Veritasty: Truthfully Delicious

Am I allowed to blog about something I ate without Alex photographing by my side?!?!?!  YES Last night, I went to a Japanese place near St. Mark's called Sobaya for a middle school reunion (hi, guys!).  The place was really popular judging by the long wait for a table and the diversity of the crowd seated inside (many looked like tourists from abroad). I was intrigued by the fact that, when we finally sat down, the manager himself came to take our orders!  Turns out I needed his direction because I was pretty unfamiliar with sorts of Japanese noodles.  Soba, as I learned is a relatively thin noodle made of buckwheat.  Contrast that with udon, which is a thicker, chewier noodle.  Sobaya serves both, but the manager nudged us in the right direction by asking us to consider that the restaurant is named after one, but not both, noodles. The presentation of the food was beautiful in its simplicity. My bowl of noodles was glimmering black ...

I used to dislike eating pho.  No offense to my Vietnamese homies, but for some reason, I didn't really see the point of soup noodles (basically, no offense to my Asian homies overall).  I had it once at a place near my work and I didn't even finish it and vowed never to have pho again. Boy was I stupid!  My friends lately have been making plans left and right to go have pho, including Pho32 in Koreatown, Pho32 in St. Mark's Place, and Pho Bang in Chinatown.  I've fallen back in love with pho! Since I've eaten at Pho Bang more times, I'll dedicate this post to it (but a shout out to both Pho32 locations).  I've had their chicken pho and beef brisket pho, though, inexplicably, the beef brisket pho is the cheapest one on the menu and chicken pho costs more.  Why!? So, recently, after a late night in lab, I was starving and hankering for...anything, really.  We settled for Pho Bang after our first choice was closed at 8pm (cue images of me be...