revision

mid-way through week three in sai gon, and i must break a moment from my study of plastic surgery related vocab (could not be more unrelated to my research interests, but oh well) to revise an earlier entry regarding the food in sai gon.

let me be clear: ha noi is still better. BUT, i have made some important discoveries that have made me a little less of a hater and that i will share with you here.

1) thit kho - you'll be happy to know that i have stopped eating mud bunch for lunch. last week i discovered that on the sidewalk just next to my hotel is a cluster of little plastic tables run by a toothless and totally incomprehensible old man who serves up the most fabulous braised pork i've ever eaten. for 19.000 dong ($1 something), you get a great big plate of rice, some sliced cucumbers, cabbage, an omelet (random, but whatever - it's gooood), the pork, and a small bowl of soup. i'm not exaggerating here: i touch the pork with my fork - just tap it really - and it falls apart on my plate. and there is gravy, but not the heavy southern kind i grew up on. the lighter, tangier, i don't know, more fabulous-er asian kind. and fish sauce with chiles. really, these days, i don't go anywhere without the fish sauce.

2) banh tet - this may also be available in ha noi, but since i discovered it down here... well, one point for sai gon. this little treat falls into the "gummy, wrapped in banana leaves, and thus utterly unidentifiable" category. when i was here before, i steered clear of all things wrapped in banana leaves for fear of biting into pork fat, boiled egg, and/or green bean paste - bleh. but i was so stupid! banh tet is essentially a little, asian banana rolled up in a layer of sticky rice flavored with coconut milk and pineapple stalks (or leaves, or whatever the are), wrapped tightly in banana leaves, and boiled. when you unwrap it and cut into the "cake," the banana has turned pink and the rice has... i don't know... sort of fused together to form this thick gelatinous outer layer. it's sweet and chewy but so subtle. i could eat these all day!

3) the most important discovery of all - having a vietnamese grandmother cook for you!! my roomie here is viet kieu (both her parents were away studying in france when the war with the US got nasty... they never returned, and eventually landed in riverside), and since this is her first time in viet nam (and we suspect, because both her grandmother and her mother are the eldest in their families), she is getting royal treatment over here! and the other night, she let me tag along to her aunt van's house for dinner. after hearing a lesson on world tennis in vietnamese and learning what may very well have been the slang term for masturbation (!) with her uncle, we sat down to a meal of grilled pork with pickled vegetables, sticky rice with potatoes and little fried onions, and the most savory rice gruel chock full of squid, shrimp, and clams... then she peeled a grapefruit for us (vina-grapefruit, though very dangerous to say, is one of my absolute favorite fruits EVER) and served up some homemade yogurt. obviously, i thought i was going to die after eating all that... but it was worth it.

so there you go - sai gon is not as bad as i thought!

untitled, 6

ha noi, soft


and grey

sleepwalking through the mekong

the mekong sky

4 hours in a bus + swarming mosquitoes + constant swamp-@ss = weekend fun in the mekong! though i truly was a sloppy, sleepy mess the whole time, the title of this post is also a tribute to another new band in my life: dengue fever (listen to 'sleepwalking' as you drift through this post).

floating market

a smaller branch of the mekong

the brick factory

i was meant to learn something here, something about labor and craft if i understood the handout correctly... and i'm sure i would have been totally into it had i understood a word that was said. to give you an idea of what i'm dealing with down here: imagine you're an intermediate speaker of english and you're speaking to... say, a mechanic in lovelady, texas or ellaville, georgia! the drawl!! it was pretty depressing. i did, however, thoroughly enjoy photographing the bricks...

...and the birds. the one in the middle cage speaks vietnamese and english!

adeline and oliver (also known as dan anh and bao) on the saturday morning "death ride"

after a restful sleep in a guest house eerily similar to the camp val verde girls' cabins in waco, texas (the only thing missing were the daddy longlegs) and a quick breakfast of egg sammies eaten on the boat, our friendly tour guide loaded us onto bicycles and ran us through the countryside: roads no bigger than sidewalks but shared with motorbikes, children, chickens, bananas... and there were bridges, tons and tons of tiny bridges crossing the little mekong fingers... i discovered, crossing one of those bridges, that these conical hats, though amazing for the sun protection they provide, tend to slide a bit. for a few terrifying seconds, i saw nothing but straw. and in that moment, i'm not kidding, i was luke skywalker.

at one point, our guide stopped and got off her bike in front of a tiny cafe. "yes," i thought, "time for coffee!" but instead she points to the monkey bridge. i've got no picture of my own - didn't dare bring my camera along - so i borrowed one from some dude named andyllama, who has posted his vina-pics online (thanks andyllama!). and i am happy to report that i made it over and back... looking only slightly like a gi-normous, ridiculous westerner. hooray!

in the name of all that is good and holy...

toa thanh tay ninh, the largest cao dai temple in viet nam, established december 1926

i spent a week learning about caodaism before our day trip to the tay ninh holy see... and i still can't really tell you what this religion is all about. an unusual mélange of buddhism, confucianism, and taoism - with a healthy dose of cultish saint worship - cao dai is undoubtedly the most creative faith you'll ever not quite get. the construction of the holy see, pictured above, was said to have been ordered by god via what i can only understand to be a ouija board. (oh, the countless slumber parties spent waiting for such divine inspiration - after pizza and strawberry milk (or tequila shots, depending on who's house we were at... what!? did i just say that!) and before freezing the training bra of the poor gal who's lot it was to fall asleep first and then trying to make her pee in her sleeping bag with a cup of cold water and a cup of warm... why a supreme deity never chose us to build a place of worship is beyond my comprehension. we were so ready for that!).

women believers entering the see for an afternoon ceremony

women and men must enter through different doors and remain separated throughout the ceremony. and from what i understand, woman may never achieve high positions in the faith because too much yin is dangerous for the universe. oh... well at least it's not just because they're weak or hysterical or meant to be in the kitchen (although based on my male teacher's explanation of confucianism and gender equality, i suspect that this is understood. you'll be pleased to know that i endeavored to explain to him that yes, my husband does the dishes regularly and cleans the bathroom, and no, i do not think it right to concede in order to appease his ego and thus preserve the harmony of the couple. (okay, so i don't know the actual word for "appease"... or "harmony" or "ego" for that matter... but he got the gist!)).

mat troi, or "the eye of god." the eye and the ouija board are the two most venerated objects of worship

in addition to god's eye and the ouija board, there are a number of saints in caodaism, chief among them sun yat-sen (co-founder of the kuomintang, often referred to as the father of modern china), victor hugo (author of les misérables, and thus super attuned to the needs of the poor - a real plus for the followers of cao dai), and nguyen binh khiem (16th-century vina-mandarin and wise man, in many ways responsible for the long-standing division between north and south here).

inside the holy see, just before the ceremony begins

as you can see, it's like a vina-disneyland in here. it's so colorful, it hurts. if there is a tone of sarcasm in this post, blame it on the cotton-candy themed holy see. i don't have any problem with divine guidance or hybrid faiths, but it's hard to take it all very seriously when the most venerated site of worship is giving you a spiritual tooth ache.

i should add, though, that there is a very interesting history to explore here, about which i know almost nothing, namely the role of caodaism in anti-imperialist activities. it is and has been a very rich and powerful sect in the south (no sees up north to my knowledge), and has shown itself to be a skillful political chameleon, at once appeasing the oppressors (french or american) and providing shelter and support for their adversaries.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

today my dear old pops turns 60! happy birthday dad - i love you!!

my new jam

trinh cong son, photo courtesy of saigonline.com

though i've heard the name many times, i've only recently discovered the music of trinh cong son (1939-2001), musician, pacifist, and vina-star second only to uncle hô. a fellow VASI student is a big fan, and she played some for me on her computer the other night... now i'm hooked. calling him the vina-dylan, as many have after joan baez, is misleading i think. his music aches more than dylan's does, but this could be khanh ly's doing - she sang trinh cong son's songs for years, beginning in the 60s, and helped make his music the national treasure it is today.

khanh ly and trinh cong son, photo courtesy of photobucket.com

unfortunately, you can hardly find the original recordings here in viet nam anymore. you can, however, find plenty of the re-released synthesizer-sax-chime-easy-listening versions, for which i blame doi moi, VN's period of economic renovation that took hold in the 80s (they opened the door a crack and the first thing they embraced from the western world was yanni??). it's awfully depressing, what bad vina-elevator music would sound like (if it existed - elevators here are still blissfully silent if only barely ventilated!).

i have managed to find an online source called the vietnam music database, where you can listen to every khanh ly recording of trinh cong son's music and put together a CD that they will burn and send to your house. so if all else fails here, i'll be putting my mega-collection together this fall (sign up now if you want one for christmas!)

this is not my favorite tune, but it's the best one i could find on youtube: ru ta ngam ngui.

enjoy.

bun cha

here are the actual tones, painted on the side of someone's home, i'm sure. i've decided to forgo the tones on all my posts, fully aware that for many of you, it will turn up as "b%4n ch23" or something equally as off-putting.

so here i am in sai gon, with my stomach still in ha noi. if i weren't headed back to my vina-que (hometown) with knox next month, i'd be seriously depressed right now. i've been told many times that sai gon is the culinary capital of the country, but i'm sorry... i just don't buy it.

this is it: bun cha. the gods outdid themselves when they thought this one up! though i've eaten more up north, you can get bun, or 'rice noodles,' all over the country (you may remember the noodles with tofu or as soup with beef - now also commonly referred to as 'mud bunch'!). here, it's the mass of white in the lower right corner. (sorry for the lack of definition, btw). directly above is the plate of mint, lettuce, cilantro and sprouts that are delicious and always good for a few rumbles in the tummy later (it's a sad reality - uncooked greens are a dicey game. but i'm braving the tummy rumble in the name of flavor! and a few unpleasant moments aside, it's totally worth it.) above that and to the left we have the bowl of diced garlic and red and orange chiles. i always get a little carried away here, particularly with the chiles, and end up sweating into my bowl... next we come to the heart of the dish: cha, which is ground pork, onions, pepper, and maybe a pinch of egg (?) fried into the most glorious little patties (my man knox is going to be in heaven!). the last bowl contains fish sauce and slivers of papaya. i usually choose this as my main bowl (though i've seen others opt to work out of the cha bowl): you start by adding chiles and garlic, working the broth up to your desired level of KICK, then you grab a patty, a small chunk of noodles, and some herbs... soak them all in the sauce for a sec, and bon appetit! this process is repeated till the pork is gone or until your tiny plastic stool collapses under you! i've done myself some serious damage at this restaurant - the "i have to go home and lie down now" kind of damage that only comes from irresistibly good food. friends, bun cha is it!

language gaffes, part trois

this one isn't too bad, really, and i only report it here because i like the ring of it. and because i don't want to do my homework.

i've mentioned before that i have good pronunciation. i really do. my vocab and sentence structure are at approximately the 3rd-grade level, but my pronunciation is solid. not native, but solid. the problem is that i don't really have any control over it. when i'm out and about, trying to improve my fluency or just trying to pay for my lunch - like today - i simply cannot control every rise, fall, and jiggle of my voice. if i spoke..... like..... this..... then maybe, but i've yet to meet anyone with the patience required to indulge that sort of obsessive perfectionism (believe me, i've looked)

anyway today, instead of telling my waiter that i wanted to pay for two bowls of bun (rising tone) bo (falling tone) or beef noodle soup, i handed him 100,000 dong for two bowls of bun (falling) bo (rising), otherwise known as "mud bunch."

"excuse me sir, i'd like to pay for two bowls of MUD BUNCH." i'm pretty sure it's a specialty of the mekong delta region.

untitled, 5

quan 2, ho chi minh city

untitled, 4

co chung taught us this expression: hien dai, hai dien, which can be roughly translated to "modernization is a waste of energy"

the artist and the entrepreneur

sai gon TV

di vao sai gon

flight 217, ha noi to hcmc
it was a bumpy flight, so i took pictures to keep from bursting into tears. i really need to look into hypno-therapy... any suggestions?

this past saturday marked the mid-point of my program - the ten of us left ha noi (bye bye grey skies, floods, and crazy traffic) and flew two hours south to ho chi minh city (hello sunshine, urban sprawl, and crazy accent!). how to describe the difference between ha noi and hcmc, or sai gon as it is more commonly known? it's like going to another country really. we're not just talking different consonant sounds ('z' and 'v' have now become 'y'; 'q' is 'w'; and 'n' is 'ng'!!) and a remarkably lax system of tones, both of which have had a very negative effect on my listening comprehension; we're talking centuries of two separate histories, very distinct cultural influences (chinese in the north, cham in the south), and more than one civil war. and if ha noi is the communist heart of the country, pumping uncle ho out through its concrete arteries, sai gon is responsible for nearly all the ecomonic circulation that keeps this country on its feet.

for you numbers people, here are some stats courtesy of wikipedia: greater ha noi has an area 356 square miles, a population of 3.4 million (as of 2007), and a population density of over 8,500 people per square mile. now, this is nothing to sneeze at - particularly the population density! (dallas, for example, is looking at just over 3,500 per square mile.) sai gon has an area of 809 square miles and a population of at least 7 million, so it's BIG, but fortunately, the density is not as bad here (for all you proud new yorkers out there, you'll be happy (or horrified) to know that you still take the prize with 27,000 people per square mile.)

for those of you who could care less about the numbers, a word on the food: sad to report that so far i'm totally unimpressed. not a damn thing worth reporting yet, except maybe the hue style soup i had for lunch today, which was spicy with thick noodles and slices of tender beef (great big bowl of it for just under a buck!), but that's a popular dish from the central region... really, i'm at a total loss here! it's so bad that i've agreed to go out for malaysian food tonight. what??

untitled, 3

school courtyard after the rain

trang tien street from the school bus

language gaffes, part deux

this gaffe has nothing to do with me, though now that it's been brought to my attention, i'm sure it's only a matter of time...

let me back up a bit... today co hanh was in no mood to teach, which was just fine as far as we were concerned. i think we're all currently experiencing serious burn-out. so after a half-hearted vocab session on painting and theater in viet nam, we started chatting about sex. i don't know how we got there, but no one dared stop co hanh once she got going.

first she went on about the one-month, post-delivery recuperation period, which was fascinating. and bizarre. in viet nam, new mothers are likened to snakes who have just shed their skin. they are weak and fragile and must rest for one full month. sounds great, right? maybe, except that during this rest period, they are to be inside and covered head to toe at all times (summer or not). they have a fixed menu of about three dishes (i didn't get all the details but co hanh said all she was given was dry, tasteless pork, minus the fat). they are to avoid fans, AC, TV, reading, talking, showering... she said she showered after three days, and the whole neighborhood shook their fingers at her. and she managed to get some TV in, but only by agreeing to wear dark sunglasses!

then she went on to tell us that there is still no sex education in the vietnamese school system (she remembers one lesson in junior high science that the teacher refused to cover in class and instead assigned as "personal research"), and included some very disturbing statistics (and somewhat personal examples) about gender, superstition, and abortion that i will spare you.

toward the end of class, we students realized we were still missing some key vocabulary. as co hanh had been very forthcoming all morning, we decided to ask: "xin co hanh, tell us. how do you say in vietnamese... must do what before get pregnant?" (that is more or less what i sounded like. yes, i was the brave one to ask). though there is apparently no shortage of different ways to say it in vietnamese, she taught us the very innocuous A quan he voi B or "A is having sex/has sex with B." quan he is also the general term for relation or relationship, a word used in many different contexts, personal and professional. but there is a key distinction between the two usages, and it comes down to two little letters: c - o. if you say A co quan he voi B then you are simply talking about the relationship between A and B (gender relations or the diplomatic relationship between the US and VN, for example). BUT, if you miss that little word co... as co hanh was explaining the difference, oliver (remember, the chinese spy from PA i mentioned a few days ago!?) gasped. he realized that for his final interview project he had been running around town asking people if they thought china and viet nam were currently having good sex.

imagine their bewilderment: "not only is this kid a spy, but he's also kind of a perv!"

not quite a chopper...

just so my dad won't worry too much... really, this thing isn't any bigger or faster than the blue mongoose i had in elementary school... and come to think of it, it isn't as cool as that bike either. i do wear a helmet, but i'm pretty sure it is made of fairy dust. really, it's just for show. without one, however, i run the risk of being pulled over by the cops, and that is not a learning experience i care to have this summer.

untitled, 2

haircut anyone?

do you get it YET?

the bridge to ngoc son temple at hoan kiem lake

warning: don't let this peaceful picture fool you. this post is full of hot, cranky steam!

i have now been trained to teach both english and french to non-native speakers. i've spent a lot of time thinking about presentation and effective instruction, teacher-talk-time, realia versus verbal description, blah blah blah.... an old colleague of mine from apollo recently asked if i was here learning so that i could teach vietnamese back in the states. i laughed out loud - this woman SERIOUSLY overestimates my level and my capacity. i must make myself clear - my vietnamese is still crap. everything but my pronunciation, that is, which i am told almost daily is "so precise!" (this is invariably followed by "you should marry a vietnamese man!" it's uncanny. and you know, i just don't see the connection. anyway, i usually explain that a) i'm married already (but no i don't have kids yet and yes i know i should get on that) and b) i drink beer, and lots of it - which i'm pretty sure automatically disqualifies me, despite my fabulous execution of vietnamese tones. dommage.)

but i digress. again. if i were training to become an instructor of vietnamese - based on what i've observed thus far in ha noi - all i would really need to make the classroom experience authentic is the ever-present and ever-frustrating "hieu chua?" or "do you get it yet???" you NEVER ask this question in the classroom. it's alienating and embarrassing. and yet, it is completely acceptable in vietnamese instruction. just as natural as the french way of telling you that *insert any request here* is impossible. it's cultural. and it's really getting to me.

but this is because i am really struggling with this course. it's a good thing i'm not paying for it (thanks to uncle sam and uncle DT (chair of the french department and advisor to yours truly) for footing the bill), because i would be out of my mind by now if i were. we're talking four hours a day of random, poorly planned, mind-numbing classes around such riveting topics as economic development and transportation (not the real issues, mind you, but the party line. snore!). on top of this, i am currently in the midst of finishing up what was a very poorly conceived final project on gender equality in viet nam, and it is sucking the life out of me. not because reading articles in vietnamese takes hours. not because i've never actually learned anything concrete about vietnamese syntax or constructing proper vietnamese sentences. not because vietnamese people only know the interview situation when it involves the police or the party coming to the house and are thus likely to accuse you of being a spy (i'm not kidding. one guy in our group - a white boy from PA named oliver! - was accused of being a chinese spy!!!) and refuse to answer OR lie to your face... but because it's obvious to me that my teachers are making this stuff up as we go along.

i got more out of the ten minutes i spent chatting with a couple of hanoians at my favorite tea stand this evening than i did all morning in class.

but then there is hoan kiem lake, where everyone goes to huong nhung giay phut em dem (enjoy some peaceful moments). five minutes on a bench by the lake and i'm like "what vietnamese class? what project? let's go have some ice cream."

better now.

untitled, 1

garden at the ha noi ethnology museum

viet nam presidential palace, sidewalk

a good spread

blurry but delicious!

another post on food in the hopes of redeeming vietnamese cuisine in the eyes of my readers (all five of you :). i've got a number of lunch and dinner shots, all of them a pinch out of focus (see disclaimer below), but i've decided to post them anyway to show off the range of vina-cuisine a bit more. because really, i don't want you to think that all i eat here is sausage and gloop.

this is a spread we had our second or third night here at a place called l'oiseau souffleur (it has a vietnamese name as well, but i've managed to retain only the french). let's start with the naan-like bread, shall we? it is actually a cracker that you load up with minced, sauteed clam and cucumber. i've never been too fond of clam, but served this way, it is delightful. heading clockwise, we have the banana flower salad, which is often served with strips of chicken and doused in fish sauce. then the clam dish. onto the cucumbers with chile, lime, and salt. then we come to the xu xu sauteed with beef. xu xu is the leaf that grows out of a gourd or squash or pumpkin of some kind (wait, aren't those all kind of the same thing?), and it's quite possibly the tastiest veggie i've ever eaten (though i won't lie, the beef helps!). finally, in the middle we have fried tofu. and this is the way it should be - golden brown on the outside, juicy on the inside, delicate but substantial, also doused in fish sauce. if we were playing the desert island game, and i could only take three things with me, i would take knox, my pillow (which i miss dearly over here) and fried tofu, ha noi style.

happy 4th of july!

knox at the vietnam war memorial, september 2007

there were no parades for me today, no hot dogs, and no swimming! but there was plenty of sweating, i did have some watermelon, and i will soon join some friends for a glass of beer (bia ha noi, of course). speaking of sweating, i visited the vietnam war memorial for the first time in early september of last year (i honestly don't know which is worse - nam or DC!). every time i see this photograph, i think of the xe om (motorbike taxi) driver i spoke to shortly after 9-11 who, gently reminding me of our imbricated past, said, "we feel your pain."

bun dau and che tap cam

not too many fans of the xoi xeo post, judging from the emails i've gotten in response. fair enough, i say. even knox, without whom i'd probably never have learned to appreciate beef or butter (get him to give you his "how to make the perfect burger" lecture - he really knows his stuff!), has informed me that he has no desire to try chinese sausage! who knew? i fear i've given xoi xeo a bad rep, and for this i am sorry. it really is pretty good - minus the sausage, of course - just not for breakfast.

regardless, i'd never choose it over today's lunch, which was bun dau, fried tofu and noodles served up with mint, cucumber, and fish sauce (which, despite its odor, is AWESOME. seriously. and the junk they sell in vina markets in the u.s. is the dregs. i'd pack a bottle in my suitcase if that plan didn't have "big, stinking disaster" written all over it). to be honest, this lady overcooks her tofu just a hair, but the setting is too perfect to pass up. it's under a gigantic banyan tree in the old quarter, which i just realized i haven't got a picture of yet. i'll get one up soon. anyway, lunch for two cost me $1.40, which left a few extra dong for...

che tap cam: che of ten flavors
THIS is what afternoons in ha noi are all about!

it may look simple and sound a little strange, but i'm telling you, this is sweet, gloopy magic in a glass. nothing takes the edge off a frustrating day in vietnamese class (and oh there are many!) like a glass of che. this might be a little controversial, but i have to say it: french pastries have nothing on the genius of vietnamese che! this version features coconut slivers, gelatinous thingies, tapioca in many shapes, colors, and sizes, red beans (don't knock 'em till you've tried 'em), coconut milk, and ice. you can also get it with dried lychees, longans filled with lotus seeds, grapefruit, sweet corn... the options are endless!

but that's not all...


this is kem xoi, or ice cream with sticky rice. those are dried coconut shavings on the top. i really don't want to go all caps on you here, but seriously, THIS IS TOTAL DELICIOUSITY! we have to start working on bringing che and kem xoi to the people of america! it's not enough to have a few flavors floating around orange county - i mean it, it will put baskin robbins out of business!

of course, i haven't the faintest idea how export gloop or gelatin, and i'm relatively sure it would involve math... so failing the che revolution in america (not of the argentine variety, naturally, though i bet old che would have really been into che!) (what? ignore me. i've had too much sugar today)... the point is that you must come here and try it.

may i recommend "che thai lan" at the northwest corner hai ba trung street and phan chu trinh. i am not a particularly spiritual person, but i think it might change your life.

viet nam ethnology museum, sort of

as part of our program this summer, we have weekly field trips to various sites around ha noi and hcmc. last week was the temple of literature (which i drew (all 5 courtyards!!) because i'd forgotten my camera), and today, we went to the ethnology museum. the museum is, to borrow from the website, "created for everybody," with "panels presented at reasonable heights," "handrails that are very comfortable for elderly people," and "videos... to inform visitors with different levels of education and different needs." so, this really is a museum for the people. shorties, old folks, those who either cannot read or have no attention span - all are welcome! i have recently fallen into the latter category... but sadly, i didn't even really care to watch the videos. instead i spent my morning outside in the "plein air" exhibit space, taking pictures of flowers and trees.

i just hope my teachers weren't watching.

ha noi oi!

hoan kiem lake in the late afternoon

summer at west lake

pinwheels for the whole family!

and this guy is working on dinner - i love it.

i used to live out here near ho tay, also known as west lake. it's really quiet compared to the city center, and you can't beat the views. i remember watching the most bewitching lightening storms from our roof... anyway, these two shots were snapped on the road that runs between west lake and truc bach lake (i don't have the english translation for this one, but if its name at all reflects what goes on here, i think "truc bach" means "snogging with your boyfriend in a paddle boat shaped like a swan." young vietnamese lovers don't get much make-out time at home - what with mom, dad, grandma, sister, and her kids hanging around - so they come here. the lake is no bigger than a swimming pool, really, and yet they manage to "paddle" around for hours... i highly recommend this for any young lovers visiting ha noi... in fact, i'll highly recommend it when my young lover comes to visit. oh yes, and afterwards we must stop for grilled squid and ice cream!)

xoi xeo thap cam

my translation: sticky rice à la 'too much meat product.' it's topped with chicken, a fried boiled egg, fried onions, dried pork, some ground up meat (of one kind or another) and that kinda sweet, red chinese sausage

ahh, breakfast! nothing like starting off the day with some chicken fat and sausage, right?? most vietnamese eat either this or noodle soup in the morning, but i'm not going to lie to you, friends - i hide out in my hotel every morning eating baguette with jam and drinking coffee. morning is a delicate time for me - i have been known to get cranky - and i don't want to rock the culinary boat. (i'm drinking instant coffee here - that's pushing it enough!).

xoi xeo is yellow sticky rice (not the white kind, which is also nice, if not a bit bland). i've now eaten it twice and have decided that i prefer a simpler version with dried pork, fried onions and cucumbers. i just don't do chinese sausage. i have no doubt that knox will when he gets here though... so i'll save it for him.

l'école française d'extrême orient

in 1923, andré malraux - adventurer, author, resistance fighter, politician, mythomane, and subject of the first two chapters in my dissertation - landed in ha noi, all set for his "archaeological research trip" to cambodia. less forgiving critics of malraux's enigmatic trajectory claim he had actually come to asia to loot the temples and make a bundle in the american exotic art market. whatever his motivation, it was here, at the école française d'extrême orient, which is now the ha noi history museum and which i pass daily on my way to class, that he was ordered to document his finds only and leave them all on site. fully aware that most colonial officials of the day had a couple of nicked bas reliefs in their personal collections, malraux completely ignored his orders. a month or so later, on his way back to siem reap (or it could have been phnom penh - i forget), riding an elephant loaded with a couple tons of stolen stone carvings, old malraux got busted by the police - imagine a colonial roadblock in 1923 cambodia! - and landed in jail.

the parisian intelligentsia cried out in horror, and malraux eventually got off. he went on to write a loosely autobiographical account of his time in cambodia - la voie royale (or the royal way) and later became general de gaulle's minister of cultural affairs!

sua chua nep cam

yogurt with black sticky rice

a relatively new phenomenon in ha noi, yogurt with black sticky rice is, in my humble (but educated) opinion, a bit of a disappointment. it was tasty enough i guess, but it's no match for che or kem xoi (i'll get picks of these treats up soon - i keep meaning to snap a couple, but i'm so excited that i forget every time! "c'est plus fort que moi" as one of my french professors would say). it's definitely worth a try but hardly anything to write home about.

oh wait, i just did.