Life Begins at 30

Andrea Nguyen: Safe Eating While in Vietnam

Andrea Nguyen has published a great post about safe eating while in Vietnam.  I followed the same sort of safe eating philosophy while I was there for three weeks this year, and was sick only for a couple of hours about a week in.  And I wouldn't do anything differently next time -- I enjoyed the freedom that I had with pretty much eating anything once I'd set my own personal rules about eating fresh food, hot food, drinking lots of bottled water, and not freaking out too much after that.

I would add to this post by saying that I went into my doctor and told him I was going, and that I was going to eat everything, and that I needed meds in case anything happened.  He gave me Cipro, which I never took, and a couple other meds for my travel bag.

I had ice in my drinks a little more often than it sounds like Andrea did, but I had a theory that gin killed any bugs that were in my ice (grin).

SPQR, Photos, and New Site Design!

Durian vendor, Ho Chi Minh City

I wrote a post on Tuesday at KQED's Bay Area Bites detailing my first impressions of SPQR.  I don't often do formal restaurant reviews, so this one is called "SPQR: A preliminary report."  In the words that I used on my flickr page, "Go.  Go Now."   I have a long history with A16, so the fact that I had to try SPQR within days of its opening probably isn't a surprise.

Speaking of Flickr, I've been slowly going through the Vietnam trip photos and posting a couple a day.   The photo above is one that I posted this week.  Nine months after the trip, I am finally feeling like I can start to digest parts of it and talk about it.  It took that long to not be completely overwhelmed by that amazing trip.   So I've been writing a small amount about my impressions with the photos.  You can see it all in the Vietnam Collection of my Flickr.  You can subscribe to a feed of my Flickr photos using this link.

Also, if you read this site through an RSS reader, you may not notice the site's new look.  I am happy to have new digs.  Thanks for everyone who weighed in months ago about the new look.  I chose a design that will allow me to swap photos in and out of the banner fairly easily.

I had no idea ...

I'm a bit of a thinker.  Most things that there are to think about, I feel like I've pondered.  But I can honestly say that I never ever wondered what a pineapple plant looked like.  And when I came upon one in an orchard I was wandering in the Mekong Delta, it was a revelation.  Good grief, it was beautiful. 

On my tour, we had a home stay in the Delta.  I am a tiny bit of a princess about where I lay my head.  "I don't camp and I don't go to dumps," I've been known to tell friends.  Give me a chicken to break down, or homemade soup on a street corner and I'm fine, but I was a little apprehensive about our home stay.

But it was wonderful.  And as soon as I saw the line of hammocks for us to relax in, I knew that we were in good hands.  We played charades between 3 Americans, 2 Vietnamese, a Norwegian, and 3 Aussies, and I can't remember the last time I've laughed so hard.  We ate fantastic food - most memorably a whole fish that was artfully presented. 

An ice chest full of cold beer was set out and we kept a tally of how many we had so that we could pay in the morning.  And then we retired to long bunks in our location right over the river.  The next morning we were up to check out the floating market, then it was back to Ho Chi Minh City for a few final chaotic days.

The Boiled Goat Inn, Ho Chi Minh City

I laughed yesterday as I was cleaning up some things around the house and this business card fell out of my stack of papers.  I had been searching for it since I'd returned from Vietnam, and had been wanting to tell you about it.  But somehow the story of the restaurant wouldn't have the impact unless I could show you the business card.

The weather for most of my trip in Vietnam ranged from temperate through the center part of the country to downright cold in Hanoi and Hue.  By the time we got to Saigon, however, the temperatures were climbing and I was pretty hot the entire time.  I'm sure the Vietnamese would laugh that I even thought it was hot, however, because it was pretty mild compared to later in the year.

Malik had met an ex-patriate American who told him that the "Boiled Goat Inn" was a must-go place - one of his favorites.  As luck would have it, we spent one of the warmest afternoons in this open-air restaurant cooking over a charcoal fire.  The list that you see on the business card was the entire menu of the restaurant: boiled goat meat, fried goat meat, roasted goat meat, mixed sour goat meat, or special goat meat boiled with Chinese Medicine. We opted for roasted goat, over fire, and a goat hot pot (aka "Boiled Goat").

Many things on this table typify the way that I ate in Vietnam.  Toward the lower right-hand side of the table, the white things in the blue bowl are our "napkins" -- cold, wet towels that came pre-wrapped and were available at every level of restaurant. 

Each area had their own beers -- in Ho Chi Minh City I usually chose between Saigon Red (seen here) or Saigon Green.

At this restaurant, we (or rather, Malik) cooked the goat over the fire, and then took the rice paper wrappers (bottom left-hand corner of the greens platter) and wrapped it with a combination of greens.  We ended up cooking the okra and the spring onions on the grill like you would in Mexico, and then added the various greens.  The only thing I avoided were the green bananas which were so tannic that they sucked every ounce of moisture out of my mouth.

If you look closely on that platter, you'll notice peanuts, starfruit, basil, shiso, as well as the aforementioned veggies.

The entire spring roll concoction was then dipped in a dipping sauce and devoured.  I can still taste this dish -- it was incredibly delicious, lean tasting and not muttony or overly gamey.  The hot pot was delicious as well, but the roasted goat is what I will dream about.

Lau De, The Boiled Goat Inn
105 Truong Dinh - District 3
Tel: 9304296
Ho Chi Minh City

Monday Thoughts

I have been developing a few photos from my trip, trying to decide what I am going to do with them.  Of the few that I printed, this one came out really nicely in 8 x 10.  I took it at the Dalat airport while we were waiting for our flight to Ho Chi Minh City.

I'm back in Los Angeles this week, working and also babysitting my favorite 12 and 9-year old boys -- the sons of some lifelong friends -- for a whopping eight days.  Yesterday was a banner day as I took them to the first farmers' market that they've ever been to.  Mark, the youngest, was pretty interested in everything, even choosing some purple cauliflower from Weiser Family Farms, carefully inspecting about 5 booths of strawberries before settling on our purchase, and also taking home some kettle corn. 

If you happen to see a copy of Time magazine this week,  check out this week's cover story "Eating Better than Organic" about the local food movement and one man's account of trying to make a decision between local and organic. I felt like a proud parent when I received the press release on Friday, as the Eat Local Challenge blog and the Locavores are both mentioned in the piece.  Big pat on the back to all of you who work so hard to talk about the importance of where your food comes from.  We are being heard, and are acting as catalysts for a conversation that is now occurring throughout this country!

Cyclo Ride, Hanoi

In a couple places in Vietnam, we took a cyclo ride.  For some reason, I imagined that it would be a relaxing, quiet ride through the town to see the sights.  It was basically anything but.  It was loud, and right in the middle of traffic.  But it was a super interesting way to watch the way that this city works.  Watch this video to see the cyclo crossing through a couple of intersections.  And remember while watching this that the zoom length on the camera I was using (my powershot sd700) was very short.  So when you see, for instance, a bus right in front of me, it's about 2 feet in front of the cyclo.

Candy Street, Hanoi

Hanoi's Old Quarter is a maze of small streets spread over a few square miles in the middle of town.  Many of the streets have a singular focus:  A street of nuts and bolts, a street of carnival-sized stuffed animals, a street of shoes, a street of travel agencies, a street of mirrors. 

The picture taken above was a street of vendor after vendor selling dozens of varieties of small candy.  The yellow candies in the middle became a favorite of mine - strong ginger flavor in a hard, sticky candy.  Delicious. 

Haircut II, Saigon

Haircut, Saigon

Streets of Saigon

Friends and family are asking to see more Vietnam photos on a daily basis.  I have yet to figure out an efficient work flow for editing from RAW to web (and to print) effectively, so the photos may be coming one or two at a time for a while. 

Vietnam UFO Fruit #2

Thanks, everybody, for your help on UFO Fruit #1: Wax/Rose Apples.  Now what can you tell me about this next one?  I've been told that it can't be eaten raw, and is used to flavor/color sticky rice.  It has a bright orange, spiny exterior and a blood red interior.  It's pretty large - size of a large grapefruit or small pomelo.  I think that the seeds are put on top of sticky rice too.  Anyone know?

Home

What does one eat after having Vietnamese food for three weeks straight?  Well, considering the fact that I had about zero energy after getting home from my flights yesterday, I think it's a miracle that I ate at all.  My dinner?  Store-bought cheese tortellini tossed with boiled broccoli, a bit of butter, salt and pepper.  Ahh ... comfort food.

This is my last official day off before starting work again and I am going to spend it editing photos, visiting a brand-new baby, catching up with Tivo, and taking a walk with a friend.  And maybe eating some more tortellini.

Mother Knows Best

There's a high likelihood that my mother is going to freak out when she reads this blog post, so a couple of disclaimers:  I am fine.  I am healthy, and not injured.  The incident described below happened nearly a week ago, and I am completely ok.

When I was in college, I spent my sophomore year abroad in Florence, Italy.  Before I left home, mom gave me only two absolute rules:  no hitchiking and no motor scooter riding.  Though many of my friends did both while I was there, I stuck to the rules and did not do either.  I was about 18, and still completely dependent on her, so it seemed like a good idea to follow her rules.

I'm 33 now, and still have not ever hitchiked or ridden a motor scooter.  Until last week.  As a part of the tour, we took an awesome bicycle ride through the country.  The scenes were amazing, and the small villages that we passed were enchanting.  All I wanted to do the next day was to spend more time in the same area.  We were in Hoi An at the time, which is a fairly sleepy town (especially relative to Saigon, which is where I am writing this post from).  So I asked Malik, who is still in Vietnam, if he would be interested in renting a motor scooter with me and driving me around.  He had already expressed an interest in doing so, and though I remembered mom's warning, I knew that it was going to be the best way to explore the countryside.

We went outside my hotel and rented a scooter from the first person we saw.  It was a manual transmission, so Malik rode it around for about five minutes to get used to it and make sure that he knew what he was doing.

Everywhere that we go, we kind of attract attention - being foreigners means that there are usually several pairs of eyes on us, either bemused by what we're doing or curious about it.  Add to that the fact that Malik loves to joke around with the locals, and we had quite a crowd watching. 

If you have read my blog for any amount of time, it probably doesn't surprise you that the next paragraph talks about a random injury (see posts about me falling off a bike, cracking my rib while running, and slicing through my finger as examples)

So as I hopped on to the back of the scooter, Malik took off.  He swears up to this day that he has no idea what happened, but the scooter immediately reared back, and in my first 30 seconds EVER being on a scooter, I was tossed off the back on to my ass in the middle of the street.  After the commotion of all the locals who watched this happen, I realized that I wasn't really hurt and we continued on.  Though my ego and my bum were fairly bruised, I hopped back on and we went through the countryside and I was able to snap quite a few pictures (notably this one of the guy who sold us a coconut).  A week later, I hardly feel the effects save for random bruises on my legs and such.  I was really lucky that I didn't get more hurt.

So, I guess this probably goes to prove that, even at the age of 33, we should all listen to our mothers.

Day Thirteen, Dalat

Thanks for all the compliments about the photography.  This country is infinitely inspiring me to take more and more photos.  Since I posted last, we've been in Nha Trang, a beach town toward the south and now we are in Dalat which is a town like no other that we've been in.  It's high in the mountains and is a vacation/honeymoon destination for Vietnamese.  So while it's a "touristy" town, it caters much more to the Vietnamese tourists than to Westerners, which is refreshing.  It is highly influenced by the French colonial period, so it reminds me much more of a village in Switzerland or elsewhere in Europe than a Vietnamese city. 

I spent a lot of time at the market here today -- it's a large market for such a small town.  It was the first market where I saw many vendors in a row selling eggs, then another set of vendors all selling dried shrimp.  The market photos below are from today.

The land here is so fertile.  I want to talk more about Vietnamese agriculture when I have a little more time, but generally the land is studded with very small farms one after another, all growing different crops.  According to our tour guide, the largest cattle farm in Vietnam has about 100 head of cattle, which should give you an idea of how incredibly small the farms are. 

Today, we went to an organic farm that is owned by an American man.  The farm mainly supplies vegetables to the Hotel Sofitel Dalat Palace, and grows many European/Western herbs.  In fact, our tour guide had not seen many of the herbs.  I introduced him to sage and had him smell it.  He hilariously told me that the sage smells just like roasted dog.  I'll have to take his word for it as dog is the one thing I have religiously avoided seeing or eating in this country!

I did, however, try "cafe chon" yesterday.  It's coffee that, as a fresh bean, is fed to a small animal (I think it's a civet, but haven't had time to completely investigate on the 'net).  It is then "excreted" by the animal, cleaned up, roasted, and turned into a delicacy-type coffee.  To me, it was really good coffee, and I'm glad I tried it, but it wasn't revelatory or anything.  Unlike eatstuff, I didn't find it to smell repulsive -- the one I tried had a pretty basic coffee smell.  In fact, eatstuff's reaction to it makes me a litle curious as to whether I was swindled.

We're off to Ho Chi Minh City next.  I am trying to gear myself up for the heat, and for the busiest city in Vietnam!

And now for a few photos ...

 

Buddha, Hoi An


Organic farm, Dalat


Woman selling green mangoes, Dalat


Grains, Dalat Market


Dried shrimp, Dalat

Day Eight, Hoi An

I am having trouble finding words to describe this trip.  So I am going to just give you some images from my days here.  All the pictures below are from the past two days in Hoi An.

I am happy and healthy and eating wonderful, glorious food.  The people here are really unbelievable.  I am enjoying them more than anything else, though the food is a close second. 

The best thing I ate today?  Meat on a stick in the market.  I stopped at the stand of a woman who only had a small charcoal fire and was grilling pork marinaded in a ginger sauce.  I bought four of them (for about 70 cents) and she just motioned that I should eat them as-is.  After I got through the first meat stick, she decided she liked me enough to offer me a chair.  After I got through the second meat stick, she decided she liked me enough to wrap each one in a rice paper wrapper, give me a peanut sauce, and add herbs to each roll.  I bought two more, and she patiently wrapped each one for me as I was ready for it.  Heaven.

Day Four, Hanoi

It is hard to describe what it's like to be in Asia for the first time.  It's noisy and hectic and beautiful and pungent and friendly - I am just overwhelmed and loving it.

My friend Malik happens to be travelling here and met me for the first couple of days.  Last night, after dinner, we walked back to the hotel. As we walked into the lobby he said, "How odd."  I asked him what was odd and he laughed because I hadn't even noticed that there were about 12 scooters parked in my lobby and a man sleeping on the floor.  I had become so used to seeing really strange and foreign things that I no longer had the critical ability to notice a really odd sight when it was right in front of me.

I am eating the most amazing things.  Yesterday, I ate five fruits that I had never eaten before -- once I get it together a bit (more about that below in "geek notes"), I'll be able to show you pictures of them. The best thing I ate today was grilled pork from a street vendor wrapped in "la lot" -- a pepper/betelnut leaf.  Wrap that all in lettuce and add spices and fresh herbs, and it makes for an amazing snack.  I also have had to learn to be comfortable with having the locals laugh at me, because we Americans trying to eat local food seem to be their entertainment.

I am having a lot of trouble posting from here.  In fact, if you are reading this it is thanks to my good friend Rachel who put the post up for me.  Hopefully I'll get the hang of it soon.  Also, keep an eye on my Flickr page because I may have an easier time posting photos there than here.

I'm going to leave you with a few photos and hope to bring you more in the near future.

One day this week, Malik and I went to go see a temple that was a bit out of town.  There is a point near the temple where tourists have to leave their taxis and walk.  When we were done and ready to find a taxi again, we had to talk to this boy ... a real wheeler-dealer who has a local business of calling cabs for poor abandoned tourists and then getting a commission from the cabbies.  The boy demanded Malik's cell phone and then used it to call the cabbie (who we suspect may have been his father).  Aside from being a crack-up of a kid, he was a real ham for the camera.

This is UFO Fruit #1.  Can anyone identify it?  It's apple-ish tasting, but did not have black seeds like an apple.  If I remember correctly, they had a pit.

Fruits and vegetables on the street.  Many of the vendors sell pre-prepped vegetables.  Given that most people buy vegetables the day they are going to use them, prepped food makes more sense to me here than it does in the States.

Whisks and brooms from a street booth.

GEEK NOTE:  I have been shooting with my Nikon D70.  Days 1 and 2, I shot purely in RAW format until I realized that getting photos to my blog from RAW was going to be complicated.  So now I am shooting RAW + JPG and putting the JPGs here when I can.  They are unprocessed on this end, as I am using random computers in Internet Cafes.

I am travelling with 3-1GB compact flash cards and uploading the photos to a Wolverine 60GB Flashpac each evening.  So far, that plan seems to be working well.

The other decision that I'm happy with was to bring my small Canon Powershot, which is nice to have when I don't feel like lugging the D70, or when I want to be less conspicuous.

Goodbye for Now

At this time tomorrow, I am going to be on a very long plane ride to Vietnam.  I realized yesterday that, though I have alluded to it here, I haven't come straight out and said on this site that "I am going to Vietnam".  So there it is.

When people find out I am going there, by myself, they have a few specific reactions. 

Some ask me how long I've been wanting to go there. 
Uh, about two months.

Some ask me why I would want to go there of all places. 
Untouched.  Amazing food.  Beautiful scenery and photography fodder.   And the history!

Some talk to me about foods to avoid in order to stay healthy. 
I am going to try and eat most things that are put in front of me.

It all started with the big breakup and my wanting to get out of my skin for a little while.  To get away and regroup.  I went through a lot of different vacation scenarios in my head, but found a food-oriented tour of Vietnam that sounded like it could possibly be the perfect thing for me.

I am going with no expectations.  I don't promise that I'll write.  I don't promise that you'll see photographs.  But the chances of both are highly likely.  I am not promising that I am going to "find myself" there, though I think that this retreat will be a fun yet challenging respite.  I am only hoping to eat great food and learn about new people and places.

So have a good few weeks.  I need to go fit way too many things into my backpack.  I'll see you in February.