Online Vietnamese language resources

With the popularity of a previous post on Vietnamese Input Methods and the recent demise of dict.vietfun.com, I feel compelled to post a list of online Vietnamese language resources.  This list is, of course, not exhaustive, so please add any other helpful links to the comments.  As we so painfully realize today with the launch of an "not-so-improved" replacement for dict.vietfun.com, web resources are terribly ephemeral and therefore may not exist tomorrow.  I compiled this list awhile ago (updated for now), and I'm leaving the now-defunct sites as an archive.

Vietnamese Dictionaries and Glossaries

• Hồ Ngọc Đức's Dictionary: Original dictionary by Hồ Ngọc Đức.  The best interface for this dictionary was located historically at dict.vietfun.com, www.datviet.com:8000 and www.viet.net/~vietdict/ but are now defunct.  A non-operational archived copy can be found here.  Also available in downloadable form for use offline (with the optimal interface).  See also Hồ Ngọc Đức's Vietnamese input program, Unikey.
  
• VDict:  Decent dictionary with translation.  Forums very informative.  Lots of ads.
  
• vndic.org:  Another dictionary showing adjacent terms.  Ads.
  
• Viet Dictionary:  Fast and simple.  Minimal ads, but a little buggy.
  
• Webster's Online Dictionary - with Multilingual Thesaurus Translation:  Very useful resource that finds phrases which contain the keyword you're searching for, i.e. I searched for "hát" and got 50+ entries, including "rạp hát" (theatre), "đầy tiếng hát" (songful) and "không được ca ngợi" (unsung).  Takes awhile to figure out how to use it.
  
• Multilingual Legal Glossary:  A handy tool, though not extensive, for searching legal terms and phrases.  It's a fairly recent project headed by Vancouver Community College, so I think it's probably still being updated.
  
• Intel Term List - VN:  In my experience, when most people are talking about computers, parts and software are referred to by their English name or some transliteration.  However, Intel has a whole list of trademarks and brands that they've "officially" translated in Vietnamese, presumably to accomodate the growing hardware market in Vietnam.  Very useful website, especially for those of you, like myself, who have always wanted to know how to say "Pentium® 4 Processor with HT Technology brand" in Vietnamese.
  
• Business Electronics Dictionary:  Another interesting glossary that gives extensive definition and explanation of English terms in Vietnamese.  Not a large amount of entries, but several useful internet terms.
  

Vietnamese Language Resources

• Learning Vietnamese Online:  Great starting point for learning Vietnamese online.  Hosted by Arizona State University.
• EVietnam Group:  Defunct. This place is full of interesting Vietnamese language stuff, including free Vietnamese courses, a cool cultural dictionary and a Vietnamese Language exchange forum. This is a good start for those interested in learning Vietnamese or learning more about the growing network of Vietnamese language groups who are making themselves available via this thing we call the internet.
  
• Vietnamese Online Grammar:  A detailed linguistic study of the Vietnamese language, but limited in completeness.  It seems like the project is still in process because many links are looped to a different page or not even linked.  Covers areas such as basic tones, lexicon and grammatical topcis (tense, aspect, negation).
  
• Phrasebase Vietnamese Language:  Defunct.  An active forum with some useful threads for beginner Vietnamese terms, plus some cross references for other Vietnamese Language websites, if you're willing to dig that deep.  It seems that detailed questions get answered pretty quickly (many the same day) which makes this website useful for colloquial terms and phrases. 

Death of the BEST Viet dictionary

It's gone.  The Vietnamese dictionary that I've been using for years and years and years (well, at least since 2003), and has served as my homepage since the beginning, has finally gone the way of all the earth.  Returned to the dust.  Paid the final visit to grandma and grandpa.  Gone back to the happy hunting grounds.  :(  I'm sad.

The dictionary of which I speak is the English - French - Germany [sp] - Vietnamese Dictionary once available at dict.vietfun.com.  The genius Hồ Ngọc Đức created the dictionary software and the database of terms.  He is truly dedicated to extending the Vietnamese language to the world via the Internet, and leads the ongoing effort toward developing VietWordNet, a "large-scale online lexical-semantic Vietnamese language net" (like the English WordNet developed at Princeton).  His contribution to the Vietnamese language on the world wide web is perhaps the most influential, considering that apparently all current Vietnamese online dictionaries use large portions of his database, including the Vietnamese Wiktionary.

It thus saddens me to see the most intuitive and useful tool in accessing the above resource vanish from the Web.  Why was this the best dictionary?  Absolutely no ads.  Simultaneous language lookup (a drop-down box is a terrible way to choose language!).  After lookup, auto-focus to the input box and auto-selection of text (allowing user to enter the next term without having to navigate to the input and/or select the text).  Right-click on a word in the definition to lookup that word.  These features provided a seamless, speedy workflow that minimized the amount of lost time with keyboard-to-mouse-and-back hand movement.  I remember countless times looking up a list of mixed words (both English and Vietnamese) without touching the mouse once.  This functionality was in place before Web 2.0 and mobile interface concepts had emerged mainstream - truly a web app beyond its time.

All of the current online Vietnamese databases have some of these features, but most revert to a language drop-down, severely limited efficiency and doubling time when translating.  I find the drop-down an eyesore that may conserve screen real estate but lacks functionality (in this application).  In a subsequent post, I will list the dictionary resources that I will now have to use since my trusted site is gone under, grimacing each time I have to click for a language and see a gaudy ad.

I had noticed that the dictionary at dict.vietfun.com was quite fickle over the last several months, so I was relieved to see a message last week stating that major improvements were being implemented.  Alas, I access the site this morning only to find the hated drop-down language selection!  Mừng hụt!  And what's worse?  A gaping text box spanning half my screen, reserved for translation.  Yuck.  Lookup and translation should never be on the same page.  I frantically clicked the About tab to see if Hồ Ngọc Đức is somehow involved with this remake (hoping that he wasn't).  A 404 error - the page doesn't even exist.  The site is due for completion on June 25, but judging by its current state, it will never be half the site it used to be.  The beautiful simplicity has been compromised for Bleh and a Translation Box.  And a drop-down. 

This is a sad day.  I don't know if I can function without this dictionary.  Perhaps if someone were to re-create it... hmm, now that's an idea.

Bánh?

Bánh is one of those ubiquitous food terms in Vietnamese that seems to classify anything that is not soup. A look in the dictionary shows us that bánh can mean "cake" (for this discussion we'll skip the fact that bánh also means wheel), but this doesn't quite describe the sticky, translucent goo that is bánh bột lọc or the crisp, crepe-like heaven that is bánh xèo. Add a little suffix denoting an association with grain and you get bánh mì, the famous Vietnamese-French baguette that can be eaten stuffed with meat, cilantro and pickled carrots, dipped in sweetened condensed milk for a quick fix, or just enjoyed alone, as long as it's piping hot out of the oven.

I have yet to find a concrete description to encompass all forms of bánh, and maybe the Vietnamese language is not meant for that anyway. Context is the strongest factor in determining a word's meaning, whether "Anh nhớ lấy bánh nha!" means to remember the bread, remember the glutinous rice cake, or remember to pick up a wheel on my way home.

For a long list of possible bánh concoctions, take a look at the search results at vdict.com for "bánh" (caution, this site has been known to display scandalous ads, darn them!), and definitely pay a visit to the Banh Guide, a webpage I found today (hence this post) that gives a nice description in English of several types of bánh.

And now I'm hungry.

For All Who Care - Viet Speaking Mission Website is Down

Every now and then, I like to pay my respects to an old website dedicated to Vietnamese Speaking LDS Missions around the world. It dates back to the 1999's and is very much so a 1990's website, complete with an animated Kokopelli tooting away on his flute (why Kokopelli, I do not know). The site contains a curious mixture of former missionary contacts, messages, games, articles and "Java-enabled" VietChat. I actually used some of the articles on the site for a project I did back in school, but that was the last time I had visited... until tonight.

The website is located here: http://members.aol.com/nomhawj/viet/mission.html Go ahead, click on it. See the circular logo and the totally rad sidebar and Mr Kokopelli tooting away? Probably not. You probably see a nasty dark page with some smokey header informing you that blah blah blah we shut down this page forever we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Thanks for the apology, but you shut down my page!

Well, it wasn't my page, per se. In fact, I don't know whose page it was, or is, or else I'd let them know that they've been shut down forever and request that they migrate the site to another host. Fortunately for all of us, there's a nifty web service called WaybackMachine, located at archive.org, which allows you to see webpages that aren't there anymore, like ones that have been "shut down forever" for example. Using this service, we still have a vestige of our wonderful Viet Speaking Mission site, a snapshot from 2006 which seems to be the last time the webmaster made a major update. Here it is (no nasty smokey header this time):

Viet Speaking Mission

Take a look through the Mailing List which provides a smattering of former missionaries' contact info reaching all the way to 1981. Or my personal favorite, the Missionary Corner, where you can find some Gospel-related Vietnamese-language materials, and make sure to follow the "Vietnam and the Church" link which leads to several articles about, you guessed it, Vietnam and the Church.

Now, we don't know when archive.org will decide to dẹp tiệm (which they probably won't but anyway), but in preparing for the worst, I would recommend taking a look through the archived site and extracting what info you want/need right now. Just in case.

Small print:I am toying with the idea of setting up a new site for former Vietnamese-speaking elders, but don't know when/where it will take place. Feedback?

Tết Pictures In!!

Better late than never. Here's my coverage of the festival this year. I was mostly caught up doing what I do best (running after my wife) but I was able to capture a few fun moments. My favorite was going behind the food vendors' booths and sneaking shots while my wife told them how they can sell their wares more successfully.

Click here for the slideshow


[images hosted by flickr]

Chúc Mừng Năm Mới! Happy Lunar New Year!

Happy New Year
To all our friends and family
Near and Far
We wish you the best for 2009
May you find happiness, success and good fortune
In the Year of the Ox!

-----------------------------------------------------------

Chúng cháu xin chúc các bác, cô chú, anh chị em
Một năm mới tràn đầy hạnh phúc và thành công.
Mong rằng năm Kỷ Sửu sẽ mang lại nhiều may mắn.


Hội Tết is this weekend so prepare for pictures!

The Turtle is Real!

Ever wondered about the stories we hear about Hồ Hoàn Kiếm, the lake in the middle of Hà Nội that supposedly harbors the magic turtle who returned King Lê Lợi's sword to the gods? Yeah, well here's his brother, who apparently didn't hold on tight enough during the recent flooding in Northern Vietnam and got swept away into a hungry fisherman's hands. I'm glad the turtle was saved (it is now back home) because it is believed that he is one of only four of his kind (rafetus swinhoei) left on the entire earth. I say that's a pretty good number seeing that they're magic turtles.

By the way, the turtle in Hồ Hoàn Kiếm is not a legend. My mother in law saw it.

Chúc Mừng Năm Mới

Cung chúc tân xuân - Xin chúc bà con một năm mới vui vẻ, đầy hạnh phúc, sức khỏe dồi dào, tiền vô như nước, an khang thịnh vượng, mọi sự như ý, and all that good stuff.

Happy New Year

VDict - and other Online Vietnamese Dictionary Resources

Well, I should be asleep right now but I've run into a very cool internet dictionary tool. I've been a faithful follower of Hồ Ngọc Đức for the last several years and still use his dictionary on a daily basis because of its ease of use. He gives me the option to search different dictionaries at the same time, which saves me a lot of time when I'm translating and proofing at work. Thanks Mr Đức!
I occasionally cruise through the list of online Vietnamese to English dictionaries, and have come across some interesting ones (to see a list I compiled last year of my top dictionary resources plus other interesting sites relating to Vietnam, please see my wedding website) but nothing to compare to Mr Đức's work. I do remember coming across VDict a while back, which claimed to be the best dictionary online and had hopes of becoming a whole community based on internet dictionary lookup for Vietnamese. It sounded nice, but the site looked far from it. Until now.
VDict has become a high-functioning Vietnamese-English (and French and Chinesedictionary tool that has several nice "tiện nghi" that come in handy. Though it does not implement multiple dictionary lookup, it does support searching for the term in the definition, which I have yearned for with my current online dictionary. It also allows exact, broad or fuzzy lookup, as well as providing IE and Firefox toolbar and search plugins. It claims to have the "one and only free translating service" which works well for titles and occupations but has problems with phrases (just try "reading log"). But my favorite part is the forums.
The community they have built is great fun. It consists of just over 2000 members who are constantly volleying different Vietnamese and English phrases to see who can come up with the best translation. I've posted a few things and it's great to converse with people who are as interested in the mundane aspects of language as I am (but not too technical because I get lost in linguistics). Unfortunately, as I've seen with other Vietnamese language forums, there are several posts where non-Vietnamese-speaking men are requesting a translation of the text message or email they received from a Vietnamese woman. Or they want to translate their message into Vietnamese. I don't like that, but I try to keep my mouth shut. Or at least my hands off the keyboard.
Lastly, the great folks over at VDict have opened their script up for webmasters to integrate the dictionary into a webpage. Like right now, did you know that if you double-click any of the words on this page (besides the links) that a definition will popup? How about if you select a multiple-word phrase and press Ctrl+Shift+A (try tiện nghi)? They have done a great job at debugging this tool and I think it's so great that I've added it to my website. So from now on, xanghe.blogspot.com will have a built-in dictionary (both Viet-En and En-Viet), including an actual dictionary input box where you can type in your word like a regular dictionary (on the right-hand side). This probably won't turn out to be incredibly useful, but it was way too cool to pass up.
Good nite all

UPDATE:
I posted a question about east and west in the VDict forum and I had a good discussion about how to translate it, but it ended with such a funny post that I had to share it here. I was basically told that I'm a bit confused with all my examples so here's a diagram, drawn by one of the
discussion members, to "làm sáng tỏ mọi thứ."
It ended with "Happy Halloween!"

Blogs of Interest

In the last two weeks I'm come across two great blogs that I like to share with all five of you (or maybe it's seven now, counting Sharon and Amy :) Here they are:

Brent and Jennie's European Experience Blog
I grew up with Brent, as our respective parents ran marathons or made cookies or played Nerts together. I looked up to him because he liked Pearl Jam and went to church at the same time. I haven't seen him forever (ok maybe only a year but it seems like many) but I ran into his blog today and found it fascinating to see him running around Switzerland and Germany, hauling two kids around and being hauled around by his wife. There are some beautiful pictures of castles and things so everyone definitely stop by the Cowan Family blog.

Phố - Thoughts of a time in Vietnam
Here is a blogger who commented on my blog a while ago. I just barely replied, and in doing so took a look at the blog attached to the profile. It looks like she just got to Vietnam a few weks ago to commence her year-long stay in a country that hasn't necessarily "welcomed" her. Yet. It's been a month since she's blogged, so I hope that she's backpacking the mountains of the North and will have many stories to tell when she gets back to a computer.

I love reading about people's lives, the intricacies that make up our mundane moments and how fluidly our lives connect with others' then separate. We're in constant flow, in and out of each other's experiences and with each intersection we take a little bit of that person with us. Sometimes I try to contemplate the vast world in which we live, the network of souls that make up human kind, the endless array of individuals that I come in contact with each day... then sometimes I remember that I have dirty dishes in the sink. Like now.

So what kind of people are those Communists raising, anyway?

While we were staying in Saigon, we were graciously housed at my sister-in-law's place, which was situated in one of the numberless hẻm (alleyways) that make up the city's residential areas. It was a quaint little arrangement, us sleeping upstairs while the renters - two students from Biên Hòa currently studying in the city - stayed in the downstairs quarters. My wife and I ran in and out several times a day, never saying more than a few words to the students as we went out the door or up the stairs. But there was one day that we stayed home because of the rain and the two students, Khôi and Ngân, had gone home to visit their family. I took the opportunity to get to know them a little better, behind their back.

I've heard horror stories of the educational system in Vietnam as it is run under the Communists, brain washing the children and other forms of cruel and unusual punishment. But what I found in Khôi was not a walking zombie, not a brain-washed robot training to be government spy... I found a self-motivated, fun-loving, study-holic young man who lived within the "regime," but without the slightest hint of allegiance (or displeasure for that matter) towards the government of his country. His focus was good grades, family unity and preparing for a global economy that is pushing its way into Vietnam even as we speak.

He's studying to be an architect. His desk fluctuated between two and three computers at all times, and the clutter on the desk and bookshelf was constantly shifting. But what really impressed me were the notes he hung all over the place. He ran himself through a strict schedule, as this image shows: 5:30 am - wake up, put a pot of rice on, brush teeth; 5:45 am - move around, morning exercise; 6:30 am - go to the store, make food... 7:00 am - rest, read... and then it's studying for the rest of the day. Not only did his hand writing impress me (and that is his writing, not a font), but his desire to push himself forward, to set goals for each day, to increase his capacity to accomplish by working by routine. I found myself wishing I could work like that...

Over the next few days I watched him as he worked - yes, he actually followed that routine. I also found more notes scattered throughout the house, in places that he would frequently pass by. I found some sticky notes taped to the wall, probably stuck up there after a particularly frustrating lazy phase. "No TV, no games, no sleeping in, no wasting time, no staying up past 11pm" is listed, in bullets, on one of the sticky notes, prefixed by an underlined admonition: "Cast away frivolous fun to focus on accomplishing your higher dream!!!" (notice at the end he actually writes "of" instead of "của" hic).

There's too many notes and lists, some even framed, for me to detail each one. Quotes, "Plan of Work and Goals," a sketch of his 9-out-of-10 point (why not a full 10 I don't know) project... and below is a nearly-finished example of what he's creating now. Click on it to see all the pictures I took of his stuff. I know, it sounds like I'm obsessed with this Khôi person, but I'm not. I'm just wishing I could be like him.


Oh, and by the way, we just got word that he graduated recently... valedictorian.

Eating Our Way South - Saigon

Finally, a day off! I might be able to catch up on some rest today. Or catch up on some cleaning.... we'll see.

Now for the final installment of our gastrojourney through Vietnam, featuring dishes from the Southern part of the country. Now, I don't think that Saigon has any specialties per se, but the food there is great none the less. I don't have as many pictures this time, but here we go:

SAIGON

Bánh Mì - the sandwich that combines a French baguette with all kinds of interesting things to make a light, inexpensive breakfast meal (this place sold it for 5000 đồng, which is about 30 cents. At Lee's it's like $2.50 plus tax!) I already posted a bánh mì picture before, but it ended up that we ate here more than the other place, plus this picture came out better.


Next in chronological order (though not in Vietnam) are the dế chiên. These delicacies are sold in Cambodia and taste amazing like sauteed shrimp. The interesting part is how they catch the crickets: they setup a stick frame and an empty basin of plastic tarp at the bottom. Then they put a light at the top of the frame and crickets fly over to the light then fall into the basin and can't get out. (click for a visual)


Now, back to Saigon. The last restaurant of note at which we ate was called Cơm Niêu Sài Gòn. Not only to they have a one of my wife's favorite dishes (cơm cháy - baked/burned rice), but they do have a little performance to make things more interesting (luckily caught it on film). They bake the rice in a clay pot, then they just shatter the pot right in front of you and throw the lump of rice around, I guess to cool it off, or to show off. Fun! If you're interested in going, the addres is 6c Tú Xương Quận 3, TPHCM and we recommend the cá kho tộ (fish baked in a clay pot with sauce) with the cơm cháy. Here's the video of how they serve cơm cháy, and below is the finished product:






Well, folks, that's all. I'm off to clean the house. Sleeping can wait.

Vietnam 2007 in Pictures

Finally! I've uploaded our pictures from Vietnam and captioned them all (phew!) Enjoy:
Vietnam 2007 Slideshow

note: while the slideshow is playing, you can click on the picture to see info about each image

Driving in Vietnam

Think rush hour in Orange County is bad? Try Vietnam!

This is a little video my wife and I put together of driving through the streets in Vietnam. I was driving (most of the time we used her sister's Honda Future) and she was filming over my shoulder. It's terrifying at first, but it's not too bad once you get used to it. The trick is this: go with the flow. Seriously. There's a flow (or a groove if you will) in the traffic and all it takes is finding yourself in that flow, then driving is fine and actually fun sometimes.

Eating Our Way South - Huế, Hội An

After a great time in Hà Nội, we headed down to the central regions of Vietnam. Central Vietnam is known for its spicy dishes and unique accent - some Vietnamese just say straight out that they don't understand the central dialect.

HUẾ
We only stayed in Huế for two days, but tried to fit as much sight-seeing and eating in as possible. Unfortunately, I didn't think to take a lot of pictures (of the food anyway), so here's our report:

Here's a little food stall in the Đông Bạ (sp?) marketplace in Huế. The was pretty good, but the lady kept bringing stuff out and it ended up to be a bit more pricey than we hoped for. Usually food stalls offer less-expensive food. But it was good and we laughed it off.


We also ate at Tịnh Gia Viên, a nice place tucked in a beautiful garden. The head cook is from the family that used to cook for the imperial kings of Vietnam, so the food is intricately presented in the shape of dragons, turtles and other mythic animals. The presentation is great (I hear they will even dress you up in royal garb if you make the appointment!) but unfortunately, the foood seriuosly lacked in taste. Here's our favorite dish of all, nem which is a type of spring roll. Click here to see what it looked like when we were finished with it :).

HỘI AN

To be honest, Hội An proved to be much more delightful to our palate than Huế. Here's our report:


Our first day was spent shopping, as Hội An is known for its inexpensive fabrics and countless tailor shops. The reason my wife likes it so much is because unlike the shops in Saigon, they are familiar with making clothing for "foreigners," which means they add a little to your measurements instead of take away. That means the Hội An clothing actually fits and is comfortable whereas most clothing bought from Saigon shops is ridiculously tight. Anyway, we spent longer at the shops than usual because we wanted to stay in that part of town until 8pm, for that is when Mr Noodles starts selling.

They call him Mr Noodles (that's my loose translation of "Ông Mì Quảng") because he is famous for his delicious noodle dish mì quảng which he sells in front of the fabric shops for a few hours after sundown. He has no restaurant, or even tables, but just sits down on the sidewalk with his wife and daughter amid stacks of plastic chairs (if you need a table, just put your plate on a chair!) and starts dishing out some killer mì quảng. Just get in line (which consists of a bunch of people sitting in random places - so basically just sit down somewhere) and he magically keeps track of who's next, as well as what you order and how much you owe when you're done. To me, Mr Noodles is a representation of how many people make a living in Vietnam - find your niche and work it. It probably won't be high paying or have any official position or title (in fact, he operates his business right under a sign that says "No food stalls," but it's night and the food's good so that makes it ok), but it's something.

The next day we started out for Cơm Gà Bà Buội, per recommendation of my wife's sister. It was raining and it took us 30 minutes of asking random people on the street to find it, but it was worth it. Bà Buội was is the founder of the place, which since her passing has been headed by her son. There is no menu - you just walk into the front room of the house, take a seat on the wooden bench (across the room from the dog, please) and say "I'll have what they're getting." while pointing to your neighbors. We were quite pleased. The chicken dishes are very simple - shredded chicken on rice, shredded chicken salad - but are delicious. Definitely recommended.

The locals will tell you that you have to try cao lầu, which is a noodle soup that can only be made in Hội An because they make it with special water from a special well that is only in their city. The dish itself isn't so special, just thick noodles in broth, like most other soup dishes in Vietnam. We actually went to the well and were surprised to see... a well. Tucked between someone's house and someone else's house, there's a circular hole in the ground with water at the bottom. A well. I guess I was expecting cao lầu noodles to magically spew from the well or something, but I was a little disappointed.

What locals might not tell you is to try the hoành thánh chiên (fried wontons), and even less will know where to eat them. There's a lot of places that sell this dish, but many are very disappointing. We went to one place that replaced the wonderfully sweet/sour sauce with ketchup. Probably because I'm white. Finally, on the night before we leave for Saigon, we start on a journey to find the real thing. We walked all the way down Hai Bà Trưng street until we found the place - Bông Hồng Trắng. Look at that picture - there lies the "real thing." It might look like nachos, but it's ten times what nachos could ever be.

Home

Well, we're home. Got home on Sunday, back to work on Monday. I'm off today so I'll be cleaning the house. And blogging. Back to real life!!

Eating Our Way South - Hà Nội

It's raining outside so I'm going to blog again.

My wife once told me that she travels to eat. This is not completely true - she actually travels for family and leisure and a love of the seeing far away places - but she has shown me the satisfaction that comes from going out of one's way to ask the locals about where the regional specialty tastes best. And I have shown her how to put aside one's fears and dive into a narrow alley to eat the food many locals won't touch. We make quite the dynamic team when it comes to eating. Here's our report for Hà Nội.

HÀ NỘI -
The specialty in Hà Nội is bún. All kinds of bún. Bún is a vermicelli noodle dish served with different kinds of meat and lots of rau (leafy greens and herbs). It can be served dry or as soup. Everything is brought out separately to the table, then each customer gets their own little bowl to do the mixing in. Their bún is cooked and drained but not tossed so it sticks together, then it is cut into squares so you don't have to slurp it. In addition to the noodles, rau and meat, there's always a tasty mắm to go with it. Nước mắm (fish sauce) seems to be the thing in the South, but most of the bún we had in the North was served with mắm nem, which my wife always tells newcomers to eat first and smell later. Bún is one of my favorite dishes because it digests quickly and doesn't leave me feeling heavy after a big bowl. That's in addition to the delicious taste of fresh herbs, rice noodles and bbq-ed meat mixed with mắm. Yum!

For soupy bún, there's several different kinds. Bún thang, bún bung... but our favorite is bún mọc. Our favorite place by far is called, well, Bún Mọc Số 1 - Number 1 Bun Moc (see above picture). "Number 1" just so happens to be its address, but makes a nice name, too. This type of bún must be pretty regional because I haven't been able to find it anywhere other than the North, including in Orange County.

Another type of bún that we stumbled upon is bún đậu, meaning noodles with tofu. It was in a little alley at the corner of Hàng Bạc and Hàng Bè, and is not for the faint of heart. Entering the alley leads you through a mess of people sitting on little plastic chairs at little plastic tables (very typical of road-side stands). You have to find your own seat, which usually means sitting on the empty side of a table that is already occupied. Then they start bringing stuff out, and you basically look at what other people and point to order. This little dive turned out to be our favorite surprise in Hà Nội, and this dish is probably very tough to find outside of the North.

For those of you who love the classic Vietnamese eggroll - chả giò - then the North might leave you empty handed and empty stomached. The Northern version of eggroll, called nem rán, is filled with cabbage and bean sprouts, with a little ground pork and shrimp if you're lucky. Of course, I love them both. :) This is a picture of some homemade stuff we had while visiting the relatives in the countryside.

Is your mouth watering yet? If it is, we'll tell you a secret. Ok, it's not a secret, but it is a buffet - a Vietnamese buffet - that offers all of the above dishes in one location, all you can eat. It's like 7 dollars to eat to your heart's content, and the atmosphere is "exotic," too. I'll post the address (somewhere in Hồ Tây) when I find the business card.

Phew, that's enough for now! Later I'll post our report on Central Food, from Huế and Hội An. Oh, sorry Triết, we didn't get your extensive restaurant list until we got back South. I guess we'll just have to go back to Huế again!!

The Changing Landscape of Vietnam

I'm trying not to make this trip a petri dish for blog posts. It's not working. But I don't have a lot of time to think and analyze and come to a useful conclusion with many of my thoughts so I'm just going to blog some simple stuff here and hopefully tie up all the frayed posts I've started to make something "good."

The one thing I don't want to do is paint Vietnam as something it isn't. I've only been here twice, but it's enough to see that the idea of Vietnam as a land of nón lá (conical hats) and áo dài (flowing Vietnamese dresses) and phở (noodle soup) is just that: an idea. But I don't want my conclusions of Vietnam to solely reflect positive economic growth and government policy either, which is just as shallow as the previous perspective. Vietnam is a country, consisting of endless peoples, places and things that all contribute to its meaning. I will never be able to capture the whole of Vietnam, let alone articulate it, but I hope that I can contribute a bit to redefining Vietnam as a country, not a war or a tradition or a monetary sum.

And hopefully by doing so I will learn for myself what Vietnam means to me.

A taste of Vietnam

We've been here for almost a week now. Both my wife and me are are sick, we happened to show up right in the middle of monsoon season so it rains everyday, and not the Southern California sprinkle but the soak-you-to-the-bone-in-three-seconds rain. The soaking happens even sooner on a motor bike, and we happened to be on the way to auntie's house (on a motorbike) when the big stuff hit. Then we sat and visited for 2 hours in soaking wet clothing and then got sick. But it's been fun.
I've had a ton on my mind as far as things to blog, but it will all have to wait. For now, I'll just give you a taste of some of the food we've eaten.

Our first meal in Vietnam - bánh mì from a road-side stand.

This is not from War of the Worlds, this is dried squid. Some people love it. Most people don't.

Here's our dim sum, half-way consumed, as a primer for fish noodle soup.

Here's some pho we had at a little place called Pho 24 in Quan 3. The interesting thing was that this place was quite fancy (they even plucked the basil for you!) and most of the logo stuff was in English only, even though it was far from the tourist center.

And this was lunch today, pad thai at a place called Highlands Coffee on the top of Tax Plaza downtown. Looks beautiful but left my tongue with much to be desired. But I met an old friend there who was on a volunteer trip to the Mekong Delta. Small world!

Time to go and Thoughts on the Packing Ritual

I'm sitting here at work but my head is anywhere but at work. In a few short hours I'll be boarding a plane to Vietnam, unless my friend jinxed us last night by telling us that her sister had to wait a full day in the airport because their flight was delayed.

We finished most of the packing last time, i.e. stuffing stuff into big boxes with the intent on distributing it to family members and needy people once we get there. For those of us who grew up in America, the things being sent are very... mundane. Sundry items one might find in a thrift store - a maternity dress from the 80's, a sparkly fiber optic flower with music, boxes of dầu xanh, (a mentholated eucalyptus oil that is standard among Vietnamese home remedies, used so much that it is parodied among some younger Vietnamese folk as a cure-all elixir of some magical origin), toothbrushes, gloves, and don't forget the Fuji apples and seedless grapes.

I think it's a type of ritual. All of this stuff being send back, much of it second-hand clothing that is intended for the "huddled masses" in the Northern region of the country, seems to satisfy a longing in the sender more the recipient. Without making too broad a generalization, I think that many Vietnamese left their war-torn, famined, destitute homeland 25 - 30 years ago, but that image has never left them. I believe there might still be a hint of survivor guilt in those living here, especially when there are still family members living in "Vietnam." The urge to gửi đồ về, the constant drive to send things back to Vietnam perhaps originates from that guilt and a desire to redeem oneself from the sin of leaving Vietnam and not bringing the rest of the country with them.

I don't think this ritual stems out of need. On a comparative basis, my relatives-in-law in Vietnam live "better" lives than we do: a maid to cook and clean, frequent vacations around Asia, and an army of people in America ready to send "American" merchandise at the drop of a hat: candy and chocolates, Levi and Old Navy, Legos for the kids. Although there doesn't seem to be a "need" for these things, the expectation is definitely there. From what I hear, some families don't want all of that stuff, they just want American cash. Lots of it.

So the ritual of packing a bunch of stuff every time someone goes back to Vietnam might have two purposes: a cleansing of guilt that all travelers must pass through in order to be fit to enter the "homeland," and a tribute to those "stuck" in Vietnam.