Sandwich Lust: The MOFO Club
BY TAMARA PALMER
Phil Wang grew up drinking boba in the East Bay, worked his way through college in a boba shop (where he joked about one day opening his own) and moved to the San Gabriel Valley, where he started a digital production company. And a boba shop.
His new spot is called Bopomofo, a term for how Taiwanese Mandarin is taught in schools by phonetic spelling. He’s located on a busy street in San Gabriel, but he told me that he’d love to open a location in the Bay Area one day.
I’m lighting a prayer candle for that, because he’s serving creative, high-quality boba drinks and is also making the best sandwich I’ve had in a hot minute. The MOFO Club looked like an Instagram stunt to me when I first saw it on the app, but once I tried it, I thought it was the most natural combo in the world. Phil explained that it’s evocative of dishes he grew up with, but it’s his imagination that brought it into this wonderful sandwich form.
The MOFO Club: milk bread, peanut butter/cheddar/beef, scallion egg and cucumber.
They’ve also got some mean mapo tofu tater tots with ground turkey and a fried egg.
Count Reeshard and the Orange Wang!
Corn milk with strawberry sorbet float and boba.
See you again soon, Bopomofo!
Bopomofo Cafe, 841 W. Las Tunas Drive, San Gabriel