Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Lang xet
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Joke of the day
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Tui bay nghi sao day?
Hinh tren la Ong Nguyen Minh Triet day nhe. tao dang buc minh vu sap cau Can Tho. Gio thay 2 nguoi di vao cong truong lai khong doi mu bao hiem, trong khi nhung nguoi xung quang doi. Nhu vay nguyen nhan ton that to lon do sap cau co phai xuat phat tu y thuc an toan lao dong nua khong? Uhmmmm po tay.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Joke of the day
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Joke of the day
Cả thế giới phải sợ người Mỹ vì người Mỹ đã nói là làm.
Thế nhưng người Mỹ lại sợ người Nhật vì người Nhật làm xong mới nói.
Vậy người Nhật sợ ai, xin thưa, đó là người Trung Quốc, vì người Trung Quốc không nói cũng làm.
Người Nhật luôn đề phòng người Trung Quốc vì Trung Quốc là một cường quốc có tiềm lực quân sự.
Vậy xin hỏi người Trung Quốc sợ ai, đó là người Việt Nam, người Việt Nam nói một đằng làm một nẻo đéo biết đâu mà lần >,<
hehehehehehe
Friday, August 24, 2007
Joke of the day
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Joke of the day
Năm đó mình học lớp 9, mình có thương một cô nàng học lớp 7. Mình chấp nhận ở lại lớp 2 năm để có thể cùng nàng chung bước đến trường... Nhưng có ngờ đâu... sau 2 năm ở lại lớp... nàng vẫn là học sinh lớp 7.
Bực mình hỏi nàng tại sao, nàng trả lời: "Em xin lỗi, em đã thương một anh học lớp 5".
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Joke of the day
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Joke of the day
Friday, July 13, 2007
Joke of the day
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Lam on binh bau cho Vinh Ha Long thanh ky quan thien nhien the gioi
| Vịnh Hạ Long nằm trong danh sách đề cử kỳ quan thế giới |
| Thứ tư, 11/7/2007, 08:15 GMT+7 |
| Sau hôm 7-7, các nhà tổ chức chiến dịch bầu chọn bảy kỳ quan mới đã tiếp tục mở cuộc bình chọn bảy kỳ quan mới của thế giới nhưng lần này là các kỳ quan thiên nhiên.
Để làm điều này, mọi người chỉ cần vào địa chỉ www.natural7wonders.com và liệt kê bảy lựa chọn của mình. Vịnh Hạ Long của Việt Nam cũng là một trong các ví dụ về kỳ quan thiên nhiên được các nhà tổ chức liệt kê trên trang web. Kết quả sẽ được công bố vào ngày 8-8-2008. |
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Joke of the day
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Joke of the day
Joke of the day
Joke of the day
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
ON THE RIVER OF NINE DRAGONS- 9.9.2004
Thuy, our guide from My Tho ©1997, James A. Clapp
I have a special affection for rivers. No natural earthly feature is more responsible for the emergence of urban civilization than these riparian givers of life to the land. All the first civilizations, and their cities, sprouted on rivers—the Nile, the Tigris and Euphrates, the Yangtse, the Indus, the Irrawaddy. But perhaps no river has played a role in the turbulent histories of more nations than the Mekong, originating in the mountains of Tibet, and descending through southern China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam before spilling into the South China Sea.
Most Americans probably couldn't identify the Mekong, which the Vietnamese call the Song Cuu Long (River of the Nine Dragons) before S.E. Asia got on their maps with the Vietnam war, including most of the Americans who were sent to fight and die there. Three decades ago John Kerry and other Swift Boat fighters plied the Mekong and the tributaries of its vast delta in search of Viet Cong who were so mingled with the local village populations that U.S. and South Vietnamese Army forces engaged in “search and destroy” operations from swift boats and helicopter gun ships that many innocents were killed, and large number of delta farmers fled north to Saigon.
The Mekong delta that I visited from My Tho, the provincial capital of about 90 thousand people, shows little after-effects of the war. The town sits on the northernmost tributary of the Mekong, and from here there are islands that may be visited that are lush with the growing of rice (enough to feed all of Vietnam and still make the country the world's fourth larger exporter of rice), coconut, sugar cane, and many fruits and fish and shrimp. I could not help wonder however whether there were lingering amounts of Agent Orange, the defoliant that was dumped by air on this area to expose the VC. It has returned, thanks to the Mekong, to its verdant lushness, but some American soldiers have claimed negative health effects from the stuff. Still, I saw no kids with antlers or webbed feet.
Thuy, our lovely guide to the nearby island called Tan Long, speaks surprisingly good English, but she is a little rigid, perhaps because the boat company that she works for is owned by the local party cadres. Sue and I are the only two one her boat today and as we head out over the milk chocolate expanse of the river she dutifully fills our heads with statistics and history. But when I ask her questions I am surprised that rather than being an attractive cipher she is quite knowledgeable and confidently and extensively answers to the point where I stop asking questions and offer to answer any she might have about my country. She is hesitant and I prompt her with a compliment about her good English and historical knowledge. Would she like to perhaps attend university in America, I ask. Nine times out of ten in Asia the question elicits a request for a letter of recommendation, a scholarship and room and board, but Thuy demurs. She really only wants to study about her country, she says, which she can best accomplish at a university here, and it becomes difficult for me to imagine her in a silk pastel ao dai , hair blowing in the breeze as she whirls between Saigon's night spots on a bright new Honda motorbike. My question leaves a chauvinistic taste in my mouth.
Tan Long, like the other islands is low and subject to flooding, so it is cut through with canals to assist run-off and lessen flooding. When we take a ride along one of the canals we appreciate the dilemma of the forces in pursuit of the VC. The labyrinth of narrow waterways are lined with high foliage such that one has to all but fall into one to know it is there. The low half-banana boats paddle easily and silently along them with scarcely width for two to pass. The VC could appear and disappear with suddenness in this environment, and it becomes clearer what pushed the defoliation decision.
Not so swift boat ©1997 J.A. Clapp
We make our way past topiary dragons to a modest restaurant for some tea. It is little more than some thin walls and a roof over a tamped dirt floor, and it is difficult to distinguish where the living quarters of the proprietors leave off and the restaurant begins. In a room off the dining room a father sways in a hammock with his young son; in another a young woman squats on a table weaving the traditional conical hats. The dining room itself is a spotless as possible in a place with a mud-packed floor and walls that do not come down to it. I wonder about snakes. A calendar and a poster of a Vietnamese movie star serve as decorative art. There is something placid and timeless about the place. Only the serene but welcoming mother-proprietor is old enough to remember when black-pajammed VC and Americans soldiers made a hell of this place. She, and the Mekong.
Source http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://homepage.mac.com/yingloon/images/My-Tho-girl-web.jpg&imgrefurl=http://homepage.mac.com/yingloon/DCJSept2004.htm&h=365&w=500&sz=31&hl=en&start=11&sig2=tEKHf94N5om0UXjOvj-bIA&um=1&tbnid=nPHIB3zbMh0ZMM:&tbnh=95&tbnw=130&ei=-pGJRvXFDaiUggORruHzCA&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmy%2Btho%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1B3GGIC_enJP220JP220
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Monday, June 18, 2007
Dieu Van
Nếu tôi chết, hãy đưa tôi ra biển
Trên quan tài đề hai chữ “ lay out “
Để đại dương nổi hết trận ba đào
Nghe văn tế trải dài trên leaflet….
Đừng than khóc, đừng chơi trò feed back
Để tôi nằm, không một tiếng complain
Nước mắt nào rỏ xuống giữa đêm đen
Lời ai điếu chất đầy vào print ad
Option nào rồi cũng die, cũng chết
Slogan nào thách thức nổi thời gian?
Packaging 6 tấm cháy thành than
Banner lượn giữa trời chiều tê tái….
Idea nào cũng trở về cát bụi
Concept nào rồi cũng hóa ra tro
Ta ngồi đây phất mãi tấm billboard
Job request rơi vào miền vô nghĩa….
Đặt sticker vào cõi lòng nhân thế
Rung wobbler giữa thế giới cuồng phong
Trải poster ra giữa một cánh đồng
Nghe gió đổ giữa đại ngàn hoang dại….
Thảo headline mà lòng buồn vời vợi
Thêm tagline cũng chẳng khá gì hơn
Shelf talker chết đứng giữa khung buồn
Teaser chẳng làm nhân gian sửng sốt
Số phận ta là cơn dông bất chợt
TVC xoay chuyển đến ngàn sau
Ta về đây nghe gió lượn qua cầu
Ôi rách nát story board tơi tả…
Chẳng ai đem đời mình mà mặc cả
Mà dead line vẫn dí sát sau lưng
Một ngày kia nghe bão tố lên đường
Trong quạnh quẽ không một người ngồi brief….
Monday, June 11, 2007
Joke of the day
someone else...One day, Johnny got so frustrated that he went up to
her and said, "I'll give you a $100 if you let me
screw you. But the girl said NO.
Johnny said, "I'll be fast. I'll throw the money on
the floor, you bend down, and I'll be finished by the
time you pick it up. "She thought for a moment and said that she would have
to consult her boyfriend... So she called her
boyfriend and told him the story.
Her boyfriend says, "Ask him for $200, pick up the
money very fast, he won't even be able to get his
pants down."
So she agrees and accepts the proposal. Half an hour
goes by, and the boyfriend is waiting for his
girlfriend to call.
Finally, after 45 minutes, the boyfriend calls and
asks what happened.
She responded, "The bastard used coins!"
Friday, June 8, 2007
Delta noodles in Saigon
Finally, finally, finally, shoved my nose inside this joint at the corner of Nguyen Dinh Chieu and Pham Ngoc Thach in District 1, Saigon. I'm mad for a bowl of Hu Tieu - noodles, pork, beansprouts, hedgrerow and possibly the loveliest, sweet pork broth in all of southern Vietnam. However... this fair shack doles out Hu Tieu My Tho. My Tho is a hicktown an hour or two south of Saigon in Tien Giang province in the Mekong Delta. This plastic kiddie chair outfit is the only place selling My Tho-tinged Hu Tieu that I've yet to stumble into in Saigon. Just how different is it from that other corkin' Hu Tieu with a sweetnose?
Slapbang in the centre of this bowl is a stonking great knuckle of pork, paddling around in pork stock, surrounded by spring onions and sitting on a foundation of vermicelli noodles and thick cut, fat-still-on pork strips. Along for the trip are a side of bollock burning wee red chillies - easy with these meanies - and a plate of beansprouts, lettuce and chinese celery. For them's that's fancy there's also a bottle of nuoc cham to glug from in the condiments rack.
There's no sweetness. This pork stock's as straight as the Fosse Way, but it's rammed to the gills with meatpower. Throw in a few rip ups from the sideplate and you're off. Tackling the knuckle is a bit of an art, one I have yet to learn and can't be arsed with. I tend to chip of the tender morsels with the choppies and gnaw on the rest. It's not stylish, but it gets the job done. And it is tender, it's been bubbling away in a vast vat since early morning so it jolly well should be.
This is good stuff, although I have a very strong preference for the sweeter, more snazzy version which I think is known as Hu Tieu Nam Vang, but I could be wrong, it might just simply be Hu Tieu. Whatever. That's the fella I'll continue plumping for. Having said that, if I'm passing this place again I could be tempted to pop in for a quick dust with a knuckle or two. This place serves Com binh dan (literally 'food for workers') at lunchtime and, if this visit is anything to go by, it is exceedingly popular. A bowl of Hu Tieu will set you back a stiff 12,000 dong with a free Tra da thrown in. More Hu Tieu here and here's my fave and lastly, more photos from this restaurant.
Hu Tieu Mi
This is the kitchen of a no name Hu Tieu restaurant at the corner of 14 Ky Dong street in Saigon's District 3. I've passed it many a time. I took the photo you can see above months ago, but today is the first time I've bothered pulling up a streetside stool for lunch. We've covered the pork noodle Hu Tieu soup before, most enjoyably here. It's a southern soup, normally slightly sweet. This joint serves six variations on the basic theme. I'm dining here because it's always packed at lunchtime. A good sign.
I order a Hu Tieu Mi for 9,000VD. Mi is a kinda noodle. Yellow, thin, cylindrical, firm and to my mind it's the tastiest of all the noodles in Saigon. Here's a closeup. This rendition comes with a separate small bowl of blanched beansprouts. In the soup you'll find, tender, thin strips of boiled pork, spring onions, some minced pork and deep fried shallots. Here's the construction bay. Dunno 'bout you, but that looks like fine stuff above.
Dining here puts you right on the street. The walls are grimey, peeling paint, ancient advertisements are stuck at odd angles, half hanging, half advertising. It has that thoroughly half arsed, "Sod the decor, let's scoff" look about it. i.e. it's my kinda place. Having said that, check out the quai breadsticks just visible in the snap above - covered in cellophane. Now there's hygiene :) This is good Hu Tieu. The meat is excellent as are the Mi. However, the stock's not sweet enough. Hu Tieu should have a thin, but very noticeable trace of sugar coming through the stock. I'm not getting that here. Having said that, I am lovin' it. The other difference with previous Hu Tieu is the condiment bowl pictured below.
If you're an idiot, you'll fumble around in here, add willy-nilly, enjoy your lunch, have a cuppa tea, go back to your office, sit down at your computer, rub your left eye and then scream agonisingly as your eye bleeds 900 degrees of chilli heat from its swollen socket. With the benefit of hindsight, albeit blind in one eye hindsight, it's probably more sensible to wash your hands after lunch. Read the previous post for more on this distinctive southern Vietnamese noodle soup. This is a decent noodle joint. Worth trying. If you're in the vicinity I also recommend you take the two minute stroll to this very good snail restaurant. Meanwhile, can anyone tell me what Xiu Mai means? It's on the menu and I forgot to ask.
Tip off: Hu Tieu
One Hanoian, One Saigonite. No consulting. Both agree. There be some quality Hu tieu there. Paper, pen, local knowledge. Marvellous.
Chemical soup
We've had bad and very good Hu tieu before and now we have a MSG overloaded version on the streets of District 1. I find a mobile seller of this pork noodle soup outside 15B-5 Le Thanh Ton Street in District 1. She says she sells from here mid-morning every day. She's quite the friendly seller who mistakes me for another Ong tay noodle muncher. Oh well we all look the same, ehh? I pull up a pew next to the orange seller who's busy gobbling back a 5,000VD mid-morning bite and watch as my take away order is put together.
The difference from previous Hu tieu and this one is that this flogger uses a pork sliver/pig's blood carnivorous combo. No liver, no prawns and thicker noodles. Oh and there's that MSG hit. I always know I've had way too much of that when I get a machine gun buzz down my spine and feel a bit off-kilter for the rest of the day. It's quite the chemical thrill, but not for everday consumption. More snaps from her stall at this tagged photostream. Here's a recipe for Hu tiu or Hu tieu whichever spelling takes your fancy.
Hu hit
This morning I was supposed to meet ex-CNN reporter, North Korea expert and Global Voices Online blogmeister Rebecca MacKinnon. She's here, I think, to learn how the media in Vietnam is or is not developing. And to talk about blogging. She had to split town early and instead of eating with me, she had the delights of a Vietnam Airlines sandwich to contend with on her way back up to Hanoi. When figuring out where to take Rebecca, I wasn't sure just how 'street' she would be prepared to go. So, erring on the safe side I chose to go 'very very' street. Let's see what she missed.
I've almost ingested and blogged from every stall down at the local market now. However, there are two soups I've yet to 'go live' on and they both reside up this back passage which runs off one side of the main market. As is usual on local markets, there are no signs telling you what's being sold or how much it'll set you back.
I only know this is a Hu tieu stall because... well... I'm very wise. Also I had this same dish two days ago as a 'home delivery'. The last time I blogged Hu tieu it was a bit of a District 10 disaster. That joint has since closed. However, I was so impressed with my 7,000VD home delivery and surprised that I'd never stopped by before that I decide to visit the stall in person this morning.
Hu tieu is a sweet noodle soup made from pork stock with a few small prawns, liver, kidney, pork slivers, he (a chive-alike) and beansprouts. It comes with the white noodles you can see above, but there is a Mi (yellow noodle) variant called Hu tieu mi nam vang. Side note, if you want really decent Mi, head to Mi Chu Tac on Ky Dong street.
I'm going white noodle this morning. The chef revives them in the side stock pot before shunting them bowlwards. However, being Rebecca-less and with the toad in tow, I decide to grab a mang di ve (takeaway) and bank this baby for lunchtime. So, in what is quite possibly definitely a first for this blog. What you are seeing has yet to enter my digestive tract. However, like I said, I had a very successful meeting with this beast two days previously and I feel confident I'm in for a carbon copy performance.
It's blisteringly good broth, not in the sense that it'll actually give you blisters of the puss spewing swollen variety, I don't think it will, well I didn't get any, but that's not to say you couldn't get them... I digress. If Rebecca had come I'm fairly certain she would have said something like, "This soup rocks. My buds'd love this shit." which in village English roughly translates as, "Oh that IS nice. I must tell everyone at the knitting circle to pop along for a post-knit nibble next week."
I don't know much, but what I do know is I've got a blindin' soup for lunch while Rebecca could well still be recovering from airline sarnie hell. Or did she go Business class?? Hmmm? Bloggers in Business class, that could never happen. Could it?
Soup slouch
Superb noodle soups abound in Saigon, you have to try hard to find a REALLY bad one. The soup kitchen I nipped into on this occasion is Thanh Phat at 258 Cach Mang Thang Tam Street - it's on the other side of that traffic nightmare above. This canteen - not quite a restaurant but no shack either - is your common or garden Saigon eatery. Cheap grub for the masses on the move - all metal tables, food in a glass display case out front, neon heavy lighting, big sign advertising the house specialities and pyjama clad cooks. No deviation from standard Vietnamese so far.
One steaming vat of stock does all 5 soup dishes here; Hu tiu (sliced pork, prawn, liver, thin white noodles and a side of veggies. Sometimes spelt Hu Tieu) Mi Nam Vang (much the same ingredients, with a thin, yellow 'Mi' noodle), Banh Canh (same ingredients again, but a thicker fresh noodle) Hoanh Thanh (Won ton noodle soup) and Bun Moc (have had it, but can't remember what it is at the minute - think it's the same with a big pork knuckle inside). They also serve a Chao (rice porridge) in this case Chao Thap Cam which is basically an animal innard porridge - tasty.
I ordered the Hu Tiu and the Banh Canh to take away, costs 10,000VD per soup and an extra 1,000VD a dish for bagging up the bowls and veggies to take home - very handy. Even though the Banh Canh and the Hu Tiu are exactly the same, except for the type of noodle, it's the Hu Tiu that comes with the veggies (bean sprouts, lettuce, a type of celery leaf and half a lemon). Not sure why there is this veggie-discrimination, but it's never hindered the spirit of sharing and giving at pieman towers.
So, on to the tasting notes... Sorry, but can't escape the fact that, it's a bland broth, not awful, just - not exciting.
Tired, grey morsels of liver, stingy on the prawns (1 per bowl...), the pork slivers were fine, but as ever it's the soup that bonds the whole and if that's messin' with mediocrity, you're just eating without enjoyment. Hu Tiu and Banh Canh, on this take, are probably not culinary classics in the same vain as Vietnam's brothbustin hits Mi Quang and Bun Rieu - much more of which blogging up tres soon. There's just not enough goin' on in there. Or perhaps this canteen just isn't a good example. The joint was chosen at random. In Saigon such random bites often throw up edible ecstasy, but not tonight. I'll keep an eye out for more, and hopefully better, Hu Tiu and Banh Canh around town. I want to like these dishes.