December is food festival month in HCMC

A Singaporean chef shows how to make chili crab at the Tastes of the World 2009 at the September 23 Park in HCMC’s District 1 - Photo: Kieu Giang

Rice dishes from the length and breadth of Vietnam and food from around the world will feature at two big food and culture festivals coming to HCMC next month.

The culture-culinary Hat Lua Que Toi (My country’s rice grain) festival from December 10-12 at Binh Quoi 1 in Binh Thanh District will promote about 100 different dishes made from rice from every corner of Vietnam.

From December 27 to January 3, the HCMC Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism will hold the Tastes of the World 2010 festival at September 23 Park in District 1 with dishes from 20 countries.

Vendors at the Hat Lua Que Toi festival will peddle their goods and cry out their wares as they do on the streets of the three regions. The hardship of the farmers working on the rice fields will also be highlighted.

“We’ve made 10 survey trips to find dishes for the festival,” said Chiem Thanh Long, director of Binh Quoi Tourist Village.

Binh Quoi organized a similar event in 2008 that presented southern cuisine.

Long said the tourist village wants to attract more families to this year’s event. “Parents can bring their children to enjoy food and learn how farmers plant rice and the rice culture of Vietnam,” he said.

The village expects to sell around 7,500 tickets for three-day festival that runs from 5 p.m to 10 p.m. The ticket costs VND220,000 per adult, and VND150,000 for a child.

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The majesty of Hue

Dai Noi, which is divided into the Hoang Thanh (royal citadel) and Tu Cam Thanh (forbidden citadel), is the largest most-important heritage building in the ancient capital. It was started in 1804 and finished in 1833. There are 100 different constructions inside the palaces but most of them were destroyed by natural disasters and wars. UNESCO has contributed money to restore parts of the citadel.

Hue was the capital of Vietnam during the Nguyen dynasty (1802-1945). The city which is 1,066 kilometers north of HCMC has a distinctive geography, history, culture, architecture and culture. Nowadays, Hue attracts tourists to its temples and royal tombs that were acknowledged as World Heritage by the UNESCO in 1993.

The Saigon Times Daily’s photo-journalist Kinh Luan captures some of the romantic city’s history and natural beauty that Vibeke Jensen, head of the UNESCO office in Vietnam, was speaking about, when she said Hue was “One of the few places in the world that has both global-value tangible and intangible heritages.”

The 400 meter-long Trang Tien Bridge across Huong River was designed by architect Gustav Eiffel in 1897 and finished after two years. In the war time, the bridge was destroyed twice.

Built on the banks of Huong River in 1601, Thien Mu is the city’s most famous pagoda. Lord Nguyen Hoang Lord named it Thien Mu after a legend about a woman who fell from heaven to announce a time of prosperity.

Poetic Huong river and majestic Ngu Binh Mountain in the background are icons of hue. People say they are as solemn and as unobtrusive as Hue people.

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Lace up the joggers for Terry Fox Run

The 14th annual Terry Fox Run, a fun-filled family event, will start near Crescent Plaza, Phu My Hung, District 7, on Sunday, November 28.

People can participate in this 5-km non-competitive run or walk and join in the party and picnic afterwards. The Ten Dollar Bill Band will stir things up and get people dancing and singing during the event. Pre-run festivities begin at 7 a.m, and the race starts at 8 a.m.

More than 7,000 people registered for last year’s run, raising  VND730 million for cancer research.

The Terry Fox Run is named in honor of the Canadian amputee runner who attempted to run across Canada. Terry Fox had to have his leg amputated above the knee at age 18 because of cancer. At 21, he decided to run across Canada to increase awareness of cancer and raise money for cancer research. During his Marathon of Hope he ran over 5,300 kilometers, the equivalent of a marathon a day for 143 days, but his cancer finally prevented him from achieving his goal. Countries around the world hold events yearly in support of Terry’s dream of finding a cure for cancer.

The event will be held by the Consulate General of Canada in HCMC, in cooperation with the Canadian International School, Canadian Chamber of Commerce, and the HCMC Union of Friendship Organization.

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Grilled fish wrapped in new lotus leaves

Grilled fish served with new lotus leaves is a specialty in Dong Thap Province - Photo: Son Lam

Dong Thap Province in the Mekong Delta has many dishes made with lotus such as steamed lotus seeds, steamed rice with lotus leaves, lotus sprout salads and grilled loc fish rolled with new lotus.

Dong Thap is a lowland province with areas in flood all year round - great conditions for growing lotus. Locals grow water flower in immense fields. When the lotus blossoms, Dong Thap is at its most beautiful and locals use it a lot for cooking.

The loc fish is cleaned carefully and skewered longwise with bamboo. Then it is covered with a layer of straw, clay or banana leaves and grilled over charcoal.

Once the fish is done, the outside layer is peeled off to see the yellow color of fish skin.

In cities, people often wrap small portions of the cooked fish meat in rice paper rolls, but in Gao Giong in Dong Thap, people use new lotus leaves instead of rice paper to make the wraps containing fish, noodles, aromatic herbs and fish sauce.

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Thanksgiving Thursday

What would Thanksgiving in HCMC be without a roast turkey?

Thanksgiving Day, as celebrated in North America, is a time to gather with family and friends to give thanks for the many blessings in life.

To make a memorable Thanksgiving on Thursday, Nov. 25, hotels are preparing traditional lunch and dinners.

At Legend Hotel Saigon, the Atrium Café serves a wide buffet spread that includes roast turkey and gammon ham with cranberry sauce, duck liver pate with melba toast, grilled pork tenderloin with orange marmalade glaze. Get festive with free flowing beer, soft drinks, coffee and tea for lunch; and wines, beer, soft drinks, coffee and tea for dinner.

At Sofitel Saigon Plaza, Café Rivoli’s culinary team will prepare the roast turkey with the finest ingredients and condiments, including free flowing house wines, beers, and soft drinks and a tempting Thanksgiving dessert buffet and delicious apple pies. For delivery, the hotel offers a flying roast turkey with condiments to be ordered at the Gourmand Shop. Orders are available now.

Caravelle Hotel will serve roast turkey and smoked salmon at its Nineteen Restaurant alongside buffet lunch and dinner delicacies like oysters, salmon, caviar and fish roe.

Sheraton Saigon Hotel & Towers serves Thanksgiving evening at Saigon Café with a buffet of traditional fare including imported US butterball turkey, baked gammon, hickory smoked rump steak, double loin chops and pumpkin pie.

Windsor Plaza Hotel Saigon will offer oven-roasted turkey for pick-up or delivery from November 25. Turkey is available with a number of traditional trimmings, including tender Brussels sprouts, homemade chestnut stuffing, delectable glazed pumpkin, tangy cranberry sauce and classic giblet gravy. Available in two sizes, small turkeys are perfect for family feasts and large turkeys are suitable for larger celebrations of up to 20 people. Turkey without trimmings is priced at VND220,000+/kg and turkey with trimmings is priced at VND300,000+/kg. Prices are subject toVAT.

Pair drive from London to Saigon to clear landmines

Rebecca Harris (3rd, L) and Max Levell (2nd, R) pose for photos with the Rex Hotel Saigon’s staff after driving their Porsche overland from London - Photo: Courtesy of the Rex Hotel Saigon

Max Levell and Rebecca Harris from the UK-based humanitarian organization Mines Advisory Group (MAG) arrived at the Rex Hotel in HCMC’s District 1 on Saturday after a 60-day car journey through 17 countries.

The overland charity-jaunt raised funds for people in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam who are victims of unexploded ordnance.

Levell, 31, sells and restores classic Porsches while Harris, 26, trains horses. The couple from Windsor in the UK drove most of the 18,000 kilometers from London to HCMC in Levell’s 1966 Porsche 912, which he got for his 18th birthday.

“Neither of us can believe that we’ve actually driven here from London, crazy!” Levell said on their blogspot, londontosaigon.blogspot.com.

They crossed into Vietnam through the Lao Bao border gate in Quang Tri Province and were waylaid for a few days by floods in the Central, before passing through Hue, Hoi An, Danang, Nha Trang, Muine and HCMC. 

They told the Daily a few minutes after they arrived at the Rex that they were thrilled to have completed the trip and very pleased the car made it without any mechanical problems.

They said they hoped their journey would encourage people to donate money to help clear landmines and unexploded ordnance in former conflict zones in Vietnam and everywhere.

The important work would free up land for agriculture and community development and educate the local population about the dangers of unexploded bombs.  People can donate money directly to MAG via the online donations site:  www.justgiving.com/londontosaigon2010  

Since operations commenced in 1999, MAG Vietnam has conducted mobile clearance operations in more than 1,300 villages, cleared more than seven million square meters of land for agriculture and community development, and removed and destroyed close to 150,000 landmines / UXO

More information on the charity and MAG Vietnam, can be found at www.maginternational.org/vietnam.

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Vietnam Airlines opens new route to Japan

Vietnam Airlines will launch a new route from Da Nang City to the Japanese city of Narita, roughly 60 kilometers east of central Tokyo, on December 15, Da Nang City’s Foreign Affairs Department said Monday.

Seven flights per week are scheduled for the Narita – Da Nang – HCMC – Narita route, the department said.

The flights will depart from the central city of Da Nang at 2:55 a.m. and arrive in Narita at 1:20 p.m. (local time).

The national flag carrier will maintain the route until March 31 next year. After that date, it will fly between Da Nang and Narita directly without transiting Ho Chi Minh City.

The national carrier will also open a direct route between Da Nang and Hong Kong on November 26, according to the Da Nang People’s Committee.

On Monday, it launched a second direct route to Yangon, Myanmar's southern trade hub and former capital city.

There will be three flights a week between Yangon and HCMC, the airline said.

The carrier had begun flying from Hanoi to Yangon four times a week in March.

A member of the SkyTeam airline alliance that includes Air France and America's Delta Airlines, Vietnam Airlines has set out to become one of Southeast Asia's leading carriers.

It aims to transport 12 million passengers this year and boost its fleet from 70 to 115 aircraft by 2015.

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