Duy Xuyen - land of festivals

Duy Xuyen District in Quang Nam Province is known as the land of festivals.

Duy Xuyen starts the year with Lady Chiem Son Festival on February 6, Lady Thu Bon Festival on March 7 and 8 and wrap up with a ceremony to mark the 10th anniversary of My Son being UNESCO.

 

Lady Thu Bon Festival, the main festival in Duy Xuyen, takes place in Thu Bon Village, Duy Tan Commune from the 10th to the 12th day of the second lunar month, which fell on March 7 and 8.

 

From early morning thousands of villagers gathered along the Thu Bon River to celebrate the festival with horns, drums, fans, flag palanquins, and dance troupes and fruit platters.

 

After a solemn ceremony and a procession of palanquin to pray for good weather and great harvest, the festival took on an animated atmosphere with folk music and musical instrument performances tuong (Vietnamese classical drama) and an arts show titled "Mysterious My Son by Night" with attendance or many famous singers, as well as a boat race.

 

Lady Chiem Son Festival is held earlier, on the 12th day of the first lunar month (February 6, 2009) in Chiem Son Village, Duy Trinh Commune. The festival also attracts a large number of visitors to its incense burning ceremony at the lady's palace and jubilant folk games and folk music shows.

 

A meeting to mark My Son Sanctuary being imposing artistic programs to recreate historical aspects of My Son Sanctuary's past, present and future.

 

Ho Tan Cuong, deputy director of the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said that the province will put great effort into building and introducing new tourism products to entice tourists; adding that Tra Nhieu tourist village will be opened on April 1, featuring Ban Thach traditional mat weaving village and the lives of villagers.

 

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Chinese artisans bring lanterns to Da Nang

Along with wonderful firework performances, Da Nang people and tourists will have a chance to enjoy lanterns made by Chinese artisans in a lantern festival named “The variation of colours”.

The exhibition will open on March 25 at the Da Nang Water Park, introducing 34 groups of lanterns to celebrate the 34^th Liberation Day of Da Nang.

 

To prepare for this event, Chinese artisans have been working for over ten days in Da Nang. They brought materials from China to Da Nang.

 

The most notable work of lantern in this exhibition will be a group of lanterns named “The Goddess of Mercy on lotus-shaped lamp support”, which is 25m high.

 

“We would like to send to everybody our wish of prosperity and luck through this work,” said a Chinese artisan. 

Source DT/Vietnamnet

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Cau Ngu Festival and tourist cultural week to open in Phan Thiet

Local authorities in the central coastal city of Phan Thiet have approved a Cau Ngu (Fish Prayer) Festival and a tourist cultural week themed "Mua ve bien goi" (sea calls season back).

The two festivals will take place concurrently from May 13 to 19 in the city center primarily along the Ca Ty River and at Van Thuy Tu Temple, a national cultural site containing some 100 sets of whale bones including the largest whale bones in Vietnam.

 

The 2009 Cau Ngu Festival will also coincide with the festival of Van Thuy Tu Temple, a time when locals pray for "big fish" (whales, dolphins, sharks, etc.), and ask their spirits not to hinder them on fishing trips and to provide good catch and peaceful life.

 

The festival will feature traditional ceremonies such as an Ong Sanh (Whale) procession from Van Thuy Tu Temple on Ghenh Island, also called Lao Islet, to Phan Thiet, ending in an elaborate funeral to welcome the spirit of the fish. Outdoor activities will also take place from Con Cha wharf on the Ca Ty River to Binh Thuan Province's Ho Chi Minh Museum, with anticipated participation of 500 visitors as well as boats and ships passing by.

 

Meanwhile, the cultural week celebrations will give locals and tourists a chance to enjoy typical dishes of the coastal area at a culinary fair on Trung Trac Street and traditional sporting events, including a boat race and Chinese chess competition. The atmosphere will be particularly lively at night when the dance and music shows are performed.

 

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Joining int’l firework festival in Danang

Danang International Firework Competition 2009 will take place in the central coastal city of Danang on March 27 and 28 with participation of Spain, Australia, China, the Philippines and the home team Vietnam. Saigontourist is offering a three-day tour to the firework festival as well as other attractions in Danang City.

The event is expected to lure many local and international tourists and promises to delight viewers with amazing and talented performances against the backdrop of the poetic Han River. The shows are all around 21 minutes long and are titled as follows: Australia - “The Southern Stars”; Philippines - “Danang-new epoch”; China - “Freedom for love”; Spain – “Happy Melodies”; and Vietnam will express the beauty of the nation as well as the friendliness of Vietnamese people via “Han River’s Echoes”.

 

Visitors to the fireworks competition will also have a chance to enjoy cultural and artistic activities and sport games including flower garland and flower ship festivals, boat races, water sports, culinary programs, music shows, circus and exhibitions.

 

The tour also includes splendid destinations in the city such as Son Tra Peninsula, Da (Stone) River, My Khe and Tien Sa ports, Non Nuoc Beach and Ngu Hanh Son, (Five Basic Elements Mountain, also known as Marble Mountains) as well as two world’s cultural heritages. The first is Hue Ancient citadel and the extravagant architecture of the Royal Palace, Thai Hoa Palace and the very famous Thien Mu Pagoda, built during the Nguyen Dynasty and well-known for its unique architecture and elegant style with ancient bronze cast statues and antiques.

 

The second is Hoi An ancient town, known for outstanding ancient pagodas and temples such as Ong Pagoda and Cau Pagoda. Tourists will get lost in the illusionary world of shimmering, diverse colored lanterns hanging on the streets and over the Hoai River.

 

The tour departs on the morning of March 27 and is priced between VND1.780 million and VND2.310 million including flight, or VND1.635 million per person not including flight.

 

For more information, contact Saigontourist at 49 Le Thanh Ton Street, HCMC’s District 1, tel: (08) 3827 9279 or Saigontourist’s branch in Danang City at 357 Phan Chu Trinh Street, Danang City, tel: (0511) 8397 229. Email: info@saigontourist.net.

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Ninh Binh holds Hoa Lu ancient capital festival

Hoa Ly District in the northern province of Ninh Binh held the ancient capital of Hoa Lu (first capital of Vietnam's feudal era from 968 to 1010) festival on Tuesday, attracting many locals and tourists, the Vietnam News Agency reports.

From early morning, people flocked to Truong Yen Commune to worship the historical relics of the Le and Dinh dynasties. Dam Viet Nhi, chairman of the district's People's Committee, said that this was the largest and most important festival of the province to honor the merit of the Le and Dinh dynasties for founding the country.

 

A local said: "I join the festival every year because this is a chance not to pray for help from the gods and goddesses but top lay many joyally folk games."

 

"The festival will last until today and feature lion and unicorn dances, camping, a fruit arrangement contest, wrestling, a rice cooking contest, a tug of war, a sword performance and an exhibition on the ancient capital.

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Institute of Int’l Education hosts photo competition

The Institute of International Education-Vietnam, in cooperation with the U.S Consulate and Thanh Nien Daily News, is holding a photo and essay competition, ‘The Environment through the eyes of Vietnamese students,’ this month.

The competition is open to all Vietnamese full-time university/college students. It is an outlet and opportunity for photographers to capture different aspects of the environment and to write about those issues in English.

 

Photographs must have been taken within the last six months and not yet published or waiting for publication. Photos that infringe on copyright are not eligible.

 

Photographers are also required to submit a short (maximum 300 words) essay in English describing the photo and what it means to them.

 

Each student is allowed to submit only one photo.

 

The photo (25x30), two hard copies, should be submitted to the IIE-VN Ho Chi Minh office: 11 Bis Nguyen Dinh Chieu, District 1, HCMC. The deadline is March 31.

 

After mailing the hard copies to the office, applicants must also submit the photo and the essay digitally to: IIEphotoessaycontest@gmail.com.

 

The essay will be judged equally with the photo on such criteria as relevance to the theme, clarity of the thesis, originality and creativity, rhetorical sophistication and technical quality of writing.

 

The award ceremony will take place at the 4th floor of Thanh Nien: 248 Cong Quynh St, District 3 on April 25.

 

First-prize winner will receive VND5 million ($285) while the runner up will receive VND4 million (US$228). The third, fourth and fifth placed entries will receive VND3 million (US$171), VND2 million (US$114) and VND1 million (US$57), respectively.

 

In addition, the top five will win a collection of English books and CD-ROMS.

 

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Hanoi to host 3rd cherry blossom festival

The third cherry blossom festival in Vietnam will be held at Quan Ngua Sport Complex on April 10-12 to celebrate the 999th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi.

600 large branches of cherry blossoms will be carried by air from Japan to Hanoi on April 9 and will be placed in the main area of the festival.

 

Apart from uniting these branches into 4 big trees, the organising board will also put up 7 cherry trees made of skill.

 

The parade of dancing Yosakoi, which is most exciting, will take place at the end of the event. This traditional dance is always performed at cherry blossom festivals in Japan.

 

Source VOV/Vietnamnet

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Show hits Australian gallery with a bang

An art exhibition on the American War in Viet Nam, Nam Bang, has opened at Casulapower House Arts Centre in Sydney, Australia, and will run through June 21.

The international exhibition will feature 25 artists from the US, Australia, France, Germany, Canada, Japan, South Korea and Viet Nam, many of them are veterans.

 

About 50 works from diverse genres such as painting, sculpture, installation art, videos and performance art are on display.

 

Le Tri Dung, the only Vietnamese painter featured at the exhibition, has two acrylic paintings on display.

 

The first, Noi Dau Cua Nguoi Linh Ca Hai Chien Tuyen (Suffering of Soldiers on Both Fronts), shows two helmets of soldiers on opposite sides with a ragged banana leaf separating them.

 

The second painting, Me (Mother), shows a mother holding an image of her son who was killed in the war. Millions of other martyrs are shown behind her.

 

The exhibition hopes to convey a message of peace and the cost of war.

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Bac Ha horse races to be held in May

The annual Bac Ha horse race is scheduled to take place in the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai on May 30, with 180 horses running.

Pham Xuan, deputy director of the Lao Cai provincial Department for Culture, Sports and Tourism said that the jockeys taking part in the competition must be male, aged between 18-40 and come from Lao Cai, Yen Bai, Ha Giang, Lai Chau, Dien Bien or Son La provinces.

 

The jockeys will show their skills at the 1,500-m racecourse during both individual and team events. The winning team will receive a cash prize of VND10 million and the winner of the individual event will take home VND 5 million.

 

The horse racing tournament aims to create a new tourism attraction for Lao Cai province and the whole north-western region, and is expected to attract tens of thousands of domestic and foreign visitors.

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Hang races away with 1,500m title

 Asian champion Truong Thanh Hang won the 1,500m final at the Thailand Open Track and Field Championship on Monday in Bangkok's Thammasat Stadium.

No sweat: Asian champion Truong Thanh Hang won gold for Viet Nam at the Thailand Open Track and Field Championship on Monday at Bangkok's Thammasat Stadium.

Hang, who is also the Southeast Asian Games defending champion, was challenged by Than Tone Khin Myo Aung, of Myanmar, and N A Dilrukshi, of Sri Lanka.

But the Vietnamese representative ran clear in the final metres to finish in 4min, 24.83sec.

Although the result was far from her best performance, it was more than enough to easily take the title in the 55-year-old meet.

Her personal best is the 4min 11.60sec she returned when setting the SEA Games record in Thailand two years ago.

Hang will be competing in the women's 800m today, where she will again face Aung and Dilrukshi.

Last year, Hang grabbed a gold at the Asian Grand Prix Series, also in Thailand.

Another Vietnamese medal hopeful, Nguyen Dinh Cuong took part in the men's 800m qualifier later yesterday. Cuong, also a SEA Games champion, was expected to easily make today's final.

Meanwhile, Viet Nam's other athletes will be competing in the women's 100m heats.

About 2,250 athletes from Asia registered to compete in Thailand, which is holding youth, junior and adult events.

A total of 43 gold medals are up for grabs this year.

China, Singapore and Japan, who were planning to send teams as part of their preparation for future major competitions including the Asian Games in Guangzhao next year, have withdrawn.

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2009 national football tournament kicks off

VietNamNet Bridge - The 2009 national football tournament (second class) will take place from June 16 to 26, drawing the participation of 18 squads nationwide. This was announced at a meeting of the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) in Hanoi on April 28. Accordingly, participating teams will be divided into 3 groups, which will compete in a round robin format. The top two teams from each group will be given a chance to compete in two divisions in the semi finals. The division winners will face off in the final and will get the opportunity to attend the national football tournament (first class) in 2010. VietNamNet/VOV

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National squad to have 12 rookies

VietNamNet Bridge – The chief coach of the national football squad Henrique Calisto will call 12 new players up to the national squad.

 

Dinh Hoang La, a new member of the national squad.

 

The names of the 25 footballers who will be called up to the national squad to prepare for the friendly match against Greek Olympiakos will be made public at 4pm, April 28. However, according to VietNamNet sources, there will be 12 new faces compared to the roster for the AFF Cup 2008.

 

Though they are called “rookies”, some have played for the national squad (for example Anh Duc) or the U23 team (Tan Truong and Ngoc Anh).

 

Notably, Calisto will change goalkeepers. Accordingly, Dau Ngoc Tan (Military Zone 4 club), Tan Truong (Dong Thap) and Dinh Hoang La will replace star goalkeeper Hong Son (T&T Hanoi), Quang Huy (Nam Dinh) and Duc Cuong (Da Nang).

 

There will be two new fullbacks, Tran Van Hoc (Da Nang) and Dinh Luat (Military Zone 4), besides an old face, Chu Ngoc Anh (Nam Dinh).

 

Tai Em and Bao Khanh, who played in the AFF Cup 2008, will not join the team, and they will be replaced by Thai Duong and Tran Duy Quang of Hoang Anh Gia Lai.

 

The national squad will, for the first time, welcome two strikers who speak foreign languages: Huynh Kesley (Binh Duong) and Dinh Hoang Max (Ninh Binh). It will also see the return of striker Anh Duc (Binh Duong).

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Gong wins stage, grabs yellow jersey

VietNamNet Bridge – South Korean Gong Hyo-suk rode like the wind yesterday to steal the yellow jersey in the sixth stage of the HCM City Television Cycling Tournament from Phan Rang to Da Lat City.

Gong led going through the decisive Ngoan Muc and Prenn passes in the 119km stage and eventually crossed the finishing line first to pocket 13 points as well as the red jersey for being the "king of mountain".

Mai Cong Hieu of Domesco Dong Thap, Mai Nguyen Hung from Sai Gon Plan Protection 1 and Trinh Phat Dat of An Giang Plan Protection were all in the running for the red jersey but ultimately failed to take the title.

After the first 40km, the trio of Vietnamese, together with the Korean, who won the red jersey in the 2007 tour, broke away from the main body of riders. But despite their heroic effort, it was Gong who led the field at the 50km mark.

The Korean went on to lead going into the second pass before finishing the race in 3 hours, 29 minutes, 7 seconds. He clocked an average speed of 34.144km per hour.

All three Vietnamese riders failed to make the top three after being overtaken in the home stretch. Ochibaatar Tumubaatar of Mongolia came second 6.02 minutes after Gong. He was followed by Kim Gu-hyeon, another South Korean cyclist.

Viet Nam's Cong Hieu, who suffered a flat tyre, finished in the third group of riders.

The impressive ride means Gong took over the yellow jersey from teammate Yoo Ki-hong for his total time of 15:54.39. Jang Gyung-gu, also from South Korea, was second. Cong Hieu, after a disappointing race, dropped to third.

On the team side, South Korea held on to the top spot with a combined time of 46:41.45 for six stages and are now assured of winning the tour.

Sai Gon 1 are second with 46:52.45. An Giang, who clocked a time of 47:00.07, are in third place.

The seventh leg of the race will be 10 laps around Da Lat's Ho Xuan Huong Lake, a distance of 51km - the shortest leg of the tour.

The nine-stage event has attracted 13 teams from Viet Nam and three foreign teams from South Korea, Mongolia and Laos. The winners will walk away with prize money of US$16,900.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News

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SPORTS IN BRIEF 28/4

Calisto named ambassador of Zorok beer in Viet Nam

Portuguese coach Henrique Calisto.

Portuguese coach Henrique Calisto has been named ambassador for Zorok beer in Viet Nam.

Calisto, who helped Viet Nam win the ASEAN Football Federation Cup in December, signed a one-year contract with SABMiIIer Viet Nam earlier this month.

The Portuguese coach will prepare the U-23 team for December's Southeast Asian Games in Laos and the national team for next year's AFF Cup.

The 56-year-old said he would spend most of his time with the teams before working for the brewery.

Viet Nam have been authorised to co-host the final round of next year's AFF Cup, with Indonesia.

Ky strokes to win Senior Amateur Championship

Mai Hong Ky took the overall victory with 165 strokes after two rounds in the Viet Nam Senior Amateur Championship at HCM City's Thu Duc Golf & Country club last Saturday.

Phan Thanh Chien came in second with 165 strokes and Duong Thanh ranked third.

Le Kien Thanh finished first in group A for the 50-59 age group with 137 strokes after two rounds.

Do Thanh Hung came in second with 142 strokes, while Tran Bac Nam ranked third.

Group B for the over-60 group saw Pham Van Nuoi grab the trophy.

The tournament, which drew around 100 golfers from across the country, helped move the sport toward the professional realm. There are currently 100 golf courses and clubs nationwide.

Hang inks six-year contract with Ninh Binh

Top track star Truong Thanh Hang has agreed to ink a six-year contract with Ninh Binh.

Hang, who finished her contract with HCM City two months ago, will join the northern team's jersey with a record monthly salary of VND16 million (US$890).

Hang's move to Ninh Binh makes her the team's second star along with the men's top athlete Nguyen Dinh Cuong.

As scheduled, Hang and Cuong will compete in the Southeast Asian Games in the women's and men's 800m and 1,500m events and also in the Asian Grand Prix.

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Ha Long Bay festival kicks off

VietNamNet Bridge - The opening ceremony of the 2009 Ha Long Bay Tourism Festival was held in Bai Chay tourism area and Ha Long city center on April 25.

This year’s annual festival is dedicated to the sea, land and sky.

The festival is a massive cultural and sports event in order to highlight Quang Ninh Province’s beauty and geological wonders and Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

After the opening ceremony, traditional performers walked in procession along the streets of Ha Long.

There were more than 2,000 performers at the festival. Many came from difference countries, such as India, South Korea, Spain and China.

Many of the events took place on the streets, including lion dances, stilt walkers and a ‘bicycle circus.’

The street carnival also introduced visitors to the province’s ethnic people’s customs.

Hundreds of boats were decorated with flags, lights and flowers. In evening, there was a firework’s display over the bay.

The organization committee said the festival attracted more than 300,000 visitors on the first day. More visitors are expected over the coming days, especially with the public holidays on April 30 and May 1.

The organization committee said this year’s special event, “Night of Shinning Heritage,” on May 2, which will introduce the wonders and culture of Ha Long, with many singers from around the world and a fireworks show to close the festival.

During the week-long carnival, various activities will be held, including a food fest featuring dishes from the northern and northeastern provinces, performances by local and international artistes, sports competitions and business fairs.

The Ha Long Tourism Festival will open from April 25 to May 2.

It is hoped that Ha Long will mesmerize visitors for it to receive enough votes to be called one of the seven natural wonders of the world.

For the duration of the festival, the organization committee has installed computers for free internet access across Ha Long City, such as the port, restaurants, hotels, Trade centers and boats, so that visitors can vote for Ha Long.

The visitors can vote online at www.new7wonders.com to vote for Ha Long as one of the seven natural wonders of the world.

Currently, Ha Long is standing third in the votes.

VietNamNet/SGGP

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A bit on the side

When summer arrives people push the oily and fatty foods to one side. But what should take their place? Well, there are plenty of options, but none of them are complete without pickled eggplant, says Minh Quang.

One of my favourite summer dishes is canh cua mong toi, a crab soup that my grandmother used to cook. It’s just one of many good soups made in Vietnam, but its deliciousness does not stand out unless it’s eaten along with ca muoi or pickled eggplant.

For a long time, ca muoi has been a “soup-mate”. The sour and hot pickled eggplant is not so special at first taste, but it is addictive if you eat it regularly. You can have an enormous meal replete with meat, fish and vegetable, but no “ca muoi” means an incomplete meal to many Vietnamese eaters.

My grandmother used to go to the market in lunar April to select ca phao, a small kind of eggplant. There are two kinds – ca nghe (yellow egg plant) and ca trang (white egg-plant). Yellow eggplant has thick skin and few seeds and gets crispy after being pickled, just the way my grandmother wanted it.

Ca Trang, also called ca bong (shiny eggplant), has a lot of seeds and can get tough when it is pickled. My grandmother says that some Vietnamese people believed a young bride would be deemed trite by her husband’s family if she couldn’t tell the difference between ca nghe and ca trang.

To pickle, the eggplants are cut out off their stems, washed clean, then cut in half before being poured into a pot with salt and little crushed garlic. In order to get the best flavour from pickled ca phao, it is dipped into mam tom (shrimp sauce). In the market this month, ca tim, a violet eggplant or aubergine, can be found alongside ca bat, a white large round kind of eggplant. These kinds of eggplant are also eaten raw after being dipped in shrimp sauce.

Two dishes to keep an eye out for are Ca Tim Bung Oc Nhoi, an eggplant soup cooked with large edible snails, grilled tofu, pig skin, onion, tomato, saffron, ferment and shrimp sauce or Ca Dai De Nuong, grilled eggplant dipped with salt, pepper and chili or soy sauce.

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Bring home the unique flavours of Vietnam

Cha ca La Vong (photo: studios-jp.com)

VietNamNet - Cha Ca La Vong, the oldest continuously operating restaurant in Hanoi, Vietnam, serves one dish. It's so well known that customers wait in line in a narrow street.

 

Customers have to climb narrow, uneven stairs to a small room with a low ceiling and sit cafeteria-style on folding chairs pulled up to Formica tables.

 

The payoff is a delicious fish, marinated and fried in oil with fresh greens. Patrons help themselves to the fish in a pan sizzling on a tabletop burner. Each serving comes with rice noodles and sauce -- a beer is de rigueur. (Cha Ca means fried fish.)

 

Now cookbook author Nancie McDermott shares a facsimile of this famous dish in her new cookbook, Quick & Easy Vietnamese: 75 Everyday Recipes (Chronicle Books, $19.95 soft cover, 168 pages). The book follows her splendid Quick & Easy Thai and several other excellent books on Southeast Asian cooking.

 

McDermott, a onetime Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand, has the knack for capturing vibrant flavors with simple, easy-to-follow directions. And she does it with a reasonable ingredient list.

 

We tried McDermott's version of the Cha Ca La Vong fish. We used red snapper instead of the called-for catfish or tilapia. The result was delicious -- and close to what our taste buds recall. Next time, I will double the marinade (with fish sauce, ginger, turmeric) to have more sauce for the finished dish.

 

Cooks who savor the foods of Vietnam can thank McDermott for making this wonderful cuisine accessible. Although Vietnam is part of Southeast Asia, its geography and political history make its cuisine unique.

 

As McDermott writes, "noodles rule" in Vietnam the Vietnamese eat them morning, noon and night. Anyone who's struggled to cook rice noodles will appreciate McDermott's easy method: Simply soak the thin rice noodles in warm water for at least 15 minutes, drain and put in boiling water, immediately remove from heat and let stand for 10 minutes, drain well and set aside until needed.

 

McDermott organizes her recipes into 10 food categories, such as salads and vegetables, soups, beef and pork. She includes 11 suggested menus, a list of mail-order sources for ingredients and a glossary.

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Toba Hirohide's latest challenge

Lau 1000°C is a new restaurant, which Japanese expatriate Toba Hirohide has opened on Le Quy Don Street in HCMC's District 3. A winding gray stone staircase from the eatery-crowded street leads up to the hot pot and grill restaurant.

Chefs prepare hot pots for diners at Lau 1000°C.

The Vietnamese word "lau" means hot pot in English. But the restaurant serves not only Vietnamese and Japanese hot pots but also other dishes of the two countries to cash in on the increasing number of middle-class and high-income Vietnamese who like to dine out.

In terms of its trademark, the fine dining restaurant offers country-style special and sour hot pots of Vietnam and soymilk, miso, oceanic Bonito-based and Shabu Shabu hot pots of Japan. Hirohide says more hot pots are in the works to be added to the menu.

Undoubtedly, the soymilk hot pot is one of the chef's suggestions. Hirohide says this Japanese specialty combines soymilk and soup made based on the traditional secrets of Japanese chefs. The pot comes with seafood, tofu, meat-balls, mushrooms and vegetables.

Miso hot pot is another highlight, different from miso soup at Japanese restaurants in HCMC in color and flavor.

Lau 1000°C implements the do-it-yourself concept, giving diners much room for choice and creativity. Only hot broth or soup is served in a pot, and diners will order algusto fish, seafood and vegetables from the menu for the miso hot pot, for example.

Ingredients for others include meat, bitter melon, lady fingers, broccoli, cauliflower, bean sprouts, white bamboo, pumpkin flowers, sliced banana flowers and even kim chi.

Diners can also add silk and deep-fried tofu; soya sheets; shrimp and pork wontons; Udon, egg and rice noodles; and steamed rice to have with the hot pots.

Though Lau1000°C has more Japanese than Vietnamese hotpots, Hirohide says, the majority of the dishes on the menu are cooked to have Vietnamese flavors.

In addition to hot pots, grill is available - grilled squid, scallop, shrimp, crab, oysters, salmon, snails, sausages, chicken, beef tripe, a wide variety of vegetables and more.

Hirohide, who has lived in Vietnam for six years, explains Lau 1000°C cooks prepare most Vietnamese-tasting dishes from the abundant local produce to attract local and expatriate families and businesspeople in HCMC.

The unusual name Lau 1000°C and the dark-looking restaurant front are what Hirohide expects will catch the eyes of diners and earn publicity. Hirohide says Lau 1000°C is a new challenge he takes on, after he left the Legend Hotel Saigon three years ago.

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Introducing Banh khuc

Banh khuc is a traditional cake of Vietnam. It’s a rice ball made from glutinous rice, green bean, pork, spices and, most importantly, cudweed (khuc).

Cudweed grows during lunar January and February, when the drizzling rain lasts all day, and it can be found along the edges of rice fields. There are two kinds: nep and te. The latter is more flexible and fragrant and is preferred for making the cake.

First, the cudweed is washed, ground and then mixed with husked glutinous rice. Green beans, that are flayed and turned into paste after being cooked, are then added to the mixture. Finally, the cakes are sprinkled with grains of glutinous steamed rice.

As time goes by it is increasingly difficult to find cudweed as fields are eaten up by development. However, for now you can find banh khuc in Hanoi. However some bakers may not be using cudweed and may substitute it with cabbage or water morning glory.

“Maybe I will no longer have the chance to satisfy my hunger for banh khuc,” says 60-year-old Nguyen Thi Khanh on Yen Ninh street. Khanh is not alone. Many others believe “real” banh khuc is no longer made in Hanoi.

One woman who would against that is 47-year-old Nguyen Thi Lan, whose cake stall at 69 Nguyen Cong Tru street has been churning out banh khuc for years. Lan has to hire locals in rural areas in Hanoi or in neighbouring provinces to seek out the elusive cudweed. In winter it grows in abundance so enough has to be collected to last the summer. The surplus will be dried and stored.

So next time you’re in the old quarter of Hanoi, you might hear someone cry “Ai banh khuc nong day?” (who wants hot banh khuc?).

You can stop them and ask if the banh khuc is from Ngoai Hoang village in Ha Tay Province, a place that is famous for having the most delicious and tasty banh khuc.

The cake costs VND3,000 for one and should be served hot and dipped into a mixture of roasted and crushed sesame seeds and salt.

(Source: Time-out)

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