nakji

I'm always struck by how much time other cultures spend on the floor compared to in the west! In your picture above of the women preparing food, they're hunkered right down, bowls and all. The other night, I was at a friend's house, and we were preparing for her party. She was lamenting the fact that her kitchen counter had no space for prep. It's entirely taken up by the sink and the gas range. She announced that it must have been designed by a man - and I said, "No - it's Vietnamese style - all of the prep is meant to be done over large plastic bowls on the floor.", and we had a bit of a laugh, as her apartment was built for westerners in a very posh modern style - unlike the average Vietnamese kitchen, which is often just a room with a water tap, a hearth if they're lucky, or if not, a coal burner surrounded by bits of tin. After we laughed, we looked around, and realized it would be much more practical down there anyway, hauled the cucumbers and cutting boards down to the cushions she'd laid out for the party, and continued on. When I lived in Korea, all of our family meals were taken on the floor with our bosses' large extended family - Auntie would announce the jigae was ready and the mini tables would pop out of nowhere, and the next thing we knew the tables were covered with innumerable panchan and we had bowls of rice in our hand. They always let us sit at the end, as we were unable to keep our legs crossed for long periods of time.

/weeps quietly inside/ That's beautiful. Ironically, I ended up going to a co-worker's Christmas brunch today, and they served banana pancakes. Disappointed again. Fortunately several glasses of Vang Dalat helped assuage my disappointment.

I understand your pancake quest. Pancakes are a very important part of my life. I don't let myself have them very often, because I don't enjoy them unless they're dripping with butter and syrup. I spend a lot of time backpacking, and for years was on the quest for the perfect banana pancake. Sadly, I found it in Pushkar, India. It was the alpha and omega of banana pancakes - crisply fried on the outside - and inside was sweet molten banana encased in fluffy soft batter. It was covered with ample lashings of honey collected from the bees that pollenate the flower fields outside of town - used for the temple offerings. I ate one every day I was there, overlooking the flower fields from the deck of my hotel. Perfect. But now wherever I go, I know nothing will be as perfect as that banana pancake. So I don't even bother trying. I have a similar attachment to the nutella pancakes I enjoyed on pre-Tsunami Phi-Phi Island that I find difficult to talk about this day. For breakfast today? Trung Nguyen coffee and a creme caramel. Mooshmouse's breakfast looks like bliss to me.

Right, for those who have requested.... Not pictured: his cape /blushing/ I cut the San logo out myself /blushing/

I've never tried ShiWon. My husband informs me that the brand we enjoyed in Jeollanam-do was called "Ip" or "Leaf" brand, which makes sense, given the red Maple leaf on the label. It never occurred to me to wonder why there were regional labels. Did you get a chance while you were in Korea to sample some genuine Andong soju? We got some as a gift one year, and it was strong enough to light the Christmas pudding. I could never persuade anyone to drink it straight, though. One of my favourite Korean liquors (hey - do we have thread on these?) is bokbunjaju - especially when drunk with crispy lovely kamjajeon. My mouth is watering. And O-shipseju - a 50/50 mix of Baekseju and soju poured out of a brass kettle...ah, good times. I've also never been to Songnisan, as it turns out, but once again, hubby comes in handy and informs me that it's very close to Danyang, one of the most beautiful places I visited in Korea.

What a fascinating blog! I'm inspired to try all sorts of things now. First of all, I'm going to boil up a can of Ong Tho SCM to bring into my co-workers - I wonder if they've ever had anything like Dulce de Leche? Cakes made with straight up SCM seem popular here, so I'm willing to bet it'll be a hit. Second, are you willing to share your nog recipe? What are your thoughts of rum nog versus bourbon nog? Ever since I moved to Asia and realized that nog was no longer available in the refrigerator section, I've been making it from scratch. I'll never go back, and I'm not sure how I stomached the pre-made stuff all those years. There's no comparison. Being from Nova Scotia, though, I've always made it with rum. One year, some intrepid Newfoundlanders even contributed some Screech as a side experiment. I'm not sure how it tasted, as I have no memory of that night. But this year, I'm tempted to try it with bourbon, which my husband loves. I've only got a bottle of Wild Turkey on hand, as this isn't really a bourbon drinking town, if you know what I mean. There's lots of Cuban rum available, on the other hand.... As to soju, it was always a diversion for my friends and I when we got out of Seoul to try the regional soju brands. San was always our go-to soju brand, but there was one available in Jeolla that was pretty tasty. Whenever I have friends visit now, they always bring bottles, but it's not the same drinking without the samgyeobssal. Such was our devotion to soju (it was, after all, less than a dollar a bottle in the shops) that my husband dressed up as "Soju-man" one Halloween (with a hat-tip to Duffman, from Simpsons fame). I have pics if any are interested. One (non-food related) question - Is that Buddha in your avatar somewhere in Korea? It looks terribly familiar...

I call my grandmother "Nanny". She raised nine children on her own in Labrador, having buried two husbands, on the wage she made from cleaning the base hospital in Goose Bay. She made fresh baked bread every week for all the children, and to this day makes bread by hand by up-ending a 5 kilo sack of Robin Hood flour on the table and adding water and everything else until she says "it feels good". My mother has memories of always eating fresh food, even though it was extremely hard to come by that far north back then. They had no running water, and heat came from a wood-stove that burned all day. My mother chopped the wood for it. To this day, Nanny makes Newfoundland boiled dinners, baked beans from scratch, homemade donuts, caribou stew, pan-fried trout, and knows how to butcher and cook a seal. I don't think she knows how to cook for less than a dozen people at a time. When she was young, it was her job to make the booties for the sled dogs, so their paws wouldn't get covered in ice. Her father ran the Hudson's Bay trading post in Nain. She still makes beautiful deer-skin slippers, lined in rabbit fur, and hand embroidered in wool and beads, every Christmas for us, if we ask for them. I have my latest pair here with me in Hanoi, in case it gets cold and I need them. (We had hail today, so it just might.) My mother has my shillipuk that she made for me in storage at home in Nova Scotia. She still drives, and has a 1980 VW Rabbit, in mint condition, as it's too cold to salt the roads up there. My grandmother, in other words, is hardcore. Racheld, thanks for calling this all to mind. You have me sniffling at my computer. As for me, my Thanksgiving is far from home. Although I'm Canadian, and we celebrate in October, the last couple of years when I lived in Korea, I hosted a multi-country Thanksgiving Day at my house. I had roast turkeys (hard to find in Korea), and all the trimmings (and some kimchi on the table, as well). This year, I'm in a new country, stove-less, and all my friends are now from the UK. Fortunately, there's an old dead-head who runs a tavern in town, and he's doing a full US Thanksgiving. We may have to watch the Ashes instead of the football, though. I look forward to seeing what you dish up.

Not in Halifax, where most people consider East Side Mario's the height of Italian. I kid, I kid. I kid Halifax because I love Halifax. Especially since I left.

That bossam looks fabulous and utterly unlike any of the bossam I ate while I was living in Seoul. There the pork was boiled, maybe, or cooked in a pressure-cooker, and served with slightly pickled napa cabbage leaves. That pork looks roast- is it? Bossam was the wife of a good friend's specialty, and he used to bring it into work where we would have spontaneous bossam picnics out of lock-and-lock plastic containers. Yum. My boss would noodle through the kimchi and pick out all the oysters, because he knew I didn't like them. I miss the comfortable familiarity of dining with my Korean friends, where we all knew each other's favourite panchan, and which panchan we could eat all by our greedy selves because we knew others didn't like it.

Right now I'm eating some mandarins that are so sweet and orange-y that they taste like Tang and smell like Absolut Mandarin. I didn't think it was possible for mandarins to capture the pure taste of orange essence like this. My coworkers tell me they're from China. Considering that's only about 300 km away, though, it could be just that they're fresh. I can't ever remember getting a piece of fruit as delicious as these are in Canada - well, with the exception of a ripe MacIntosh apple picked off the tree in the Annapolis valley.

I think all of the ideas here are great. This is exactly the sort of service I'd love to have here in Hanoi. The UN school offers classes and tours like this, but only at night - exactly when I can't go, as I'm teaching. A note about the international school parents - in many cases these people probably already have domestic help that navigate the local markets...they may not want it for themselves, but for their nanny, live-in cook, au pair, etc., if they're not local. But the wives might be really interested in Dutch cooking classes.

Very, very interesting. Sudan, you say? Huh. Well, it is scrumptious. So scrumptious, in fact, that every time I open the fridge and see it sitting there, I think, "Oh, just one little twist..." In this manner, it has been reduced to a little lump of the top part of the braid. It goes really well with cheap beer, such as Halida.

I don't think the Vietnamese would know about challah to compare cheese to it. I'm going to ask somebody at work about it today. I expect it's a remnant of soviet influence, much like "Vodka Hanoi". I was hoping somebody on egullets would recognize it as a cheese from somewhere in Russia. It's made up of strings of pulled cheese that have been braided, then smoked. It's delicious. It must be imported, though, because it's quite expensive to buy, but at the same time, it's sold without any distinguishing wrapper. This cheese thread is just full of mysteries.

This morning: a gecko in the coffee pot. Unfortunately, some dregs of coffee were still in there as well. I didn't see him until I dumped the pot out. His foot was broken or something, and is now dying a slow death in my sink as I try not to think about it too much. Washed the coffee pot out and carried on, though. Nothing keeps me from my coffee!

It is most definitely smoked. It's also very salty. I'm contemplating trying it in a poutine. It's lovely to snip a few shreds off of and nibble on while I'm trying to decide what to order for dinner. eta: grammar, punctuation, etc.

This cheese is popular in Hanoi. It often shows up as a snack in bia hois. The first time I was served it, it was in shreds, and I thought it was squid. When I tried it, I thought, "Hey! This tastes like cheese!" This doesn't happen too often in Asia, I assure you. Anyway, I found some in a shop, where it's billed as "Russian Cheese". Has anyone ever tried this before? What is it, exactly?

After living in Asia for so long, that menu doesn't even look like it's in a foreign language! Ah to learn a language with cognates again! Is the mineral water really only 0.30 euros? I think that's cheaper than here. What kind of people attend your cooking school? Do you get a mix of skill levels? eta: What's "punch"? Is it...punch?

I'm struggling with the same issues as you, although lizards haven't pooed in any of our drinks yet (There's a sentence I never thought I'd type). There is no getting rid of ants, it's true, although they adore limes but eschew garlic and chilis, I find that cleaning up immediately after food prep is the key. I keep a soapy cloth with me and wipe it over everything as I finish. I have a friend who translated a book on ants, and he told me they follow scent trails, but that soap erases scent trails. I also find that talking encouragingly to the geckos every time I see them helps to keep their numbers up and hunting. If they're pooing in your drinks, though.....I also keep all of our food in the fridge. Everything. The bugs get to everything else. I'm getting used to cold muesli. As for food, I cook almost exclusively vegetarian at home, not because we like it, but because I don't trust the meat that's been on the street for hours in the heat by the time I get to it. I also use a lot of smoked pork tenderloin and bacon, because my local supermarket keeps those refrigerated. You have a Muslim housemate, though, so that's not an option for you. My egg recipes have expanded dramatically, though, because I know they're ok outside for a few hours, and I can buy them fresh every day. Pasta with fresh egg and Parmesan is lovely! I rely quite a bit on the local "foreign food" store, because they sell frozen chicken breasts and the like - which I can't buy on the street - but because we have a motorcycle and can drive all around we have that luxury. If I were you, I'd learn how to drive one as soon as possible. You'll have the freedom to go wherever you like, whenever, and get out of the house...it's been really liberating for us! Just get a helmet (and wear it - no matter how much they laugh) and accept that you will get hit and fall off at some point. The driving here is similar to Bali! I'm just beginning to fully experience living in Vietnam, and learning to ride a motorcycle has opened so many doors for me. What I've come to realize, too, it's that I won't be able to fully access the culture, and take advantage of all the great things that Vietnam has to offer until I can speak the language; I can't learn how to cook the local food properly, or shop properly...so that's the next step. Until that, I guess I just have to be patient. I order in a lot, but Hanoi has the advantage of being well set up for expats, since it's the capital, and so many foreigners live here. Embassy prices, suck, though.

Having grown up in Nova Scotia in the eighties and nineties, the cod collapse left a psychic scar on me. "In Cod We Trusted". I rarely eat seafood, assuming the whole practice of fishing is unsustainable. Not necessarily a logical jump, but I can't help but default to that. Especially after reading "Collapse".

Seoribeongtang! In the orange and brown package. Wait - does that technically count as a ramen? Well anyway, it's my favourite.

French fries with mayo and curry ketchup? (er...what's curry ketchup?)

Do you go to several different grocery stores? Yes, although they're mostly dry-goods shops and foreign food specialty shops. For produce or meat, I go to the market or pop out onto my street to see what's going by in baskets. My main shop is "Star-Mart", in the bottom of the building where I work. I can usually get my yogurt, coffee beans, breakfast pastries, and assorted chocolate fixes there. I also pick up rice, bacon, kimchi and other staples when I run out. They keep my entire office running on their plentiful supplies of ice-cold, canned Oranginas. When I want something specific from home, such as curry pastes or sour cream, I go to L's Place, or Western Canned Foods. They specialized in...well, western canned goods. Other luxuries, like muffins and individual bananas, I get at the Citimart in Hanoi Towers, which is a long-term residence for foreigners working at the NGOs and Embassies. Curiously enough, it's built over the site of the infamous Hoa Lo prison, better known as "The Hanoi Hilton". Every time I buy wholemeal bread there, I wonder about the juxtaposition of that. Even more curiously, the modern-day Hilton has a great bakery that makes the only blueberry muffins in town. Do you clip coupons? It's possible they don't have those here. If they do, I've never seen them. What do you usually buy at the grocery store? It depends where I am. I don't buy produce at grocery stores, because they don't sell it. They don't sell meat there, either, only preserved pork and frozen shrimp. So I can get bacon or ham, but not chicken or fresh pork or beef. Sometimes I buy these from the street, but mostly for food safety reasons, I just don't buy them. If I eat meat, I eat it at a restaurant. Of course, I realize they're getting their meat from the street as well; but I also figure they're up at 6:30 and buying it, long before I ever crawl out of bed, when all the meat is manky and looks fly-ridden. So I get yogurt, cheese, sauces, muesli, coffee, canned tomatoes, pasta, bacon, and cream if they have it. Do you tend to buy more meat or more produce? As I said, neither. Just dry goods and dairy are available at most shops in Hanoi. Are you too ashamed to make purchases from the "reject bin?" They don't exist, but I'm not afraid to bargain with the basket-ladies if I feel they're offering me wares beyond their prime. Exceptions being if they're offering me fruit ripe and meant to be eaten that day; such as custard apples or similar. Do you make a list? Yes, so I don't forget things. How many refrigerators and pantries do you have for food storage? Just one small fridge and a shelf. I usually buy things the day I plan to prepare them. Produce doesn't last very long here, so it's no use trying to hold anything. Do you enjoy grocery shopping as much as I do? It is a major past-time of mine. I'm beginning to have an index of the availability of all major ingredients available in shops throughout Hanoi. If a new teacher arrives and wants to know where the best bread is; where to find Bisto; or where to get Heinz Ketchup or Kewpie mayonnaise, they get sent to me. Now if I could only master Vietnamese cooking, and cook using only the ingredients available on my street, like everyone around me does....

Wow, reading this report has been like being on a mini vacances. My favourite french cafe here in Hanoi is run by an Alsatian, and his flammenkuche is spectacular. I can't imagine how fabulous it must be in Alsace! I have a feeling I would love it there - my favourite wines have always been reislings and guwertztraminers (sp?), and who isn't a fan of copious amounts of creme fraiche, chevre and pork? Thanks for the great pics...if I'm ever in Europe, it'll be on my must visit list. As for cigarette smoke, I think the less it's around, the more bothersome it is. In Asia, smoke is everywhere...I don't even notice it anymore. But I remember when I visited Canada, I really noticed it the few times I smelled it.

My husband learned to use chopsticks with Korean metal ones, which he likens to learning to drive a car for the first time with a standard transmission. Learn the hard way first. I remember it took me a long time to learn how to artfully wrap a piece of gim around a lump of rice - and how good I felt when I finally mastered it. When I was in Korea these past four years, metal bowls were still really common in lunch restaurants, although obviously not as much in people's homes. I don't know how many times I burnt my fingers. Picking through the panchan is still a definite no-no, and eating rice with chopsticks is considered weird and funny - I never saw anyone in Korea use chopsticks for their rice -(except for the waegooks) always a spoon - as long as the jigae was on the table. And most people seemed happy to dip their rice-filled spoons into the jigae. I guess bad table manners are rampant! I remember being at the welcoming dinner for my school, and looking around and realizing that myself and the Japanese teachers were the only ones who had picked up our bowls to eat the rice. We all looked at each other sheepishly, and slowly put our bowls down. Oops.

I can't speak for other Canadian provinces, but considering that Nova Scotia has only recently consented to Sunday shopping, and only after several major corporations took the province to the Supreme court, I could say that these liquor laws are based on a certain...traditionality...of the locals. In Nova Scotia, you must also buy alcohol in government regulated stores only, and for a long time, you couldn't get it at all on Sundays, due to the shopping by-laws. In recent years the government has located liquor outlets in major grocery stores, but purchases must be paid for separately within the liquor outlet, and can't be brought to the main register with your regular groceries. Unless it's changed since I've been back, but it's been a long time since I've returned (in part, owing to many of these lifestyle annoyances). When I moved to Korea, I was startled to find that they had no (enforced) laws prohibiting the consumption of alcohol openly in public. Japan has beer in vending machines, which I consider the latest word in civilization. Here in Viet Nam the police have bigger fish to fry than to fine you for drinking a beer on the street. Although Draft Beer corner during the APEC crackdown promises to be a fascinating sight. On an entirely unrelated note, I also take oatmeal and yogurt in the morning; which; accompanied with a bracing double shot of Trung Nguyen coffee keeps me charmingly regular. Not that that's generally a problem in South-East Asia.