Sunday, September 16, 2007

If there's a fish sauce contest...

“The nuoc mam from Phu Quoc Island was the best of all, clear and with an astonishingly subtle taste. . .But the sauce in this restaurant is from the Philippines, very bad, not from Thailand, which at least is a pale second-best.” - from Love by Robert Olen Butler

(If you're a Filipino, look away quick, because I agree. I'm partial to Phu Quoc nuoc mam.)

When I went to Phan Tiet, the Vietnamese driver said that the nuoc mam from Phan Tiet is also good. I wouldn't know though since I didn't want to open the car to buy one while we were passing the nuoc mam area. It would have been tantamount to going inside a gas chamber. Or self-mutilation.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Which sport do you play?

In my sweeping survey (not that I ever did a survey, of course), the greatest signifier of Asian-ness is *drum rolls* BADMINTON.

Here is the theoretical result of the said theoretical survey:
99% of Vietnamese plays badminton, remaining 1% handicapped, ie victims of agent orange, tennis is the sign of economic status, so when a Vietnamese says s/he plays tennis, it means a declaration of membership to the upper echelon of society or an intent to be a member of that esteemed group (red alert, *the sound is dong! dong! dong!), the immediate response of the women is badminton, immediate response of men is football (testosterone!) and then badminton