prison breaking bad

so a small note on a popular tv show that's turned unpopular. and by the way, has anyone even seen this show? (or should i say, seen it to its painful end?) prison break started off with this semi-cool premise of a guy purposely getting put in prison just so he can break out of prison (with his death-row inmate of a brother in tow)). and that's just season one. well... it goes on for three more seasons after that until they really run it in the ground in the fourth and final season. (and they probably would've kept going in the direction of middle earth had fox not pulled the plug in a death with dignity style decision.)
but let me get to the point of why i am bringing up this bad tv show on my blog. well, not far into the last season, we found out that the bad guy, "the general," is counterfeiting Lao currency with plans to flood their markets with it... and we see him, with a menacing look on his face, holding a Lao kip note in several scenes.

well, the Lao kip he's holding is none other than the 20,000 kip note. that's kinda funny because 20,000 kip is worth $2.40 with today's exchange rate, and it was worth even less than that last year when the episode aired. and its not like Laos isn't printing larger denominations than that.

but i guess it's not too strange considering that the per capita gnp for 2005 was $442. but anyway, as i've said in the past, you know Laos is coming up when it gets a nice place in the plot of a great tv show like prison break...

wing luke's refugee exhibit

click on the image to enlarge and see the details. this will be a great opportunity.

concert this friday & saturday

on friday, 04/23/2010, sat 4/24/2010

time: 9:00PM - 1:00AM
location: yo’s bistro
admission: $10
205 SW 152nd st in burien, wa 98166

happy Lao new year! celebrate with leading Lao star sam intharaphitak from vientiane, featuring guest artists illaphant, dj satellite, and dj raticus. all proceeds will benefit cultural programs of the Lao heritage foundation!

to prepay, go to http://www.laoheritagefoundation.org/rsvp/

this is the worst news koreatown has gotten in years

i will keep my opinions on this limited to what you see in the header. but apparently, a casting call has gone out for a "jesey shore"-style reality program featuring asian americans; the title is purported to be"koreatown," and i am encouraging href="http://eatpadek.blogspot.com/2010/01/bachelor-finds-cambodia.html">our friend from the bachelor to submit an application. so here is the link to all the info you need to ruin your life forever.

http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/tv/jersey_shore_for_asians_79AF3hIhiODbUMHwRZyC1L

thanks to anthony for sending me this, i think.

weird people eating part 2

so a few months back, i posted a link to james mcbride's blog, a seattle pi blogger , where he recounted his visit to the local Lao store. then i went on to make a quick review of his review. (click on the links to catch yourself up.) well, he received some negative comments about his article - some people who stumbled across my blog went on to comment on his article - to which the white blogger offered his defense, which i copy and paste here, without his permission. (but since i know people that look like extras in a john woo film, i think i'm okay.)

I appreciate your comments, unregistered user. I'll respond.

It's hard to make observations about another culture without seeming racist. Many believe we shouldn't generalize, but can a culture exist if there were not common characteristics to define that culture? It seems like some people want to tell us which generalizations are the right ones. Even if you say one society is "very family-oriented," you're making an assumption that may not be true of every member. Someone might be offended.

You say, "Your blog [is] the definition of why people hate Americans." You're implying there is some negative characteristic present in Americans that has surfaced in my blog. Isn't this also a generalization?

In a civil society, I understand that we must be tactful in order to get along. I try to respect people. I also try to entertain. Occasionally, I fail in both respects.
I can understand your objection to my John Woo comparison. On the surface, it seems ignorant. However, look at the context of my blog. Look at all the different foods I've tried. I've lived in Southeast Asia. I've been to China. Obviously, I know all Asians aren't Chinese. But honestly, the guy reminded me of a stock character in a John Woo movie. That's what popped into my head. If I were a better writer, maybe I would have come up with something more original.

Keep in mind that every character in a John Woo may not be of the same ethnicity. They could be Han, Uighur, Mongolian, Montagnard, Tibetan... and even within an ethnic group, they won't all look the same. Maybe the guy in the store shared enough features with someone in a Chinese movie to remind me of that, I don't remember. But I think it was mostly his clothes and hairstyle.

As far as how I judged the store, it is true I went in with all my preconceptions about how a store should be set up. I grew up in the United States. It's hard to shake those notions. But guess what? I shop in the "immigrant stores" regularly. I go to the International District almost every week, and not just to Uwajimaya. Read more of my blog, you'll see. I give those businesses my money, and not just for my blog.

I'm white, and I know a lot of white people. None of them spend as much time in the ID as I do. But I'm human. I'm going to see things through the lens of my "whiteness." I grew up in a rural white state. I have my own cultural walls to fight through. Anyone who says their background doesn't affect how they view the world hasn't spent much time around cultures besides their own. They're naive. Culture forms our identities and our beliefs. The trick is to understand this is all window-dressing and see past it. But it's not always easy.

ok... that's his comment. and while reading it, i was already penning my rebuttal in my head - i would start with comparing his claims of "i shop at immigrant stores!" and "i've been to china!" and listing off all the ethnic minorities living in china, and his "i give them my money, read my blog!" to what we used to say back home in louisiana growing up: "i'm not racist, three of my best friends are black." and at that point we may even list off their names... (i could always list dwight guillory, because he even wrote in my 8th grade yearbook that we were best friends. btw, where are you dwight?)

but alas, i didn't need to pen in a thing. i scrolled down a bit and found that maly had already done just that, and way better than i ever could. maly, where is your blog? with writing like that, you should be blogging for the pi, or somebody - or let me guess, you're on the staff of a famous monthly magazine.? i can't even begin to tell you how much i enjoyment i got out of your response!

but anyway, i'll post maly's response here, without permission, but i don't think maly would mind.

Posted by unregistered user at 3/30/2010 3:49 a.m.

"But guess what? I shop in the "immigrant stores" regularly. I go to the International District almost every week, and not just to Uwajimaya. "

I'm sorry but I had to have a big, fat ROTFLMAO at this. Why don't you just bust out the old 'I'm not racist; I have an Asian friend!' defense already? I grant you, actually having experience living in Asia is a credit to you but, come on, it isn't some sort of a 'get out of racism free' card. You are incredibly unaware of the latent overtones of privilege and entitlement that lace your piece. (Can I bust out my "I have white friends so I don't hate white people" badge before I continue my post? No, I won't because I do have white friends and I love them like I love all my friends but I KNOW I have a problem with and prejudice about white privilege. I'm not going to pretend I'm not prejudiced.)

Jason, the other commenter suggested you read up on cultural competency because of, at least through your writing, what seems like an unawareness your sense of white privilege and entitlement. The narrative strain of this whole piece reads like a leitmotif of 'White Dude Saunters into a Community of Color for an Evening of Cultural Tourism and Mocking. Fun! Hurrah!'. You squeal at the ooky food and then exert indignation at your privilege being challenged ("I was little put off when he told me not to take pictures. Legally, I could have." Ooh, you couldn't take pictures . .how dare he oppress you like that! Why don't you just respect his request? You're on his turf. It is a simple request.

Do you really not see why people are incensed by the tone of this piece? There are lines that are completely condescending and reek of superficial and flippant judgment. You spent two paragraphs defending your John Woo comment. I found that comment banal and direly unfunny (I appreciated the "Laap Dance" pun MUCH more) but I was much more offended by the glib stereotypes of these lines instead:

"with all the metal bars you would expect from the type of business that might attract after-hours robberies."

"A Lao at the counter, whose gelled head of hair and unbuttoned polo shirt made him look like he should have been selling his merchandise out of the back of a trunk"

oh my! this place is just laced with danger and vaguely criminal seeming underpinnings! Way to further grind in the underlying stereotypes that plague a low income, underprivileged community. Is there anything else you'd like to do to help contribute to the class oppression? Did you forget to mention the litter outside the store or the roving homeless nearby?

You say, "It's hard to make observations about another culture without seeming racist."

NO, IT ISN'T. Just own up to your own personal experiences and biases and don't project your sociocultural judgments on other communities. And this doesn't come naturally to anybody so we all have to work on it and not just blast our crap on other people just because we think there'll always be at least one person who'll be offended so why even try? That's how lazy people avoid being anti-racist (or anti-sexist or anti-homophobic or just anti-a%*hole) and, morally, that's not sound.

I read your long rebuttal to the other commenter and tried to give you the benefit of the doubt so I read your other blog entries. I enjoyed them much more because you keep the condescending, ethnocentric comments and sociocultural judgments more to a minimum and focus more on actual observations on the food. Stick to that style, please. And as much as I and other commenters have ripped you to shreds for this piece, it seems that you, ironically, are the harshest critic of yourself: "this is the kind of prose that keeps me from getting the good writing jobs"

Wow, BURN! Look, honestly, I hope you keep working on your writing (like I said, I enjoyed your other forays into food blogging) and on your cultural competency. Here is a decent place to start:

http://carw.org/

Please check them out. Thanks.

-Maly, who is too lazy to register as a user

p.s. I had a second big LOL at the gentle reader who entreated you to "have positive non racist sounding experience in the future".

the mystery of zomia

i like to think i know everything, but i can't say i've ever heard the term "zomia" before. but it's even got a link on wikipedia, so i guess it's for real. has anyone else heard this term before? apparently it refers to the mountainous regions of southeast asia that are beyond government control and influence.

anyway, here is a link to a boston globe article about it- and it's review of a book i haven't read yet, but maybe i'll send away for it from amazon. but i love the subtitle of the review: in the lawless mountain realms of asia, a yale professor finds a case against civilization. maybe we all should read it and get educated together, because one more case against civilization may be all i need to put me over... go all chris mccandless out here.

yes we did

vang vieng part 3

i know i am beating a dead horse here, but just one more on the tragedy that is vang vieng. i especially appreciate the article's quotations from brett dakin, the author of "another quiet american." (a good book if you haven't read it yet. he tells of his experience interning at a government agency in Laos.)

here is the link to the article:
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/travel/world/idyllic-laos-threatened-by-sex-drugs-and-debaucherous-behaviour/story-e6fref03-1225841761972?from=public_rss

also one of the comments by a reader is interesting as well. in reference to the uxo that litters Laos's countryside, one reader says, "Naked bodies never blew arms and legs off of children. They need to get their priorities correct. The real obscenities lay hidden under the ground!"

vang vieng part 2

i am fascinated by how quickly laos has changed since i first visited in 2001. a third bridge in under construction in khammouan province, viengchanh has a "mall," and vang vieng continues to slouch towards idiocy that way surpasses anything i saw when i was there.

this is a very interesting investigative piece about the issues facing vang vieng. it covers the backpacking culture and how it's effecting the town. very well done. i am not able to embed this video, so please follow the link here.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BKdnmuFoV0

lost its soul

whenever i go to a developing country, i like to get drunk, half-naked, and start kicking it crazy-style, all while i ponder the economic inequality in the world and my place within it all. i see it as a political statement really.

here are a couple youtube clips from vangvieng, Laos, of people doing just that:



well, at least these whities are contributing to the Lao economy right?
the link to the article i ripped them from:
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/asia-at-large/100111/laos-tourism-vang-vieng

destruction of hmong graves

according to this website run by national hmong grave desecration committee (nhgdc), hmong graves have been destroyed and may continue to face destruction in thailand at wat tham krabok close to a former hmong refugee camp.

the official reason for the removal of the graves was that the remains of the hmong are contamenating the local water supply. thus, the bodies were exhumed and cremated. however, the families of the dead were not notified, and apparently the exhumations were carried out in a way that violates hmong custom, i.e. "the exhumations sometimes included dismemberment, separation of parts of the corpses and cremation." cremation is a buddhist practice and violates hmong tradition. hmong funeral rites are very specific and if not followed can lead to restless spirits and physical problems for their living relatives.

additionally, some charge that the reasons given for the exhumations is not consistent with what occurred durinig the exhumations. this is evidenced in that the ethnic chinese graves situated next the the hmong cemetary were left untouched. additionally, in many instances, the flesh and clothes were removed from the bodies and placed back in the graves.

please visit this website to sign a petition protesting the desecration of hmong graves in thailand. feel free to contact me with any comments regarding this.

Laos

i found this on youtube. is this for real?

black on asian violence

in december, about 30 asian students were attacked at a philidelphia school in what some call a racially-motivated attack. see below for the story:

http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news-and-opinion/cover-story/Asian-Students-Under-Assault.html

http://www.eutimes.net/2009/12/asian-americans-file-civil-rights-complaint-against-philly-school-for-black-violence/

http://www.bet.com/News/National_StudentsReacttoBlack-AsianViolenceinPhilly.htm

the bachelor finds cambodia

so let me catch yall up to speed real quick on this one: the bachelor's new season just started (and although i don't watch it, luckily i have friends that do; because i would've missed this one!) well, apparently a cambodian woman was selected as one of the girls for this particular bachelor to choose from.

so to set up this clip below, i'll explain a little more: what i've heard is that when she exited the limo to meet the bachelor for the first time (and he is an airplane pilot by profession apparently,) she said something to him in khmer (cambodian). after the bachelor told her, "that sounds beautiful," he asked her its meaning, to which she responded, "i will tell you later - in private!" (the tension builds!)

so view the clip below - this is their private meeting...



ok, now onto the real discussion - the youtube comments on the clip. my favorites are from alexee below. apparently she couldn't just comment once. she commented once, waited an hour, commented again, waited another hour, and again and then again! see below in italics.

She brought shame to Khmer culture. Khmer women are talking like that on a national TV, especially to a guy who just met. Secondly she has made Khmer women look bad. It looks like the guy did not want to hold her hands until she asked him to. You have brought to Khmer women, to Asian women.
alexee2007 (15 hours ago)

She brought shame to our culture. You don't say this to a guy who just met. You can tease when you have dated for a while. You make us Khmer girls look bad. Thanks for disgracing Khmer people you moron.
alexee2007 (18 hours ago)

Wow, we are famous now for selling our soul. What's a disgrace that she has brought to Khmer people. What has she done to to our culture. It makes us khmer women look cheap and desperate.
alexee2007 (19 hours ago)

She brought shame to our culture. We are poor and now it shows we are poor in term of morality. You have not done anything good for the khmer people, but at least try not shame us. You went on the show on the national TV and would say something like. It makes you look so easy and trashy. You have brought shame to our culture. (19 hours ago)

really? shame to cambodian culture??? what?

so this is my question: how does one woman on a trash reality tv show bring shame to a whole country or people? can we really base our judgements about cambodia on this one woman? what about all the white american women on that same show? do they bring shame to white people everywhere? (or just shame to themselves and whatever man or woman that may still call them daughter?) if there is anyone is america that obtains a negative opinion of cambodian women or culture based on channy (who, by the way, got voted off of the first episode,) then that person is ignorant and doesn't even get a seat at the proverbial table for this discussion. so don't sweat it. white women on reality tv have been making trashy comments for years, and white america seems to be ticking on in its self-assured, arrogant and ignorant way.

by the way, can anyone tell me what channy is really saying? is she really saying landing strip? wow.

stuck

so i am in hawaii where its green and bright, the sun to shine by day and all the stars at night...

but sometimes you can get yourself in trouble when you get into a car with a person that don't know you can't drive on sand...

here is that person:

and here is the aloha spirit in action; the guy in the truck to the left stepped in to help us out - (of course, before he kindly offered to pull us out, he asked us for some money. but i believe in giving people credit for acts of kindness regardless of what they did in the lead up to it.) but stuck or not, being on a beach in hawaii is better than the best winter day in seattle...

white people eating weird

so - a seattle pi blogger visited my favorite Lao grocery store in seattle (vientiane) and decided to try some of the homemade dishes in the little plastic tubs that they sell there in their cooler. i've bought them myself - especially when i am cooking some food for friends, and i don't have the time to do everything myself. (ask the farrar family; i brought them laap one time, and they "loved" it.)

well, this guy had just finished reading ant egg soup for the soul, or whatever its called. i reviewed it a while back... but even after his Lao food experience, he said he still struggles to define Lao food. he says the laap is too bitter, and assumes it americanized. (it's not.) but i really don't see what the problem is myself. if it's hot and spicy (and clearly not mexican) and it tastes really good: it's Lao food.

check out his article here.
http://blog.seattlepi.com/eatingweird/archives/163988.asp

its a pretty humorous read, as this guy tries a little too hard to be funny (he plays off stereotypes about the dangers of visiting a southend grocery store. he also tends towards redundancy in his attempt to describe the cashier; he keeps going on and on - about his hair, his looks, what he's doing with cds, blah blah blah, and even includes a vaguely offensive reference to the cashier resembling an asian mafia guy in a john woo film. funny thing: i know this particular cashier, and he's nothing like the description in the article. also, he compares the jeo to martial arts... yikes! did you really have to use that analogy, dear white blogger? seems like Lao food isn't the only thing you have trouble describing. apparently, if someone is asian and doesn't fit the stereotype of violin solos and high math scores, then they are difficult to describe?)

and look at this picture, what is he doing with that rice and bamboo? some white people really need a tour guide to get them through a meal that aint pizza. Lao food really isn't weird folks... but put in front of the wrong person, it can be.



p.s. i will soon post another recipe from aeuey penn's book... and i promise i don't hate white people. three of my best friends are white.

sea games

if u aint been paying attention, the 25th sea games (in Laos this year) are in full swing.



check out the website:
http://www.laoseagames2009.com/v1/index.aspx

peopleoflowes.com

in homage to peopleofwalmart.com, that amazingly fascinating and intellectual website devoted to displaying the wonder of americana as found in the aisles of walmart, i am considering starting my own website called: the people of lowes home improvement store.

and here is my first person of lowes:

representing. that's all i can say about him. and he almost caught me taking this picture. i don't know how they sneak taking those pictures over at walmart by the way, its kinda stressful. but to those of you that want to be on my new website, just show up to lowes representing Laos in some form or fashion, and you're in.

(and also, if you haven't seen people of walmart, you really should. click on link above.)

page 114: beef laap

this is another dish from penn's cook book that i've made several times. she calls it "beef lob," like if you're gonna lob it across the room at your significant other after you finish making it. (it's on page 114 of the book.) i spell it laab or laap, and in thai restaurants, its usually listed as larb (which sounds equally as unappetizing as lob.)

this is actually a pretty simple dish to make, and it goes great with sticky rice - so it's well worth the effort you'll put into it. really, its just beef (kinda minced) lightly cooked and then mixed with lime, fish sauce, hot peppers, lime leaves, rice powder, green onions, cilantro and mint.

but here is the main issue with penn's recipe: first off, penn starts with 1 pound of extra-lean ground beef. well, laap just doesn't taste as good when made like that. you really should start with some sorta beef steak and chop it up yourself, or it won't seem right. (i actually am not sure that i know the right way to chop up the beef, so i may need a little help with this. thus, any suggestions from this blog's vast readership [6-7 people?] on how this can be best accomplished would be appreciated.)

but after you've have cut up the meat (or bought it ground up,) just cook it in a pan to your liking, (preferably a bit rare,) and then let it cool some before adding in everything. i tried to follow penn's recipe, but it wasn't salty enough for me, so i added a little extra fish sauce, and of course, i added msg. (see the above picture, which was posed just for this blog.)

here's what you add and the amount:
lime juice (she says 2 table spoons for a lb of beef. i would put more than that...
salt and fish sauce (1/2 tsp, 1 and 1/2 respectively... or more.)
hot chilli pepper - as much as you can stand
kalanga powder (you can buy it at the asian store. or just get the fresh kind and use a lot of it.)
lime leafs - finely minced. penn says use two.
i like padek, (a good spoonful or two), but penn says nothing about it.
then a tablespoon of rice powder. (see page 113 for directions on how to do this, or read below.)
the rice powder (khao khoua) is pretty easy to come by: get some uncooked sticky rice (would somebody clarify this: when making it, don't you just use the glutinous rice - not the regular white jasmine rice?) then you'll want to "fry" it in a sauce pan till its rather dark and brown, stirring and shaking it constantly or it will burn real bad. either way, its gonna smoke a lot, so disconnect your fire alarm. then after it's cooled, pound it with your mortar and pestle (khok and sak) till you get a nice powder - kinda grayish brown lookin.
then after mixing all the above, add your herbs: scallion, mint, and Lao cilantro (tui says this is the essential secret to good laap, along with fresh galanga.) its smaller and almost dill-lookin.

i would also point out that with penn's recipe book, she once again shows that she really is making her recipes suitable to the delicate tastes of white people. i mean, she doesn't put anything in there that you'd expect to find in real laap. laap is really a repository for anything and everything from the cow. it's full of innards and squiggly pieces of meat that give it texture and flavor. but i am fine with the omission of all of that. plain beef is fine with me, although there is this one loopy-loops innard piece of the cow that i kinda like, but i don't know exactly what it is, and when eating real Lao laap, i've always been a little hesitant separate it out, hold it up in the air, and ask the cook, "an nii menh nhang?" see the above picture for what laap is kinda supposed to look like.

mine didn't turn out too well though. i used mint growing in the flower box under my living room window, and it gave it a slight dirt/pesticide flavor. additionally, i forgot to soak the sticky rice, so i had to eat my laap with jasmine. not my favorite way to do it, but oh well. stir-fried some vegetables and chicken, and there you go... i got them flowers from the neighbor's front lawn.

i am sure i am missing something here, so feel free to add your comments and suggestions.

ketsana

in late september, the typhoon ketsana hit the philippines and went on to hit vietnam, Laos and cambodia. see pictures below from vietnam, the philippines, and cambodia.





for the link to more photos:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/09/typhoon_ketsana_ondoy.html
here is the poster advertising an event organized to assist victims of the typhoon:

to donate, please contact unicef.