Pho 777

I had lunch at the Vietnamese restaurant Pho 777 on Monday, July 21.  I had taken the day off work in order to have my wife’s car fixed and I planned to meet up with an Assistant Director of Alumni Relations from Willamette University, the college I attended as an undergrad.  Since I had been consistently donating to the college for many years, they’ve recently awarded me with visits for coffee breaks and in this case, lunch.  I read about Pho 777 in the “Dining on a Budget” section of the San Gabriel Valley Tribune and they gave it a good review.  It’s located in one of the many strip malls on the southeast corner of Citrus Ave. and Alosta Ave.  At that intersection Alosta is also known as Route 66.

I walked at least one mile from the garage where I left my wife’s car to the restaurant.  The mechanics had to take much longer than I expected because they didn’t have all the parts on hand.  Luckily, it wasn’t too hot that morning but in the low to mid 80’s.  It would get up to over 90 degrees in the afternoon.  I arrived about ten minutes before noon and got us a table.  The assistant director arrived soon after me.  I recognized him from his photo on his willamettealumni.com profile.  That site is similar to MySpace or Facebook but for Willamette Alumni.  I called him over and we looked over the menu in between introductions and conversation.
 
Pho 777 has a very large menu with around 100 items.  Each has a number, its name in Vietnamese, and a brief description in English.  The items are under different categories such as Pho (pronounced “fuh”) or traditional rice noodle soup, seafood dishes, meat dishes, and rice.  The middle page of the menu has many small photos of the more popular items along with their numbers, names, and descriptions.  We placed our orders and continued our conversation.

The restaurant has about 20-30 tables in a medium-sized space.  It was nearly empty when we arrived and never really got crowded but this made it easy to converse.  I’m guessing that it gets more crowded when school is in session at Azusa Pacific University (APU) that’s located just across Route 66.  There are some Asian decorations on the walls and 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s adult contemporary music played over the sound system.

Our orders arrived quickly and they were large and impressive.  Mine came on a large oval plate and the assistant director’s came in a large, deep bowl.  He ordered the pork rolls with rice and had decided his order after glancing quickly at the menu page with the photos.  We obtained our utensils from cups and boxes on our table.  He opted for chop sticks while I used the fork and large spoon that came with my order.  I got Com Tom Muc Ga Xao Xa Ot or lemongrass shrimp with squid and steamed rice.  The article in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune recommended this dish.  The shrimp and squid were actually mixed with several other foods including sautéed sliced green pepper and onion, firm tofu, and chicken.  It was a lot of food and it mixed well with the steamed rice.  The squid was sliced into cylinders and had the cross-hatched cuts I’ve seen on squid at other places.  It was a bit tough but everything else was delicious.  The green pepper and onion slices had been sautéed just right retaining much of their flavor and crunch.  The shrimp were large and meaty with their tails on.  When I ordered I had been given the choice of mild or spicy sauce and even though I had chosen mild it still had a bit of spice.  The sauce tasted like it included soy sauce in addition to lemongrass.  It was all very good and very filling.

The assistant director also enjoyed his meal.  His included a small bowl of sauce for dipping the noodles and the pork rolls.  We had a great conversation about our respective Willamette careers (he graduated in 2007), what was currently going on at Willamette, his interactions with other alumni, and what we’ve done since graduation.  He asked if I had heard that Willamette was mentioned in a question on Jeopardy about fencing.  I had caught that episode.  He hadn’t but heard about it from friends.  We also talked about Nick Symmonds, the 2006 Willamette graduate who had recently qualified for the Olympics in Beijing in the 800 meter race.  The assistant director didn’t know Symmonds personally but he knew some of his friends.  Symmonds had surprised himself and many others by how well he did.  Willamette is trying to figure out how to manage the publicity and support Symmonds.  They may send some staff to Beijing.  The assistant director and I had had at least one of the same professors.  It was interesting to learn of the many changes and the many things that hadn’t changed.

The assistant director generously paid for lunch and then gave me a ride back to the garage to pick up my wife’s car.  It’s great that Willamette rewards us for giving back.