Pho ever missing Vietnam

It has been close to 6 months since i’ve updated this blog. To be honest, i never thought i’d be writing about Vietnam again. The wife and I still reminisce about the good old days in Hanoi and how we, as a family went through it together and bringing one of the best experiences in our lives. We can’t stop talking about Vietnam.. well, mostly i was the one who still blabbers and compare Manila to its neighboring Asian country.

This blog will serve as my memory of Hanoi and hopefully, will continue to help others in discovering this wonderful country. I’ll try to add some more useful stuff here especially for people who have no freaking clue what Vietnam was all about. Believe me, before i went to Vietnam and decided to move there for a while, I’ve done a lot of research from Googling to viewing images on Flickr. I thought i was ready but boom! When i got there.. culture shock started to set in for the first two weeks. It is really very different once you experience being there yourself. From the rich culture and respected traditions that have been brought down to the current generation of mobile-phone-using-while-riding-on-motorbikes, it is very hard to forget!

Thanks for those that continue to visit and post comments on the site albeit a small population of the web community. All I can say about Vietnam is that I never realized how beautiful Asia was until i went to this country. My love for photography came out along with the spirit of adventure and the thrill of the unexpected. That itself coming from someone who has lived in the Philippines throughout my entire life. What is it about Vietnam? You’ll find out soon as i take you back to my journey there

Converted to Viet

Xin Chao! After being here for more than half a year, you know the Vietnamese culture is rubbing off once you start noticing the following:

1. You pronounce Doom as Zoom. I actually did this when I asked my colleague what was he watching on HBO.. he said Doom and I said “Oh, Zoom!” The ‘d’ here in Vietnam is pronounced as ‘z’ except for the hyphenated one. Silly me! The effort was good but it was a bit out of place
2. You like motorbikes now more than cars (Vespa, PS and Dylan rocks!)
3. You don’t miss Starbucks. The best coffees in the world are already in town!
4. You aren’t afraid to cross the street anymore! They are the ones who avoid you. Just do not hesitate and you’ll be fine. (Warning: This is only applicable to motorbikes avoiding you while Cars, Trucks and Buses are excluded!)
5. You have your shoes shined while eating lunch (for only 5,000 VND = 15 pesos!)
6. You like eating noodles more than rice and know the difference between Pho Bo and Bun Bo.
7. It takes you around 20 seconds to select a good pair of wooden chopsticks.
8. You eat more frequently on the streets rather than indoors!
9. You call everyone “em oi” even when you’re not in Vietnam anymore.
10. You finally understand football and even watch the sports highlights! I couldn’t care less about this sport back in the Philippines but it’s really big here! Even enough to play goalie for a couple of games

Sand Art

If you’re stressed from the daily hustles and bustles of work or life in general, I suggest it’s time to take a break. To do that, I recommend you look at the work of Ilana Yahav. I’ve never seen anything like it and there’s more of her work on youtube. Here’s a sample of the artist’s masterpiece! *speechless*

 

 

Chef Ricardo is Back!

Voila! I’m finally updating my repertoire and instead of the regular cooking of pork adobo, honey-ginger chicken, bistek tagalog and pork tonkatsu, I’ve become adventurous for a bit and need to explore more spices for the tastebuds.

Here’s one of my *well-done* (with emphasis) beef steak that I’ve prepared this morning:

Looks good eh? Who wants to give it a try? *LOL* Who wants to test the true meaning of friendship?!

I keed, I keed… it’s actually my Pillsbury chocochip pancake for breakfast (sent all the way from Manila by the wifey and delivered by RedEx, thanks Red!) and this is what happens when you haven’t watched the NBA All-Star weekend live coverage for a couple of years! I was running back and forth from the kitchen to the living room and didn’t want to miss a moment of this much awaited NBA event! I left the skillet heat too high and I’ll call this.. Pancake ala Tusta!

 On the brighter side of the day, lunch was better and cooked it with some TLC. Here’s my latest creation and it’s a hoisin chicken with the recipe from pinoycook. It took some grueling preparations as I had to toast the sesame seeds separately, deep-fry the chix, remove the oil, put in the hoisin sauce and add the chix and toss to mix with the sesame seeds! I just made it sound complicated but it really isn’t. I wanted to narrate like a chef from the Travel and Living channel

I’ve now become fond of cooking and hope I can continue this when the wife is here.. I’m spoiled and the wife usually cooks for me.. Anna usually hears these two words coming out of my mouth.. Feed Me! That’s what Baby Justin is saying often these days! Like father like son eh?

The Smell of Success!