" Eating Vietnamese Food"
May 22, I went to Vietnam restaurant with classmates of
"Change and Creativity". The name of restaurant is "De Lart"
(I'm not sure how to spell.). Maybe it's Vietnamese.
It is near Jiyuugaoka Sta. But it's so small that we couldn't find
it at first. At last we realized where it is. In front of the building, which
has De Lart, a very small signboard is there. The restaurant is on the seventh
floor. We got on the elevator to go there.
It has very small space, and at that time, it was a little bit
crowded. There were some decoration like Vietnam on the wall. One of the clerks
seemed to be Vietnamese, but I don't know. I saw Vietnam beer in the cool box.
I couldn't read the rabel on the beer. Did I try it, didn't I? Of course not!
I'm still nineteen ! It's illegal!
We looked at Menu, but we couldn't understand what kind of dish
would come completely. But we could get clues from photos on the Menu.
We decided to order as various dishes as possible in order to try a variety of
Vietnam food. After a while, dishes came one after another. They looked loud color
and oily. We guessed they were too hot to eat much. But they were much more
tasteful than I expected. Actually, they weren't oily nor hot. I was impressed
with the variety of spice per one dish which encourages the dishes to be deep
taste. Particularly I like noodles. The noodles are like Harusame, which is
transparent and soft noodle.
Some of dishes were flavored with coconut milk. It's wondering taste.
Mixed fruit's sweet and milk's deep. I don't know how to explain to you.
Eating is believing! Like this, we enjoyed a lot ! On the way to home, someone said
that she prefers Southeast Asian food to Western and Japanese food. I like Japanese
food best, too because I spent most of time in my life in Japan surrounding with
Japanese food every day. But now I' m very interested in Asian food, although Japan
is a part of Asia but even in Japan, Okinawa food is completely different.
Asian food has variety. At a glance, it appears to be mixed up all kinds of vegetable,
fruits and meat. But as soon as you eat it, you know it is outstandingly sophisticated.
And we can guess it has not only rough process but also care delicately the subtle
thing to complete their own taste.
In the other hand, I can guess these dishes are reproduced in harmony
with Japanese tastes to rather extent. The other day, a Korean friend said to me,
" KIMMUCHI sold in Japan is absolutely different!!". And when I went to Vancouver,
I ate TENDON in Japanese restaurant. But it was completely arranged dependent on
Canadian taste. I was a little surprised.
To hear "Vietnam", it reminds me of AOSAI, that is the traditional
clothes for women. In Vietnam, high school female students wear it as uniform.
Even in Japan, AOSAI is very popular among young women these days, if you go to China
town at YOKOHAMA, you'll find it as well as China dress. After this project,
I get information through Internet.
Vietnam is as big as Japan. Do you know this? I don't know that before.
I feel Vietnam is closer to us. Strictly it is called "Socialist Repubulic of Viet Nam"
as you know. This country, which has about seventy six million population, is small
country. The average life span is 62.9( male) and 67.3( female). Looking at these numbers,
we can know how long life span developed countries heading Japan have! The ninety percent
of people uses Vietnamese. The eighty percent of people believes Mahayanist Buddism.
And Vietnam has abundant vegetable. There are a wide variety of pines, broadleaf trees,
vines, bamboos and specially rain forest.
How about education? The ninety five percent child goes to elementary
school. So, literacy rate is rather high, more than eighty eight percent of population
read book or newspaper. But only forty percent of child goes to junior high school!
Lucky and smart guy who can go to university or college is three out of hundred!
And the young from 18 to 27 have to enter army for two years.
(conscription)My neighbor country, Korea has also do so. We are merely lucky guy, , , ,
, , , , ,.
Historically, it was occupied by France and ruled by China before.
Up to this time, I believed to know about Vietnam through history textbooks.
But now I realize it is just in my estimation. I understand that I didn't know
very much! Eating food, touching things from Vietnam, and looking through Internet,
I can face with Vietnam. And I really get to know after these experiences.
At this time, I fully realizes it is essential to us to feel
something directly, not just thinking using brain.
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| Ÿ This page was written by Kenjiro Tsujino, Gina Pei-Chun Liao and designed by Kaoru Tanaka for Prof.Tobin's "Change & Creativity" seminar. |