An Tet Viet TV Show
The annual Tet cultural-show-with-foreign-guests, broadcast from Hanoi. I appear with the Irish ambassador, a Japanese laquer artist, a Viet Kieu adventurer and a Korean musical couple. There is Vietnamese voice-over, but you can still hear the English. My main contribution starts at about minute 40. Though if you want to see me sing (shudder), watch the begining. http://vtv.vn/video-clip/131/An-Tet-Viet-09022013/video3264.vtv Read More
PPDD
Think of the times when traveling abroad you’ve come across fractured English menu items. I recall Beef in Wild Battle, Grilled Moose Bleeding, Lower Bowel Stew, Naked Crab. And how about other fractured English? I once bought a T-shirt proclaiming, “Inmutation is your sweetness: US difference of information!” I wore it proudly here on the streets of Saigon. I saw another traveler wearing the message, “Put your main thing here.” Now... Read More
Coffee Calm
Back in the States, Canada, Oz, NZ or UK, coffee is something often taken on the fly. Battling traffic on the way to work you pull into the 7-11, or other factory made convenience store. You rush in. You pour a hot brown liquid, that often smells like a dirty ashtray, into a paper cup, slap on a lid, throw ever increasing amounts of small money down on the counter and you’re back in your car slurping your caffeine fix with one hand and negotiating... Read More
Saigon a la Proust
I saw the most startling thing not long ago. Not long ago I saw Saigon for the first time. Now this was not the Saigon I used to know when she was a callow girl from a far-away province on the far side of the world. No. I saw the new Saigon, and I saw her with new eyes. I saw the ultra-modern, international lady who still wears the Ao Dai and limpet hat of her past. I saw Saigon for the second first time from the same kind of vantage point as the... Read More
Red Dust
What in the great wide world could Hollywood heart-throb Clark Gable, nachos, and Vietnam ever have in common? Hey, this is Vietnam. Never be surprised at anything! In 1932, Gable, the then reigning “King of Hollywood,” and Jean Harlow made a flick called Red Dust. Gable played a rubber planter and Harlow a hooker. And the red dust referred to in the title was the soil of southern Vietnam. Yeah, you got that right. The action took place in the... Read More
G&T
The day was beastly hot, not long ago. I had been stumbling through the narrow alleyways (the hems) of “The Pham” keeping track of all the continuous changes and deciding if they’re good or bad. It’s part of my job as a self-appointed arbiter of taste. I was sweating bullets and much in need of blessed relief. Now if you’ve lived long anywhere in the tropics you know that there is a great and universal constant that offers such relief. It’s... Read More
Lucky Beef Parts
Lucky Beef Parts In 1999 a restaurant opened at 31 Ly Tu Trong in District 1. It’s proper name was Quan Luong Son. But expats and tourists alike called it Bo Tung Xeo, after its signature dish. It’s a bit like Korean barbeque. Although instead of a gas fire built into the table, Bo Tung Xeo features a charcoal brazier brought to the table, upon which you grill your own beef and veg. It’s hot and smokey but, hey, it’s also festive... Read More
Miss Vy
Trin Diem Vy, or Miss Vy as she is known to everyone, is the third-generation owner and chef de cuisine at what is now called the Mermaid restaurant. It began as a market stall operated by her grandparents when they were young. ‘I still use the same recipes my grandmother and my mother used,’ she says in her Australian-accented English. ‘Mine is the home cooking of the central region of Vietnam.’ ‘My kitchen is not a commercial or an industrial... Read More
A Gift of the Magi
I was still quite a young GI, but I had had a full combat tour in Vietnam, and that was more than enough, when in April of 1975 I was sent back in as a member of the expeditionary force tasked with extracting the South Vietnamese government, their dependents, and many thousands of fleeing civilians. All was disorder, and our efforts were reduced to ad lib and impromptu, and I just didn’t want to be the last to die in a useless war. In the chaos... Read More
