I'll eat anything you make as long as its Halal

Yesterday Ai Lin cooked up a really nice vegetable dish. Most days we experiment with food; rice, pasta, vietnamese rice noodles and vegetables. Some days we eat nice food and some days we eat edible food. Here's a run down on some surprises and accidents we've had so far in our quest to conjure culinary delights. (the author apologises for the lack of photographic evidence but maintains that some things are better left unseen)


Chinese Pasta
 Ingredients

• packet of pasta and weevils
• brocolli
• boiled shrimp
• vinegar
• onions and garlic

What went wrong?
After the first day that my parents left Ailin made lunch. Because there were weevils in the pasta package (always buy top-quality stuff for consumption, stinging on food will only cause heartache, potential bodily demise or discovering bugs in your package) we had to substitute with vietnamese rice noodles (bun). Tasted quite alright, a little more chinese than italian, a little too vinegar-y for my tastes, cause i don't like vinegar but pretty edible; we did finish the whole pot at least. Lesson learnt: Always buy Premium pasta.

Sweet porridge

Ingredients

•  white rice and lots of water
• beef
• onions and garlic
• marinate 
• carrots 
• some boiled shrimp

What went wrong?

I made this a few days after my parents left Hanoi. Feeling a little sick and having had the urge to eat something soupy and soft, In my fit of creativity i added in CARROTS. which by the way causes dishes to become sweet. Needless to say after spending an hour or so in the rice cooker together with the rest of the indgredient plus onions (which also makes things sweet) it became sweet porridge that had a peppery hot aftertaste (due to the beef marinate). Weird combination. Unfortunately the porridge only got eaten once by me, right after it got cooked, before i went for class at VNU after my landlord and his dashing friend came to fix the door that i broke (but, thats a story for another day. even so, lets date this event for future reference 28 Aug) Now, i am not an advocate of wasting food and nor did i mean to leave it decomposing in the rice cooker over the weekend but here's what happened ; I got "kidnapped" by my nice malaysian aunty whom I met at the mosque that day thinking that I had to be there just to pick up the frozen halal chickens that i ordered from her. At the time I couldn't fast so I thought I'd be back home in the evening to face my sweet porridge But she, insisted (and culturally one cannot decline) in me following her back for the night where I was treated to the nicest pillows and bed i have slept on in Hanoi in her superb home. I really did enjoy myself despite the unexpected turn of events and returned home the next evening laden with part of the frozen meat (because our freezer is too small) and yummy goodies hehe! As such, my porridge lay decomposing. Lesson learnt: No Carrots in the porridge

Rice-Porridge

Ingredients

• rice
• too much water

This time i really did intend to make proper rice but it ended up as porridge. That was sad. I ate one big bowl for my pre-dawn fasting meal and the rest lay decomposing over the week as I kept going to the mosque and getting wonderful yummy goodies (including properly cooked rice) to bring back and eat. Lesson learnt: One cup of water to One cup of rice.

Vegetable dish

Ingredients

• long beans (which were actually rather short)
• tomato (which waited 5 days in the fridge before getting 'processed')
• garlic
• oyster sauce and sesame oil
• secret weapon : dried sambal pedas ikan bilis with bawang mix (we swear, it makes everything taste good, so good you can eat it on its own +rice lah)

It went right.

Superb dish. Yummy. Yes Ai Lin, I'll eat everything you make as long as its Halal Oh, and i managed to make proper fluffy bug-free white rice too haah. :)

Looks can be deceiving it was super yummy can! :)

So folks, It doesn't matter if at first you don't succeed and end up throwing away decomposed culinary experiments. Just as long as you learn your lessons and never give up.

Đi du lịch ở Việt Nam

Traveling in Vietnam can certainly be a wonderful experience, for some. There are 3 catagories of travellers in Vietnam; 1) White people (or affectionately termed 'angmohs' in Singapore) 2) Asian people (which includes the Việt kiểu - foreigners of Vietnamese descent and all other seemingly non-aggressive people of asian descent; or non-likely to complain and stand for their consumer-given rights) 3) Local vietnamese tourists from other parts of the country.

It is noteworthy to know that in Vietnam, travelling can get quite costly if you're a first-time traveller to Vietnam- without any local friends to help you out and insist on planning it DIY. It is quite easy to comprehend the reasons why this is so;

1) most tourists to vietnam do not speak nor are able to read/write the language (as learning it quite signifies the existence of an acquired taste)

2) the government is highly interested in tracking tourist movement

3) the country is largely untapped and still very 'new' to most parts of the world. (ask anyone around you what they know about vietnam, they're likely to tell you that it has a communist government and have no idea how things work or look like besides the fact that the girls wear large conical shaped hats, look chinese and eat rice) So having a licensed guide would be a good idea if you regard safety and sanctity of your own life as an important aspect of your traveling experience.

Now that the introductions have been done with. I shall now tell you about my traveling experience in Vietnam.I landed for the very first time in Vietnam on 2 August 2009 at Ho Chi Minh city. To my surprise, the airport was very modern and new! The weather in the south was cooling (25 odd degree Celcius) as it was the rainy season and it was cooler than when i left singapore (30 odd degree Celcius). It was a bustling and vibrantly charming city with smiley friendly people where i learnt how to bargain like pro and use sweet nothings against their sweet nothings.

I stayed in the bag packers area and visited Bến Thành market (a lot, too much shopping maybe), visited mosques in saigon and hung out with the Chams, and took a city centre walk tour (where i dragged my almost mentally and emotionally youthful middle aged parents around Saigon hunting for museums, book stores and landmarks).

We also went on a 1-day trip to the Mekong delta (what the tour guide called the"international name" for Cửu Long transliteration; 9 Dragons of Vietnam) which came with hotel pick up, lunch, river boat ride and transport to hotel all for the lovely price of $10 Usd per person and organised by the friendly receptionist (who is a brilliant multi-tasker and does a million work roles, or so it seems) at the lovely Saigon mini 5.

Benh Thanh Market, Saigon

Saigon Opera House

Revolutionary Museum, Saigon

Boat to Mekong delta and Sampan ride

Hanoi and North Vietnam

Having had the lovely experience (or rather, lack of) guided tours in Vietnam ( the south) my parents decided that we should take a trip and explore the wonders to be held in the North. Walking around in Hoàn Kiếm (old french quarter) they were entreated by a seemingly nice young man in a tour office ( no names or official companies shall be mentioned here due to the unsavoury nature of the commentary) who assured them of a 'very vey good time' in Ha Long Bay and Sa pa. Entrusting our week's enjoyment to him we set off for a 3 night 2 day tour to Sa Pa and upon reaching Hanoi , on that very same day another 2day 1 night tour to Ha Long Bay.

Lets go back to the 3 categories of tourists in Vietnam 1) angmohs 2) asians 3) locals
In both of these tours we/I noticed a persistent trend in the treatment of people in the above categories. Firstly, group 1 was always grouped together. Group 2 and 3 were lumped together in 1 group (i.e. the people in the same bus were basically split into these 2 groups of the above mentioned nature).

Secondly, group 1 people were always (at the risk of sounding like 'another whiny asian') getting preferential treatment. The better hotel, the better boat, even when they paid less than others! For example, in Sa Pa the all-asia group got transferred to the lesser hotel that belonged to the hotel that everyone who paid for the package was supposed to stay at.

Photos from the lovely Sa Pa

the lovely patio at the originally informed about hotel where we spent many beautiful hours sipping Vietnamese coffee, milk, ice and breathing in the beautiful weather and scenery away from the accosting block hmong women

And when we got there the all-asia gang were primply asked to follow the receptionist to another hotel and check in whereas group 1 stayed behind in the afore mentioned hotel.
One fellow asian traveller (a Việt kiểu native to Saigona and now residing in Sydney) we met asked us the price we (55usd/person)paid for the package, after talking to him we found out that he (105usd/person) paid more than both us ( the Singaporeans) and members of group 1(79usd/person).

that was where we were informed would the hotel we would be staying

Even the Black hmong ladies preferred to accost the western tourists (which wasn't such a bad thing in the end).

even the kids get into it

When queried, our tour agent immediately called the hotel in Sapa to ask what happened the receptionist said " the hotel was full and many guests have not checked out and you asked to check in early" - hmm, looking back at our lost, confused, travel-weary faces i could not recall any such thing. What could we do but chuckle...

Similarly the trend followed during the trip to Ha Long Bay and there is nothing much more to say except for this very important warning for people who wish to visit Ha Long Bay and have a swim at the beach.

Swimming at the beach is only available on a 3 day 2 night tour no matter what the itinerary says on the 2 day 1 night tour at the tour agent's.

Thats all for now folks! So remember remember paying more does not necessarily mean better service, well at least not in Vietnam.

for more pictures

http://picasaweb.google.com/nadLoh/HanoiAndHaLongBayAug2009#

http://picasaweb.google.com/nadLoh/SaPa1214aug2009#

http://picasaweb.google.com/nadLoh/HcmCity0205aug2009#