nakji

This has already started to happen with some of the younger children. I blame instant noodles - a lot of children eat them all the time as a snack. As for exercise - nobody but the poorest people or schoolchildren walks or rides a bicycle anywhere. Everyone takes their Honda Wave! Everyone stares at me with incredulity when I tell them I walk to work, even in the summer. It's only three blocks, and it's the best way to scope out the good fruit deals. But people still think I'm crazy! I'll try to do this. I haven't seen it around much here - I guess it's a specialty from Hue? But there's a student in one of my classes who's from Hue, she'll be able to point me in the right direction. I'm curious to try it myself! Based on my brief Google image search, I'd say they're similar to cheung fun - maybe a little thinner. I think they're sheets of what are used to cut into noodles for pho - hence the name, rolled pho (pho cuon). I can't say with certainty, though. I don't think they're the same as the rice papers used to wrap spring rolls, but again, I'm not entirely sure. It's the sort of thing that when I try to ask questions about from my Vietnamese co-workers, the conversation just goes in circles. However, my efforts are not entirely in vain, because after three or four days of these questions, they clued in that I was really interested in Vietnamese cuisine. Now, whenever they have something interesting for lunch or as a snack, they always put a piece aside for me.

My refrigerator...is mostly full of condiments. And beer. I didn't bother to take any pics of the freezer, as it only holds ice. And not, you know, like Donbert's freezer holds ice. Just a couple of trays of bog-standard ice. Speaking of bog-standard, here was my dinner. Bacon and tomato sandwich (with kewpie mayo!), baked potato, and Diet Coke. Korean cookie for dessert - chocochip - my favourite! Tiny kitchen: Note the lack of hot-running water. Most kitchens don't have it, so dish soap is extra tough to float the grease off dishes without it.

I would be pleased to chase them down. I'm not really sure about the pecking order of minorities..it's not really something that I've discussed at length with anyone here. My vegetable lady is definitely disadvantaged though. She can't see correctly - I think she needs glasses, and I suspect she's not properly registered, or she would have help from the government. She always has to hold money really closely to her eyes. Everyone on the street seems to take care of her, though - all the other merchants cover her station when she's not there, and call out the proper change to her sometimes. Come to think of, I'm not entirely sure she knows I'm not Vietnamese. You don't need a teaching certificate proper, but you do need a TESOL or CELTA. A MA TESOL will be fine. PM me if you're interested and I can give you some names of schools. I live in a house - it's quite comfortable, but the kitchen is tiny, contributing to why we eat out a lot. It didn't even have the gas range when we were negotiating to take the place. The landlady seemed shocked that we wanted one. She said the Japanese lady who lived here before us never wanted one, why would we? Yes, although almost four years in South Korea helped me get used to lots of people and noise. I don't even notice it anymore. Before we moved here, we spent a month in India. We chose it on purpose, so that when we arrived in Vietnam, we'd find it calm and orderly in comparison. Short answer? Yes. Vietnam joined the WTO in November, and development has been a fever pitch for a while now. This has generated a huge demand for English-language training, especially at state-run businesses. Which explains the hours I've been working the past few months. The government has been pretty liberal with internet access - although the speed is pretty crappy. I'm uploading pictures one by one since the bandwidth can't handle bulk uploads. They've been pretty tough with print, though, and frequently reprimand papers they feel have gone too far. But my young students, the teenagers, all want Levis jeans, iPods, Vespa bikes, the fastest and best cell phones. Singapore is seen as the example to emulate, and students speak of it in hushed tones, like the promised land, a good TOEIC score and a scholarship to a school there the only barriers to the sweet life.

That's right, Chufi, although one of my resolutions for this year is to take an intensive cooking course, and learn to make some Vietnamese dishes for when the time comes that I eventually leave. Right now, though, if I'm craving some really good Vietnamese food, I just hit the street. There wasn't a lot of Vietnamese food available in my hometown either, as I was growing up. I've mainly experienced Vietnamese food here in Vietnam, although I did have a killer bowl of pho in Melbourne once.

We proceeded next to Dong Xuan market, in the heart of the Old Quarter of Hanoi. I normally don’t shop here, preferring to stick with the retail ladies on my street. If you stand on my street long enough, anything you want will wander or totter by in baskets, waiting for your “Chi oi!” or “Em Oi!” to hail them and begin the bargaining process. I thought you might like to see what’s on offer in the main market. Later this week, I hope to rally the troops for a late-night eating session in the “food court” here. Meat - tongue to tail pork. Duck heads? I’ll take three… Melons? Squash? I couldn’t tell, but I loved the colour. All of the aromatic ingredients are available here – chilis, limes, ginger, garlic, lemongrass. They smell fantastic. You can pull up and get any kind of fruit, as quick as you please. Do you think we’d have the same problem with obesity in North America if our drive-thrus all served fresh fruit? This person was selling hand-made kitchen implements. I didn’t get anything here – as I said, I usually get produce from the ladies on my street. Before we returned home, we wanted to stop at the Citimart, a small supermarket catering to ex-pats. It has a lot of things that you can’t get at the market- butter and cheese, usually brought in from France or New Zealand; Diet Coke; boxed juice; all the necessities. Curiously enough, the building is built on the site of Hoa Lo prison, more famously known as the Hanoi Hilton. I often shake my head that I buy milk and bread at a place that saw such horror. I think that sums up a lot about the spirit of renewal and rebirth in Vietnam. The prison was originally built by the French to hold rebels, and was used by the Viet Cong during the war with the U.S. There is a small piece of the prison remaining, with a museum that mostly focuses on the French. There are two rooms with pictures and items from American prisoners, including one of two soldiers being marched down Trang Tien street, surrounded by Hanoians, on their way to the prison. Every time I see it, it chills my blood. Now, the rest of the site has been developed into a luxury serviced apartment building, with a bar that shows cricket to golf-shirt clad embassy and NGO staff. I couldn’t take pictures inside, but it was prosaic enough. Plus, no Pocky anyway. After stocking up, we headed back to our street. Across from our house is a dried-goods store, where we buy our mineral water. I’ve yet to actually learn the Vietnamese word for water, as everyone simply asks for “La Vie” – the most popular brand. I could have water delivered in 19l jugs, but by buying water from Madame everyday, and bringing her back the empties, I have a defender and watchwoman for the house. She always mentions if I’ve left the light on out front, and generally keeps an eye on the place. If I walk by with a bag of food purchased elsewhere, I get a verbal scolding. Her shop sells all manners of goods, including noodles, dried mushrooms, peanuts, MSG, and fresh eggs – duck and chicken. Across from her, and two doors up from my house, is my veg lady. She’s a real dear, and I don’t think it has ever occurred to her to charge me more than the going rate for veg. I can usually get several kilos of veg for less than a dollar, depending on the seasonality of what she’s selling. She keeps pineapples to the side for me, in case I miss the pineapple specialists. She also suggests which herbs are appropriate for which vegetables. Living in Vietnam, here on my street, I can really feel what it’s like to have a relationship with vendors, and know that there are people behind what I’m eating. Although I don’t shop every day, she’s my go-to lady when I want a kilo of fresh tomatoes for salsa, or some eggplants for roasting.

We woke up this morning around 11:30 feeling tired, but not too wrung out from the previous night. I made another pot of coffee, but as there was no food in the house, I knew we’d have to venture out. I liked the “girl power” motif of this coffee cup. It uses images from propaganda posters, which are still very popular here. /tone of seriousness on/ I guess at this point, I should address the elephant in the living room, and briefly discuss the war. I, like the majority of Vietnam’s population today, was born after the conclusion of the American war, as they style it here. Most people don’t talk about it, and nobody seems too concerned about it. It’s not uncommon to see people driving around in cars with American flag seat covers. (Perhaps that’s deliberate disrespect – sitting on the flag?) At any rate, outside of some official monuments here and there, Hanoi seems to have gotten on with things, and generally ignores the whole issue. Some propaganda shops in town (where I got this mug) capitalize on European and American curiosity of this period, and sell propaganda pieces from that era. If at any time I show images that are sensitive to anyone viewing this blog, I apologize. I know that people on both sides of the war suffered greatly, and I hope to treat this issue with the dignity and respect that it deserves. At the same time, I admire the way the Vietnamese people have persevered through the last century, through several wars, and I celebrate their spirit of independence and pride. /tone of seriousness off/ So after the coffee, I knew we had to find food. We lit out for my banh my man, but he wasn’t open yet. Street food in Hanoi is extremely sensitive to time, and if you want a certain food, you have to wait for the right time of day to get it. We went instead to Truc Bach lake, where many rolled pho vendors are located. While there are many proper restaurants in Hanoi, one of the great pleasures of living here, as Pan alluded to, is sitting on the side of the road and having some cheap eats. Friends get together over plates of these, and glasses of tea or beer, to chat and snack. They’re made of sheets of rice noodle filled with fried beef, lettuce, and herbs. They’re dipped in the same sauce that Bun Cha is…a kind of vinegar with bits of pickled vegetable. We also ordered Ngo Chien Bo, or butter-fried corn. It tastes like corn tempura soaked in butter. It’s a food you order with beer, which we weren’t in any shape to drink, but we thought we had enough ambient alcohol left to qualify for it. For some reason, ImageGullet is being picky and won't let me upload that pic. Anyway, imagine tempura-fried corn, and you'll have a good mental image. Finally, we got some Pho Chien Ron, which is squares of rice noodle sandwiched together and deep-fried. It’s served with stir-fried beef and green veg. Greasy and good. We finished up with a coffee at a café on our way to the market. Could this be a new low for eGullets? SCM porn?

My ESL career is really just a cover for international gustatoriage. Suzysushi, it's up to us to keep everyone having a white Christmas dreaming of warm sandy beaches, coconut drinks, and pineapple for breakfast!

Traffic here has gotten real bad, especially with more and more SUVs on the road. The streets just aren't built for them and motorcycles to get along. Pollution has been really bad lately as well - I'm considering investing in one of those face masks. A lot of the trucks on the road seem to belch diesel smoke, so it's really noticeable. The public buses are the worst offenders, though. I curse them every time we're forced by traffic to follow along in their wake. Dining stalls tend to be on the less travelled roads - the more residential ones, so it doesn't seem to have affected that aspect of Hanoi life too much - yet. Eating on the sidewalk is one of the great joys of living in Hanoi - if you can learn to lower yourself with dignity and grace onto the mini sidewalk stools. I'm still learning this. It calls for really strong thigh muscles. Everything is on offer on the sidewalk, and be showing a few of these things as we go.

Wow. Just, wow. I'm struck by how much the church you showed looks like some of the Maori churches I saw in New Zealand. Pineapple is one of my favourite fruits, and I always try to get some when I see it - the pineapples are the size of regular apples here, and are quite sweet. They usually cost about 30 cents for one. In the ESL book I use in class, they have pineapple grouped as a "luxury" food, which always puzzles my students. Needless to say, the book was not written in South East Asia.

Peter wanted to take the opportunity to go outside the city to the pottery village. This village is filled with small pottery makers – kilns, workshops where pottery is thrown, shops with white ware and of course, finished goods shops, for wholesalers. I figure since these are all dishes – this is food related, right? Places like these are dangerous for me, since I love dishes. I managed to restrain myself and only got the two bowls in the picture plus two more decorated with black lotus. And a butter dish. Er, and a salt cellar. Reasonably priced, - I think I got the whole lot for under $10 USD, but I imagine wholesale it’s a lot cheaper. It was certainly much cheaper than many of the shops in the Old Quarter, and had a much better selection. Here, they move things the old-fashioned way. For New Year’s Eve, we decided to meet friends from work at a Vietnamese restaurant in the Old Quarter. It’s not the most authentic (or cleanest) place, but it’s got nice ambience, as it’s in an old French house, with original brick walls, Buddhas lying about, etc. The food is good, quick, and runs about 2$ USD a plate, so you can feed a crowd nicely, for cheap. It’s called “Little Hanoi”, which one of my friends finds really funny – “Why is there a restaurant called “Little Hanoi”…in Hanoi?” Actually, there are three Little Hanois in town, owned by two different families. One of them has excellent lunch delivery service, and will be no doubt featured later this week when I’m working. The other one is where we were last night. We had an assortment of dishes: Catfish Fried with Dill Pork with Five Tastes (we also got this one in chicken) Fried Eggplant with Garlic (my favourite – I have no idea how they get it so creamy and sweet! I think honey is involved). Tofu and Tomato Beef with Citron and Chili in Caramel Sauce and Fried Morning Glory with Garlic – no meal in Vietnam is complete without this dish. I think you can see “Vang Dalat” somewhere in the background there…Purportedly produced in Dalat, this domestic wine is….well, it’s good if you don’t think of it as wine. It’s about $3 USD in a restaurant…so….I like to pretend I’m drinking bokbunjaju in Korea – blackberry liqueur. Right. Somebody mentioned they were craving cheesecake, so we wandered down the street to the Highland Café overlooking Hoan Kiem lake for dessert. Highland coffee is Vietnam’s answer to Starbucks, and is a popular place to get a juice and canoodle with your boyfriend or girlfriend. Unlike Starbucks, however, they serve beer! Saigon is not the most popular brand …Halida or Beer Hanoi are more popular in Hanoi. We had the Vietnamese coffee cheesecake, which has a layer flavoured like coffee, and a layer flavoured with condensed milk. Incredibly addictive. We then went on to a nightclub to ring in the New Year. I admit I didn’t take pictures of the 10 or so gin tonics that I then consumed. Apologies.

I don't have any objections on moral grounds to eating dog, but I must say that I find the roast dog carcasses outside the markets to be quite gruesome looking. The first time I saw one, I thought, "Hey....that's not a pig!" In Korea, where it was also popular, it's considered a "health" food which people, especially men, eat for "stamina". I never found anyone there to be particularly shy discussing it with me - in fact many Koreans urged me to try it. The restaurants in the cities did couch the term in euphemisms, and the dog restaurant next to our house there billed its fare as "yeongyang tang" or "nutritious soup", which I understand was in reaction to the pre-1988 Olympics outcry. The Vietnamese make no pretense at all, and everywhere I go, I see "thit cho" signs - dog meat. The markets have them pre-roasted. My students love to try and get a rise out of me by suggesting I eat dog, to which I always reply..."Hey, I'm Canadian and part Inuit. I've eaten seal. You can't shock me with something like eating dog." I remember a lot of Koreans reacting in horror when I told them I had eaten deer. Last night I was relating the same dog meat story to my dining companions. One of the other teachers at our school had tried it with his students. He said the meat wasn't bad, but the kind of fish/shrimp sauce that it was served with smelled so strong he had to ask them to remove it from the table. It's kind of a slurry of shrimp that's been aged for three months, and looks purple and thick, and has the sort of smell that you would imagine something like that made under those conditions would have. So I'm not really eager to try dog. We got into an argument at the table, where the resident vegetarian argued that eating dog is the same as eating pork or beef or chicken; but had several others declaring it was entirely different; as we had some sort of concord with dogs. My friend Evan said it best when he said there's no sense trying to logically argue it out, since people's reactions to eating dog are purely emotional, and you can't reason with emotion.

Banh Mi are very popular here! I'd love to get one right now, actually......hmmm.... There seem to be two styles of banh mi available in Hanoi. First is the old style - a traditional baguette, stuffed with "pate", or chinese sausages, mysterious meat paste, mayo, pickled veg, etc. These can be found on residential streets like mine, still being sold from glass cases. The second kind are new and are basically Turkish-style doner kebabs. Pork roasts on a central spit, and a carver hacks some off for you, add its it to a baguette or a wedge of flat bread, and tops it with pickled veg, lettuce, tomato, chili sauce and ranch dressing. I know. How this style became popular, I'll never know, but everyone refers to that as banh mi as well. The distribution of these places, if it's not already bizarre enough for you, is spearheaded by the Geothe Institute. There's a stall outside my work that sells them for around 10,000 VND (16,000 VND = 1 USD). I often have one for dinner, although it's not the best one I've had in Hanoi. Which of course I will be visiting this week. Perhaps today.

Happy New Year, and welcome to my blog! Since I’m blogging at South East Asia Standard Time, or GMT +07:00, I’ll be writing on a bit of a time-delay for those following me in North America and Europe. I’ll try to hang around at odd hours to answer any questions, but please bear with me. Although the Year of the Pig doesn’t technically start until Tet in February, the Pig decorations all over town have been quietly urging me to dedicate this New Year’s blog to pork. So though it’s still the Year of the Dog (and this being Hanoi, I could do a full week featuring food based on our canine friends), I will try to feature as many iterations of piggy goodness as possible. That being said, I couldn’t do a blog from Hanoi without featuring pho, so I shall allow incursions by other meats as well. First, a bit about myself. As you may have guessed by this intro, I’m an unapologetic meat-eater, a full-time ESL teacher, and a food porn voyeur. If you doubt this last bit, the next time you’re lurking in the “Dinner: What Did We Make?” check the bottom for “Users browsing this thread” for my tag. I rarely post, though, since these days I rarely cook. I moved to Vietnam in April of this year. Before that, I lived for almost four years in Incheon, South Korea. I’m originally from Halifax, Canada. I’m planning a slow circumnavigation of the Earth. After Sazji’s blog, Istanbul is on my radar. This week, I hope to show lots of kinds of food – lots of Vietnamese, some French, and I plan to cook Korean at least once. I mostly eat in restaurants or order in these days, as I’ve been working 12 hour days, six days a week since April. As well, you can eat tasty and well-prepared food on the street for often less than a dollar – so I limit my cooking at home to when I want traditional Western food, or one of my Korean favourites. My husband and I decided to move to Vietnam when we visited here on vacation in 2003. It’s hard to say why – I mean, what can I say that Anthony Bourdain or Graham Greene haven’t said better? We decided to come on vacation after a conversation with friends in Seoul that went like this: Nakji: So where did you guys go on vacation last year? Shannon: We went to Cambodia and Vietnam. Cambodia was wonderful. Vietnam was horrible. Everybody there is out to rip you off. You’ll get your bag stolen on the first day. Nakji: How was the food? Shannon: It was better in Vietnam. Decision made. Our first day in Hanoi, we got up at 7 am (being used to working at 6 am in Korea, this was considered a lie-in), went out on the street, and sat down and almost cried. All around us, ladies with baskets full of fresh fruit and freshly baked bread swirled around us, while pork buns wheeled by in glass cases. We resolved then and there to move as soon as we crawled out of student loan debt. Fast Forward three years, and we’re here, and all the sudden, everyone has cell phones. No matter, because the food hasn’t changed. I started off my day with a great cup of coffee made with a Christmas present from a friend: Bodum! Note the Year of the Pig decoration. I must admit, in the morning I haven’t got the patience to use a traditional Vietnamese drip, nor does it yield nearly the volume of coffee I need in the morning. I do use local coffee, however, my favourite being from a local roaster – Paris Mai blend from Café Mai, which I hope to visit later this week. It looks like dark chocolate, and tastes like it, too. After coffee and rallying my husband, we went to one of our favourite cafes for brunch. This place is (curiously, considering it’s Vietnamese-run) New Zealand themed, and serves excellent and cheap food. Like many places in Vietnam, modern restaurant practices like using ready-made mayonnaise or hollandaise are eschewed. Everything is made fresh in the kitchen. We had fresh juice, something as a reformed Canadian, I cannot get over the luxury of having. Fresh-squeezed OJ for me, and mixed fruit for Peter. To eat, Eggs Benedict for him, and a sort of club sandwich for me. Finished with carrot cake, which had a degree of moistness which is hard to find in café cake in Asia. We especially like the atmosphere in the place, and since they have wi-fi, it’s a great place to while away a few hours e-mailing and taking care of sundry internet chores. We ran into a co-worker and his wife there, who related a hilarious tale concerning dog-foot congee. His wife had recently given birth, so her mother sent over some rice porridge with dog feet in it, for strength. My British co-worker was appalled – “What will the dog think?” he told his wife. She didn’t think the family pet had much of a say in the matter, but he declared he sent it back with a stern note to his mother-in-law. When he got up to use the bathroom, I leaned over to her and asked, “So did you eat it later?” “Of course.” she laughed. Right, on that note, I must crawl off to bed. I've been up for almost 24 hours now...when I come back, I'll show you our New Year's Eve feast. Happy New Year to all!

Please take copious, copious notes, as I'm going across to Laos in April. I'm hoping to cross up north, through Dien Bien Phu, if it's open as they've been promising for years. Also note Stickyrice has recently been.

From Wikipedia: Thank you, I have e-mailed them all the link. Although it doesn't really explain why it's not popular there anymore. I assume that most Londoners have fairly free access to milk these days.

Merry Christmas! It looks like you had a lovely time at home with your family. It's important to be with our friends and family at this time of year. I haven't seen a piece of beef that big in a loooong time, and boy, did it look good!

I made some for a holiday crowd this year. I used the recipe that you as the first result get if you google "eggnog recipe". I started making it from scratch when I first moved to Korea, where commercial eggnog is unavailable. I've never looked back. I made it with eggs I bought on the street (usually the freshest here), dosed it up heavily with equal parts rum and bourbon (to kill any latent bird flu - that's after I scrubbed the shells with anti-bacterial soap). Everyone loved it, but it was a shock to everyone at the party from the UK. They claimed never to have heard of it, and kept asking if it was Advocaat. I always thought it was a traditional English punch - it's obviously not a Native American dish. Can anyone shed any light on this?

I've heard this in Vietnam as well. Many of my friends here have warned me not to flip the fish! spelling!

I like living overseas for the holidays because you can control the amount of "holiday" you want. You don't have to listen to the music pouring out of stores in November, etc. They put a Christmas tree up at our work this week and complained it was too early! Although I'll never be able to listen to "Last Christmas" again after four years in Korea. I'm going to head down to our brand-spanking new KFC this week and see if there's anything on the go for Christmas.

When I was home in 2004, it had decreased in quality. I think the old owner had retired and the kids took over, and replaced the hand-cut fries with frozen ones. Travesty! Is this still the case? Anyone looking to give their cholesterol numbers a hit and try it out? How's this for debate: What's the best Chinese food around? When I was there, my parents and I practically lived at the place next to the bridge - Fran's, I think it was called. Is it still there? My Dad grew up in Hong Kong, and he had pretty high standards for Chinese food. I remember him lamenting when I was young that we didn't have any real Sichuan restaurants in Halifax.

What a lovely banh mi! In Hanoi, it's popular to have have pickled red cabbage as well. Ironically, the most reliable ones in the city are run by the Geothe Institute...and they substitute roasted pork off a spit (Which I consider, and they describe as 'doner kebab') for the cold cuts. Not being a big head cheese fan, I like the roast pork version better. The stall outside my work gets a ton of business, as they're located on a major road. If I run down between classes to get a bite, there's often a line up of motorcycles waiting along the curb. For around 50 cents, they make a great dinner. Will you be cooking any more Vietnamese food this blog? I look forward to seeing what you make next. edited for early-morning spelling.

Wow, all these amazing cookies have made me feel quite inadequate. The nice thing about living overseas, though, is that the barest efforts are rewarded with overwhelming gratitude. I served these at a party I had last night - it was meant to be just a quiet gathering to watch a Christmas movie and eat some cookies, but it morphed into a huge gathering, where I played host to a group of eight or so British ex-pats who were spending their first holidays away from home (in addition to the rest of us hardened overseas warriors). I had these and some peanut butter cookies with dark chocolate chunks - utterly unphotographable as the Drost Dark chocolate discs I had cunningly pressed into the top of each cookie overheated and burnt as I cooked them - rookie mistake! We went through 8 litres of mulled wine, a flat of 24 Halida beer, a bottle of Wild Turkey, a bottle of Bailey's, and a half-bottle of gin. The night truly got going when the homesick ones started downloading King's College Choir renditions of Anglican carol classics. One of them started directing us in harmony, and we kept the whole street awake with our stylings of "Oh little Town of Bethlehem" and "I saw Three Ships". It's a wonder they didn't call the police on us! The teacher's room was a sorry, sorry place to be today. These cookies are called "Whipped Shortbread", and as I recall, the recipe is from one of the "Best of Bridge" series of cookbooks. It calls for a cup of butter, one and a half cups of flour, and a half cup of icing sugar. I've kept the recipe in my memory all these years, as they are ideal to be made in a home-baking hostile environment. They were made employing my second largest cooking pot; the plastic paddle from my rice cooker; and my toaster oven (named "Jackie" by her manufacturer). They were slightly undercooked, and I finished the last of them for breakfast this morning with a cup of Ethiopian mocha.

Most people seem to drink tea with their meals. Breakfast on my street seems to be chao (congee), or pho. Sometimes sticky rice balls...not sure of the name of these, but this lady is always set up across from my door. I also have been unable to master using the small drip pot, so I usually run my coffee through a coffee maker. It tastes different, but also good. Vietnamese people seem to reserve the drinking of coffee for a morning or afternoon break. For young people, it's the drink of choice for dating. People don't eat anything with their cup, but often a cigarette is consumed - by men only. Right now, I don't have any TN in the house - I'm splitting my drinking between a pound of Ethiopian mocha that a friend of a friend brought from Ethiopia (It's unspeakably good!) and a half kilo of Cafe Mai, from a venerable small roaster in Hanoi. It's very sweet and chocolately - much more so than TN even. It's like drinking a cup of dark chocolate! Today I'm going to have a cup of that and some leftover shortbread cookies from my Christmas party last night. If I can find any amongst the Halida cans, that is. I'll pretend it's a modified Italian breakfast.

Just my guesses: Adding to above, there was generally a lot of meat available in North America to early settlers, so it didn't have to be stretched by being baked into a pie - whole joints, steaks, birds, etc. could be eaten; and a greater availability of sugar - from the Caribbean and the South, and in Canada - maple syrup. I don't know why, but I feel like Margaret Visser has something to say about this. Does anyone remember this from her books?

I wish we had one of those here - it's cold now! This is true of many places in Asia - space, after all, being at a premium. And, a lot more people have to share the kind of space we in the west would consider much too small for more than one or two people. I miss the floors in Korea, which were heated. My house now has a cool tile floor, which is great in July, but not so great now. Do you do a lot of cooking at home? Your kitchen looks a lot like mine, white utility tile and all! Although mine didn't even have any gas burners when I moved in, I had to sweet-talk the landlady into adding them. I have no oven at all...