but, after several visits, I think they deserve their own thread.
They’re a work in progress, and almost every time I’ve been there the menu has been slightly different from my previous visit. The hot Italian sausage is out, but the more interesting-sounding Sichuan Style Spicy Pig Feet is in. I gotta get me some of those before they vanish, too.
To move from hypotheticals to facts: their stuffed breads are always excellent. Their lamb stuffed flatbread more bun-like with a juicy lamb pattie inside, their beef pancake (an excellent rendition of guo kui) less meaty but nicely crisp. They have just added a beef-stuffed flat bread that I haven’t yet tried.
There are some “seasonal” items on their current menu. I tried their savory zongzi today, an elongated cone of rice wrapped in bamboo leaves with ham, peas and green Sichuan peppercorns. It was fragrant and filling but also very ricey. Unlike other sticky-rice-in-leaves versions I’ve had this was all rice generously studded with bits of ham, peas and peppercorns, not rice around a filling. I liked it, but I like rice.
I also had their cold noodles (hot day today) with chicken. Lovely in every way – noodles, sprouts, slivered carrots, slivered cucumber, tender shredded chicken, with a generous container of chili oil to mix in. Their prices are a bit on the high side ($17 for this dish), but, hey, Huron Village rents.
They’re the most interesting new place to have opened in that nbd for a while and they deserve support.
Let me talk to myself – luckily I can tolerate me, and nobody else can – by adding that this mishmash of Italian and Chinese appears to be a thing. Followers of my work will know that I’m a frequent visitor and documentarian of The New York Food Court in Flushing. In a stall there, too, you will find the durian pizza, etc., that FUPO offers.
So, in the pantheon of restaurants I will not patronize due to stupid names, this may be the newest entry. And Huron Village may be over-represented, as Base Crave (nee “The Melting Pot” oh wait, that’s taken…) also occupies a spot. Actually, maybe it’s Cambridge in general, as the remaining spot in what maybe should be called a “triumvirate” rather than a “pantheon,” goes to Momi Nonmi. Which I just can’t bear to say aloud. Anyone care to chime in?
Only to say that you should please not hold FUPO’s name against them. Go ahead and be as base as you want and boycott Base Crave (their food is generally mediocre), but do give FUPO a shot as you bicycle past.
A review of this restaurant was published online this morning in the Boston Globe. There isn’t a way to post a gift link so I don’t know if this will get you to a pay wall.
From the review: “Fupo means “rich lady” in Mandarin. When Qianyi Lin told a friend that she and her husband were opening a restaurant, she wished them great success and hoped Lin became rich, hence the name.”
Fu Po (I don’t understand the styled take) is pronounced “fuu por [soft r]”) - just say it in a way that sounds Chinese. I don’t think I’ve come across a restaurant yet where the name has stopped me from trying it when the menu looks good. I suppose there are those that don’t stand out, and a crazy name won’t compel me to try it sooner. But I will stand up for Momi Nonmi! I have no idea how to say it out loud, but Chef Chris does an amazing omakase and he is so personable and friendly as he serves his customers. If you want a good omakase, his restaurant is absolutely worth the trip (and price).
Without wishing to stir controversy – ya’ll know how I hide from confrontation – may I say that what’s a crazy name and what’s not is such a culturally&linguistically loaded issue. I might wish to start a mithai shop, for example, called “Kaka’s Barfi”. It would have the most peculiar connotations here – but all I would have meant was “Uncle’s Milk Sweets”.
That being said, I agree that it is up to the owners of businesses to choose names that will attract rather than mystify (or actively repel) in their chosen market. Myself, I have fewer problems with unusual names such as Fupo and Gufo than with nondescript hard-to-find-on-searchengine names such as Canteen.
When I think of crazy names, I don’t (knowingly) think of ethnic restaurant names, where there is almost certainly a cultural and language gap. I think of crazy names as crazy use of English - either too pop-culture flavor of the moment, too cringey, or maybe too dad joke pun. Sometimes restaurants choose to straddle the line and be tongue in cheek with what may be foreign words that are likely to be mispronounced, and those can be clever or groan-inducing.
You know, I have no problem with “Fupo.” And I would even patronize a “Fu Po.” After some self-reflection, it’s really the FUPO capitalization that is a non-starter for me. I reserve the right to draw a hard and completely arbitrary grammar-punctuation-capitalization based line. And obviously, I’m being somewhat flippant here. My budget is not so large, and the list of restaurants I really want to try is quite long, so even something arbitrary like capitalization is enough to send you to the bottom of the list, and the hopes of reaching the bottom of the list are zero.
I’d love some examples of other peoples’ least favorite restaurant names!
I didn’t understand the name of Gufo, the Cambridge pizza place, until we went in after the Parisian Street Food Fair on Cambridge St. on Sunday.
The pizza was very good, the pea salad was excellent, and most amazing of all was the owl wallpaper in the hall and dining room, and even more amazing the owl wallpaper in the bathrooms. Really charming. (Also an incredibly loud place).
Gufo is Italian for owl. We will go back for a weekday lunch, when it’s hopefully not as noisy, and we really want their bathroom wallpaper for our small powder room.
This is making me recall a pension/small inexpensive lodging establishment in Madrid, Spain, many decades ago. Lots of streets in Madrid are named for saints, or for devotional names for the Virgin Mary and this one was on a street called “Virgen de los peligros,” which is Virgin of [who protects from] the dangers in English. The pension was called “Hostal Peligros”. There may have been a cafe on that street also called “Peligros.”
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