Pizza: A breakfast food

(PICTURE: I wish this was the pizza they were serving up.)

There's this little pizza shop near our house called Europa Pizza. The pizza looks absolutely retched. However, bad Vietnamese pizza is not weird. The weird thing about this shop is that it is ONLY open in the morning. Personally, I love having leftover pizza for breakfast. However, I would argue that it's generally best eaten in the afternoon or at night.

Back in the states, sometimes when I would see a weird business I used to automatically think it was either an FBI office or an illegal front for something. Here, I just shake my head, laugh a little, and chalk it up to Vietnam being Vietnam. I mean, this is the same country where half my students glow in the morning when their parents serve them spaghetti for breakfast!

Golf

(PICTURE: A common site in Hanoi.)

If there is one thing I can say for sure, it's that a heck of a lot of rich people like golfing. This is as true in Asia as it is in America. Recently in Hanoi, I've seen a ton of golf bags. At first I started to only see golf bags around Korea Town making me think that only Koreans loved golf. However, over the last six months or so, every single affluent house I've been to has had a golf bag in the front hall of the house. I'm not sure if these people play golf or just consider the bag to be a decorative item or a household necessity like the family altar.

Back in April, I meant to write a blog about the golf courses that are springing up around northern Vietnam. There are so many golf courses now that there's a stretch of country road where the women -- who used to sell fruits and vegetables -- only sell golf balls. It's bizarre.

I'm no economist but I'm pretty sure that the increase in golf shops, courses and players is a tell tale sign that a country's economy is booming.

Ear Picking

I've written in the past about the insane ear picking that goes on in the streets of Hanoi. Well, Huyen found this English video which explains the whole ear picking process. The only difference between this video and what I've written about is that this video is about ear picking in Saigon and it takes place in shops and not at a street-side barber's stand. You've got to watch it!

EAR PICKING VIDEO!!!

Fired Up At The Gym

One thing that I always find amusing about the gym is how blatantly guys check out girls. Hell, I'm as guilty as the next dude for diverting my eyes to a cute girl on a treadmill. You know, before marriage that is. It's just human nature that when there's a pretty girl, guys instinctively turn their heads. Don't get me wrong, I'm not supporting those who stare, drool or turn back every half second. I'm only saying that it's normal when a guy double takes at a beautiful woman.

At the gym I go to in Hanoi there is very rarely any girls, let alone attractive girls. To solve this problem, the guys who work out there usually put on Fashion TV and oggle at runway models as they lift weights. Recently though I had the remote control and turned on HBO. The movie "Fired Up" started to play and it seemed like a good mindless flick to pay attention to while on the elliptical. The movie is about two high school jocks who decide to go to cheerleading camp in order to meet/hook up with beautiful girls. Frankly, it's a genius teen comedy concept. Most of the movie takes place at the cheerleading camp which means most of the time there were gorgeous girls on the screen. Before I knew it, every guy in the gym started to gravitate towards the plasma TV; it was one of those rare moments in which I kicked myself for not having my camera on me. Picture a handful of Vietnamese guys, wearing work out gear, standing in a semi-circle, drooling at a plasma TV about a foot above their heads. These guys literally spent twenty minutes staring at the screen like it was the first time they had seen a girl in a mini skirt. I'm not sure why I found it so funny/blog worthy but there's just something about natural instincts that made these guys forget their workouts to stare at girls on a TV.

Belated Birthday Blog

(PICTURE: I swear I had nothing to do with the writing on this cake.)

I had promised on January 10th that I would eventually blog about Huyen's birthday. I'm so far behind on my blogs that I'm just getting around to this a month and two weeks later. Well, to celebrate Huyen's birthday I planned a small surprise party for her. I had called her friend Hang and asked her to call Huyen's friends and to have them meet us at our favorite goat hot pot place. The one problem with this place is that it's all outdoor seating so there isn't a good place for people to run out and surprise a birthday girl. Luckily Huyen didn't see her friends sitting outside when we first pulled up to the restaurant. Immediately I turned her around and pretended that I had something in my eye. Huyen was very concerned for my eye but equally confused why I was slowly pushing her backwards. When she eventually turned around she saw everyone and got a very big surprise. It was pretty awesome because she had NO CLUE that I had planned a party.


(PICTURE: Huyen's first surprise party.)

However, I decided that one surprise party wasn't enough. The next night, on her actual birthday, I planned another party with all of our Apex students. When Huyen arrived to our class (she always comes late to our TOEFL class because of work) we were all ready and waiting with cake and candles. Again, Huyen had no clue that a party was planned and got a second great surprise.


(PICTURE: Huyen's second surprise party.)

No Market Allowed

(PICTURE: Our local market after most of the vendors have left.)

Part of my food tour for Rick was to take him to our local market. While walking through the market, Rick pointed at this sign and asked what it said:


(PICTURE: Notice the exclamation mark.)

Using my amazing Vietnamese I translated that it said, "Market" and pointed at the word "cho" and ignored the other words around it. Immediately Huyen starting laughing and explained that the sign actually read, "Market not allowed."

To me this is just a great symbol of Vietnam: Everyone knows the rules/laws yet blatantly ignores them. Here's this big sign that says no market yet every single morning and evening a market forms and is packed with all the locals from our neighborhood. Shoot, I'm sure gonna miss Vietnam!

Rick and Pri: Parents Of The Year

(PICTURE: Rick at the temple of literature.)

My parents of the year award this year goes to my friend Rick and his wife Pri. Rick and Pri did something so awesomely non conformist that I've got to tip my hat to them -- they decided to move to Sri Lanka for six months so their two little kids could learn about the place where their mother and grandparents were born. To me, this is an experience that will be with their kids forever and go a long way for them to understand who they are. I really want to make sure that my future kids know Vietnamese and are proud of their Vietnamese background; doing what Rick and Pri are doing is definitely something that I hope Huyen and I could do too in the future. You can follow Pri's fantastic blog about their time in Sri Lanka here.

While the rest of his family is living in Sri Lanka, Rick is commuting back and forth to LA where he is producing a few television shows. On one of his trips back to LA recently, he stopped in Hanoi to say hello and to be given a Hanoi food tour. You see, like me, Rick is a total foodie. Even while living here, he has sent me emails about restaurants in both New York and LA. In fact, when he arrived he not only brought us some delicious Sri Lanka tea but he also gave us a gift certificate to one of his favorite restaurants in New York as a wedding present.

During Rick's visit we took him to almost all of our favorite spots. He was so thoroughly stuffed by the end that he barely ate any of his goat at my favorite goat hot pot restaurant! To me, Rick was the perfect type of visitor: someone who just wants to take in as much of the culture as possible while eating every step along the way.

On a side not, Rick got to experience how cold Hanoi could be. Before we went motorbiking around the city he borrowed my vest and one of Huyen's scarves. You can see them in the picture at the top of the blog. At some point during the day (I think exactly when I took that picture) it occurred to me that he looked just like Huyen in this photo:


(PICTURE: Huyen roller skating in my vest and her red scarf.)