Hue Festival prepares new treats to welcome 200,000 tourists
An Imperial Night show, held inside the Imperial Place at Hue Festival 2012
The biennial Hue Festival will return to the central province of Thua Thien–Hue with new attractions this coming April.
According to a press briefing last week in the province’s former royal capital of Hue, the 8th international festival, themed Cultural Heritage in Integration and Development, will take place from April 12-20, 2014.
Accordingly, the event will feature 37 local and international art troupes from 29 countries. A night street market will be held outside the imperial palace, a six-country cuisine festival will feature dishes from Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, and China, and calligraphy and painting exhibitions will be held inside and outside the palace.
The event will also feature a kite flying competition, street art performances, a festival for needy children and a tourism fair.
Other highlights of the event will include an international dance festival, ao dai shows, a traditional Imperial Night featuring royal ceremonies, and the famous circus play Lang toi (My village), which has been performed abroad, including 300 performances in European countries.
Besides An Dinh Palace and other structures inside the royal palace, several indoor and outdoor stages throughout the province will be used to feature the artistic activities. Performances will also take place at local schools, factories, and hospitals.
In addition, ministers of Arts and Culture from 10 ASEAN countries and China, South Korea, and Japan will attend a six-day conference due to begin on April 16, aiming to strengthen cultural cooperation among participating countries.
The Hue Festival 2014 is expected to receive more than 200,000 visitors, half of them are expected to be from abroad.
~News courtesy of Thanh Nien~
nước mía
甘蔗汁
sugar cane juice
English-speaking cops to protect foreign tourists in Hoi An
Tourists in Hoi An town in the central province of Quang Nam
Police officers who speak English and are personable will be stationed in areas frequented by foreign tourists in the central province of Quang Nam, home to Hoi An, to protect them from robbers and harassment by beggars and vendors.
The People’s Committee of Quang Nam admitted recently that foreigners are harassed on the province's streets.
The police recently busted gangs of robbers on motorbikes who would strike mainly around noon and at 10-11 p.m.
Robberies happen often on routes to An Bang and Cua Dai beaches, local authorities said.
The province Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism reported earlier this month that more than three million tourists, 50 percent of them foreign, have visited the province this year.
This is nearly 10 percent higher than in the same period last year.
~News courtesy of Thanh Nien~
Vietnam heritage town gets tourist rest stop
The popular tourist town of Hoi An
A rest-stop with a tourist information center and photo and painting exhibitions has opened in Hoi An town.
In the two-story building, paintings of Hoi An created by local and foreign artists are on display on the ground floor.
The first floor has an exhibition of photos of Hoi An in the past and now.
Le Thi Thu Thuy of the Hoi An Center for Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation said an office to provide information and brochures to tourists also functions at the rest stop, which is at 57 Tran Phu Street.
According to town authorities, the place was opened to coincide with the 14th anniversary of Hoi An being recognized as a world heritage site by UNESCO.
Other cultural activities too were organized to mark the event.
In October one of the world’s leading travel magazines, Condé Nast Traveler, ranked Hoi An as the second most popular city in Asia after Japan’s Kyoto based on a readers’ poll.
The town attracted more than 2.6 million tourists in the first nine months of the year, up 19.3 percent year-on-year.
~News courtesy of Thanh Nien~
Công an nhân dân
人民公安
vì an ninh tổ quốc
为祖国安宁
Amanresorts open luxury resort in Vietnam
A swimming pool at Amanoi resort in central Vietnam owned by Amanresorts
Amanresorts, which own or manage 26 resorts and hotels worldwide, has opened a luxury property in Ninh Thuan Province in south-central Vietnam.
Amanoi nestles among the hills of Nui Chua National Park overlooking Vinh Hy Bay.
It has 31 large rooms combining living and sleeping areas, many with their own private pools, and five villas providing views of the mountains and the sea below.
The villas have private pools and a live-in housekeeper and cook to make Vietnamese or Western meals.
Each villa consists of four or five bedrooms and a living and dining area.
"Introductory" rates start at US$750 per night.
~News courtesy of Thanh Nien~
Traditional dish, served with old-world charm
Superior quality and service marks an old, small stall in downtown Ho Chi Minh City alley that serves homemade banh cuon (rolled rice cake) and banh uot (wet cake)
A dish of banh cuon (rolled rice cake) served at a stall in an alley of District 1, Ho Chi Minh City/ PHOTOS: GIANG VU
Banh cuon – a crepe-like rice cake rolled typically with pork, wood ear mushrooms, shallots and garlic, all minced – is a dish from northern Vietnam which has become so popular in HCMC, that it is not only a breakfast staple, but also something eaten at any time of the day or night.
Ask a local gourmet or check out some food and drink guiding website, you can easily find a good and famous seller of banh cuon in the city.
What I’m recommending here, however, is rarely listed on such sites.
This is such as small stall that it has only two tables and a couple of stools, and is tucked away in a small alley on Nguyen Trai Street in District 1.
The banh cuon it serves does not look different from those served elsewhere – the thin, soft rice wrap is the same, as are the fillings.
Toppings are also the same: pieces of cha lua (Vietnamese pork roll), pieces of a fried cupcake made with rice flour, shrimp and mung beans, and nem chua (fermented pork sausage that is sweet, sour and spicy). And, so are accompaniments: shredded basil and cucumbers, bean sprouts, fried shallots, and nuoc mam (fish sauce mixed with vinegar or lime juice and sugar).
However, the similarity ends, and the difference begins the minute you start eating this dish this stall.
Unlike many other sellers, the banh cuon here is so thin that you can see through to its filling. When eaten, it feels silky and soft, not thick and hard.
A gourmet can even recognize that the wrap is made with good rice and fermented just right.
Lan, the owner, said all the processes of making banh cuon as well as fried cupcakes and fried shallots are done by her family members in their house, which is nearby.
BÁNH CUỐN, BÁNH ƯỚT
Alley No.150, Nguyen Trai Street, Ben Thanh Ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City
Open hours: 5:30 a.m. – 12 a.m.
Price: VND21,000/dish
The stall was founded nearly 50 years ago by Lan’s mother-in-law who came to HCMC from the north in 1954. When she became old, Lan took it over.
Given its longevity, the stall has its fair share of long-standing clients and regulars, but most order takeaways because of the restricted seating space.
I love eating banh cuon at the stall itself, enjoying the friendliness of the owner, who is willing to give customers extra fresh herbs when asked. The stall also has two kinds of nuoc mam – one is sweeter to suit the southerners’ taste, and another is saltier and sourer for northerners.
After finishing a dish of banh cuon, I usually order a small dish of banh uot (literally translated as “wet cakes”) which is like banh cuon but without the filling.
Made from the same rice flour as banh cuon, the wet cakes are still good, even though it is eaten with just fried shallots and nuoc mam (usually, banh uot’s accompaniments are the same as banh cuon’s).
Another reason why I prefer eating at the stall is that at the end of the meal, I can enjoy warm tea from a pot that the owner puts on the table for customers to have, for free.
This is an extra service that carries with it an old-world charm, which can no longer be found in many other eateries in the city.
~News courtesy of Thanh Nien~
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