Authenticity...

I met Yoshi for lunch at E-Noodle - a little restaurant in St Paul that has many soups, as well as very good stir fries. Yoshi is 4 weeks away from moving to Australia for 3 months for school, then to Pittsburgh to attend grad school... so I'm trying to get my time in with him, because dang it I'm going to miss that guy.

He was very helpful in giving me some context for my current work woes - he says after all of the very intense projects I've been on for the past 3 years, isn't it OK to have one that is a bit of a yawn? Can't you just work your hours and go home and NOT think about it? Pamela made a very similar point, and I imagine that if I hear it just 2-3 more times, I might start to believe it.

Back to E-Noodle - I do love their stir fries, but since their name is "E-Noodle", I feel like a fraud if I don't try their soups every here and again. But I have yet to find a soup that I truly LOVE (in the way I truly LOVE Vietnamese PHO soups, but they don't serve those).

Today I decided to try a Korean Beef Noodle soup. While the flavor was good, I suspect that I was covertly garlicbombed, and that people will fear me. Also, the beef was horrific - and by that I mean big chunks of brisket with globs of fat. I would call it "depressingly authentic" because having had their beef in other soups and stir fries, I know this "special meat" is what they intended for this particular soup. I looked around, and decided that I'm NOT actually in Korea, and I will actually eat something tonight that doesn't horrify me, so I just enjoyed the broth and some noodles and walked away from the beef nonchalantly.

I can be adventurous - especially when I don't know if the NEXT meal will be even odder (see my Tokyo updates for proof), but when I'm in St Paul, I'm going to be a bit pickier. Which is not to say E-Noodle isn't great - they're spot-on authentic as far as I can tell. I just wasn't in the mood for authenticity, I guess.

Back to the grind - Good ol' Visio - how DID we ever get anything done without you?