everytime the united nations gets together for their annual general assembly, the american media is just sitting around waiting to hear what crazy new thing that ahmadinejad or hugo chavez might say. but what about president choummaly from Laos? well, he was there in new york city too and apparently attended some very important meetings; although his attendance was without the fan fair of the iranian president; in case you weren't aware, fan fair means crazy in this context. but choummaly has returned to Laos, and all is well. see link below.
a new northern Lao cookbook has been published and is available for purchase! thank you kees for letting me know about this! (he let me know that there are 3 recipes for padek inside!) maybe my life-long - well, not really life-long, but long enough - dream of making my own bucket of padek will finally come true. and i'm just waiting to see if it's got a good recipe for khao soi, the northern Lao's answer to the plain, not-nearly-as-good, vietnamese pho. as soon as i get my next paycheck, i'm going to order a copy!
but here is the cover art and link (below) so you can buy a copy and keep real Lao food in your kitchen and not a distant memory in the past.
and maybe i will abandon my plan to make all of the recipes in penn's cookbook, and i will start anew with this one. well, i really haven't made anything new out of hongthong penn's cookbook in a while anyway. sorry ben, i know you said you hate it when people say they're gonna do something with their blog, but then quit after a couple posts. that is me; let's hope you don't do the same.
i may be a little late in commenting on this, but why is a christian church in florida planning on burning copies of the quran in acknowledgement of the 9/11 anniversary? admittedly, the pastor looks like he stumbled out of a pig farm in a william faulkner novel, but seriously? i guess we can feel somewhat comforted that most of the nation is against this. (the white house, angelina jolie, and utah condemn the event.) even general patreaus is asking the guy to stand down, saying something like, "uh...people will die over this."
well, maybe this event will force americans to take a step back and reconsider their position on islam and muslims in america. i think most people would not wish to be associated with the hillbilly pastor (from deliverance?) and may rethink their position on the new york city mosque that is planned for construction by the site of the world trade center. i am still puzzled that 61% of americans feel that the mosque shouldn't be allowed, and 70% think it's an insult to 9/11 victims. (since we are negatively categorizing religions, i am offended by quaker oatmeal, and when i was five my favorite movie was the gremlins... i don't know how this applies, but i don't know how the mosque controversy fits together either, so there you go.)
well, this is another one of those situations that causes me to pause and consider our superior-to-the-rest-of-the-world american values... below is an article from the seattle times, about a guy that seems to take his ideals a little bit further than an american flag t-shirt and a sarah palin 2012 bumper sticker. he is a pastor of an evangelical christian church here locally that has been reaching out to area muslims to build stronger interfaith coalitions. michael ly is "self-described chinese cambodian american evangelical christian." read his story below: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2012827459_michaelly07m.html
i swear i thought that rooster sauce came from thailand or vietnam or something. instead it was developed in the 1980s right here in the u.s.a. by mr. tran, a chinese viet refugee. there are even imitations that have popped up... shark sauce, for one... i can't imagine a world before rooster sauce (sriracha) and i can't imagine a world without it. (and i really can't imagine a plate of broken rice and grilled chicken or some fried egg or a bowl of pho without it.) so read this article from the new york times and then head to your favorite pho shop where you're bound to find some rooster sauce sitting on the table next to the chopstick holder.
i haven't read this book or seen the movie, and yeah... i won't ever. if you don't know the premise, it's about this woman that gets divorced and then takes her settlement to go off and find herself. so she goes to countries that begin with "I" (to find her inner "I" is what i'm told, and i just stabbed out my left eyeball.) she should've gone off to countries that started with "me" - like mexico? well, she starts with italy (eat), then india (pray), then indonesia (help all those poor people... my right eyeball is now gone.) but admittedly, i'm a hater at heart. so i didn't like this book when i first heard the title. and why would julia roberts agree to be in this thing?
she is really too cool for this movie. and i know yall are out there questioning me for saying that julia is 'too cool' but have you ever seen her in the orangutan documentary? i never liked julia till i saw her in this. here is the best clip from it, and she is awesome:
and she also did the amazing doc on the wild horses of mongolia. if you've never seen it, here is a clip. i think the seattle public library has it in their collection, so put it on hold.
after seeing this documentary i immediately added mongolia to my list of countries i wanted to visit. but i just know i'd get off the plane and run around asking everyone, "where's julia? where's julia?"
well, let me get back to where i started. i woke up this morning to hear this fascinating report npr. (basically, that 'eat pray love' relies on orientalism and stereotypes to create its magical story,) and i thought, "finally, someone has legitimized my need hate 'eat pray love!' woo hoo!" and here is the link so y'all can hate "eat pray love" too, (and maybe even vomit a bit in your throat.)
this is from the front page of today's seattle times about the difficult summer for the hmong flower farmers due to an overly wet may and june. see the link below.
i was down at pike place market a few weekends back when my folks were in town visiting from louisiana, and i bought a small bouquet of flowers for my stepmom - well, actually, i didn't have any cash, so i got the money off my brother who was visiting from germany. i can't really tell one flower from another, but they looked pretty nice. anyway, the hmong have been selling flowers at pike place market ever since i got to seattle, so i try to get some every so often when i got people in town. anyway, if you get the chance, pick up some flowers when you take your next trip down there.
at a shrine in her Fresno apartment, yeng mua grieves for her son, kick boxer yia mua. he died from liver cancer that doctors say was caused by hepatitis b.
this is a very important story about the high rates of hepatitis b in the hmong population in fresno california. according to the article, liver cancer is the leading cause of death in Laotian men, especially because most do not know that they have hepatitis b. below is a link to the story in the fresno bee, and then a link to the story on npr.
i got this email from a coworker. isn't this really is how it should be - access to education, regardless of financial status? seeing stuff like this, (and the new health care reform) makes me a little more happy here in america... just don't jaywalk.
Harvard University announced over the weekend that from now on undergraduate students from low-income families will pay no tuition. In making the announcement, Harvard's president Lawrence H. Summers said, "When only ten percent of the students in elite higher education come from families in the lower half of the income distribution, we are not doing enough. We are not doing enough in bringing elite higher education to the lower half of the income distribution."
To find out more about Harvard offering free tuition for families making less than $60,000 a year, visit Harvard's financial aid website at: http://www.fao.fas.harvard.edu/ or call the school's financial aid office at (617) 495-1581 (617) 495-1581 .
this american life is awesome. this episode (412: million dollar idea) features a bit on vietnamese sandwiches - well, more than just vietnamese sandwiches: but of the theft of a recipe, a menu, even the font of the menu! this is as bad as the theft of rosalind franklin's dna.
well, "stop talking about the past", and listen to this broadcast - even if you just listen to the first 8 minutes. thanks ben for making me aware of this. see link below:
i saw this sign along the side of road, and i'm not posting it here because of the bad grammar... well, it's not even bad grammar really, it's just bad stylistically? i probably would have just said "no dumping" and left it at that. well basically, i want to make it clear that i'm not making fun of the person that put this up. (i.e., ha ha! look at how this person can't write english!) my reason for posting this is much more than that: when i saw this - i took it as a philosophical signpost along the road of my life, an omen or a word of caution - something like my horoscope that i'd read in the sunday morning paper. this sign has changed me. i am a different person, and i am no longer dumping everything.
i got this kaffir lime tree as a birthday gift from erika, and it's providing fresh bai khi hout for the curry and laap i try to make. and immediately after breaking off some leaves for the laap pictured below, it sprouted a brand new stem full of leaves! (well, not immediately, but within the next few weeks after.) but the point is this - you too can grow your very own lime leaf tree real easily. i transplanted it once, but i think i might need to again because i didn't realize it would grow this well so soon!
i'd heard from a couple of people that a new thai/Lao restaurant would be opening in town - up in the ravenna neighborhood. so one sunday, a few weeks back, i drove over to have a look at it. (and here is a look at it; see picture below:) well, as i was out there taking this picture with my camera phone, this white woman walks up to me and asks what i am doing. so i explain that i have a blog, and that i like to post stuff or whatever, and so she tells me, "i met the owner yesterday! they had a nice little open house for people in the neighborhood, served free food and everything! you should meet them!" so next thing you know, i am being forcibly dragged into the restaurant to meet the owners - (which is not my style, i swear. i really don't like to show up to anything without an embossed invite, and even then i'd probably rather stay home.)
but in the end, i am glad the she pushed me to go inside. because the neighbor introduced me to noy, the very friendly owner, and i had a great time talking with her. we sat down and she showed me the plans for the menu (they'll start out with a few Lao dishes, and hopefully expand.) and talked about her family and other restaurants she's been involved with. but this will bring the total number of Lao (or at least Lao-leaning) restaurants in the seattle area to three: savatdee, vieng thong, and thai palms. but noy may do hers a bit different -she mentioned the possibility of serving khao poun - which is my favorite food of my life forever and ever, and something i've never seen a seattle restaurant serve before. so i am there. i am not sure if they're open yet... but if not, it can't be long now. the restaurant is located on the corner of roosevelt and ne 58th st.
westerners young and old arrive in Laos, and so do their cameras. they document a fragile and deceptively brutal world, revealing themselves in the process. CAMERA, CAMERA quietly calls upon viewers to ponder the multifaceted and often ambiguous impacts of travel and photography on citizens of two worlds.(directed by malcolm murray. written by michael meyer. produced by josh haner.)
i don't think i will editorialize this time. here are links to some reviews about the movie:
uh... i jaywalked at this same exact intersection just last week. no lie. i didn't want to. i wanted to take the bridge, but my colleague (who will remain nameless) peer pressured me into it. well, i am lucky because this clearly could've happened to me.
another quote: "hey, did you get the part on camera when he hurt-" "-where he socked her? i saw that *%#%!"
quadruplets... how many is that anyway? Lao people are coming up in a meaningful way. this is a nice article about a sacramento family with a lot of daughters born who look a lot alike - and it's their 7th birthday. (apparently the odds of identical quadruplets are only 1 in 11,000,000). the video link has a reporter saying "when you're all the same age, it's the birth order that matters..." well, i am interested to know who is really the oldest and who is the youngest. because i understand that in Lao tradition, when it comes to multiple births, the child born first is actually the youngest, because the older child would remain in the womb to help the younger one out first. thus the older-younger designation would be reversed in this situation. well, it makes sense to me. see the link below :
i have resisted posting anything about louisiana and the oil spill. in fact, i turn the radio off whenever news comes on about it - avoidance being my only defense against this mess. it's a tragedy that highlights the problems with oil exploration, and once again spells disaster for the people of the southern louisiana - and the whole coastal region of the gulf of mexico.
the vietnamese community down in louisiana is also affected. a documentary about their coming together after hurricane katrina airs on pbs this evening at 10 pm. see the link here for specific showtimes in your area. the website describes the film, entitled, a village called versailles, as "the empowering story of how the versailles people, who have already suffered so much in their lifetime, turn a devastating disaster into a catalyst for change and a chance for a better future"
hopefully, the gulf coast communities can come together after this tragedy as well.
here is an article link from voices of america about the situation and how it particularly affects the vietnamese fishermen down in louisiana:
i should be writing a post about lost and its final sendoff, but this just appeared in my newspaper this morning: unlce boonmee who can recall his last lives, a thai drama of sorts, just took the big prize at the cannes film festival. i don't know much about the festival, or what sorts of awards it gives out, or even how to pronounce its ostentatious name, but its interesting to see a thai film get accolades. thai cinema definitely has its own feel - especially their bigger name films (last life in the universe, beautiful boxer, 6ixteynin9.) i've always been impressed with the cinematic quality, even with some of the lesser known thai films (their horrors, comedies, etc.)
