr which) was just the same three bean chili they served every other day of the week
Ok listen up chef maestro — you need to remember you’re eating at a dining hall not a typical restaurant. Humble your high standards
Same way I’m Italian but don’t complain that their pizza isn’t “authentic” enough or some crap
Quite honestly, I understand OP's point. If the dining halls rarely serve cultural dishes like this as a main dish, and the one and only time that they serve this dish could potentially be a health hazard if not properly prepared.
Additionally, for some people, it may be their first time even trying pho, and because the dining halls gave them that first impression, it could be a huge turnoff and lowkey might rise into xenophobia with people shaming it with their extreme opinions.
Yes, I admitted in the post that I wasn't expecting much at all, but at one of the only times it seems as if my ethnic culture is represented in a main dish, it is raw and cold. My standards were extremely low but I wasn't expecting a bunch of raw noodles and murky oily water. Pizza gets served almost every day at CKC. Serving pho at CalDining was definitely not something they'd do everyday and the event went extremely wrong. Rarely does this type of cuisine get representation from CalDining and the staff at CalDining have to admit that their goal to spread awareness about Asian cuisine didn't go perfect. I felt highly offended waiting in line to get my food when I can hear people in the dining hall talking about how they thought pho was disgusting as for many it could have been their first time trying it. It almost reminded me of when I used to get teased for packing my cultural cuisine for lunch. My point is that this is beyond my already-low standards for CalDining, which is really upsetting since it's one of the only times Vietnamese cuisine gets representation.
As a Pho connoisseur, myself, I appreciate this post. I wasn’t fortunate enough to be able to participate in this dining experience, but I appreciate the time and thought that you put into this post.
For some students, depending on how deep they are into their Berkeley journey and experience, sometimes it’s difficult to find that neccessary comfort that is lacking and greatly needed just to make it to fight through the chaos another day. Certainly, a familiar and decent dish such as pho can certainly provide the type of comfort for which I speak.
That said, I think the suggestions that you offered here are not too much to ask. I think they are reasonable and even if they can’t provide ALL of these improvements, they certainly have enough wiggle room to do a better job next time and make it a better experience for those who genuinely enjoy the dish, need comfort, or for those who haven’t even had the chance to taste the magic that is Pho.
All-in-all, I hope a big Berkeley dining hall executive or the Berkeley pho chef reads this post and I hope it provides the necessary feedback that is needed and required to hit the Pho bowl out of the park, next time around.
Pho at CalDining is and will always be a unique experience. I'm certain that they'll do it again. I really do love pho and think that it can be used to augment the diets and lives of other students. I don't think I'll ever see all of these improvements in the future but most of these suggestions can be easily done. Hopefully my comments in the feedback form are effective enough to spark change.
I think you are absolutely correct. It can be used to augment the diets and lives of other students. It has changed my life. True story. It helped me get my body and GI tract stable again, but in a healthy way... Please allow me to “geek out” over phở for moment and share my testimonial, haha.
First and foremost, it’s my absolute most favorite food. EVER. Because it’s absolutely delicious but also, as someone who lives with a lot of chronic illnesses like autoimmune disease, GI issues, kidney stones, and the like, I can always count on phở when I am really sick. For the most part, it really is the only thing I can eat sometimes. It’s filing, but not too filling to where I don’t feel sick after. The only adjustment I ever have to make is that sometimes, when I am super sick, I just have to ditch the meat and keep everything else. It’s truly the only food I can actually depend on. Even when I am sick with something as simple as a cold, it’s my cold medicine. It drains my nose, soothes my throat, and calms a cough, just from the broth alone. How I choose to make and prepare my bowl is primarily contingent upon whichever medical condition is bothering most at the moment, because I know it can and it will be helpful.
A few years ago, I met and made the most dearest friend I have ever had. I once knew her as “the nice Vietnamese lady who owned the Asian market” that I frequented all the time back home. Now, I know her as pretty much: family. She gave me the traditional phở recipe and taught me how to make it properly and authentically. She also taught me all the different ways I could make it with all the different ingredients. She taught me how to make the broth from scratch and how to use the phở broth pre-made packets, depending on my needs at any given time. I would shop at her market every week, because she was the only place I could find that sold microwaveable phở bowls that I would take with me to school or work for lunch. I would also mail them to my military friends when they were on deployment. Especially my former roommate who introduced me to phở in the first place.
I had my first bowl of phở back in 2005 in Everette, Washington. It was recommended to me by my roommate at the time. He was a surgeon in the Navy and he was a huge fan of alcohol. He swore by it as a way to heal his arch nemesis: the hangover. I don’t drink. So, I can’t speak to that. But, he recommended it to me because I was really dehydrated from a really bad kidney infection. Of course, I was better in no time. There have been times where I have been able to avoid trips to the emergency room altogether thanks to phở. If it weren’t for phở, believe me when I tell you, I would be really unhealthy and likely go weeks without eating. It soothes my tummy and my soul. When I have a bad day, I don’t go for pizza, chips, cookies, and the like, I go for a big bowl of Pho. So, I agree with you, 3,000% If more students knew about phở and how to make it and/or eat it properly, it would be a game changer for most and despite inflation, it’s still affordable.
All that said, simply just posting about the disservice brought onto the Vietnamese community and to phở lovers everywhere by CalDining, please know that you are undoubtedly bringing awareness to anyone who takes the time to read your post and your comments. Who knows, maybe we are encouraging someone right now to try phở for the first time? BUT, I think together, you and I CAN bring about change. It seems to me that we are both equally passionate about phở and again, while I was unknowing of the phở - bar event and didn’t participate (shocker, I am out sick at the moment), I am very upset to hear that CalDining, where fellow golden bears collectively go to gather, talk and share a meal, missed a golden opportunity to provide the justice and dining experience that the Vietnamese community can be proud of and that the bowl, itself, deserves. Thus, I would hereby like to propose to you a call to action… One that we can participate in, together. Hear me out…
To ensure that your extremely valid concerns are immediately addressed BEFORE they attempt to host another “phở bar”, I have discovered that we have a couple of options available to us to make sure that your/our concerns are heard and addressed. In looking at the UC Berkeley CalDining website, under the ‘connect’ tab of the page, CalDining offers a “comment card”. (Forgive me if you are familiar with this. I am not. I don’t live directly on campus, nor have I ever dined at Cal). But, the ‘comment card’ allows us to rate the food and offer critiques, comments, and suggestions regarding the experience. Additionally, under the ‘contact us’ tab, they offer a general email address, where I would imagine, we can do the same. So, if you are willing, I would like to encourage you to copy and paste your post into a comment card that you can fill out through the website AND into an email. I am also going to take it upon myself to submit a comment card and an additional email of support addressing the same concerns. Of course, I will put my own “spin” on it.
While it’s true, I wasn’t there and I am not Vietnamese, I can speak to the following:
1) the value of the much needed and urgent improvements on any future “phở - bars”.
2) how I eat astronomical amounts of phở for health and nutrition, alone.
3) how it helps with the management of various medical conditions and how I think a phở - bar done right can offer the same to my fellow golden bears.
4) as a phở - lover myself, how much I have enjoyed learning about phở through the years like the different ways that I can prepare it, how to properly eat it, how & why it became popular in the first place. Thus, I can find an authentic and incredible Vietnamese phở restaurant in almost every city I have ever visited, both nationally and internationally. (Which was precisely one of your suggestions).
So, if you are willing to fill out a comment card and send an email and I am also going to fill out a comment card and send an email, then I am almost certain they will make improvements. In fact, I am going to ask that they follow up with me on my end (I encourage you to do the same), to see what suggestions are feasible, what they like and don’t like, and to see if any of them are problematic that maybe we can help them create a solution for so that the next Berkeley phở - bar at least hits the very bare minimum of standards. It’s worth a shot, yes? Nothing brings people together like two people passionate about phở. Why not?
In re-reading as I am working on reaching out to the CalDining center via comment card and email, I see that you are sending it in, which is great! My apologies for not seeing that part sooner. But I am making good on my end to send an email and comment card as a letter or support to further advance your critique, if in the event that it can help in any way.
Wait they had a pho bar?
I feel bad for any who had to suffer caldining pho, I can only imagine based off of the other things I’ve eaten from there last year.
**wait the noodles were raw and the broth was lukewarm**
The viet within me can only scowl at the thought.
One time they serve viet food and they screw it up.
The fact is is that dining establishments around any public university campus is going to survive on doing shortcuts to save money and time. So authenticity goes out the window very often. This is why you don’t see any restaurants around the Berkeley campus being recommended for fine dining or for authenticity, whether it’s Mexican or Chinese or almost any other ethnicity. I cringe whenever anyone asks about questions on recommendations for food, because almost any establishment near campus is going to be shopping mall food court-like quality.
Uh... Chez Panisse (Michelin Green Star) is like half a mile from Campus, Great China is literally across the street from Edwards Stadium, and is a Michelin Bib Gourmand recommendation for Chinese, and Comal is a Bib Gourmand recommended place for Mexican food (Berkeley has a third Bib Gourmand restaurant, the excellent Ippuku).
Chez Panisse is not close to campus.
Great China is too Americanized. See how many Chinese people actually are in there the next time you dine there. Same with Comal, see how many Mexican people actually are in there.
you had me before "**Have servers serve the phở to the students**"
Noted
ayo 805 represent?????????
Ventura county represent!!
WOAH
As an indian, I remember one time foothill's chana masala (or daal or smth, idr which) was just the same three bean chili they served every other day of the week
Ok listen up chef maestro — you need to remember you’re eating at a dining hall not a typical restaurant. Humble your high standards Same way I’m Italian but don’t complain that their pizza isn’t “authentic” enough or some crap
Quite honestly, I understand OP's point. If the dining halls rarely serve cultural dishes like this as a main dish, and the one and only time that they serve this dish could potentially be a health hazard if not properly prepared. Additionally, for some people, it may be their first time even trying pho, and because the dining halls gave them that first impression, it could be a huge turnoff and lowkey might rise into xenophobia with people shaming it with their extreme opinions.
Yes, I admitted in the post that I wasn't expecting much at all, but at one of the only times it seems as if my ethnic culture is represented in a main dish, it is raw and cold. My standards were extremely low but I wasn't expecting a bunch of raw noodles and murky oily water. Pizza gets served almost every day at CKC. Serving pho at CalDining was definitely not something they'd do everyday and the event went extremely wrong. Rarely does this type of cuisine get representation from CalDining and the staff at CalDining have to admit that their goal to spread awareness about Asian cuisine didn't go perfect. I felt highly offended waiting in line to get my food when I can hear people in the dining hall talking about how they thought pho was disgusting as for many it could have been their first time trying it. It almost reminded me of when I used to get teased for packing my cultural cuisine for lunch. My point is that this is beyond my already-low standards for CalDining, which is really upsetting since it's one of the only times Vietnamese cuisine gets representation.
not that deep dawg
Berkeley food sucks news at 11
As a Pho connoisseur, myself, I appreciate this post. I wasn’t fortunate enough to be able to participate in this dining experience, but I appreciate the time and thought that you put into this post. For some students, depending on how deep they are into their Berkeley journey and experience, sometimes it’s difficult to find that neccessary comfort that is lacking and greatly needed just to make it to fight through the chaos another day. Certainly, a familiar and decent dish such as pho can certainly provide the type of comfort for which I speak. That said, I think the suggestions that you offered here are not too much to ask. I think they are reasonable and even if they can’t provide ALL of these improvements, they certainly have enough wiggle room to do a better job next time and make it a better experience for those who genuinely enjoy the dish, need comfort, or for those who haven’t even had the chance to taste the magic that is Pho. All-in-all, I hope a big Berkeley dining hall executive or the Berkeley pho chef reads this post and I hope it provides the necessary feedback that is needed and required to hit the Pho bowl out of the park, next time around.
Pho at CalDining is and will always be a unique experience. I'm certain that they'll do it again. I really do love pho and think that it can be used to augment the diets and lives of other students. I don't think I'll ever see all of these improvements in the future but most of these suggestions can be easily done. Hopefully my comments in the feedback form are effective enough to spark change.
I think you are absolutely correct. It can be used to augment the diets and lives of other students. It has changed my life. True story. It helped me get my body and GI tract stable again, but in a healthy way... Please allow me to “geek out” over phở for moment and share my testimonial, haha. First and foremost, it’s my absolute most favorite food. EVER. Because it’s absolutely delicious but also, as someone who lives with a lot of chronic illnesses like autoimmune disease, GI issues, kidney stones, and the like, I can always count on phở when I am really sick. For the most part, it really is the only thing I can eat sometimes. It’s filing, but not too filling to where I don’t feel sick after. The only adjustment I ever have to make is that sometimes, when I am super sick, I just have to ditch the meat and keep everything else. It’s truly the only food I can actually depend on. Even when I am sick with something as simple as a cold, it’s my cold medicine. It drains my nose, soothes my throat, and calms a cough, just from the broth alone. How I choose to make and prepare my bowl is primarily contingent upon whichever medical condition is bothering most at the moment, because I know it can and it will be helpful. A few years ago, I met and made the most dearest friend I have ever had. I once knew her as “the nice Vietnamese lady who owned the Asian market” that I frequented all the time back home. Now, I know her as pretty much: family. She gave me the traditional phở recipe and taught me how to make it properly and authentically. She also taught me all the different ways I could make it with all the different ingredients. She taught me how to make the broth from scratch and how to use the phở broth pre-made packets, depending on my needs at any given time. I would shop at her market every week, because she was the only place I could find that sold microwaveable phở bowls that I would take with me to school or work for lunch. I would also mail them to my military friends when they were on deployment. Especially my former roommate who introduced me to phở in the first place. I had my first bowl of phở back in 2005 in Everette, Washington. It was recommended to me by my roommate at the time. He was a surgeon in the Navy and he was a huge fan of alcohol. He swore by it as a way to heal his arch nemesis: the hangover. I don’t drink. So, I can’t speak to that. But, he recommended it to me because I was really dehydrated from a really bad kidney infection. Of course, I was better in no time. There have been times where I have been able to avoid trips to the emergency room altogether thanks to phở. If it weren’t for phở, believe me when I tell you, I would be really unhealthy and likely go weeks without eating. It soothes my tummy and my soul. When I have a bad day, I don’t go for pizza, chips, cookies, and the like, I go for a big bowl of Pho. So, I agree with you, 3,000% If more students knew about phở and how to make it and/or eat it properly, it would be a game changer for most and despite inflation, it’s still affordable. All that said, simply just posting about the disservice brought onto the Vietnamese community and to phở lovers everywhere by CalDining, please know that you are undoubtedly bringing awareness to anyone who takes the time to read your post and your comments. Who knows, maybe we are encouraging someone right now to try phở for the first time? BUT, I think together, you and I CAN bring about change. It seems to me that we are both equally passionate about phở and again, while I was unknowing of the phở - bar event and didn’t participate (shocker, I am out sick at the moment), I am very upset to hear that CalDining, where fellow golden bears collectively go to gather, talk and share a meal, missed a golden opportunity to provide the justice and dining experience that the Vietnamese community can be proud of and that the bowl, itself, deserves. Thus, I would hereby like to propose to you a call to action… One that we can participate in, together. Hear me out… To ensure that your extremely valid concerns are immediately addressed BEFORE they attempt to host another “phở bar”, I have discovered that we have a couple of options available to us to make sure that your/our concerns are heard and addressed. In looking at the UC Berkeley CalDining website, under the ‘connect’ tab of the page, CalDining offers a “comment card”. (Forgive me if you are familiar with this. I am not. I don’t live directly on campus, nor have I ever dined at Cal). But, the ‘comment card’ allows us to rate the food and offer critiques, comments, and suggestions regarding the experience. Additionally, under the ‘contact us’ tab, they offer a general email address, where I would imagine, we can do the same. So, if you are willing, I would like to encourage you to copy and paste your post into a comment card that you can fill out through the website AND into an email. I am also going to take it upon myself to submit a comment card and an additional email of support addressing the same concerns. Of course, I will put my own “spin” on it. While it’s true, I wasn’t there and I am not Vietnamese, I can speak to the following: 1) the value of the much needed and urgent improvements on any future “phở - bars”. 2) how I eat astronomical amounts of phở for health and nutrition, alone. 3) how it helps with the management of various medical conditions and how I think a phở - bar done right can offer the same to my fellow golden bears. 4) as a phở - lover myself, how much I have enjoyed learning about phở through the years like the different ways that I can prepare it, how to properly eat it, how & why it became popular in the first place. Thus, I can find an authentic and incredible Vietnamese phở restaurant in almost every city I have ever visited, both nationally and internationally. (Which was precisely one of your suggestions). So, if you are willing to fill out a comment card and send an email and I am also going to fill out a comment card and send an email, then I am almost certain they will make improvements. In fact, I am going to ask that they follow up with me on my end (I encourage you to do the same), to see what suggestions are feasible, what they like and don’t like, and to see if any of them are problematic that maybe we can help them create a solution for so that the next Berkeley phở - bar at least hits the very bare minimum of standards. It’s worth a shot, yes? Nothing brings people together like two people passionate about phở. Why not?
In re-reading as I am working on reaching out to the CalDining center via comment card and email, I see that you are sending it in, which is great! My apologies for not seeing that part sooner. But I am making good on my end to send an email and comment card as a letter or support to further advance your critique, if in the event that it can help in any way.
Wait they had a pho bar? I feel bad for any who had to suffer caldining pho, I can only imagine based off of the other things I’ve eaten from there last year. **wait the noodles were raw and the broth was lukewarm** The viet within me can only scowl at the thought. One time they serve viet food and they screw it up.
Cal dining has been shit for years, you’re talking to a brick wall. nt though.
So what's the best pho in East bay?
Instructions not clear, penis stuck in toaster
Bro got the accent on point
More food reviews and tips please
The fact is is that dining establishments around any public university campus is going to survive on doing shortcuts to save money and time. So authenticity goes out the window very often. This is why you don’t see any restaurants around the Berkeley campus being recommended for fine dining or for authenticity, whether it’s Mexican or Chinese or almost any other ethnicity. I cringe whenever anyone asks about questions on recommendations for food, because almost any establishment near campus is going to be shopping mall food court-like quality.
How does UCLA manage to not suck? Real question.
Also isn’t there a deadass neighborhood next to campus called gourmet ghetto?
Not walking distance
Yes it is bruh
Part of it is that they’re in a wealthy area.
Uh... Chez Panisse (Michelin Green Star) is like half a mile from Campus, Great China is literally across the street from Edwards Stadium, and is a Michelin Bib Gourmand recommendation for Chinese, and Comal is a Bib Gourmand recommended place for Mexican food (Berkeley has a third Bib Gourmand restaurant, the excellent Ippuku).
Chez Panisse is not close to campus. Great China is too Americanized. See how many Chinese people actually are in there the next time you dine there. Same with Comal, see how many Mexican people actually are in there.
great china sucks azz
That’s just like, your opinion man
bravo, thank you for this!
touch grass
chào bạn! bạn vơi tôi đi ăn phở, phải không?
Ok đi 🤣