Bun Cha! Take some fresh herbs, bean sprouts, noodles, mix it into the broth. As common as Pho, with lots of different variations. Unbelievably tasty! She is grilling the pork and beef meat balls for the Bun Cha English…
Khong Mi Chinh ~ MSG ~ Viet Nam
Vietnamese is a ridiculously difficult language to learn. I thought Spanish was hard, but this Vietnamese in an entirely different league. There are five different tones. A word takes on a whole different meaning depending upon whether you say it…
Foodie update ~ Sea snails, Superfoods, and Sweets, Viet Nam
Sea snails Just one of the more intriguing street side vendors… cooked on the street corner with lemon grass and spring onions and served with a spicy chili sauce. Utensil used for spearing the snail and extraction, are small metal…
First Vietnamese connections
Building a new life is a multi-dimensional process. One selects a place, a region, a city or a neighborhood. Then one starts making human connections. Some are transient, others are lasting. One never knows. Here are early connections that already…
Foodie update ~ fish, eel, crab in Hanoi, Viet Nam
It’s quite obvious that we are going to have a problem writing this blog. It’s going to seem as though we are doing nothing but eating… Well, that in fact may be true, but it’s not our fault. World class…
Video: First week in Hanoi, Viet Nam
Wish we could integrate smell and taste into the video to give you the full breadth of the Vietnamese experience. But, at least, we provide a video, on the basis that if a picture is worth a thousand words, a…
Early morning exercise in the park leads to a market find ~ Hanoi, Viet Nam
What to do when jetlagged and waking up at 4:30am? Join the locals of course and go for early morning exercise of stretching, yoga, walking etc… in the park around the lake, before the daily heat sets in. These people…
Hanoi Temples and treats ~ Hanoi, Viet Nam
Strolling new pockets of Hanoi’s Old Quarter, enjoying the colorful street scenes… The old quarter is of course only one small section of Hanoi, with other areas quite built up. Surprisingly while we understand Vietnams’ history with French colonialism, we…