back in my kitchen

In truth, last night was not my return to my kitchen.  Friday was, a simple dinner of turkey meatloaf.  And man, was that good to have.  I've since made us a pasta dinner and now a meal of pork tenderloin.  A regular for us on the dinner table.  Lightly braised carrots on the side along with a shaved Brussels sprouts, celery, and mint salad.  Made for a nice midweek meal whilst we kept catching up on Great British Bake Off.  Just the right thing.

I love dining out.  I love being surprised and amazed and awed and even amused by food.  I love being confounded in all the best ways.  But after days of dining out, I am keen to get home and chuck things in a pan and hope for the best.  One makes me appreciate the other, and vice versa. 

visiting libraries in Vietnam, day one

Last Tuesday (6 days ago - yikes!) the work began.  Conrad and the other spouses were whisked away for a cruise of scenic Ha Long Bay.  The librarians, though?  Library visits.

(A small, cool thing about the visits, by the way, is that we saw the non-tourist parts of the city!)

First stop:  Phenikaa University.  

We were greeted by Dr. Hien from the Faculty of Public Health.  She was the one who set up all of our meetings in Vietnam, and for that, I am so very grateful.  What excellent work she did in providing us with a variety of libraries to visit and share experience with.  She led us up to one of the floors that the  Information and Library Center occupied,

and there we found two things.  First, an incredibly well-designed modern but very inviting space.  Second, a very formal set up for presentation and meeting.  It was a little intimidating, especially for our first meeting,   This was no casual visit, and I admit I was a little shaky in how well I spoke.  I think that improved through the trip.  I hope it did!

But let’s talk about that space!  

Credit for the design goes to the director, Ms Nguyen Thi Dung.  

We could not compliment her enough on how marvelous the library looked.  It was a delight having her come with us to the later meeting that day as well.  She, like Dr. Hien and the others we met, was so very enjoyable a host.

After formal presentations about the university and library (from them) and the delegation (from me), we launched into discussion.  What struck me was how very far ahead of us they were when it came to use of AI, and we spent a lot of time on that.  They, in turn, had questions about cataloging, and thank goodness for having Ann in our cohort.

Following the discussion, there was a tour, and then we headed to the planetarium on campus.  

There we were given a show, not a long one, but a relaxing little end to the first visit.  Back to the city with us!

We had lunch at the same place Conrad and I had gone to two days before.  I think I surprised the two Vietnamese guests with us when I ordered the dish of eel and young banana in a green sauce.  Yes, I told them, I eat eel.  A very tasty dish, one of my favourites to that point.

I don’t have photos from the meeting from from after lunch, but I do have photos from the tour.  We met with colleagues at the National Library of Vietnam, including Mr. Nguyen Xuan Dung, director of the library.  If we felt intimidated by the first place, we felt genuine awe at the second.  I’m afraid it might not have been the most fruitful conversation, as kind as everyone was.  We sort of found ourselves going down a rabbit hole on AI again, and they had questions about cataloging on a scale that was beyond what Ann was doing.  There was more enthusiastic discussion of national associations, though.  But for most of us, working at smaller academic instigations, the issue of scale and mission was too different from what the National Library folks were doing.  The tour brought a welcome end to the meeting.

The National Library was an older building with a newer but not new building attached.  The library functions in a public capacity, and that was clear from the spaces and the people using it.  The preservation of Vietnam culture is key to their mission, and we appreciated seeing some of the efforts toward that.

That ended the day, and we headed back to our hotel where I took the team to the poolside bar for a drink (a sloe gin and tonic) and a debrief.  

The others felt similar to how I did, impressed by what we saw, appreciative of the discussions, a little intimidated by the formality.  All in all, though, we agreed that it had been a very good day.  I fielded questions about itinerary as best I could, and then we all went to rest and refresh before dinner.

A group dinner that night, reunited with the spouses.  We dined at Épices d’Indochine, and I recall liking the soup with sea cucumber and the fried pork with pineapple the most from among the huge and delicious meal.  

We headed back to the hotel to ready ourselves for a library the next day and for travel south in the afternoon.

a seven-course meal

Marie, my darling sister, was in Vietnam with her brother Dave earlier this year, and she had a recommendation or two to share.  One of those was for a Hanoi restaurant, Maison 1929.  

Have the pomelo salad, she said.  And so we did.

It was a relatively easy walk to the restaurant.  I say that to mean that one block from the hotel we turned left and headed in a straight line.  The sidewalks were cluttered with scooters, the city was livelier than earlier in the day, and we had to walk in the street at points.  Just like everyone else, no big deal.

6:00 seems to be an early dinner time here, and maybe we can blame that choice of time on jet lag.  We’re actually doing not badly on sleep even if it is just before 6AM as I start writing this.  But no, we opted for an early meal, and as such, for a goodly part of the time at dinner we were the only ones on their small balcony overlooking a five-way intersection.

The restaurant had à la carte options, but we opted for the discovery menu, seven courses.  We each had wine - cocktail choices were very limited - and I thank Conrad for having the red wine first so that I knew to ask for the white wine instead.  

That was a small point against the meal, one of the only ones.  Otherwise, it was terrific.  Yes, we were warm sitting outside, but there was a fan keeping the air moving, and we settled in to watch the traffic below and enjoy our company before having a week or so with a larger group.

But on to the food, right?  In order of courses:

Fried clams.  Squeeze lime on the clams, mix, scoop on to the crackers.  Tasty, light, a good way to start.

Pomelo with fresh and dried shrimp.  Marie was right, this was a star on the menu.  Loved it!  My second favourite course.

Spring rolls, a trio that included crab, pork and mushroom, and beef.  All of them were good, but I liked the pork and mushroom best.

Squid stuffed with sausage and served with a turmeric sauce.  My favourite.  That sauce was so good!  Tender squid, too.

Sautéed duck.  Another one I loved.  I enjoy duck but all too often I find it cooked as a breast, sliced, and so chewy and kind of cold.  This was very tender.

Pork ribs.  Tasty and tender.  I took the meat of the bones and use the lettuce and herbs as a wrap.

Oh, we also had rice to go on the side for the three entrees.

Banana cake with coconut ice cream.  Nice, not too sweet, a little mundane after the previous courses, but fine.

Filling but not too filling, the meal was a good one.  We walked back, wound down, and got into bed before ten.  Now I want some breakfast and maybe some postcard writing!