Nov/0917
i don’t feel like coming up with a clever pho pun
frequent readers of youusedtobealright.com know that i enjoy my pho. those that live in shanghai should also know that pho here is often disappointing or unauthentic or otherwise not fulfilling.
with the recent opening of pho 26 on wujiang road, i think there’s a new solution for all of us pho deprived masses in shanghai.
pho 26, opened opposite the yet-to-be-opened krispy kreme is, at least to my taste, the best and most authentic pho place open yet in shanghai.
Oct/094
a post wherein gourmet vietnamese equals warmed over chinese food
last post about vietnam – well until the next time i go.
my last dinner in vietnam was wasted (WASTED!) on yet another higher end vietnamese restaurant. next time i’m eating all street level food.
hoi an is a highly rated vietnamese place specializing in royal hue cuisine – what your author failed to realize is that royal hue cusine is basically chinese food. and really expensive chinese food at that.
the meal started out well with this really wonderful place setting and china.
Oct/090
eating with brad and angelina
when brad pitt and angelina jolie visited ho chi minh city 3 years ago, they visited a vietnamese restaurant located in district 1 called the temple club
not because they went, but because of recommendations i went myself this last trip.
Oct/090
vietnamese socialist art
for some reason, i really dig socialist realism propaganda posters.
living in china, you get used to seeing one sort of style, so it’s kind of jarring to see another, asian country’s. here’s some i took in vietnam.
Oct/090
more thoughts from vietnam
while i’m in taiwan now, my trip to vietnam is still top of mind for me. mainly because i’d still like to be there, instead of neck deep in work like i am now.
one of the interesting things i noticed, which is a large contrast to the way things were when i first started travelling extensively around south-east asia was the presence of other asians travelling around.
for example, when i took the tour to the cu chi tunnels – of the 25 or so people on the bus, a good 8-12 were from other parts of asia. thailand, malaysia, singapore, taiwan . . . and me. one of the interesting things is how english is used as a lingua franca amongst quite a few people who don’t speak english. so behind me the girl from malaysia was conversing with one of the thai women – both using english. which got me thinking how lucky it was that i was born and grew up in a country that has english as its first language. i think all those predictions and (fears?) about how chinese is going to take over the world as the dominant language is forgetting 1. how difficult it is to learn and 2. of everybody who is multi-lingual already, english as one of their languages, or at least it anecdotally.
this importance was underscored that night at dinner when i was seated next to a chinese couple from guangzhou. as they struggled with the english/vietnamese/french menu, i leaned over and helped them out with a few translations. they remarked about how difficult it was to travel without knowing more than a few words of english – and they marvelled at my ability to switch english/cantonese/mandarin – even though my everyday work conversation is a horrible melange and mish-mash of all three.
to distract you, here’s a photo of a huey helicoptor on the roof of the reunification palace.
Oct/090
the day of bad museums
after watching the debacle that was the cal-usc football game, i finished my tourism activities by going to the museum of ho chi minh city and the vietnam history museum.
first up was the museum of ho chi minh city. a bunch of half-hearted exhibits which were poorly maintained in a falling apart building. however, one of the interesting things was that there were at least 10 couples there taking wedding photos. i thought the wedding photos were more interesting so i trained my camera on them instead.
Oct/090
com tam moc
according to wikipedia, C?m t?m is
C?m t?m in Vietnamese is cooked rice from fractured rice grains. T?m refers to the broken rice grains while c?m refers to cooked rice.
It is usually served with grilled pork (either ribs or shredded) plus a Vietnamese dish called bì (thinly shredded pork mixed with cooked and thinly shredded pork skin) over broken rice. The rice and meat are served with various greens and pickled vegetables, along with a prawn paste cake, tr?ng h?p (baked egg), and grilled prawns. Typically restaurants will serve this popular combination rice plate with a small bowl of n??c ch?m, as well as a small bowl of soup broth (canh) with garlic chives (to cleanse the throat).
in continuing my trend of eating what is essentially street food in gussied up tiny chain restaurants, for lunch yesterday i went to com tam moc.
Oct/090
saxi
vietnamese soda.
contains: carbonated water, sugar, acidity regulator, citric acid, natural & synthentic flavors, natural caramel color, preservative, sodium benzoate
taste: almost exactly like sarsae – for those of you unfamilar, its a sasparilla type, a little bit less sweet than a root beer, but in the root beer family.
Oct/090
the man in the black pajamas, dude. worthy f’ing adversary.
today i took a tour to the cu chi tunnels. about 90 minute drive outside of hcmc, the tunnels are where the viet cong waged dug in and defended against the american 85th infantry as well as waged guerilla warfare against saigon.
