Flavor Boulevard

Ten weeks after sending off the application to grad school, including 2 weeks of anxious waiting and roller-coaster cycling of hopefulness and hopelessness, the first result I got back is a rejection. How to handle a rejection? You don’t, you just ignore it. It wasn’t a bad moment, to be honest. In some way it was relieving, no more waiting from that school. It’s been restless for the last two weeks. I’ve heard friends getting acceptance and rejection, I’ve thought about the embarrassment, and the choices I have in the worst scenario. Switching to med school would take at least one year to study for the MCAT, another to apply and hang around worthlessly, another 4 in grad school (in the case of acceptance), perhaps 2-3 years of residency (if graduated), which totals to 8-9 years, about the same time length to professorship (if everything goes well). Or I could be a bum, but Chris had assured me that I wouldn’t make it. Judging from my GRE scores, I have little belief that my MCAT score would be impressive, multiple choice tests and I aren’t buddies.

But, those were just negative thoughts in the dark hours. I still have classes, movies, and chocolate for self-indulgence. And all the cheesy appreciation for the support from parents and professors, which I consider quite personal(ly valuable) and would spare you from. However, I will disclose my other personal stuff, which has to do with chocolate. Thanks to Mudpie, I’m now racing with time in consuming 9 bars of chocolate, or 22.7 oz (645 g) of chocolate liquor, water-filtered beet sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, vanilla, and flavors. It will help you overcome any depression initiated by academics. So here goes.

Zebra (70% cocoa, dark chocolate with orange): feel smooth, aromatic right after opening the wrapper, a little bitter, easily melt in hand, not as orange as expected, the bitterness is not noticeable when let melt in mouth. No orange peel pieces visible like Valrhona’s dark with orange. Score: 7/10.

Koala (70%, smooth dark with cherry): same bitterness with subtle sweet from cherry, almost unnoticeable taste of cherry except for the smell, pleasant, like lying on the grass at night, a very genteel experience suitable for those who don’t like dark but have to eat it anyway. Score: 7.5/10. On second thought, it’s like talking to an old man, there’s some grumpy bitterness, but there is definitely something sweet and cute.

Lion (35%, smooth milk chocolate): definitely a little too sweet, better to let melt on your tongue than to chew, as the sugar splash is intense. Maybe I’m just too accustomed to dark chocolate. The silky feel makes it reside a level above Hershey’s. Score:6/10 for perfect achievement in ordinary. Suitable for unadventurous nibblers.

Dolphin (48%, milk chocolate with cherry): pieces of cherries inside, do not melt on hand, firm, confident, lingering, suave, take a bite and you’d feel like you’re bathed in milk and wrapped in velvet. Very sensational, yet very assertive. Perfect touch. Score: 9/10.

The Endangered Species chocolate producers donate 10% of the net profits to help species and habitat, so their taste is moved up a notch for me. My ambition is to try all of their collection, to collect for myself the wrappers with animals and their story inside. I’ve also mastered the skill of rewrapping the bars. They look like new.

Next on Down the Aisles: more Endangered Species Chocolate

DISCLAIMER: I received no free product or monetary gift in exchange for this review.

Eight interesting facts about pho: (picked and translated from source)

1. During 1908-1909, steam boats were a popular means of transportation from Hanoi to other cities in the North, and pho started out as a vendor food sold in numbers at river ports. From 1930, pho was popular in the cities, some pho restaurant in Hanoi served until 4 AM.

2. Originally there was only pho with well-done beef. Rare beef was a latter innovation, and only became dominant after 1954.

3. Within the first decade when pho was popular, many cooks tried to add different twists and turns to the dish, however, not all could satisfy the public taste. A few variations that we don’t see today are pho in the Jean de Puis neighborhood (Hang Chieu, Hanoi) with sesame oil and tofu (1928), pho gio (rolls of sliced beef), pho Phu Doan with ca cuong extract(*).

4. Chicken pho first appeared in 1939, when beef was not sold on Wednesday and Friday, and there was no fridge.

5. Pho sot vang is a nice mix of Vietnamese and French cuisine: the chunks (not slices) of beef are seasoned and stewed in wine (vang), then added atop the pho. (This is the first time I’ve heard of this type of pho)

6. Pho did not migrate to the South until 1954 – when the Geneva treaty was signed and Northerners migrated to the South to escape the rule of Communists. This is the historical mark of pho spreading all over the country.

7. Southern pho, easy-going and generous like the Southern Vietnamese, have add-ons that its Northern brother didn’t think of: bean sprouts, fresh herbs, a little sugar in the broth, hoisin sauce and hot sauce.(**)

8. A few famous Pho restaurants in Vietnam (that I’ve seen in Houston and California, but I’m not sure if they are the real deal): pho Tàu Bay (“airplane”) (Hanoi, 1950)(***), pho Thìn (Hanoi, 1955), pho Hòa-Pasteur (Saigon, 1960).

* I had this extract once in a bowl of bun moc, just a drop, literally, and it’s so strong it killed the broth and my appetite. The only other time I had something to that effect was when I dunked sushi in wasabi.
** Pho shacks in the North still hesitate to serve all these condiments today, which in my opinion is quite understandable. The veggies only clutter the soup and get you full more quickly. The sauces only overpower the natural broth (which already has at least a dozen different ingredients), and distract you from the real taste of pho.
*** The first owner of pho Tau Bay did not name it so. A friend gave him a pilot helmet, which he really liked and wore often. Customers then started calling him “ong tau bay” (Mr. Airplane) (?!) and the name stuck.

Wellsfargo has always been my favorite bank, for small reasons. Very recently I have one more small reason to like it. I usually go to this Wellsfargo bank on University Dr. Last Saturday morning, I saw these red envelopes (well, not as decorated as the one on the right, but still nice red ones) on the teller’s counter. I asked her how much they cost, and she said they’re free to take. I also overheard the tellers’ chatting about eating opossums. Now that is new. The teller who helped me said her grandfather ate them (but personally she wouldn’t want to find out how they taste). I wonder how they taste, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to get barbecued opossum with mushroom sauteed in melted mozarella cheese topped with grounded peanuts or whatever. Anyway, cultural thoughtfulness, generosity, friendly tellers, interesting conversations to gossip, what else can you expect from a bank?

*Red envelope is called “bao li xi” in Vietnamese.

There are several things to do during Tet in Saigon. It’s not a one-day holiday, it’s a season, similar to Christmas in form and Thanksgiving in spirit. The holiday is lunar-calendar based. It starts on the 23rd of the 12th month, the day to “cung dua ong Tao“, a ceremonious dinner to see off the Household God as he takes his annual trip to heaven. It ends on the 7th day of the 1st month of the new lunar year. In the first week, there are spring flower markets on Nguyen Hue Street and water melon markets in Dakao. Water melon used to be available during Tet only, and there used to be only one kind – the green outside, red inside kind. Now there are yellow, striped, even cubic watermelon! There’s the sound of the gongs and the drums of mua lan (lion dance) in the neighborhood. There are thousands of crimson red Chinese sausages packaged, displayed not so far from deep green banh chung and banh tet. Hmm… it just crossed my mind that the main colors of Tet are also red and green, like Christmas… There is orange from the kumquats, shiny gold from the newly polished copper censers, and yellow from the flowers. Chrysanthemums for small vases on the altars and mai for display in the living room or the garden. My mom used to say, when she took off the leaves of the mai tree (to make room for its new leaves and blossoms), she could feel Tet is coming in the air. For big families with the tradition of making their own banh chung banh tet, Tet comes when they sit around the huge pot of cooking banh, warmed by the fire, chatting the hours away. After giao thua (Tet’s eve), the second week of the holiday starts. It’s the first week of the new spring and the new lunar year. It’s time to go to the pagodas, to be nice with others, to relax and enjoy oneself. That’s why “thang gieng la thang an choi” (the 1st month is the month of fun).

Do I have a month of fun to celebrate Tet now? Hehe, certainly not. I did have over a month of fun and total laziness for Christmas break, however, thanks to Texas A&M’s generosity. But school started last Tuesday; and this Monday, in all splendor of the first day of the new lunar year, the most important day of Tet, I will haul my backpack on the shoulder and go to class from 10 till 5:30. Good start. I will be hardworking and learn a lot the whole year. The Vietnamese living overseas have at most a Tet party on the weekend or the night before. A Vietnamese physics hermit spends giao thua alone with research and movies. But above all reasons Tet is the time to be with family. My family is here, so my Tet is here. 🙂

*The blog title is inspired by Lê Phố’s painting under the same name.
**The painting is Fleurs by Lê Phố, 1960, oil on canvas. Since I couldn’t find a free image of L’approche du Tet online, I thought Fleurs would be an appropriate substitution.

One of my retirement plans is to translate these books into English. This one is about Southern Vietnamese food. Most of these dishes are still there, some hidden behind coconut trees and around small branches of the river net, some popularized in Saigon’s expensive menus, national tour, and exported oversea. Some have vanished as the species of the land died out or became unfavorable, as time is too short to make good treats, as the abundance of resource and imagination is replaced by the greedy fight over benefits, and as people simply forget.

I remember bắp nấu. It’s corn kernels without the peel, cooked like rice, white, soft, and gently sweet, eaten hot with a sprinkle of salt and sesame mix. Mmmmm… I remember thịt kho nước dừa. “Kho” is to simmer meat or fish with water and nước mắm, preferably in a clay pot, believe it or not, earthenware gives a flavor to the dish. My mom used to kho pork and eggs with fresh coconut water (according to Tran Van Chi, and many Southern ladies, kho with coconut milk – the juice from the dried shredded coconut meat, is untraditional, the flavor would be too thick). The result is extremely tender (rệu) pork soaked in a clear, coconut sweetened, savory, golden brown liquid, the egg whites hardened, somewhere between chewy and crunchy, the egg yolk turns into a deep orange ball like the low moon, tightly packed with flavors. It’s a must-have, a tradition, an indicator of Tet…

The tastes of these revive in my mind, as I read Tran Van Chi’s book. Tasting memories, that is. My mom said she misses the atmosphere of Tet in Vietnam, even if we had the food, the mai tree, the firecrackers now, which we don’t, we would only be on the sidewalk looking at the party, we can never be in the party again. Christmas and New Year don’t have the same atmosphere. Like Thế Lữ wrote for Nhất Linh’s Đoạn Tuyệt:

Rũ áo phong sương trên gác trọ
Lặng nhìn thiên hạ đón xuân sang

(Shaking off wind and dew, from a motel room,
Silently watch people celebrating the new spring)

DISCLAIMER: I received no free product or monetary gift in exchange for this review.

This seems like a cop-out first post after several days of inactivity (due to my main profession of doing homework and all), but I just can’t resist. Very Good Taste (via Sean Carroll‘s post on Cosmic Variance) has a list of food items, plus the following instructions:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

I crossed out and bold things I’ve tried and would never consider trying again. There are a lot more to go, it seems (especially the beignets). And I don’t think drinks quite fit in the food list. Somehow this reminds me of the snail drinking coffee.

I had my usual corn flakes for breakfast this morning. I was about to open a new box. Nothing too exciting… But behold! It’s not just any cereal box… To my surprise I found this on the back:

Book trivia. Now that is neat. Not just some ad or recipe for crispy chocolate cake. Dunno about you, but I read it and tried to answer.

4 Correct I got. 🙁 The corn flakes go well with a mix of rice milk and soy milk though. On a side note I would say anything goes well with rice milk and soy milk, but Ben Kim couldn’t disagree with me more.

Some people like to be scared, some like to sunbathe, some others enjoy getting up early. Morning persons, they say. One of the kids at New Student Conference today chooses to have 8 am classes all 5 days of the week, except one of them, a running class, starts at 7. He assured me he’s a morning person; now I’ve heard that before, and I’ll be eager to hear what he’ll say at the end of the semester. There’s just something about being in academia. After a while you can’t go to bed when you should/want to, and can’t stay up when you should/want to either. I digress…

So, yeah, everyone has something they enjoy doing. Something that makes them breathe in a refreshing thought, something that gives them the chill and the comfort at the same time. Well, I don’t know if I should quite breathe in physically while I’m at it, but I like to sit between the high book shelves of a library. Dusty you may say. The smell of old paper longing to be touched since decades ago.

I feel surrounded by knowledge, hoping it would just dissipate into the vacuum me, and I could then walk around with 100lbs of letters in my head, and play scrabble. Luckily it doesn’t happen that way, or I’d be obese. Old texts have a charm. Looky that arrow, Cupid left it there for silly students who enjoy hiding in the dark alley between two rows of old books, wondering how they can understand any of this in less than 3 weeks.

Around noon time, in front of the smaller-than-a house’s door gate of the old Pho Thong Nang Khieu high school (notice they don’t show you the gate in that picture…), came an ice cream man. The typical street vendor, with a big styrofoam box on a bike, maybe a couple of buckets on the sides, I’m not sure if I remember correctly the details here. He sold kem ong, i.e. ice cream tubes. It’s something I’d never had before and possibly will never see again.

His ice cream had a skinny tubular shape, about a foot long, stick to a long skinny bamboo stick. The ice cream is actually contained in aluminum tubes, from which he quickly pulled out when we asked to buy. I usually went for the jackfruit kind (kem mit), where you have little strips of jackfruit hidden inside the ice cream, quite a treasure to chew as the vanilla milky bits melt on your tongue. For VND1000 a stick, the kem mit was sold out within 15 minutes or so. He also had kem dau xanh (mung bean ice cream), kem dau do (red bean ice cream), and a few other types, but I don’t remember getting those. It was a very nice treat for lunch break between 5 hours of morning classes and a few more hours of afternoon ones. It’s fun to share with friends too, since the tubes were so long and took you longer to eat than it to melt.

Does he still sell ice cream there, anyone knows? If you can take a picture of the ice cream, please do, and send me a link! I’m dying to just look at them again…

Side note: This post was originally written to explain the idea behind Eistube, my old little blogging corner. After moving, I feel oblige to keep the ice cream content with little editing. It was just too sweet a memory to erase from a food blog.