Anonymous asked: Why can I not post a link here? Becuase it is not a question? Email it is. I will make up for it by asking a real question then next time I see you.

I don’t know! Good question. I know that there’s a way to set up a “comment” system on this thing (tumblr) but I haven’t researched it in much detail yet. I’ll tell you when I’ve got it figgered out.

3 weeks ago  Notes (0)
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Beastie Boys – I Don't Know (21 plays)

[Please press “play” on the song included in this post. Use it as a soundtrack while you read.]

1964-2012: Adam Yauch, a.k.a. MCA

I can’t find the picture I want to post. I haven’t actually seen it in over a decade. It’s in the liner notes of the Beastie Boys’ strange instrumental album, “The In Sound from Way Out,” and it’s the source of my permanent mental image of MCA. In my mind, Adam Yauch will always be about 27 years old, looking serious, with an upright bass and headphones. To the coolness gauge inside my seventh grade brain—which is more or less the same as my current coolness gauge—MCA was the peak of hipness. He was half the reason I picked up a bass guitar when I started to make music (the other half was Jaco Pastorius). He was the source of my adolescent curiosity about Buddhism, and the first person I ever thought of as an “activist.” I didn’t want to be like MCA: I wanted to be MCA. About ten minutes ago, I learned that he passed away of cancer in New York City last night. Please take the time to finish listening to this song (MCA is singing and playing the bass) and do something nice for someone today. RIP, Adam Yauch.

3 weeks ago  Notes (0)
Hong Kong

Hong Kong

3 weeks ago  Notes (0)

Noodle Shop #2: Khao Piak // ຂ້າວປຽກ

Khao piak, or ຂ້າວປຽກ, sitting in a bag:

Khao piak (literally, wet rice) is almost certainly the most common late night noodle type available in Vientiane. It’s also a noodle style specific to Laos (mii with red pork—the stuff you saw in the last post—is technically of Chinese origin). Khao piak consists of thick, rough, improbably stretchy noodles in a hearty, salty broth; the typical bowl of late night khao piak also contains hastily chopped chicken bits (usually with the bone still in), crispy fried shallots, bean sprouts, and lime. This time, I forewent the chicken in exchange for crispy pork (moo gop) and blood tofu (luat).

At most khao piak stands, you can get the soup in a bag. Actually, in Vientiane, you can get pretty much anything in a plastic bag (Pepsi, soy milk, sticky rice, you name it). More on that later. Anyway, here’s what khao piak looks like out of the bag:

The stand where I bought this stuff serves both pork and chicken khao piak; they also offer ground ginger as a condiment, which drastically improves the flavor of the soup. I’ve never been to this stand before 12 midnight (they open pretty late), and I’ve been there as late as four a.m. on several occasions (they stay open all night long). For all you geography nerds, here’s the link to my map of late night noodle stands.

3 weeks ago  Notes (0)
Seoraksan, South Korea

Seoraksan, South Korea

3 weeks ago  Notes (0)
Don Chan Island, Vientiane

Don Chan Island, Vientiane

3 weeks ago  Notes (0)
Hong Kong

Hong Kong

3 weeks ago  Notes (0)

Noodle Shop #1: Mii Nam with Moo Daeng

One of my hobbies in America was exploring my cities and counties late at night while occasionally stopping for snacks. No matter where I was—Mississippi, Texas, New York, Chicago—the snacks were usually in the form of some type of sandwich. Barbecue and burgers in Mississippi, tacos in Texas and Chicago, and falafel in New York. In Laos, there are certainly some late night sandwiches: if you’ve ever eaten so-called bánh mì* or Vietnamese sandwiches in the States, then you’ve had something like a Lao-style sandwich.
 
Tonight, however, I’m not concerning myself with sandwiches. I’m instead going to discuss something far more delicious and overwhelmingly more plentiful in Laos: as the picture might tell you, I’m here to talk about late night noodles.
Vientiane is a city that more or less switches off at ten p.m. There is a fairly well-enforced 11:30 curfew** for businesses, and the streets are more or less empty by midnight. However, if one knows where to look, there are scores of late-night noodle stands. Some—like Chanmaly noodles—operate after hours by wrapping their business in tarps, and seem to cater to club-goers and tuk-tuk drivers; some of the noodle stands, such as the ones near the National University and around the Morning Market seem to operate on a quasi-legal basis, since they provide food for those who probably need it (cramming/drunk students and middle-of-the-night market stock workers, respectively).
 
The noodle stand I’m going to describe tonight is in a third category. It is neither covert nor in a 24-hour area of the city. It’s just a neighborhood noodle shop in my village that stays open late. They serve mii, which are Chinese-style wheat and egg noodles. At this particular restaurant, the mii comes with broth (“nam,” or water), dumplings, and moo daeng (“red pork,” literally), a kind of bright red roasted pork. If you order your mii take-away, you receive a bundle of plastic bags. One is filled with liquid broth; another contains the noodles and meat. You also receive a baggie with lime wedges and bean sprouts and a seasoning packet filled with chili flakes and sugar.
 
Note: this post is the first in an ongoing series of noodle journeys, in which I will attempt to (literally) map out the different types of noodles available in Laos, with a particular focus on late-night noodle stands. Noodle soup is probably the most commonly available food in Vientiane, but it is one of the least documented. When I first arrived, I had no idea how to differentiate between the different types of noodles available, and I hope that this project will serve as both a guide to the different styles of Lao noodles and a reference for late night eats in a city that seems to go to sleep around 9:45. An interactive map of the noodle shops I’ve gone to is available if you click on this link.
 
*”Bánh mì” is actually sort of a misnomer. In Vietnamese, “bánh mì” just means “bread;” I think the U.S. tendency to refer to Vietnamese sandwiches as “bánh mì” might be similar to the U.S. tendency to called any grilled sandwich (singular) a “panini” (which means “sandwiches,” plural, in Italian). I’ve got no idea what Vietnamese/Lao-style sandwiches should be properly called. I’ll make sure to let you know when I do.
 
**Please feel free to correct me if this time is wrong, fellow Lao-dwellers.
6 months ago  Notes (0)

Dream From Last Night, 29 October 2011

I’m at a noodle stand, trying to go to another noodle stand, or maybe to go home, saying the same thing over and over again in Lao: “I’m American. I’m 25 years old. Where are you going? I’m going home.” The girl I am saying this to is a Lao national who speaks fluent English, but we are with a group of other Lao nationals who speak no English whatsoever. I am trying to make it clear that the whole group can come to my house for a drink, or just to sleep on my couches, but I wake up and fall back asleep and we’re only a few meters closer to my house, now at a different noodle stand, having the same conversation. I wake up and fall back asleep and we creep meters closer to my house from 4:00 to 7:00 a.m.

*I should make it clear that the song “Panic” by The Smiths is playing the entire time that this is happening.

7 months ago  Notes (1)

This Website is my New Homepage

7 months ago  Notes (0)