Food of childhood – memories revived by Tran Van Chi
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.
Great blog here! Also your site loads up fast! What host are you using? Can I get your affiliate link to your host? I wish my site loaded up as quickly as yours lol
1Great web site. Lots of useful info here. I am sending it to a few friends ans also sharing in delicious. And naturally, thanks for your sweat!
2팔팔정의 성분과 효과, 50mg·100mg 차이, 복용 시간과 부작용을 확인하세요. 처방 및 가격 확인 방법, 함께 복용하면 안 되는 약, 자주 묻는 질문까지 안내합니다.
3I truly appreciate this post. I have been looking all over for this! Thank goodness I found it on Bing. You have made my day! Thx again!
4Wow, awesome blog layout! How long have you been blogging for? you made blogging look easy. The overall look of your website is wonderful, as well as the content!
5포항출장마사지 전문 업체입니다. 24시간 연중무휴 운영과 100 후불제 시스템으로 언제든 편하게 예약 가능! 전원 한국여성 테라피스트가 커플마사지까지 전문 제공
6As I site possessor I believe the content matter here is rattling excellent , appreciate it for your hard work. You should keep it up forever! Best of luck.
7I’ll immediately grab your rss as I can not to find your e-mail subscription hyperlink or e-newsletter service. Do you’ve any? Please let me know so that I may just subscribe. Thanks.
8I conceive this internet site contains some very good info for everyone. “It is easy enough to define what the Commonwealth is not. Indeed this is quite a popular pastime.” by Elizabeth II.
9I’ve recently started a web site, the info you offer on this website has helped me tremendously. Thanks for all of your time & work.
10I was examining some of your articles on this internet site and I conceive this site is really informative ! Continue putting up.
11It’s hard to find knowledgeable people on this topic, but you sound like you know what you’re talking about! Thanks
12Throughout the grand pattern of things you receive an A for effort. Where you confused everybody was on all the specifics. As people say, details make or break the argument.. And that could not be more accurate at this point. Having said that, permit me reveal to you just what exactly did do the job. Your authoring is actually pretty persuasive which is probably why I am taking an effort in order to comment. I do not make it a regular habit of doing that. Second, whilst I can easily see the leaps in reasoning you come up with, I am definitely not confident of exactly how you seem to connect the points which inturn make the actual final result. For now I will, no doubt subscribe to your point however wish in the future you connect the dots better.
13Great goods from you, man. I have have in mind your stuff previous to and you are simply extremely fantastic. I actually like what you have obtained here, certainly like what you are stating and the best way in which you assert it. You make it enjoyable and you continue to take care of to keep it smart. I can’t wait to learn far more from you. That is actually a tremendous site.
14I’ll right away grab your rss feed as I can’t in finding your e-mail subscription link or e-newsletter service. Do you have any? Please allow me recognize so that I may subscribe. Thanks.
15강남구구단 방문을 준비하고 있다면 가격 구성, 이용 방식, 예약 절차와 위치 확인사항을 살펴보세요. 인원·시간에 따른 상담 항목과 자주 묻는 질문을 한곳에 정리했습니다.
16Good info. Lucky me I reach on your website by accident, I bookmarked it.
17I’m impressed, I need to say. Really not often do I encounter a weblog that’s each educative and entertaining, and let me inform you, you will have hit the nail on the head. Your thought is outstanding; the problem is something that not sufficient persons are talking intelligently about. I’m very completely happy that I stumbled across this in my search for one thing regarding this.
18whoah this blog is magnificent i love reading your articles. Keep up the great work! You know, a lot of people are searching around for this information, you can aid them greatly.
19Thank you for the sensible critique. Me and my neighbor were just preparing to do some research on this. We got a grab a book from our local library but I think I learned more from this post. I am very glad to see such excellent info being shared freely out there.
20Nice read, I just passed this onto a colleague who was doing some research on that. And he just bought me lunch since I found it for him smile So let me rephrase that: Thank you for lunch!
21I don’t unremarkably comment but I gotta say regards for the post on this special one :D.
22Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to make your point. You definitely know what youre talking about, why waste your intelligence on just posting videos to your weblog when you could be giving us something enlightening to read?
23Howdy would you mind letting me know which webhost you’re working with? I’ve loaded your blog in 3 different web browsers and I must say this blog loads a lot faster then most. Can you recommend a good hosting provider at a fair price? Kudos, I appreciate it!
24Together with every thing that seems to be developing inside this particular subject material, a significant percentage of viewpoints are fairly exciting. However, I beg your pardon, because I do not subscribe to your whole suggestion, all be it refreshing none the less. It would seem to me that your opinions are actually not totally validated and in reality you are generally yourself not really completely confident of your point. In any event I did enjoy reading it.
25Hello! I know this is kind of off topic but I was wondering if you knew where I could find a captcha plugin for my comment form? I’m using the same blog platform as yours and I’m having difficulty finding one? Thanks a lot!
26You have remarked very interesting details! ps decent site.
27I really like your writing style, great info , regards for putting up :D.
28I have not checked in here for a while as I thought it was getting boring, but the last few posts are great quality so I guess I’ll add you back to my daily bloglist. You deserve it my friend 🙂
29Hey There. I found your weblog using msn. This is an extremely smartly written article. I’ll make sure to bookmark it and come back to read more of your useful information. Thanks for the post. I will certainly return.
30I’ve recently started a website, the information you offer on this website has helped me greatly. Thank you for all of your time & work.
31Good info. Lucky me I reach on your website by accident, I bookmarked it.
32Hey there just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The text in your post seem to be running off the screen in Internet explorer. I’m not sure if this is a format issue or something to do with internet browser compatibility but I thought I’d post to let you know. The design and style look great though! Hope you get the issue resolved soon. Kudos
33It’s hard to find knowledgeable people on this topic, but you sound like you know what you’re talking about! Thanks
34Appreciating the time and effort you put into your website and in depth information you provide. It’s good to come across a blog every once in a while that isn’t the same old rehashed information. Great read! I’ve saved your site and I’m adding your RSS feeds to my Google account.
35Somebody necessarily assist to make seriously articles I’d state. That is the first time I frequented your website page and so far? I surprised with the analysis you made to make this particular publish amazing. Fantastic process!
36Hi there would you mind stating which blog platform you’re working with? I’m looking to start my own blog in the near future but I’m having a tough time choosing between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal. The reason I ask is because your design and style seems different then most blogs and I’m looking for something unique. P.S My apologies for being off-topic but I had to ask!
37