As a marketing person, I’m obsessed with “insights.” I’m endlessly curious about how the world perceives my culture. One evening, I posted a question on OVFRIENDS, treating it like a quick survey: “If you had to use one phrase to describe Phở, what would you say?”
The responses flooded in. “Delicious,” “Amazing broth,” “A bit like ramen but better”… All words I could have predicted.
But one comment made me pause. It wasn’t fancy, but it was strange: “For me, it’s the taste of love.”
The reply came from Kei, a Japanese exchange student. I laughed. Amidst a jungle of culinary adjectives, this answer was too cheesy, too much like the title of a sappy romantic movie.
Curiosity trumped my skepticism. I messaged him privately: “Why love? That sounds so romantic.”
Kei replied very seriously, as if I’d asked about a philosophical concept: “Because love is like phở broth. It has to simmer for a very long time, it needs many things to blend together, and most importantly, it must always be warm.”
He typed in Vietnamese, slowly and carefully, paying attention to every punctuation mark.
I was silent for a few seconds. For the first time, someone made me see my own familiar, almost boring, bowl of phở in a completely different light. My perspective, usually “analytical”, suddenly softened.
From that day, we messaged every day. From food, we drifted to anime, to peer pressure, to the loneliness of young people trying to find themselves. Kei was quiet, but his words always made me think. Beneath that reserved exterior was someone who saw the world with gentle eyes, appreciating every small thing.
A year later, we were no longer messaging on OVFRIENDS. We were standing in a shared dorm kitchen, steam rising from a huge pot of phở we had painstakingly prepared for an international exchange party.
When a French friend asked, “How did you two meet?”
Kei didn’t answer right away. He just smiled, ladled a spoonful of the clear broth, and passed it to me to taste for seasoning. Then he turned to our friend, his eyes still on me: “We met because of phở, and we stayed for the taste of love.”