ARE YOU A PHONATIC?

Sometimes, I feel like a tourist in my own town. It is true that I can probably sleepwalk through most of the vast San Gabriel Valley neighborhood without the aid of Google map navigation, having lived here for more than 30 years. But when I approach my neighborhood with a little more wonder and curiosity, then new-old scenes unfold and reveal a kind of charm I have not noticed before. Yesterday was unseasonably wet and cooler than the previous days where shorts and short sleeves ruled the daytime. What do you do when it is wet and cold in Southern California? You either go for Phở or Ramen. Either could have easily satiated my longing for hot slurpy and hearty noodle soup. When it is wet and cold outside, you slurp hot and wet noodles inside of you.

When we decided to go for Phở with our daughter, Hannah, and her husband, Jeremiah, they approved without hesitation. So, we had a double date. The go-to Phở joint in our neighborhood is Golden Deli which is jam-packed most of the time. We knew we were not the only ones thinking Phở so we got there earlier. At least, we thought we did. But alas, the line looked unbearably long, and our stomachs could not wait. We quickly pivoted to Phở Super Bowl, which is literally about 100 meters away across the street from Golden Deli. While the name sounds “superior” to Phở  78, Phở  88, or Phở  2000, it is decidedly mediocre compared to other clever names: Good Pho You, Phonomenal, What the Pho, Absolutely Phobulous, etc. At the end of the day, you do not and would not go for Phở based on the name of the restaurant. Nor the ambiance. Not even the health grade of the restaurant unless it is C. It is all about what is in the bowl. I am sure many phonatics would agree with me. . .

Even at the Super Bowl, we beat the crowd by a few minutes and saw people lining up outside minutes after we sat down. We promptly ordered and loudly slurped (more me than others) our way through the bottom of the bowl with no shame. My favorite Phở is the one with tripe and tendon. Both have different complementary textures and are chewy while tendon when it is cooked perfectly is chewy gelatinous and not mushy gelatinous. With Sriracha and Hoisin sauces, the combination is hard to beat. They do that extremely well in Golden Deli, but I was surprised by how competitive Super Bowl’s bowl was. As soon as we walked in and got seated, the first thing we noticed was the choice of music; someone’s playlist of Disney songs. Oddly funny for a Phở restaurant but when Phở finally showed up in my face, I forgot all about the music. When I gained further consciousness after slurping enough soup and looked around, the restaurant was filled with people from different cultures and races. I felt right at home as a “tourist” having just come back from Korea in Southern California.

Being a tourist in my own hometown is not so bad. What I used to consider normal and ordinary are not normal and ordinary anymore. What is normal and ordinary comes alive in ways I have not seen before. While being a tourist is categorically different from aliens and strangers that Apostle Paul talks about, it forces a similar outlook and perspective in seeing things differently. One minor difference may be that a tourist would possess more capacity for wonder and curiosity. I have lived through all three categories in my life and could identify with all three positions. Not to force fit any, the word pilgrim would possibly encompass all three categories of people and their characteristics. Rather than hold on and defend a sense of various entitlements through life, I would like to think that it is healthy and necessary to navigate and live life as all three aspects of the pilgrim.