It was a fateful day back in 2013…Russell and I met a local Tai Chi instructor at a Vietnamese restaurant. We were prepping to open our dojo, and wanted to get other martial artists in the space to help keep the place in use more than a couple hours a week.

I ordered a small clay pot. Russell asked the instructor what he recommended, and he mentioned Pho. Russell ordered that, and then, not paying attention, proceeded to dump the majority of the garnishes in the soup – including rather a lot...