toàn là nhảm nhí....
Theo thông tấn xã tuổi trẻ của Đảng và nhà nước ta (thực ra là copy lại của báo Tiền Phong), nước Việt Nam ta đã được đại đa số các quốc gia châu Á bầu làm đại diện duy nhất của châu Á vào ghế thành viên không thường trực của Hội Đồng Bảo An (HĐBA) Liên Hiệp Quốc (LHQ) nhiệm kỳ 08-09. Wow....vinh hạnh nhỉ, nhất là khi tay viết khẳng định rằng trên thế giới có đến 74 nước chưa bao giờ được bầu vào ghế này (chưa kể Việt Nam). Nhưng trước hết hãy nhìn vào danh sách các quốc gia này.
Ta có thấy nước nào mà không phải là một quốc gia châu Phi nghèo đói, một nước cộng hòa chuối/cộng hòa du lịch tút lút đâu đó ở bên vịnh Ca-ri-bê mà tên nào cũng nghe giống tên nào, một đế chế độc tài/tài phiệt (Bắc Hàn, Miến Điện), hay anh em cộng sản của Việt Nam (Lào, Cam-pu-chia)?? Bạn nên nhớ rằng trên thế giới có khoảng 250 nước có chủ quyền, và tôi đoán chắc rằng khi bạn nhìn sơ qua danh sách này sẽ ngạc nhiên bởi một nửa trong số đó bạn hoàn toàn chưa bao giờ nghe tới hoặc có nghe sơ qua nhưng bao giờ biết nằm ở đâu. Cho nên 74 nước này thực ra chỉ có khoảng 10-20 nước ra hồn.
Vậy mà thông tấn xã Việt Nam lại hân hoan thông báo rằng: "Đúng! Từ giờ trở đi Việt Nam coi như là đã cho các "nước" như So-ma-li, Marshall Islands hay Turkmenistan hít khói về mặt ngoại giao/chính trị?" What a load of crap..
Thứ hai, hãy nhìn lại bảy chữ: Hội Đồng Bảo An Liên Hiệp Quốc. Không khỏi liên tưởng đến cụm từ "đánh hội đồng" khi mà năm "ông kẹ" của hội đồng (Mỹ, Anh, Pháp, Nga, và Trung Quốc) đều là những đại gia về vũ khí hủy diệt các loại: nguyên tử, sinh học, hóa học, bạn kể tiếp đi. Bốn trong số này dẫn đầu về xuất khẩu vũ khí (TQ đứng thứ 7). Cả năm đều không ký hiệp ước không phổ biến vũ khí hạt nhân. Cả năm đều nổi tiếng với lịch sử đế quốc và thực dân của họ (Mỹ ở Nam/Trung Mỹ, TQ ở Châu Á, Nga ở khối Cộng Sản, Anh và Pháp thì thế kỷ 17-19 cả châu Phi cắn răng đè luỡi đến thấm đẫm trang sử của họ bằng máu qua các công ty nô lệ xuyên quốc gia như East Indie Company hay la Compagnie Française des Indes). Kế đến, cả năm quốc gia này đều là những người thắng cuộc sau đại thế chiến thế giới lần 2. Người ta nói "vừa đá bóng vừa thổi còi" quả không sai. Ai thắng thì viết lại lịch sử mà.
Thứ 3, cái hội đồng này năm vừa rồi đã im hơi lặng tiếng gần như cho đến phút cuối cùng khi mà xe tăng bọc thép và máy bay ném bom của Israel tiến vào nam Li-băng làm mưa làm gió trong suốt mấy tuần liền. Chưa hết, cũng chính cái hội đồng này năm 1971 đã đá văng Cộng Hòa Trung Quốc (The Republic of China), vốn là môt trong những thành viên sáng lập, ra khỏi ghế thường trực, ra luôn khỏi thành viên LHQ để thay bằng Cộng Hòa Nhân Dân Trung Hoa (The People's Republic of China) mà không cần sự đồng ý tuyệt đối của các thành viên LHQ. Một động thái khó hiểu và mờ ám từ phía LHQ, khi mà điều 23 của hiến chương của LHQ có đoạn viết:
1. The Security Council shall consist of fifteen Members of the United Nations. The Republic of China, France, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America shall be permanent members of the Security Council.
Phần này của hiến chương sau đó không bao giờ được viết lại. Hay. Hay thật.
Nước Việt thực sự muốn ngồi vào cái bàn của các ông to mặt bự này? Chúng ta đã dành ra hơn 60 năm để đánh đuổi bọn thực dân, bọn đế quốc, bọn ỷ lớn bắt nạt kẻ yếu, để rồi lại ngồi cùng bàn với bọn ăn thịt uống máu người này? Để rồi khi nước Việt ta lớn mạnh ta cũng sẽ làm như họ, cũng đi hãm hiếp những nước nhỏ hơn?
Đừng có hiểu lầm tôi. Tôi yêu Việt Nam. Tôi yêu một nước Việt hùng cường. Tôi đã khóc khi nghe tin Việt Nam được vào WTO, nhưng điều kiện ra sao, ta đã phải nhượng bộ những gì, v.v. Đảng CS ta có sẵn sàng đưa các thông tin này ra báo đài để mọi người cùng bình luận, cùng phán quyết??
Và bây giờ, lại một tin vui khác cho Việt Nam. Liệu nó có thật sự vui như vậy?
Tại sao ban tiếng Việt của bbc.com vẫn im hơi lặng tiếng? Thường thì mấy ông chống Cộng ở đó nhanh lắm, chỉ sau vài ngày khi bên VN post bài thì họ đã có bài trả lời, thường thì hoàn toàn lạc đề và sai be bét...but we'll see this time.
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Monday, October 02, 2006
International Food Bazaar
Sunday, 01/10/2006
I woke up to the sound of Simon and Garfunkel blasting out (i.e. soothing out) my radio/alarm clock. The mercury screen registrered 10:30am. A quick jump into the shower and then I was set. It's International Food Bazaar day! What else could be more pleasurable to look forward to?
So I head over to Tr.'s place to prepare something that would proudly and gastromically represent our country. It wasn't the ubiquitously favorite phở, nor was it the nostalgic chef-d'oeuvre of the ancient capital bún bò Huế. Limited in the student microscopic universe in terms of time and money, we have chosen nem cuốn and thịt kho tàu as our reprensentants. Not very exciting I know, but nonetheless entertainable.
Ce qu'il faut retenir en tout cas, c'était que c'était décidé il y a long temps que nem cuốn and thịt kho tàu seraient assez dignes d'être l'objet de notre adultère pendant ce jour entier! Les deux sont facile à manger, et à se substituer l'un pour l'autre. On peut en manger nous-même au fur et à mésure du processus. En plus le coût marginal d'en produire une unité de plus est bien petit, ça prend moins de 30 seconds pour un nem cuốn supplémentaire. Juste un avertissement pour les francophones, méfiez-vous du mot nem cuốn car ce n'était tout à fait la même chose que nem, ce que vous vous habituez à manger dans les restos chinois ou vietnamiens tout au long des certaines ruelles parisiennes/nantaises.
Voici le nem, ou nem rán, selon les français :
De l'autre côté, nem cuốn est un peu comme ceci :
Y-a-t-il une différence? bah oui !!! c'est le mot "rán" qui veut dire "frire" (to fry, barbecue, etc.). Par contre, "cuốn" veut dire tout simplement "rouler" ou "tourner" (to roll).
Quant à thịt kho tàu, voici ce à quoi on a voulu arriver :
Mais bon, rien n'est parfait dans la vie. En vietnamien on dit souvent : «Người tính không bằng trời tính,» ce qui veut dire plus ou moins «nous avons beau faire nos projets avec la plus grande précision, le ciel fera les siens beaucoup mieux» (Plan all you want, but the heavens' plans are better).
Enough of the introduction, let's get to the exciting part : the passing of this magnific day...and LOTS of pictures.
So like I said, at 11pm we have started. Or rather, I have arrive at the scene where Tr. has already started. What have I missed out? Tr. has already ướp (marinated) the pork in soy sauce and some secret combination of spices that she wouldn't reveal to me. In addition, she has hard-boiled about twenty chicken eggs (I make the distinction because in Vietnamese cuisine, there is a HUGE difference between eggs of chickens, ducks, geese, chim cút (quails, les cailles) etc.)
The first task was deep frying boiled eggs to be put in thịt kho tàu, as you can see below:
All of that is BOILING oil. (Aux francophones, c'est de l'huile extrêmement chaude !!) And the eggs are already taking up that disgusting burn on the outside. But being a Vietnamese, you would say YUMMY instead instead of turning your head away in animosity. Trời ơi thèm quá thèm muốn chảy nước dãi ra luôn!!! It is now 11:00am.
After about 20 eggs and 15 minutes later, this is what we arrived at:
Meanwhile, the chicken for nem cuốn is making itself useful in another pot nearby:
While I took care of these guys, Tr. went to another kitchen and tackled omlettes. Tonnes of them. Beat them out, pour oil and a bit a vodka "cho nó bông lên" (fluffy). According to strict Vietnamese culinary guides, you make omlettes as thin as possible. That means the moment you put pour the egg mix into the pan, thin it out and pour it right out IMMEDIATELY (in about less than 2 seconds). This is extremely painstaking, but it will be worth your while because thin egg will be extremely easy to roll later on. It's also tasty. Sorry there's no pictures of this process ):
I have been so focused on cooking that I didn't notice we had competitions. Here is a picture of the famous Mexican Pozole cooking up right next to our work. As far as ingredients are concerned, I think you just need tonnes of onions and and like five pigs:
Back to our food. Want to take a peek inside that delicious roll? Basically there are eggs, pork, lạp xưởng (sausages), chicken, cabbage, cucumber and cilantro. Here is our secret:
And here is a sample of the final product. To be eaten with tương đen (hoisin sauce). I think it deserves the "picture of the blog" award:
Finally, and after hours and hours of repeatedly stretching and twisting our hands and fingers in indecent ways, we have amassed a formidable pile of edibles. Fortunately for us, on the other side of the room thịt kho tàu was also shaping up great!
Which we have compacted into something more manageable. At 4:00pm, we headed to the Food Bazaar:
Overall, the food bazaar was a success. There were around 60 dishes representing around 30 countries. It was what I'd call an "eating orgy." I myself tortured my stomach to the point of it breaking down, although I've got some pictures along the way too. Enjoy the international variety:
One of my favorite dish of all time: Butter chicken (aka murgh makhani) from India, makes me think of another great dish: Tandoori chicken: "state dish" of Punjab. To be eaten with butter nan. Very fatty, very decadent, very Punjabi...I'd drooling at this very moment.
Kabab from Turkey. Needless to say, the Turkish/Arab culinary culture has spread tremendously to Western Europe, where, in France for example, I have had amazing kabab. Yummmmy. In the picture above it's not cooked yet, but already it's looking so tasty..
Jiao Zi, China; Bulgogi, South Korea.
Braised Chicken in Sun-Dried Tomato Cream, Italy; Rice Roll, China.
Mushroom with Soy Sauce, China; Noodle Kugel, Germany.
Butter chicken, India; Vietnamese Chicken, Vietnam.
Steamed Chicken, South Korea; Shann Noodles, Myanmar.
Wang Kaew Wan ...Thailand.
Chicken Tortilla Soup, Mexico.
Japanese Curry, Japan; Badshahi Chicken, India.
And our stall! Nem cuốn and thịt kho tàu, VIETNAM!
I have no idea what the dish on the left is, but on the right is Hong Kong Street Special, from Hongkong.
Paté chaud, vietnamese style. Une de peu des choses de bon que les français ont laissées au Vietnam.
寿司 (Sushi) from Japan! My second favorite dish of the evening. Yet on the echelon of Japanese gastronomy I don't value it as highly as some other dishes, しゃぶしゃぶ for example is something that I would marry a Japanese girl just to eat everyday... Yummyy.....shabbb...shabb....back and forth, back and forth the the beef is for the taking back and forth....slurp slurp.
May I also respectfully point out that 寿司 isn't about the fish, and it doesn't have to be rolled up into little cute pieces. The term 寿司 (sushi) refers to the rice, not the seafood or the toppings. So don't be taken too aback by the picture being different from what you imagined.
And so time passed by...Soon the food bazaar came to an end. The battlefield was intense. Not a single stray of food was left:
In the end, I was content, and feeling godly. What else could I have asked for: eating my heart out and enjoying international flavors in an educational framework...Wow.
I woke up to the sound of Simon and Garfunkel blasting out (i.e. soothing out) my radio/alarm clock. The mercury screen registrered 10:30am. A quick jump into the shower and then I was set. It's International Food Bazaar day! What else could be more pleasurable to look forward to?
So I head over to Tr.'s place to prepare something that would proudly and gastromically represent our country. It wasn't the ubiquitously favorite phở, nor was it the nostalgic chef-d'oeuvre of the ancient capital bún bò Huế. Limited in the student microscopic universe in terms of time and money, we have chosen nem cuốn and thịt kho tàu as our reprensentants. Not very exciting I know, but nonetheless entertainable.
Ce qu'il faut retenir en tout cas, c'était que c'était décidé il y a long temps que nem cuốn and thịt kho tàu seraient assez dignes d'être l'objet de notre adultère pendant ce jour entier! Les deux sont facile à manger, et à se substituer l'un pour l'autre. On peut en manger nous-même au fur et à mésure du processus. En plus le coût marginal d'en produire une unité de plus est bien petit, ça prend moins de 30 seconds pour un nem cuốn supplémentaire. Juste un avertissement pour les francophones, méfiez-vous du mot nem cuốn car ce n'était tout à fait la même chose que nem, ce que vous vous habituez à manger dans les restos chinois ou vietnamiens tout au long des certaines ruelles parisiennes/nantaises.
Voici le nem, ou nem rán, selon les français :
De l'autre côté, nem cuốn est un peu comme ceci :
Y-a-t-il une différence? bah oui !!! c'est le mot "rán" qui veut dire "frire" (to fry, barbecue, etc.). Par contre, "cuốn" veut dire tout simplement "rouler" ou "tourner" (to roll).
Quant à thịt kho tàu, voici ce à quoi on a voulu arriver :
Mais bon, rien n'est parfait dans la vie. En vietnamien on dit souvent : «Người tính không bằng trời tính,» ce qui veut dire plus ou moins «nous avons beau faire nos projets avec la plus grande précision, le ciel fera les siens beaucoup mieux» (Plan all you want, but the heavens' plans are better).
Enough of the introduction, let's get to the exciting part : the passing of this magnific day...and LOTS of pictures.
So like I said, at 11pm we have started. Or rather, I have arrive at the scene where Tr. has already started. What have I missed out? Tr. has already ướp (marinated) the pork in soy sauce and some secret combination of spices that she wouldn't reveal to me. In addition, she has hard-boiled about twenty chicken eggs (I make the distinction because in Vietnamese cuisine, there is a HUGE difference between eggs of chickens, ducks, geese, chim cút (quails, les cailles) etc.)
The first task was deep frying boiled eggs to be put in thịt kho tàu, as you can see below:
All of that is BOILING oil. (Aux francophones, c'est de l'huile extrêmement chaude !!) And the eggs are already taking up that disgusting burn on the outside. But being a Vietnamese, you would say YUMMY instead instead of turning your head away in animosity. Trời ơi thèm quá thèm muốn chảy nước dãi ra luôn!!! It is now 11:00am.
After about 20 eggs and 15 minutes later, this is what we arrived at:
Meanwhile, the chicken for nem cuốn is making itself useful in another pot nearby:
While I took care of these guys, Tr. went to another kitchen and tackled omlettes. Tonnes of them. Beat them out, pour oil and a bit a vodka "cho nó bông lên" (fluffy). According to strict Vietnamese culinary guides, you make omlettes as thin as possible. That means the moment you put pour the egg mix into the pan, thin it out and pour it right out IMMEDIATELY (in about less than 2 seconds). This is extremely painstaking, but it will be worth your while because thin egg will be extremely easy to roll later on. It's also tasty. Sorry there's no pictures of this process ):
I have been so focused on cooking that I didn't notice we had competitions. Here is a picture of the famous Mexican Pozole cooking up right next to our work. As far as ingredients are concerned, I think you just need tonnes of onions and and like five pigs:
Back to our food. Want to take a peek inside that delicious roll? Basically there are eggs, pork, lạp xưởng (sausages), chicken, cabbage, cucumber and cilantro. Here is our secret:
And here is a sample of the final product. To be eaten with tương đen (hoisin sauce). I think it deserves the "picture of the blog" award:
Finally, and after hours and hours of repeatedly stretching and twisting our hands and fingers in indecent ways, we have amassed a formidable pile of edibles. Fortunately for us, on the other side of the room thịt kho tàu was also shaping up great!
Which we have compacted into something more manageable. At 4:00pm, we headed to the Food Bazaar:
Overall, the food bazaar was a success. There were around 60 dishes representing around 30 countries. It was what I'd call an "eating orgy." I myself tortured my stomach to the point of it breaking down, although I've got some pictures along the way too. Enjoy the international variety:
One of my favorite dish of all time: Butter chicken (aka murgh makhani) from India, makes me think of another great dish: Tandoori chicken: "state dish" of Punjab. To be eaten with butter nan. Very fatty, very decadent, very Punjabi...I'd drooling at this very moment.
Kabab from Turkey. Needless to say, the Turkish/Arab culinary culture has spread tremendously to Western Europe, where, in France for example, I have had amazing kabab. Yummmmy. In the picture above it's not cooked yet, but already it's looking so tasty..
Jiao Zi, China; Bulgogi, South Korea.
Braised Chicken in Sun-Dried Tomato Cream, Italy; Rice Roll, China.
Mushroom with Soy Sauce, China; Noodle Kugel, Germany.
Butter chicken, India; Vietnamese Chicken, Vietnam.
Steamed Chicken, South Korea; Shann Noodles, Myanmar.
Wang Kaew Wan ...Thailand.
Chicken Tortilla Soup, Mexico.
Japanese Curry, Japan; Badshahi Chicken, India.
And our stall! Nem cuốn and thịt kho tàu, VIETNAM!
I have no idea what the dish on the left is, but on the right is Hong Kong Street Special, from Hongkong.
Paté chaud, vietnamese style. Une de peu des choses de bon que les français ont laissées au Vietnam.
寿司 (Sushi) from Japan! My second favorite dish of the evening. Yet on the echelon of Japanese gastronomy I don't value it as highly as some other dishes, しゃぶしゃぶ for example is something that I would marry a Japanese girl just to eat everyday... Yummyy.....shabbb...shabb....back and forth, back and forth the the beef is for the taking back and forth....slurp slurp.
May I also respectfully point out that 寿司 isn't about the fish, and it doesn't have to be rolled up into little cute pieces. The term 寿司 (sushi) refers to the rice, not the seafood or the toppings. So don't be taken too aback by the picture being different from what you imagined.
And so time passed by...Soon the food bazaar came to an end. The battlefield was intense. Not a single stray of food was left:
In the end, I was content, and feeling godly. What else could I have asked for: eating my heart out and enjoying international flavors in an educational framework...Wow.
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