Around this time last year, the other chefs of Berlu and I were sitting at a table eating staff meal. It was a cold, rainy day and we had a fully booked service for the evening. As we sat, eating a noodle soup I made, I looked at everyone with a slight disappointment and said,…
Berlu Restaurant
Confessions Of A Vietnamese Baker
I share a car with my partner, but mostly rely on my scooter (Vespa-esque) as my main source of transportation. On market days, she and I would go together, loading up the car and dropping the produce off at Berlu. Occasionally, I’d have to transport produce/goods via scooter, rigging it with boxes and bags to…
Missing hair tie
About a year ago, I was having lunch with my girlfriend, when she expressed her need for a hair tie. I love her dearly, but she always seems to be misplacing her hair ties, among other things. In that instance, I wished I could have been her “heroic” Enrique Inglesias and have a hair tie…
A failed experiment
For the past few weeks in quarantine, I’ve taken on the role of substitute science teacher for my 8-year-old goddaughter, Loretta. Tuesday and Thursday mornings we’ll FaceTime™ for an hour and go over a science lesson for the day. We’ve learned about the planets, water cycle, soil properties, erosion, and touched on a few sanitary…
thoughts on that matter
Hi there. In the midst of all the change, I forgot to reach out to you all with an update. Sorry about that. We, along with every other bar/restaurant, were faced with a problem and, as chefs, when presented with a problem we are taught to come up with a solution. The instinctual side of…
13 hrs, 45 min
Earlier last year my girlfriend, Mallory, went to rural Nepal with a group of newly graduated acupuncturists to offer aid to the Tistung people. She has decided to return as a leader and will be in Nepal for the next two months. Upon leaving, she expressed concern for the widespread coronavirus but, maybe more so,…
Vegas in April?
Those of you that know me know that, while in the kitchen, I prefer to work in silence. That’s not how most people work so, in an effort to make things more enjoyable, I started playing music during prep time. I asked one of my cooks, a young Korean woman named Sky, what she liked…
No More Christmas Music
I was torn as to which direction this newsletter would go. Initially, I was going to talk about the great time I had spending the holidays in Montana with my girlfriend and her family, however, the feeling of melancholy is setting in and there’s no more uplifting Christmas music to raise my spirits. The natural…
Nothing to open on Christmas
There are two types of gifters this time of year. Those that have the patience to wrap a gift and put it under the tree to be opened on Christmas and those who immediately give you your gift to be opened weeks before Christmas. The sentiment is sweet, as they are so genuinely excited to see…
Chachi’d
We’ve been blessed to have been mentioned in a few publications and, as a result, have had a large boost in subscribers to this newsletter. Yes, as this is a newsletter, it’s meant to deliver updates regarding the restaurant, however, Berlu is not a normal restaurant and, fittingly, this is not a normal newsletter. Before…