april 8, 2015 fairfield county foodie leave a comment last weekend, feeling a bit ambitious and a bit stir crazy, my honey and i decided to go for a drive and explore the vietnamese food scene beyond fairfield county. our dear friend “google” revealed east hartford as home to one of the highly rated vietnamese restaurants in connecticut called le’s vietnamese restaurant. so off we went. it was a long drive but we kept our eye on the prize. and the whole drive up there, we discussed what we are going to order and in which order we will eat it. a hearty bowl of pho was a given! but then we also had our eye on some nem nuong cuon and chå giò (our favorite vietnamese appetizers). we got to the restaurant. we found a great parking spot nearby. we sprinted from the car to the restaurant entrance. we felt dismay! it turns out that they are closed on sundays! dang it! our hearts were set on pho!!! luckily we remembered passing a teeny-tiny phoplacea mile back. and it looked like it was open. so we trekked back to it. aaah! pho 501! a family-owned, family-run restaurant. a sight for sore eyes. there were tons of people there. that’s got to be a good sign right? as soon as we sat down an older gentleman (the dad) came up to take our order. i said, we’d like to see a menu first. to which he replied (in a very abrupt tone, i might add), “no menu…. just 2 soups. chicken or beef. which do you want”. i was so confused! “what about appetizers do you have any spring rolls”, i asked. he replied, “no! spring rolls only on weekdays….. beef or chicken soup… which do you want”. i was floored….. or shall i say, pho-loored! i couldn’t decide if i should laugh or yell. you just don’t hear of such a thing these days. specially not in the u.s. of a.! apparently, this teeny-tiny, nondescript, but clearly very popular restaurant has been around for over 20 years. and they have always offered just one main item on the menu each day. a different pho flavor ea