Vietnamese cuisine

       Looking at these pictures, I can smell the delicate perfume from the soup phở or imagine the taste of grilled meats accompanied by its rice and fish sauce. Undoubtedly, these pictures titillate my taste buds.

I’m certainly not objective, but I’m in love with Vietnamese cuisine, which I appreciate practically each dish.  

At home, I often eat Vietnamese food and sometimes I afford to go to a Vietnamese restaurant in Paris. I must say I’ve missed Asian food in general since I’m in Vancouver because my host family is Canadian, from Britain, even though dinners they prepare for me are usually good.

Vietnamese cuisine has many serious qualities to attract people. First, it tastes good :). Then, thanks to the localization of Vietnam between lands and seas, and its influences coming from China or France, Vietnamese cuisine is varied, using a lot of ingredients: vegetables, rice, meats, fishes and sea foods. This variety provide beautiful colors in your plate (or bowl).

Adding to its variety, another argument is that cuisine is globally a healthy cuisine! Indeed, Vietnamese cuisine employs a lot of vegetables, is often not oily or filled with sauce. For example, I like Cantonese cuisine, notably fried flat rice noodles with beef, but this dish is sometimes very fat.

So in this post, I will introduce some famous Vietnamese dishes that you maybe already know.

I begin with the phở : it is considered as a “national dish”, it is I think an equivalent of Japanese’s Ramen: this very popular noodle soup can be enjoyed everywhere in Vietnam, at every time. It is typically served during breakfast by Vietnam..

I keep some sweet memories from phở we can eat in Saigon (officially Ho Chi Minh City) which is very tasty. One of the best I've ever eaten.

The soup includes noodles made from rice, usually served with beef, or chicken, garnished with Thai basil, soybeans, onions, lime, or chili. The broth is made by simmering beef bones for several days. 

Now, I would like to present the Vietnamese fish sauce used in multiples dishes in Vietnam, called nước mắm.This fish sauce could seem to smell particularly strong, because it is produced by anchovies fermentation. Anchovies and salt are arranged in wooden boxes to ferment and are slowly pressed, yielding a salty, fishy liquid. This sauce is used as a cooking sauce, nevertheless it exists a sweet and sour version commonly used as a dipping sauce.

These following dishes notably used  nước mắm as a dipping sauce:

Bánh cuốn : These are rice flour rolls stuffed with ground pork, prawns, and wood ear mushroom, garnished with chả lụa (Vietnamese ham or sausage) and fried shallots.

               

Gỏi cuốn or Vietnamese summer rolls: these are rice paper rolls that often include shrimp, herbs, pork, rice vermicelli and other ingredients wrapped up and dipped in nước chấm or peanut sauce. These rolls are very popular too.

Canh Chua or Vietnamese sour soup: I like this soup which accompanies marvelously a bowl of rice. It typically includes fish, pineapples, tomatoes, herbs, bean sprouts, tamarind, and various kinds of vegetables. No need to say it is very good.

Bánh xèo: this is a type of crepe made out of rice flour with turmeric, shrimps with shells on, slivers of fatty pork, sliced onions, and sometimes button mushrooms, fried in one or two teaspoons of oil, usually coconut oil, which is the most popular oil used in Vietnam. It is eaten with lettuce and various herbs and dipped in nước chấm or sweet fermented peanut butter sauce. 

Of course, I'm not exhaustive, more dishes would deserve to be known. But I only hope this would encourage you to test these delicious dishes coming from Vietnam.
Have fun!

How to greet someone?

Answer such a question could be very delicate in a place like ELI, where students come from everywhere and don't always share the same habits. Greeting is probably universal, but the manner varies, depending on the country, and a simple usual behavior in your culture could be seen as an offence elsewhere.

In Canada, like in the USA, when you meet a person, you often look at her eyes and say “hello” or “hi”, “how are you” with a smile. After that, I good handshake, right hand with right hand, is pretty common. Apparently, with a girl you know very well, typically you can hug her to prove the closeness of your friendship. Also, people often just say "hi, how are you" with a wave.

In fact, it’s different in France where I live and study. I remember me having a discussion with a Vietnamese-American friend living in San Jose, California, during his academic exchange in Paris. He told me his surprise about the way French people usually greet, something he estimated pretty weird! In France, we don’t greet a group, but each person. So when you greet a woman, you kiss her right cheek to right cheek and left cheek to left cheek, making a kissing sound into the air beside them. Men between them just give a handshake like in America. There is the same process when you leave, and it can take time of course to kiss and shake everyone in order to say goodbye properly. If you don’t kiss a girl, it can mean several things: you seem to be distant or shy, you don’t want to stay for a conversation, or maybe you’re just too tired to spend your time to say hello to everyone. Nevertheless, kissing on one check is informal, so for a job appointment for example, it would be better to just give a handshake.

This social code for greeting in France is not the same in the USA: that's why my friend told me that even with his closest friends, he never kisses on cheek. I said to him that giving always a good hug is rare around Paris.

I think it is a good example of how different the customs can be around the world. In France, you will not be blamed for a kiss on a check, on the contrary. And what about the behaviors in others countries?

I have a Vietnamese background, and from my experience I know that in Vietnam, you don’t touch a person, but just do a slight bow, and in a more informal way, you just say hello with a sign from one hand.

My roommate, who is from Japan and currently lives with me in the same homestay in Vancouver, informed me that in Japan, he just say the equivalent of "hi" in Japanese, with a wave. For more formal meetings, it’s bowing instead of handshaking, and more the bow is pronounced, the more formal is the meeting. Another Japanese girl I know tells me she could sometimes give a hug to his closest girl friends, but never to the boys.

In Maghreb countries, and in Saudi Arabia too I think, men can with good friends greet each other with a kiss on each cheek. 

I hear that in Russia they kiss on check three times. French people sometimes say they can also kiss on the lips, but it’s perhaps just an urban legend. I don't really know.

I find these differences interesting, and finally, I think we definitively need a book if we want to understand all the standards, particularities and other nuances of greeting around the world.

In ELI, we adapt to the Canadian culture: we speak English of course (English Only Policy looks at you ;), and personally I say "hi" with a wave and sometimes give a good handshake to greet. For the hug, I haven't really experimented here yet but I'm open.

Anyway, see you next time, for a greet.

My Asian cinema

In this post I would like to deal with cinema, most precisely with “Asian cinema” as we often say in France, even if the expression covers multiple different countries.

France is truly a land of cinema: Paris has lots of theaters, and if you seek carefully, you can find every kind of film. For instance, currently, there are the latest blockbusters like Kung Fu Panda 2, but also French comedies, and in some theaters “A separation” (Jodaeiye Nader az Simin, 2011) the Iranian film which won multiple prizes at Berlin international film festival 2011, or the Korean thriller "I saw the devil" (Akmareul boatda, 2010). Moreover, a lot of films are available on DVD and now on Blu Ray.

About me, I like American cinema a lot, classic or recent. In my opinion, French cinema was better in the past, French films today prefer too often focusing the attention on the character and forget the plot, the rhythm. However, some French films can worth to be seen:  for instance “A prophet” (2009), directed by Jacques Audiard, a thrilling prison film which shows the ascension of a French Arab inmate, with feelings like intelligence, violence, peace and poesy.

Anyway, I would like here to talk about Asian cinema a little bit. I think I’ve become very curious about films coming from Japan, Korea, China or Hong Kong since the release of Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill which includes numerous allusions to Asian films. There is a strong appeal of exoticism for many viewers, that is to say these films provide a culture, a vision, a kind of cinema different from what we can see in Hollywood.

In addition, as an Asian person growing in a western country, all these films are a way to open my mind to a continent that I’ve always wanted to know. Through these films, I have some clues, they reflect the life or throw out questions and I think I can right now understand something of these countries geographically far from France. In other words, there are the curiosity and the pleasure of watching a good movie different.

I begin with Hong Kong: I’m a huge fan of Wong Kar-Wai, I’ve seen all his films which are in my opinion absolutely unique in the world. He is notably the director of the masterpiece "In the mood for love" (Fa yeung nin wa, 2000). In this film, he employs some delightful tracks of Nat King Cole; he uses beautiful camera movements, in order to capture the mood, the melancholia, this unspoken love between two people in 1960’s Hong Kong.

But Hong Kong was mainly known for entertaining genre films such as Polar, Wu Xia Pian (films with swords and costumes) or Kung Fu. Some specialists consider that the golden age period goes from the beginning of the 80’s to the retrocession in 1997: the films directed by Tsui Hark, John Woo, or Jackie Chan. I like all of these films. Hong Kong today is not really what it used to be in the past, that is to say a firm of entertaining films which dared everything and experimented with often little money.

Hong Kong, which was before 1997 a colony of England, produced some films with a nostalgia sense, looking for the past glorious history of China. Aimed at Hong Kong viewers and Chinese emigrants of the entire world, the films responded often to feelings of exile, questioning the culture, especially in the films from Tsui Hark.

Nowadays, Hong Kong films are more attracted by mainland China, and don’t experiment anymore. 

About mainland china, I principally know Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou, whom Gong Li was his muse. These directors had to deal with the censorship, and must take care when they bring a social message. For example in “Raise the red lanterns” (Da hong deng long gao gao gua, 1991), a very beautiful and colorful film, artistically speaking, but with a sad background, Zhang Yimou denounces the patriarchal power.

I like also most recent films from Zhang Yumou, like "House of flying daggers" (Shi mian mai fu, 2004), which is exotic, colorful, peaceful too, with a love story between Zhang Zi-Yi and Takeshi Kaneshiro, a huge star in China but also in Japan.

 From Korea, I just know recent ones. But for those I know, what awesome films: there is often an exceptional mastery to provide a sense of suspense. The first Korean film I saw was "JSA" (Gongdong gyeongbi guyeok, 2000). This film is a thriller, set in the borderlines between north and south. Full of suspense, but also with an universal message between the people. I remember a touching scene where we hear a Korean song when the soldiers shoot each others. Park Chan-Wook, the filmmaker, will after be celebrated for his trilogy of violence (notably "Old Boy"). I'm always astonished by the freedom that some directors have on the content of their films because the violence we can find here is impossible to find elsewhere. I red that the violence is a type of metaphor regarding the history of the society: the military dictatorship in place many years ago. 

Among films I like, it must be mentioned films like "Brotherhood"(Taekgukgi hwinalrimyeo, 2004), "the Good the Bad and the Weird" (2008), or Bong Joon-Ho's films, probably the most popular Korean filmmaker with Park Chan-Wook in western countries.

"Memories of murder" (Salinui Chueok, 2003) is one of my favorite. Set under the dictatorship in a country, based on a true case of serial murder, it is a detective film, without answer, which is sometimes comic, sometimes absolutely disarming, touching. I think it represents the entrance of the society into the modern world. 

 On the contrary, I know Japanese classic films better thant recent films. I know Ozu (synonym of Zen for westerners), Kurosawa, or Naruse. One of the classic film that I like the most is "Floating clouds" (Ukiguo, 1955) set after the World War II. It is a pure jewel of melodrama, very interesting and fascinating, where the man at this time is depicted with cowardice, while the woman tries to survive. 

The cinema of Kurosawa has always been renowned in France, he is probably with Miyazaki the most famous Japanese director in France. For instance, his film Ran (1985), based on Shakespeare's King Lear, was produced with a french company.

The first recent film that really amazed me was "Battle Royal" (2001). The plot proposes a death match between classmates, with derision, violence and tragedy, where each death is different from the precedent. We can consider it as both an exciting thriller (the question is: how the following will be killed) or also as a tragic film where in an absurd game we discover links between the pupils (love or friendship).I remember a scene in the tower, very tough. Can we see this film as an image of how hard is the competition in Japan, which lead to a nonsense? I don't know.

Kitano, who plays in this film, is apparently more famous in Japan for his TV or radio shows as a comic, than as a filmmaker, whereas in France he is more famous for his films.

One of his film I like the most is "Kids return" (Kizzu ritân, 1996). I still remember the music composed by Joe Hisaishi. By the way, we can find in this film an inclusio (haha ;), negatively in fact.

Vietnam doesn't produce films, unfortunately. The only director I know is Anh Hung TRAN who is french in fact. His better film, "the scent of green Papaya" (1993), was directed in France. We can feel a research of the taste, the scent of Vietnam in his work.

In fact, I could talk cinema again and again. It's like a window open on the world and the time for me. Perhaps next time, on American or French cinema.

To finish, I just would like to share this music from "Porco Rosso" (Kurenai no buta, 1992), called "le temps des cerises". Even if this song is well-known in France, a classic one, I hear it for the first time with this version sung by a Japanese artist. Enjoy.

Le temps des cerises 

And you, what kind of cinema do you appreciate?

The Prometheus myth and the genesis

Prometheus is, in Greek mythology, the Titan who stole fire from Zeus, the chief of Gods ruling the sky, to give it to the Men. Charged with what Zeus regarded as a crime, Prometheus has been condemned to be bound to a rock, where every morning an eagle eats his liver reappearing the night because of its immortality. This sentence lets him alive in agony.

Thus, the genesis, subsequent to the Prometheus myth, detains actually several similarities with the latter.

In the same way, humankind didn't initially have the knowledge or the knowledge of a technology (fire): he got it, against the will of the supreme chief, God, or Zeus, with the suggestion of a snake, or with the complicity of Prometheus.

Both Prometheus and the snake have been blamed for their action. According to the Bible, Lord God stated: "because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals". And Prometheus, as we said previously, is tortured relentlessly every morning.

Moreover, concerning humankind, it is punished as well in both texts. Indeed, Adam and Eve are driven out the Eden. We don't exactly know in our extract of Prometheus Bound, but it is question of the "sovereignty of Zeus" and humankind is not an equal.

Theses similarities show us arguably there are often a piece of influences between some myths or books.
For information, we can also notice that Heracles will later kill the eagle and deliver Prometheus from his chains and his torments.

Genesis: the differences between 1st account and 2nd account

Even if these accounts are issued from the same Bible, several differences exist on the genesis creation, between the first and the second, depending on which part the interpretation is based.

First, there is the time of creation. In the first story, it takes 6 or 7 days, God progressively creates the features of the world: the light the first day, then the sky, the sea and the dry land, the sun, the moons stars, the fish and the birds, and finally the animals and the people.

In the second story, God seems to create the world in only one day, the passage states: “In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens”.

We can also notice a difference between the designation of God: simply God, or Lord God in the second account.

In addition, according to the first account, God creates the man the last day, at the end of the sequence of events, whereas in the second account the man comes just after the earth and the heavens.

.

Also, there are the means of creation: man is “formed from the dust of the ground”, God gives him the life by breathing into his nostrils. In the first story, God has just to say “let…”, and these simple words seem to be enough to create.

Furthermore, there is the place of the man, given by God. One the left, he is the master of the nature, “let them have domination” says God. On the right, the story not only distinguish man and woman, but is it written that they are driven out of the Eden where they lived by God, after the episode of the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge between good and evil.

Thus, we find different pieces of information on the creation in both accounts. Throughout history, some have interpreted both religious texts in order to defend certain points of view today debated: the domination of the humankind on the nature on the first text, the dominion of man on the woman on the second. These points explain the behaviors in several cultures influenced by the Bible.

Paris, Vancouver and the Canada Day

So far, it has been a real pleasure to spend my time here in Vancouver. For me, most of the time a good trip should be somewhere that combines nature and culture, delivering a relaxing atmosphere. In order to be surprise, it should be in a country I’ve not visited before.

Vancouver, with his green Stanley Park, with the first nation culture and the people historically coming from Europe or Asia, offers a wild range of possibilities I have to experiment, like biking, hiking in Lynn Valley Park, meeting bears, sea lions or dolphins...

This summer I’m glad to be cut off from my French environment for a while. It might seem surprising. Indeed, I have noticed that when I introduce myself to the other students, when I state I’m from Paris, I cause a kind of enthusiasm, plus the surprise that I'm a french having an Asian face (my Vietnamese background)! Paris, what a romantic city, isn't it? I know that France is the first tourist country in the world, visited by lots of foreigners (and I can be proud of this matter of fact probably). Yet, as a Parisian, I’m no more very surprise, I become familiar with all the famous monuments or museums making the reputation of the city, I’ve integrated them in my mind. I can see every day the Eiffel Tower in the subway line I take to go to my University, situated in the west of Paris. So, obviously, I see the Eiffel Tower like an iconic monument of Paris, but sometimes I think it’s just a tower made of Iron. I don’t really pay attention on it when I walk in Paris.

Also, the daily life in Paris is quite expensive, and some details can be disappointing. Nevertheless, especially in summer, for a foreigner, Paris deserves to be visited for a lot of reasons. On this point, if you want to have an overview, I will strongly recommend you to take a look on the latest film of Woody Allen, recently released in Theater, Midnight in Paris. Adding the fact it is a very good movie, full of comic and amusing situations or dialogues, it’s definitively a superb love letter to the city of Paris.  :)

But back on Vancouver and the ELI program.

I really appreciate to speak with the others students, I often want to challenge myself and see if I can lead a conversation understandable. Which may surprise one of my friends here who speaks French as well, and who sometimes proposes me to go outside of the ELI building in order to speak French. Easier, but not really useful.

I have joined the club of ELI students, lately. It implies that I’m new, I have to make efforts to be integrated in a school where mostly everyone knows each other. In several cases, some students have been here since one year now.

So, I tried the activities organized and met other students. Not always conclusive I must say.

On the one hand, intrinsically speaking, some activities were disappointing, probably because I expected more. Last Tuesday, I was at the dessert club to cook a chocolate cake, but finally just few girls cook for the whole group, despite my interest to put my shoulder to the wheel, to get involved. In fact, I think the club has been victim of its success, because it was pretty crowed. I thought it would be a workshop where everyone having his name on the list would do his own cake, following the instructions of the responsible.

Furthermore, for the music club in Monday, I wanted to see if I’m still able to sight-read a Piano sheet of paper (I used to practice when I was in middle and high school). But it was not really the good opportunity to do such a thing because the responsible usually takes the piano to teach to beginners.

On Wednesday, because of the bad weather, the BBQ has been canceled. And yesterday, for the Canada Day, I must say it was great until 2.00PM. After, with some friends, I lost the group (and I’m not quite sure there was still a main group in fact :D).

On the other hand, I don’t worry too much about that, because I really appreciate to communicate in English. I don’t know why, but sometimes it comes naturally, sometimes I just mix up my words and it takes more time to build a good sentence.

Anyway, I like feeling that my mind is getting warmer when I’m looking for my words to communicate, the sign that I’m working!

For instance, during the dessert club, I was talking with Chieu, he suggested me to take a look on Madoka Magica, a Japanese animation series. I know some japanese series (I'm fan of Cowboy bebop) but I didn’t know this one, and now I have a new amazing assignment :) In my opinion, it’s always interesting to speak and practice, and expand your boarders.

The Canada Day was very good as well, as I said especially the morning. We were at the Canada Convention Centre, where we watched numerous attractions: portraits of notable Canadians, a spectacle with circus performers mainly. But at lunchtime, it became so crowded that we lost each other. In the afternoon, I was shopping in Pacific Mall with my two friends remaining.

Finally, we were so tired to walk that we decided to go back, and see the fireworks…on TV or on the internet haha. 

Today, the weather is really good, sunny, warm… Unfortunately, the sun was absent yesterday. I hope next week will be like today! I enjoy while it lasts!

In conclusion, I spend a good moment here, and for sure it remains me lots of things to see and share in Vancouver ;)

First day

Hi to the 600W class at ELI!

As you can see this morning, I will be your new classmate for the remaining 8 weeks. My name is Thiên Phong MOM, I have a vietnamese background but I'm from Paris, France. I study Finance in my hometown and I'll be graduate next year with a master degree. I hope this stay in Vancouver will give me the chance to to improve my english, to reach a new level. I would like to work abroad someday.
About my hobbies, I like cinema a lot. I appreciate both classic and recent films, coming from America or Asia. I also like watching soccer, I support the FC Barcelona team, just the best team in the world for those who know ;-)
I came the last wednesday, I haven't have the opportunity to visit a lot of things in Vancouver, (just downtown in fact).  Maybe could  you advise me some good places to see? Anyway, I'm still open if you have some questions.
It was nice to meet you.