The Pig Roast

Pork is a main product here in Viet Nam.  I like BBQ, any day you can get BBQ is a good day.

So, my dad and I had a few friends over for some roasted suckling pig.  I always wanted to have a roasted pig on the table with an apple in its mouth.

We had Adam and his mother over for dinner this night.

Fresh from the roaster and in transit in the back of a taxi.

On the table.

Bit small for the apple but not too small for us.  This was a good BBQ.

More Cooking

OK, having successfully taken on the blueberry muffin with crumble topping, time to get to one of my favorite breakfast foods.

I love beignets.  However, I have never had a fresh one.  In the Ozarks people just open a can of biscuits and fry them and call them donuts or beignets.  They really are very good but I wonder what a real one tastes like.

Well, here we go.  My mother and father tell me that the best beignets come from Cafe du Monde in New Orleans.  I think I had one once but honestly I was a little baby and do not remember it.

So, here is my attempt at creating proper New Orleans beignets from scratch.

I'll spare you the boring part of mixing and kneading the dough.  Once we got that done we had to let it rise for at least in an hour, so while it rested in the oven we went to the gym to do our work out.  I am starting to train to run 5K and am starting to lift weights, oh, sorry, that is a different topic.  Anyway, this is the rolled dough.

Then we cut it into squares.

Put it in hot oil (350 degrees).  Flip them and fry them.

Rest on paper towels.

Dust with powdered sugar.

Eat.  I am told that beignets should always be served with coffee.  So, today I get a cafe au lait to go with my fresh beignets.  Let me just say....... "WOW" I love these things.  Just a little touch of cinnamon and nutmeg in the dough and a nice soft centre with a light crunchy exterior.  This is living.

Time for a bit of cooking.

Well,......... time to find new things to do.  One of the things I enjoy is cooking.  Before I was making French baguettes and linguine.  Time to branch out and try new things.

In the US we do most things prepackaged or from a box.  Few people know how to cook anymore with actual ingredients.  As I am in Viet Nam I cannot get many of those boxes so I have to learn how to do it from scratch.

One of my first attempts was blueberry muffins.  We do not have fresh or frozen blueberries in Viet Nam.  Fortunately, we found dried blue berries and were able to soak them in water and re hydrate them.  Heh, and I get to use new words.  Who uses re hydrate?

So, here we go..... my first attempt at home made blueberry muffins with crumble topping.

I had these for breakfast and let me just say, they were as good as they look.  I'll be practicing this more often.

Rock Climbing.

A lot of people were worried that Viet Nam was a backwards country that was unsafe and that I would not have much to do.  So far there are all kinds of things to do and I am having a blast.

One day I got to go to the rock climbing gym with my friend Adam.  This was loads of fun.  I had been to the gym a few times in Springfield before I came.

I never thought I would get to go here too.

Afterwards we went back to Adam's house, which if three or four floors high.  We made forts and had loads of nerf gun wars.  Always fun.

Halloween in Viet Nam

Yes, like Thanksgiving I am really behind on this too.  My first Halloween in Viet Nam.  I did not initially plan a costume as we assumed it was not a big deal here.

Boy, was I wrong!!!!!!!!!!

My friend Mathew's family organized a big Halloween outing.

First, everyone dropped of candy at their house.  Then Mathew's mother distributed the candy to all the houses participating in the tick or treat.  She produced maps for everyone and we all started from there house and went throughout the neighourhood.

As we had to make a last minute decision we were off to the pharmacy again to make me into a mummy.

The final result.

Taxi ride to the party.

The gathering at Mathew's House.  There were loads of people.

Mathew's House.

Yep, more Mathew's House.

This is the dark alleyway from Mathew's House to the street.

This is Mathew.

People still in and out of the alleyway.

We got to run around with our friends.  The neighbourhood and city are all safe enough that we can just go.  We had a great time.  Once we were all finished we had dinner at The Kitchen, which is the restaurant here.

Hanoi is simply cool.

Thanksgiving

I know, I know, I am very behind on all of this.  I am very busy having loads of fun in Viet Nam.

Thanksgiving this year was also spent in Hanoi for me.  It was very different as for the first time I went to a restaurant instead of doing it all at home.

I went with my father and my friend Adam and his parents.  What was really fascinating was sharing Thanksgiving with my friend, who is German.  I have never had Thanksgiving with non-Americans before.

We went to a really fancy place called The Press Club.

We got to The Press Club before the others.  To my surprise we had our own private alcove booked just for the five of us.  Now, that is living.

The table was all decked out in white linen with fancy glasses and stuff everywhere.

In preparation of determine what I wanted it was critical that I meditate on the menu and become one with it.  Nothing wrong with applying a little Naruto ginjitsu to dinner determinations.

See, Adam is not becoming one with the menu and he is getting all confused.  Of course it has nothing to do with his being German and not really understanding what it is all about.

This is Adam next to me by the way.  He is loads of fun, even if he does silly things like eat hamburgers and fries at a fancy Thanksgiving dinner.

OMG, I am absolutely stuff, I doubt I can eat another bite.  Of course once I became one with the menu I had to have the entire five course meal.  Of course I can still squeeze in dessert.

It is really fun to share these experiences with people who do not celebrate Thanksgiving normally.  We had a lot of fun.  I wish the rest of my family could have been with us too.

Teshen Katori Shinto Riyu (Saigon) Training with the Master.

This week was really cool.  I flew to Ho Chi Minh City (formerlly Saigon) so that my father could do some work there.  However, the cool part is that we timed it at the same time that Sensei Nobutoshi Otake was in town to evaluate our school in Viet Nam.

Sensei Nobutoshi is the son of Risuke Otake, who currently runs the school in Japan.  Sensei travels to the different schools outside of Japan to make sure they are maintaining the appropriate standards.

It was really fun and I got to learn new stuff, which Sensei taught me himself.  Once Sensei show you something new he expects you to go work with the more senior students to practice.

First is the airplane.  We flew in a huge 777 from Hanoi to Saigon, which is a 2 hour flight.  The engines were amazing.  I could stand up four times in one of the engines they are so big.

More cool was getting on the plane.  I got to walk up on it from the tarmac.  I never got to do that before.  First we drive out to the plane on a bus, then we get off and walk up these huge step ladders to get on.

On the first day when we arrived we found a Starbucks.  Turns out there are two in Saigon.  So, we just had to go in there.

They are way cooler here than in the US.  Starbucks outside the US are still large with loads of places to sit and hang out.  Much better than the small drive threw models that are in the US.  There is even an upstairs to this place.

There were loads of people downstairs and it was quieter up here so we came up here to have our snack.  It also let us look out over the streets.

Looking out from the window, there is always lots of traffic.  There are something like 6 million people in Saigon, maybe more.

I like looking out the window.

I had blueberry muffin and my dad had a strange green tea cheesecake.  Green tea is in loads of things here.

My dad and coffee.....


OK, now to the cool stuff.  The sword fighting.

This is me with Sensei Nobutoshi.  Sensei is one of the top sword masters of Japan.  It is amazing to get the chance to study with him.

This is my first training with Sensei.  He is demonstrating the techniques to me and I am working with Sensei Malte.  Sensei Malte is Dutch and run the school in Viet Nam.

During this trip I got to learn two new Katas from Sensei Nobutoshi.  This means I am now training in three Katas.

Once I am finished working directly with Sensei then I must go out and work and practice with all the other students.  For this training five very senior students flew in from Russia, one from Belgium and one from Singapore.  These seven people worked with the senior students in Viet Nam and the rest of us.

The place we are training, the Dojo, in Saigon is amazing.  It is owned by a Vietnamese man who is a Hollywood stuntman.  He built the dojo and lots of different schools train here.

One of my favorite parts was training with the Russian students.  They were really really good and worked very hard with me and the other students.  There were also really big.  I am glad my sword is longer.

While we were there we had a function with the Japan/Vietnam friendship Foundation.  Here there were demonstrations of different Japanese martial arts and Sensei Nobutoshi demonstrated as well.  This is me standing with Brian.  Brian is Canadian and trains with us in Viet Nam.

This is are entire group after the event.

Finally, this is my dad training with Sensei Nobutoshi.

Now that I have trained with Sensei Nobutoshi in Viet Nam, I get to go train at the main Dojo in Narita Japan.  We hope to go in January, where I think I get to train with Sensei Nobutoshi again.  If I am really lucky I may get to train with his father, Sensei Risuke.  Also, while in Japan I hope to go visit the various temples and shrines associated with Teshen Katori Shinto Ryu and the Samurai.