Heya Folks,
On the way to work yesterday, we stopped on one of Hanoi's many speciality food streets, Hang Thanh, for 'sua chua nep cam': or black sticky rice with sweet yoghurt. At 8,000vnd its a real bargain, and yummy too.
SarahHeadsEast xx
January 28, 2010
sữa chua nếp cẩm
Heya Folks,
On the way to work yesterday, we stopped on one of Hanoi's many speciality food streets, Hang Thanh, for 'sua chua nep cam': or black sticky rice with sweet yoghurt. At 8,000vnd its a real bargain, and yummy too.
SarahHeadsEast xx
January 26, 2010
Know One Teach One
Heya Folks,
This week kicked off with a cooking class last night at the famous KOTO restaurant near the Temple of Literature. This restaurant not only serves amazing tasty food, but also serves as a training centre for homeless and impoverished youngsters to learn culinary skills, which they then take on to jobs in top class restaurants throughout Vietnam and the world. Understandably, many of them stay on with KOTO for many years after they finish their training, becoming head chefs in the restaurants, helping to train up new chefs or running the weekly cooking class.
We had a fantastic evening cooking up traditional vietnamese vegetarian and vegan dishes like tofu with tumeric, fried taro and a sumptuous desert of barbequed banana in a sweet coconut soup. Our host for the evening, Hue, was really friendly and informative about the kinds of ingrediants used in Vietnamese cooking and how to get hold of them!
Hearing Hue's story and how she ended up in the KOTO programme really brought it home to me just what a fantastic scheme this is; it doesnt give people HANDOUTS but equips them with SKILLS which change their lives, and the lives of their families. (Hue uses her wages to support her family back home, in particular making sure that her younger sister can finish her education). The fact that many of the trainees stay on to become trainers themselves is a real testament to the success of KOTO, and surely is no finer example of the 'Know One Teach One' philosophy that underpins the organisation.
All in all a great evening.
SarahHeadsEast xx
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Click here to learn more about the KOTO organisation
January 16, 2010
to a grand old lady...
Hey folks,
It's unfortunate that this blog sometimes has to carry bad news as well as good. This post is for the "original" Curson cat, Gizmo, who died last night at the grand and respectable old age of 20 (something like 180 in cat years).
I think it's amazing that Gizmo whole experience of life was with us, she retained a stoic presence while much around her changed. Both cats and people came and went, but Gizmo remained a constant. She moved house three times, and proved to be an ideal flatmate when I lived in the hostel in Jesmond. She spent most of her days sitting on the windowseat presiding over the Coast Road traffic, and I think a brown smudge of her is even visible on Google Street. She was 'the last of the originals' as it were, and a proper old lady to the last.
SarahHeadsEast xx
It's unfortunate that this blog sometimes has to carry bad news as well as good. This post is for the "original" Curson cat, Gizmo, who died last night at the grand and respectable old age of 20 (something like 180 in cat years).
I think it's amazing that Gizmo whole experience of life was with us, she retained a stoic presence while much around her changed. Both cats and people came and went, but Gizmo remained a constant. She moved house three times, and proved to be an ideal flatmate when I lived in the hostel in Jesmond. She spent most of her days sitting on the windowseat presiding over the Coast Road traffic, and I think a brown smudge of her is even visible on Google Street. She was 'the last of the originals' as it were, and a proper old lady to the last.
SarahHeadsEast xx
January 13, 2010
Pho
No Vietnamese person can function normally without a steaming hot bowl of Pho inside them...
Its not just a dish, its an institution, and I for one am a great fan. I was trying to discover what made the broth so tasty, and then I found out its made from bone marrow...oops. Never mind, its still a delicious dish, with or without the animal options.
Here is my friend Chau with a bowl of the good stuff...
SarahHeadsEast xx
Its not just a dish, its an institution, and I for one am a great fan. I was trying to discover what made the broth so tasty, and then I found out its made from bone marrow...oops. Never mind, its still a delicious dish, with or without the animal options.
Here is my friend Chau with a bowl of the good stuff...
SarahHeadsEast xx
Miss Sarah
Heya folks,
I had a rare evening teaching at the Children's Palace today...in which all four lessons went really well! I'm gradually learning that not every lesson will be successful, but its a great confidence boost when they do go well.
There's been a timetable re-shuffle in my teaching, which I've subtly manipulated so that I'm teaching more younger students. I absolutely love teaching children, much more so than with teenagers and adults, as I find it easy and fun to get the students physically engaged with the lesson...with running or shouting games. It always surprises me how a few materials can go a long way. It's tiring to say the least!
I am prolific at the Children's Palace for using up whiteboard markers with alarming speed, as I always seem to be drawing pictures and diagrams on the board to teach or elicit vocabulary.
Here are a few photos from my lesson on sunday, not quite sure what I was doing here!
Meanwhile, my days and weeks in Hanoi have settled into an easy routine of teaching, cafes, lesson planning and Vietnamese lessons. Tet (the lunar new year) is coming up in a few weeks time, and I have around two weeks off from work. I'm really looking forward to seeing how Tet is celebrated in Hanoi, as I havent been here at the right time before. The week after Tet, I'm planning to head north to SaPa, which is home to many of the ethnic minority groups that live in rural Vietnam. It'll be great to get out of the city for a while, and do some trekking with any luck.
Also...I'm cold! Its turned really rather chilly in Hanoi at the minute, although I know that I have no right to complain, given how cold it is in the UK right now!
SarahHeadsEast xx
I had a rare evening teaching at the Children's Palace today...in which all four lessons went really well! I'm gradually learning that not every lesson will be successful, but its a great confidence boost when they do go well.
There's been a timetable re-shuffle in my teaching, which I've subtly manipulated so that I'm teaching more younger students. I absolutely love teaching children, much more so than with teenagers and adults, as I find it easy and fun to get the students physically engaged with the lesson...with running or shouting games. It always surprises me how a few materials can go a long way. It's tiring to say the least!
I am prolific at the Children's Palace for using up whiteboard markers with alarming speed, as I always seem to be drawing pictures and diagrams on the board to teach or elicit vocabulary.
Here are a few photos from my lesson on sunday, not quite sure what I was doing here!
Meanwhile, my days and weeks in Hanoi have settled into an easy routine of teaching, cafes, lesson planning and Vietnamese lessons. Tet (the lunar new year) is coming up in a few weeks time, and I have around two weeks off from work. I'm really looking forward to seeing how Tet is celebrated in Hanoi, as I havent been here at the right time before. The week after Tet, I'm planning to head north to SaPa, which is home to many of the ethnic minority groups that live in rural Vietnam. It'll be great to get out of the city for a while, and do some trekking with any luck.
Also...I'm cold! Its turned really rather chilly in Hanoi at the minute, although I know that I have no right to complain, given how cold it is in the UK right now!
SarahHeadsEast xx
January 3, 2010
chuc mung nam moi 2010!
Heya folks,
I hope you all enjoyed a happy new year celebration, wherever and however you celebrated it. After such a random and bizarre christmas, its only right that new year should have been celebrated in a similar fashion, and it most certainly was. I have spent the past few days constantly asking myself 'how did I end up here?', especially when I realise that its such a far change from New Year 2009, celebrated on Newcastle Quayside.
Before I left for Halong City on thursday, I spent a very enjoyable morning catching up with the crew from the Lemon Hotel, over coffee and then Pho in a nearby cafe. The newly refurbished hotel should be open for business in the next few weeks; its excellant to know that friends are nearby, and I shall be dropping in often.
Onto Halong city. Which wasn't actually Halong city at all, but the nearby city of Cam Pha. Cam Pha, with all the added Vietnamese tones and characters beyond the realms of this keyboard, is pronounced similar to 'come far' in English, and well, I certainly did. It took around 6 vietnamese hours by local bus, and we arrived knackered and in the dark. I stayed with a vietnamese family, which was a fantastic and authentic experience. They were all really friendly and though they didn't speak much English we got on really well. I was invited into the kitchen (an honour) to introduce an English dish to them....mashed potato....which seemed to go down well!
Unfortunately rain set in on new years day so we didn't manage to get to the beach or caves as we'd planned. Instead we drove around Bai Chay bay and up into the hills a little way on dirt tracks to a remote pagoda. The views from the top were absolutely stunning and so peaceful too. Mum remember the room of buddha statues at the Fine Arts Museum? Well now I've seen them in situ...
On the way back to town we stopped for a bowl of Pho at a roadside cafe. I chose the non-dogmeat option, which was still absolutely delicious, and the perfect dish to fill you up and keep you warm in the rain! I have tried 4 Pho dishes here so far, and haven't been disappointed yet. We also got the chance to visit the local market which was a fab experience, and of course we went to the Karioke...twice. Well, when in Rome.
I was invited into the Vietnamese family as a guest rather than a tourist, so I'm afraid they aren't many photographs from the trip, but very very many happy memories.
Back in Hanoi, I've swung straight back into teaching and am increasingly finding I have quite a full-on timetable here. Such a pleasing contrast from my first few weeks. Tet is only a month away now, and not long after that is Halong Bay and CAMBODIA...woo!
Until Next Time
SarahHeadsEast xx
I hope you all enjoyed a happy new year celebration, wherever and however you celebrated it. After such a random and bizarre christmas, its only right that new year should have been celebrated in a similar fashion, and it most certainly was. I have spent the past few days constantly asking myself 'how did I end up here?', especially when I realise that its such a far change from New Year 2009, celebrated on Newcastle Quayside.
Before I left for Halong City on thursday, I spent a very enjoyable morning catching up with the crew from the Lemon Hotel, over coffee and then Pho in a nearby cafe. The newly refurbished hotel should be open for business in the next few weeks; its excellant to know that friends are nearby, and I shall be dropping in often.
Onto Halong city. Which wasn't actually Halong city at all, but the nearby city of Cam Pha. Cam Pha, with all the added Vietnamese tones and characters beyond the realms of this keyboard, is pronounced similar to 'come far' in English, and well, I certainly did. It took around 6 vietnamese hours by local bus, and we arrived knackered and in the dark. I stayed with a vietnamese family, which was a fantastic and authentic experience. They were all really friendly and though they didn't speak much English we got on really well. I was invited into the kitchen (an honour) to introduce an English dish to them....mashed potato....which seemed to go down well!
Unfortunately rain set in on new years day so we didn't manage to get to the beach or caves as we'd planned. Instead we drove around Bai Chay bay and up into the hills a little way on dirt tracks to a remote pagoda. The views from the top were absolutely stunning and so peaceful too. Mum remember the room of buddha statues at the Fine Arts Museum? Well now I've seen them in situ...
On the way back to town we stopped for a bowl of Pho at a roadside cafe. I chose the non-dogmeat option, which was still absolutely delicious, and the perfect dish to fill you up and keep you warm in the rain! I have tried 4 Pho dishes here so far, and haven't been disappointed yet. We also got the chance to visit the local market which was a fab experience, and of course we went to the Karioke...twice. Well, when in Rome.
I was invited into the Vietnamese family as a guest rather than a tourist, so I'm afraid they aren't many photographs from the trip, but very very many happy memories.
Back in Hanoi, I've swung straight back into teaching and am increasingly finding I have quite a full-on timetable here. Such a pleasing contrast from my first few weeks. Tet is only a month away now, and not long after that is Halong Bay and CAMBODIA...woo!
Until Next Time
SarahHeadsEast xx
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