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So, the food monitoring has kind of gone out the window. My stepmother is terribly eager to feed me, and while I can say no, there's a point after which it's basically kicking the dog.
So. Bún mắm for breakfast. A kind of dirty rice/yum cha mix for lunch, and 'congee' for dinner. Not in the Chinese style that I'm accustomed to, though. That's okay - it was interesting.
Also here: THE BEST MOCHI I HAVE EVER EATEN, HANDS DOWN.
If I can go back at some point, I am going to get a box of these, freeze them, and take them to Paris. They are that amazing...
The two key things from today were:
1. eating,
2. seeing the Vietnamese Museum of Fine Arts
First, the food:
bún mắm: rice noodles in soup with pork things and herbs/vegies
dinner (congee with chicken and duck)
tomorrow's dinner?
Apparently it takes them all day to make those little griddle cakes they're cooking, and only 3 hours to sell them all!
Did I mention the mochi, btw? Because they were AMAZING. In case you didn't guess the first time.
Anyway, I am full of food and really tired. But I shall briefly press on through the Vietnamese Museum of Fine Arts.
As with all Art Museums, context is king - the history of the country, the cultural influences, the presentation, the situation and circumstance - unfortunately, the VMFA doesn't provide sufficient context for their works. Most of what I got was thanks to my dad who lives here and provided information on the styles of the architecture, the relevance of the various cultural waves that went through the country, and why so much of the Vietnamese history is pretty scarce on the ground.
I really loved the buildings/architecture of the VMFA buildings - late 1800s, with some redoing in the Art Deco period:
Late 19th Century residence:
Dad was impressed by the ceramic columns, which were ceramic through-and-through and glazed, not ceramics-clad, which is more usual. A much older and slower time period of architecture.
All three buildings holding the VMFA were late 19thC, although there were touches of Art Nouveau (the porch roof on this):
The stained glass windows:
And a touch of Art Deco:
My dad Instagrammed this:
It looks a lot more elegant there than it does in RL. In RL, the buildings are unfortunately run down and not very well cared for - rather like the collections being housed in them.
And every now and then there was the occasional architectural oddity - like this very Chinese chandelier in the mildly Chinese foyer of VMFA Building 2:
I also took many pictures of the floor tiles in the VMFA - 19th century floor tiles and beautiful work. It was the quilter in me. I couldn't stop myself from noticing the tesselations and the secondary patterns!
And one picture of one of the items in the collection: a bronze incenser for a temple.
Keep in mind that it would have had to have been sculpted in wax first, then a cast made, then the bronze made, then the cast smashed and the finished product carefully filed/polished.
This is elaborate shit, yo!
There was also a massage in there, and a long walk (for my foot) from Vincom B to the VMFA, and then to the Ben Thanh markets, at which point we caught a taxi back to where we'd left the motorbikes.
And now it is most definitely time to sleep!
So. Bún mắm for breakfast. A kind of dirty rice/yum cha mix for lunch, and 'congee' for dinner. Not in the Chinese style that I'm accustomed to, though. That's okay - it was interesting.
Also here: THE BEST MOCHI I HAVE EVER EATEN, HANDS DOWN.
If I can go back at some point, I am going to get a box of these, freeze them, and take them to Paris. They are that amazing...
The two key things from today were:
1. eating,
2. seeing the Vietnamese Museum of Fine Arts
First, the food:
bún mắm: rice noodles in soup with pork things and herbs/vegies
dinner (congee with chicken and duck)
tomorrow's dinner?
Apparently it takes them all day to make those little griddle cakes they're cooking, and only 3 hours to sell them all!
Did I mention the mochi, btw? Because they were AMAZING. In case you didn't guess the first time.
Anyway, I am full of food and really tired. But I shall briefly press on through the Vietnamese Museum of Fine Arts.
As with all Art Museums, context is king - the history of the country, the cultural influences, the presentation, the situation and circumstance - unfortunately, the VMFA doesn't provide sufficient context for their works. Most of what I got was thanks to my dad who lives here and provided information on the styles of the architecture, the relevance of the various cultural waves that went through the country, and why so much of the Vietnamese history is pretty scarce on the ground.
I really loved the buildings/architecture of the VMFA buildings - late 1800s, with some redoing in the Art Deco period:
Late 19th Century residence:
Dad was impressed by the ceramic columns, which were ceramic through-and-through and glazed, not ceramics-clad, which is more usual. A much older and slower time period of architecture.
All three buildings holding the VMFA were late 19thC, although there were touches of Art Nouveau (the porch roof on this):
The stained glass windows:
And a touch of Art Deco:
My dad Instagrammed this:
It looks a lot more elegant there than it does in RL. In RL, the buildings are unfortunately run down and not very well cared for - rather like the collections being housed in them.
And every now and then there was the occasional architectural oddity - like this very Chinese chandelier in the mildly Chinese foyer of VMFA Building 2:
I also took many pictures of the floor tiles in the VMFA - 19th century floor tiles and beautiful work. It was the quilter in me. I couldn't stop myself from noticing the tesselations and the secondary patterns!
And one picture of one of the items in the collection: a bronze incenser for a temple.
Keep in mind that it would have had to have been sculpted in wax first, then a cast made, then the bronze made, then the cast smashed and the finished product carefully filed/polished.
This is elaborate shit, yo!
There was also a massage in there, and a long walk (for my foot) from Vincom B to the VMFA, and then to the Ben Thanh markets, at which point we caught a taxi back to where we'd left the motorbikes.
And now it is most definitely time to sleep!
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From your experience in Vietnam, do you think it's safe for an IBSler triggered by gluten? The rice and all rice noodles are obvs. fine, but I assume the griddle cakes and buns are all wheat flour -- what would you say is the cross-contamination level?
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Generally, though, I don't know that I'd risk it. :(
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