Bon Anniversaire!

I looked up and our eyes met for the first time. She stood across the avenue - blazing blonde hair, tan short-shorts, hot pink tee, and that brilliant, beautiful smile.  My boots touched pavement as I rose from the seat of my motorbike.

Stepping off the curb, she sachéed toward me with an alacrity that exuded confidence, and a hint of excitement. Countenance to countenance at last, we embraced. 

It was one year ago, this Saturday past, that Natalie and I had our first date. I didn't imagine then, that that moment would lead us halfway 'round the world together. I am so very grateful to share this journey of exploration - in mind, body, spirit, and planet, with such a remarkable human being. 

The delicious breakfast, so lovingly made by my partner...

And we treated ourselves with dinner at a marvelous vegetarian/vegan restaurant in the Old Quarter, Ưu Đàm Chay. The atmosphere is peaceful and contemporary, not unlike spending an evening at the spa. They have quotes of Buddha on the tables, and a philosophy that our relationship to food is immensely important and impactful. They use all parts of the food they prepare and cook; the skin of the fruit for the pomelo salad as a bowl, the shell of the coconut and pineapple as a cup for the drinks, etc.

The presentation is gorgeous, and the flavors are lovely!

The breadfruit was quite fibrous. It didn't have much flavor in and of itself. It relied on the cheese and almonds to add subtle salty and sweet flavors with a nice crunch that complemented the softness of the fruit. 

The pomelo salad was delightful; a cavalcade of flavors and textures! The bright, juicy tang of the pomelo, crisp sweetness of the apple, the savory, fabulous chewiness of the mushroom, the creamy mango, the freshness of the mint, and the light salt of the shredded 

Parmigiano-Reggiano.

The pine nut soup was divinely creamy. It had a touch of sweetness and lovely nutty, earthy qualities with a hint of brine. The bread bowl was soft and warm with the perfect amount of chew. It brought back great memories of my days in S.F. - Boudin clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls, minus the consumption of animals!

                                   

And of course there was desert...Durian pizza! For the uninitiated, durian is a spiky-shelled tree fruit native to Southeast Asia. It has been dubbed the king of fruit and is likely the most unique, sophisticated experience of a fruit or vegetable that one can have. One bite is delectably saccharine, the next of carmelized onion, and the next at the threshold of inedible...

To borrow from one person's description, it is like eating a sweet, creamy, garlic custard while sitting in a men's locker room full of sweaty socks. I get that it seems looney then, why would one eat such a thing? There is that bite that is a perfect blend of all flavors, in a delectable custard sensation. It is exquisite! If you ever have the chance, it's a must try!

The flaky crust and saltiness of the cheese lent to the creamy sweet durian beautifully!

The restaurant is considered upscale by Vietnamese standards. We had eight dishes between the two of us, plus drinks, all for about the price of admission for two at the movies in the states.

A wonderful day!

A lazy evening by the lake.

After a recommendation from my cousin Charlie, and being admonished by the house lady, Mrs. Lan about my choice of coffee, I headed out to have some Trung Nguyên coffee. What better place than Cà Phê Trung Nguyên?

So I ambled down the road a ways, walked upstairs, sat at a small table, all by itself on a little balcony, and ordered a cup of coffee, black and hot. The waitress was surprised by my order, asking repeatedly if I wanted ice or milk. I smiled and said, "Không, cà phê đen."

A few minutes later, I was presented with a phim nhôm resting atop a small espresso-sized cup, resting inside a bowl of hot water. The phim nhôm is an aluminum pour over pot, and the bowl of water keeps the coffee hot. Very neat! It was good. Strong! It also has aromatic notes of chocolate. The fortitude masked much of the complexity that I picked up after diluting the last few sips. while I'd give it a solid recommend, my favorite, so far, is still the Trí Dũng.

The  bánh sô-cô-la, or chocolate cake, was quite good. The cake was very moist, soft, and airy. It came with yogurt, which is smooth and delicious, and a smattering of passion fruit which lent a nice bit of tartness.

The Hunt Continues...

After a late morning of meditation and quality time with the Mrs., we set out onto the streets of Hoàn Kiếm. Being her last day of vacation, we settled in for a western breakfast at Joma Café. The food was pretty tasty; hers, two fried eggs on a bagel, mine, scrambled eggs with tomato on a croissant.

The bagel and croissant were a bit bready, but with good flavor. The coffee was decent, but it was no Trí Dũng!

We kicked around the lake, went into the Buddhist temple, cut through some more streets of Old Town, then sprang for dinner at Quán ăn Ngon. This place was my choice and I had been chomping at the bit to eat here.

My best bud Stu gave me a list of foods he wants me to try. I had been informed that this place was a traditional Vietnamese restaurant that had many of the items on the menu. We arrived and the place was jammin'! The set up is an open courtyard dining area, encompassed by several different cooking stations around the perimeter. A handful of the coveted fares were on the menu, sadly however, they all had meat and none could be made in a vegetarian version. Alas, it wasn't meant to be.

The nộm lạc (green papaya salad) was pretty good. The papaya is cut into noodle-like slivers. It doesn't have much flavor in and of itself, but provides a crisp bite and cooling properties. The broth it sits in has very nice heat that works its way around the entire mouth, rather than resting solely on the tongue. The crushed peanuts offer meatiness to the chew and the mint brightens the entire dish.

Wanting to give the local beer a shot, I ordered a bottle of Bia Hà Nội. It's your standard mass-produced beer - light, thin, and mediocre, but with an interesting flavor of straw.

Oh yeah, I saw a lady selling doughnuts two days in a row. She was smiling and waving at me for several minutes yesterday while we were having lunch. We recognized each other today and I figured it a sign to try her baked goods. Boy, were they terrible. I'm not certain if it was simply that they weren't fresh, but they each were super chewy with little to bad flavor. Buyer beware!

A day in Old Town.

This morning, my partner and I walked to the Buddhist temple behind the apartment to meditate. The gate to the grounds was open, however, the temple was not. No meditation in the temple for us today. Off to breakfast.

She found a restaurant, in a boutique hotel, that she wanted to go to for an egg breakfast. I did not want to go there, yet I remained open. As we wound through the streets - down Trích Sài, around the south of lake Tây Hồ, past downtown, the streets became narrowed and bustling with kinetic energy of pedestrians, motorcyclists, merchants, and cars. Driving through Old Town, I oohed, awed, drooled, and lamented at every food stand I saw that was swarming with people sitting on tiny stools, crammed against a wall, slurping noodles, sipping broth, and chomping on all sorts of dumplings, cakes, and buns. These were the places I longed to be, eating with the locals.

The car stopped right in the heart of Hoàn Kiếm, we hopped out and carefully crossed the street, dodging a myriad of motorized vehicles, like the famed pixelated amphibian. Up a few black marble steps, we entered through two glass doors, held open by a couple of young, friendly doormen. We waded through a sea of smiles, to the elevator. I decided to appreciate what I could, and ogled the architecture. It was clean and contemporary, with touches of old French colonial ironwork.

We stepped out onto the sixth floor where Mr. Kevin greeted us like a walking ray of sunshine. He oriented us to the buffet and menu, then sat us down by the window with a terrific view of surrounding streets and buildings. I perused the selection, poured us a cup of coffee, ordered a bowl of phó, and loaded up a plate.

The food, all of it, was excellent! It was super fresh, and very flavorful. The vegetarian phó with kimchee, my own addition, was delightful. It had fantastic heat, just the right amount of salty sourness, the noodles were perfectly cooked, and the veggies, crunchy yet soft.

And the coffee... oh the coffee! It was one of the best cups of Joe I've had in my life to date. Locally grown, fair trade and sustainable, rich notes of chocolate wafted from the cup. There's an acidity that hits right up front, however, it is a very smooth acidity. It's strange, I know, but I'm at a loss how else to describe it. Next came a wave of sweetness and creaminess. It tasted of milk and sugar, even though it was straight and black. The end was a bit nutty and had almost a buttery finish.

I just couldn't get enough. I had four cups before I thought to slow down.  Mr. Kevin was kind enough to provide the name of the company and blend that they use, a mix of two beans. And the young lady at the front desk had the kitchen bring me a 500g bag of each so that I could enjoy it at home without taking on trying to find it on my own in a city brimming with cafes and coffee shops.

It was a marvelous morning experience!

Cooling off in the humid eve...

walking down the lane way, I happened upon máy mía. It is a sugar cane machine, where a piece of sugar cane about .7 meters is put into a hole with a half of a lime.

The resulting juice is poured over ice. It doesn't taste like I thought sugar water would taste like, and is not overly sweet, but rather, a refreshing and zesty cool treat!

First night's dinner at Sesame, a vegan restaurant in the Xuan Dieu district.

The food was excellent, the service, neglectful.

On the plate was brown rice with beans, nộm hoa chuối, and đậu trắng tớ nấu nấm.

The banana flower salad was crunchy, clean, and had a subtle tangy sweetness to it, with some hints of roasted garlic.

The white beans with mushroom was fresh, the mushrooms were beautiful, and had the perfect texture.

I also recommend the cái cuốn - mustard leaf spring rolls. Crisp, clean flavors. They come with a horseradish soy sauce that is killer, having the perfect balance of heat and saltiness!

I will definitely come back!

Chào buổi sáng Việt Nam!

Our first day in Vietnam. The view from our window, and breakfast of champions - freshly picked lychee from a woman on the street. Yum!😋

Life is a challenge.  Fight on!

Wading Through the Bureaucracy BS...The Death of This Country

The inefficiency of getting through the blue tape when attempting to obtain information from the government or large corporations is killing us.  Think about how much time is wasted, how much electricty is used, how much money is spent while being stuck on hold for 10, 20, 60 minutes at a time, only to be transferred to a secondary, tertiary, etc. person and wait yet again!  And then be directed back to where you started and were transferred from in the beginning, to suddenly discover they've gone home and left you to try again tomorrow.  I am truly amazed that we as a country, are able to function at all.
  
How have we not ground to a halt already?  This insanity needs to be stopped or we shall, I'm afraid, cease to progress and never reach our potential...

Ah let it ring... An appeal to Pastor Jones

We live in America; a gorgeous country that affords indulgence in life, love, the pursuit of happiness and of course, freedom - freedom to think, to write, to say, to do, to believe anything we choose.  I personally believe that freedom is a human right, not a privilege. There is a rudimentary albeit critical element to freedom that I will describe with an old, apt cliché...

Freedom is power, and with that power comes great responsibility. After 234 years, I suppose it's reasonable that the majority take our freedoms for granted.  After all, we've come a long way from war-torn, Revolutionary America. The problem with taking our freedoms for granted is that we put ourselves at great risk.  Case in point - Pastor Terry Jones, the Pentecostal religious "leader" in Florida who announced he would burn the Quran.

As I believe in our freedom of speech and religion, I practice tolerance regardless of agreeing with other ideas or not.  If Pastor Jones burned the Quran, I'd  have to say that it is his choice, his freedom of speech, his right.  Yes he has the right, but should he? Absolutely not!  This country was founded by we the people, for the people, something Pastor Jones seems to have forgotten and this is where the danger lies.  You see, freedom is about people.  Everything we have comes from the strife, pain and trials of all of the people who fought, died and came before us.  Our decisions, how we choose to exercise our freedoms, affects others whether we realize it or not.  Because of this, we - the individual - need to account for how our choices may influence other people.  It is our moral obligation.

Pastor Jones is abusing his freedom, his power, his responsibility  as a human, an American and a religious leader.  He is not taking his position in the church, state, nation and world seriously.  If he were, he'd realize what a grave error he is making.  One person can make a difference, whether for good or bad.  If Jones were to publicly burn the Quran, that single gesture would fuel the fire of anti-American sentiment of those who seek to do harm against us.  They will use this as petrol on the fire to recruit others and induce violence.  Pastor Jones will be putting potentially thousands of lives in jeopardy, all to practice his individual freedom.

I implore him to reconsider and follow his moral onus to other people's welfare and safety; put away this idea of publicly burning the Quran entirely and forever.  And I urge you to please not take our freedoms for granted.  Think before you leap.