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Or not sick or not hungover.

I like bún thit núóng better (probably not written right, I'm sorry).

Pho is great when you’re sick or hungover.

And you felt the need to comment this why?

just to irritate you and it worked!

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I've never heard of a struggling Vietnamese pho restaurant. I live next to like 5 and they've been in business for decades.

This is in my hometown and I’ve been going there since they opened and they have the best peanut sauce in town.

Now what?

That's pretty close, here's the correct version for you to keep, just in case it come in handy:

Bún thịt nướng

that’s probably because you live in an area that has the customer base that can even have 5 close by.

now he flies off into the sunset looking for more people to upset in a minor way, thereby changing the course of history forever. He is of course the time traveling super-hero, Butterfly-Effect Man

same tbh, I can't get enough of that sauce

I love pho!!! I’d help save this place!!🥰

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So...the warped pictures are due to a news site trying to stretch to fit vertical TikTok screenshots to a screen?

Unless the broth sucks. But I grew up I a rural western town with pretty much no diversity. Went to college and a couple years in when I had my first internship, a weird youngerish guy actually spent time to open my eyes up to a lot of different cuisines I had never tried, and Vietnamese was one of them. He didn't stay long at the company, but always remember how much he introduced me too.

Now 15 years later, pho is a staple in my diet.

I've always been so curious and eager to get one, but I'll be damned if I willingly download Spyware on my phone. I know Google isn't that much better, but Tiktok is basically a direct pipeline to China.

Right, it’s good unless it sucks.

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Only paces I’ve seen that many in close proximity is in areas around Los Angeles. There are tons in the Vietnamese majority suburbs.

This is the only reason TikTok should be used: highlight the great local restaurants and support local businesses.

You see half the content on other socials anyway tbh

>veitnames

Not to be confused with Vietnamese

San jose has a lot.

Reddit ain't better. Twitter aswell. Instagram also. Every God darn social media is.

Finally tiktok is good for something

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I agree. How is it uplifting that a shop which is perfectly capable of getting customers was failing for the wrong reasons, and that it took an influencer to wake people up to that fact? This is more depressing if anything. The realization that the success of your life-long dream, and all finances in your life, can entirely depend on some person out there sharing a video. Absolutely terrifying

Grace? Mf you routinely go to r/cryptocurrency r/spirituality r/tarot r/psychic and worst of all r/ChelseaFC gtfoh with ur grace lol

Isn’t that just called marketing?

We drive through Santa Rosa every year. We will look for Lee’s Noodle House this time and hopefully we will eat there!

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This is a surprise. I grew up in Santa Rosa. Lees noodle house was always the small out of the Pho restaurant that people who knew good Vietnamese food would go to for takeout. I moved away before the pandemic so I never saw this slow down but it’s great to hear they made a comeback.

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isn’t that basically bún chả?

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Are there other competing places with peanut sauce?

I mean … it’s marketing. Since ever, if you’re going into business, you have to get the word out.

When I downloaded the app one of the days in the first week I was on the app I was on it until 5am, just mindless scrolling. Probably was about 7 hours of solid scrolling. And the people on there are so toxic. I deleted it after two months.

Reddit is a great filter-- instead of gargling a fire hose of raw sewage (TikTok or 4chan), I get purified sips of their best content, with most of the scum scraped off.

Eastern european stock is so much better. To be frank, pho tastes like an undercooked eastern european stock

In the extremely rare occasion when social media has a positive impact, I love to see it

Peanut sauce is very common in Thai/Vietnamese restaurants.

I mean, this person is clearly an expert on cancer. We should listen to them.

Baha! Chelseeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaa

I live in an area where one would struggle to survive.

I still find it unsettling that this is the way we do things now, that an entire business can 100% be made or broken by a TikTok video. The idea is, as we’ve seen, that an influencer can do this same thing except with misinformation and a bad review, and a place could just go down.

Lol?

You haven’t had good pho

It’s possibly one of the most nourishing meals you can have. Hot broth, carbs, protein, and crunchy fresh veggies. Whats not to like?

Don’t hurt yourself twisting yourself into r/enlightenedcentrism

Reddit is end-stage web forums with little to zero social network features (followers, profiles, real names, influencers).

Tik-tok is literally weaponized social media aimed at disrupting western civilization by a hostile foreign government.

Here's a sneak peek of /r/ENLIGHTENEDCENTRISM using the top posts of the year!

#1: BoTh SiDeS aRe ThE sAmE | 746 comments
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Never thought I’d see the day that Yelp is redeemed in the eyes of Reddit

Cleveland asia town has at least a few

I had several pho's in different countries in top rated restaurants. Come visit eastern europe and you will see the difference. Im from Romania but im sure a all my neighbours have excellent stocks. There are several types btw, all fundamentally different. All of them are better than pho.

I think most like pho because their local cuisine doesnt include stock at all, unlike eastern europe which is full of delicious recipes

It's not enlightened centrism to say reddit isn't magically less scummy of a social media platform nerd

And less of the spyware

not sure. husband prefers Thai, when I can coax him into Asian food at all. I was so into Vietnamese food for a while that I grew pots of the Thai/holy basil so I had it ready to go.

So you’re telling me there’s multiple Thai/Vietnamese restaurants in this one town?

Edit: Wow everyone. I guess having a lack of multiple Vietnamese /Thai restaurants near me and being so daring to ask the question means I’ve pissed off a lot of you.

NYC chiming in

That's not an uncommon thing.

And for health care providers to spread accurate information

Depends on where you are. I live in a small town with very limited options. Chinese, Mexican, Italian, and several fast food places plus a couple wing places and that is it. The closest bigger town has exactly 1 Thai place and zero Vietnamese. My sister lives in the closest big city (about an hour drive from me) and has a favorite spot to get Pho and a different favorite to get any other type of Vietnamese cuisine.

I live in a Canadian town of about 150,000. Not huge by any means. And we have probably around a dozen Thai or Vietnamese restaurants.

Vietnamese food is such a confusing cuisine for me. From India, I tried the most authentic vietnamese food I could find recently in my hometown and the peanut sauce was something I did not expect at all. My mouth was left wondering "wow this is strange" every time I tried something. Overall I still liked it but its probably not something I love so much that I'll keep going back to it.

Yeah.... so based on the last census: My town 8,600 Closest bigger town (35 minutes south) 74,000 Closest big city (1 hour north) 880,000

TikTok brought too much business to a local restaurant here and caused the owner to retire earlier. :(

It's a social media without real names. That's it. For me, it's the same as any other social media. Also, I never set foot in that subreddit. I just know that whatever social media I use is bs, but I'm addicted. Also, we have followers here on reddit and profiles and some people that are known in a few subreddit as regulars. It has everything a typical social media has. I think you should step outside of your little reddit bubble and look at this stuff objectively.

thank you!!

Pho is an amazing dish, really underestimated

Ugh sorry. I'm terrible on my phone and covid brain. Fixing now

Of course you have

Did you visit eastern europe?

I hate Tik Tok with a passion but I do like seeing it being used to help others instead of stupid Kia Challenges.

Oh that’s cool. TikTok fucking ruined my favorite Japanese restaurant (DOMO) to the point where the owner just closed it forever. Fuck TikTok assholes forever for that one.

In the Bay Area, which has one of the largest Asian populations in the US? Yes. My neighborhood has 2 Vietnamese places and 2 Thai places all within a 10 min walk on the same street.

What happened exactly?

https://www.westword.com/restaurants/domo-temporary-closure-13558800

That was the temporary closure. You can google the permanent one but the main article is behind a paywall.

A good chicken noodle or corn chowder is great but nothing satisfies on an extremely cold day like pho with a generous addition of sriracha/chili garlic sauce.

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Thanks, I’m sorry that happened.. it never occurred to me that too much business could be a bad thing, but I suppose there were a lot of people there not for the food, but to video themselves.

The town I grew up in was an hour from the nearest McDonald’s. If you would have told me as a young kid that you had multiple fast food in your city or more than 1 Chinese restaurant, you lived in a big city in my eyes.

Lol. Calling tiktok toxic in reddit. The irony.

I live in a city of 300,00 in Australia and there are probably 15+ Thai restaurants within 20 minutes drive from me and at least half that in Vietnamese

It's by the Kohl's and Panera.

When I lived in Coffey Park this was our go-to place.

The fires really took a toll on the businesses around Coffey Park.

Hope you and your loved ones were OK during the fires

Which is why I can't eat it if I don't want to die

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Heck even in Arizona there’s a good handful of Thai/Vietnamese places here. Some Japanese places, some chinese, some Korean, it’s a nice diversity.

My exact reaction to handmade samosas. “Strange. It’s fine but I’m not gonna go out of my way to get it again.”

what?

By who? Those who have never tried it?

Also, having tried about a dozen Pho places when I moved to the East Bay from the LA area there is significant differences in the broth quality. Fortunately one of the best of the contenders is also only a 10 minute drive from my house.

Mom and dad cook while the adult son works the front of house

My town has several pizza places, chinese places, and even an indian place sharing a lobby with a fish and chips place.

We have no Mexican, at this point Id settle for a taco bell or something.

I just want some fucking quesadillas man… ones I don’t have to cook for myself.

deadlines and slow news days are a bitch lol

Peanut allergy

They can't eat Thai/Vietnamese restaurants or they'll die, because they contain peanuts. They can't eat Texas Roadhouses either.

And for anyone out there who has a peanut allergy and tends to be on the cavalier side of things (i.e. joking about how their allergy could kill them) -- I did have a very, very good friend pass away some years back after accidentally ingesting peanut butter.

Cries in rural TN

Darwins survival of the fittest....

Oh man I love this story so much.

Is there another way to make samosas with machines?

Yes. They regularly sell them at Costco and other grocery shops. They’re even worse.

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Sounds like from the comments below, they didn't have any trouble to begin with. And since I can make Disneyland look like a Horror film on Camera, edit it out, then upload it. I really doubt no one can be fooled between the exaggeration and the real thing if you've been there. But behold, I can make Photos look like no one is at the rides, I can make it the ticket booth look desolate, And if I go to the break room I could make some serious nightmare fuel with the disembodied costumes.

Love this!!

Yeah, I understand that completely. However such a concept is not just originating now. When we revolved around newspapers more, a bad review by a trusted food columnist could have the same effect on a restaurant. I just resist the panic that things are so dramatically different with new forms of media. Same stuff, new mediums.

Soup for the gods!!!!

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applies to most things

Truuu his allergy having genes luckily won’t be spread

I make my own using sunbutter instead of peanut butter and it's delicious

Yeah how dare people have fun dancing or some shit!

Thanks so much! I looked up their address… we usually take 12 eastbound from 116 (in from the coast) and turn south at 101, but we will divert a little this time and go north at 101 to Hopper to visit Lee’s. Looking forward to it!

Why did they close though? I'm no tik tok fan but it sounds like they got a lot of business, were overwhelmed but couldn't they just limit the customer base? It kind of seems like the owner was just ready to retire. He could have kept it at 20 people or whatever he felt comfortable serving at a time

I don't think it quite works that way. There are genes that can influence under what conditions certain allergies could develop

Expand on this

We might have been neighbors! Rip my old house.

This comment reminds me of the “Californians” skit from SNL.

Isn’t it cool how we’ve rebuilt the area though? I love how different all the houses are

Is it worth driving over from Petaluma for? I saw the story about the this locally.

It’s a strange sort of uncanny valley feeling because I still remember what they used to look like.

If you find yourself in SR running errands or something, give it a go! What’s the Vietnamese scene like in Petaluma?

There's only a couple places for pho and they're fine, I guess. A place called Simmer that I thought was pretty good. But according to the Vietnamese women at my wife's nail salon, none of the places in town are any good. I'm pretty sure they're comparing it to their home recipes. Maybe next time we're in the mood for it we'll drive up and check out Lee's.

Covid put several out of business in the towns near me

Not extremely rare by any means

Oooooo I gotta try that

Pho made by actual vietnamese people are great but there are so many places run by koreans and spanish people who just use shit ton of salt and msg to imitate the broth

I am not judging the guys food on one photo but that is one terrible looking bowl of soup did they choose the worst photo they could find?

Btw pho is amazing if you haven't tried it do so soon.

The corner case use of TikTok being good

Awesome!

My favorite thing about living in the greater Seattle area is now I get to be picky about where I get pho. Back when I lived in the middle of the US I was lucky if the town I lived in had a single spot that served pho. Now I eat it several times a month and don't have to settle for mediocre.

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I think this is less, "tik tok made this close" and more, "this guy was clearly moving away from this part of his business and this excelerated the inevitable."

There's another westword article from September where its made a little more clear the owner was focused on other things. When it became more popular it probably made him realize where he wanted to prioritize his time.

Plenty of restaurants have exploded because of social media and most of them have not closed down because of it.

Vegas also

LOL I felt like I was part of that family of bleached blondes after I typed my reply… I even laughed to myself in valley-speak as I wrote it.

And, in support of the Lee’s I will like ohmygod take the 116 to the 12 to the 101 north to like you know get there to eat their pho unless there is traffic then we would probably have to hop off of the 116 at Guerneville Road and just take the 101 for like one or two exits to Hopper. (Gasp) (dramatic look, hungry for pho)

(Edited the spelling of Guerneville smh)

I almost forgot about that. And they were right behind Kmart. Have they rebuilt something where Kmart was yet?

It's going to be the new location of the Sonoma County Indian Health Project. They bought the land but it takes time to actually build.

Right now it has a swap meet on Sunday mornings but that's about it.

That’s a really good use for that land. Thank God they didn’t make it at target or Walmart.

Most US metro areas have a decent sized Little Saigon of some sort, it just might not be a place out of towners end up. In the Washington DC area for example it's a mall complex called Eden Center which is like a 30 minute drive away from downtown.

To be fair, I actually didn't like pho that much in the US (even when I lived in the LA area). Turns out I actually like North Vietnamese pho more, whereas most places in the US serve South Vietnamese pho. The first bowl of pho I had that I actually enjoyed a lot was in Berlin of all places...

Even when I visted Vietnam that held true, I liked the taste more in Hanoi than in Ho Chi Minh City.

No. Bún is just the word for vermicelli noodles in Vietnamese (rounded noodles). Thịt means meat, nướng means grilled. Chả can be made of meat or fish but basically it’s chopped into tiny pieces and molded into a shape. Bún is used in a lot of viet dishes (like the well known bún bò Huế - which is vermicelli noodles with beef from the region of Hue, as the name indicates). It’s the difference in meat, broth, and fish sauce that really sets them apart. Bún thịt nướng usually also has an egg roll in it too.

Gotta have that basil. But, you're welcome to have an incorrect opinion as there is no accounting for taste.

Just kidding I have never had N style pho.

Pho King Good

Lol come to Seattle and the greater Seattle metro. We got pho, Thai, and teriyaki coming out the wazzu. I can't drive two blocks without seeing like 5.

As a matter of fact, outside Seattle proper it is fucking hard to find anything good that isn't pho, Thai or teriyaki.

The best peanut sauce in town.

I haven't seen the negative comments on here as worse than on TikTok.

Or maybe the place just isn’t that good