The sour taste of a different pho

Delicious pho chua from Ban Co Street comes with the chicken broth on the side - Photo: Thanh Hang

The rain was falling when I saw the “pho chua” (sour noodle) street stall was still open. I was so happy that I decided to have two bowls. The stall was normally shut when I went past at 6 p.m., but the owner had decided to close late, so I could get out of the traffic jam and try this new soup that I’d been eyeing off for weeks.

I had been introduced to the stall out of sheer curiosity. My friend promised me a strange taste that I would not be able to find anywhere else in Saigon. He said it originated from Lang Son, on the border. But when I asked him to describe in detail, he only scratched his head. “It’s quite difficult to describe it exactly. It’s kind of a mixture of many familiar ingredients, yet it tastes different from any food I have ever tried,” he said. That was all I could dig out of him, so he said I would have to try it myself.

When the bowl of pho chua was placed in front of me, it was just like he said. I recognized all the ingredients but it was an odd mix.

At the base of the small bowl, there was a thick layer of thin strips of fresh swamp cabbage and shredded cucumber, a combination not found in any other dishes of South Vietnam especially not pho. Pho is usually served with special veggies and herbs, such as culantro leaves, basil leaves and bean sprouts. And instead of the traditional beef or chicken meat, I found boiled pork and chicken offal, some shredded chicken, roasted peanuts, fried onion and spicy crackling on the top.

In fact, apart from the pho (noodle) itself, the bowl of pho chua bore no resemblance to traditional pho. I suppose the secret of this dish is the thick tamarind sauce that is the sour part of the dish’s name. I don’t doubt it’s the smell of the sauce that seduces so many passers-by to become regular customers.

So there I was, ensconced in the cozy house while it rained outside, I scooped up a mouthful of pho together with a small slice of chicken liver, took a slurp from a spoon of hot chicken soup. Then I texted the friend who had taken me there, “Well, finally I understand why you do not hesitate to swim through the flooded streets of Saigon to get here for a bowl of pho chua. It’s so yummy, and I’m so warm and happy now.”

The pho chua stall is at the 242 alley, Ban Co Street, District 3, HCMC. The stall opens from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.

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Festival honours buffalo boys

Revival: Buffalo boys enjoy folk games at a festival in honour of rural children who look after buffaloes at Phong Le Village last weekend. Hard work: Children with their buffaloes in Phong Le Village. — VNS Photos Van Thu Bich

DA NANG — A unique folk festival celebrating the rural children who look after buffalo has been revived near the central city of Da Nang for the first time in nearly 75 years.

The festival, at Phong Le Village in Hoa Vang District's Hoa Chau Commune, gathered 400 locals last weekend with traditional worship customs and folk games as well as performances of tuong (classical drama).

According to local Ngo Van Nghia, this was the first time the festival had been held since 1936.

"The festival not only praises the buffalo children but also celebrates the solidarity of all the working people in the village and wishes for a lucky harvest and wealth for everyone," Nghia said.

"The festival used to be held every three years," said researcher Van Thu Bich from the Da Nang Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism who was the head of the festival preservation team and vows that it has been re-created exactly the same as the original.

"We will now try our best to hold it every two years in order to preserve the local intangible cultural heritage as well as create a tourism product for tourists visiting Da Nang."

For the revived festival, the village was lit up last Saturday with hundreds of lanterns and models of agricultural tools hanging all over the village. Early morning on Sunday, a procession of the 60 buffalo children travelled around the fields of the village, calling out wishes for a good harvest and creating a atmosphere full of cheer and loud laughter. They then participated in folk games like tug-of-war and catching ducks while blindfolded.

They were chosen from 17 clans in the village to take the central roles in various ceremonies at the festival, such as a procession bearing a likeness of the god of agriculture from a holy islet in the village called Con Than to the village's communal house.

Legend holds that ducks were unable to move their feet off the land when they reached the islet, so the locals were afraid to visit it. One day, a herd of buffalo strayed to the islet and local buffaloes boys brought them back safely. Since then, the islet has been a popular place for buffalo children in the village to gather, and the legend became the centrepiece of a special festival for the children. — VNS

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Vietnamese pianists to compete at Chopin tourney in Singapore

HA NOI — Eight young Vietnamese pianists will be competing against 140 others at the First International Chopin Piano tournament from tomorrow to Sunday in Singapore.

The competition, which commemorates the 200th anniversary of Chopin's birth, is being organised by the Chopin Society (Singapore) and the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.

The Vietnamese pianists, who are aged between 10 to 16, will be competing in four of five categories.

Do Hoang Linh Chi, 13, and Hoang Ho Thu, 15, have a lot of experience of international competition, said Ta Quang Dong, a lecturer at the Viet Nam National Academy of Music, who will be accompanying the competitors.

"The contestants can decide for themselves which Chopin pieces they wish to play. The Ha Noi International Piano Contest that was held last September helped the contestants enrich their Chopin repertoire," Dong said.

"The competition is being organised for the first time. It is prestigious though because of the calibre judges."

The judging panel consists of Gabriel Kwok, who has been head of Keyboard Studies at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts since 1989; Francesco Nicolosi, who is one of the most distinguished pianists of the Italian tradition; Snezana Panovska, a highly acclaimed piano professor, who stems from the Republic of Macedonia; Wojciech Switata, a professor at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice; and Warren Thompson, head of the School of Extension Studies at Sydney Conservatorium. — VNS

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VN film wins in Stockholm

Through a child's eyes: A scene from Bi, Dung So (Bi, Don't Be Afraid), which won the best first feature award at the Stockholm Film Festival.

HA NOI — Director Phan Dang Di's first movie, Bi, Dung So! (Bi, Don't Be Afraid), has won Best First Feature at the 21st Stockholm International Film Festival.

His senior cameraman, Pham Quang Minh, won the award for best cinematography. Bi, Dung So! also won best screenplay during the Cannes film festival's critics week, as well as the new talent award at the Asia-Hong Kong Film Festival.

The film is scheduled to open at box offices in Viet Nam next month. It will be broadcast on TV network Arte Channel in France and Germany.

The film narrates the story of a young boy called Bi who lives with his mother, father and aunt in a house in Ha Noi. When Bi's grandfather, who has been absent for many years, suddenly reappears, the family are once again reunited. However, his return turns out to be far from auspicious. Bi's father begins to stay out late, to the point where he stops coming home at all in what appears to be a way of coming to turns with his own loneliness when his own father was absent. Meanwhile, Bi's aunt falls in love with a young man whom she meets on a bus, his father falls in love with a masseuse and his mother behaves as if nothing has changed.

The feature is much more than just a family drama. Director Di represents the lost because he has no way to express complex emotions. The photography borders on poetry and the interesting camera angles and the fascinating film locations, combined with realistic dialogue, turn this film into something extraordinary. Ordinary people become remarkable. The life of the child is nothing short of enchanting, and viewers become intimate witnesses of a family struggling to escape loneliness.

Holly Hunter, who starred in The Piano, headed the jury panel, said she was amazed by power of the scenes and thought the film compelling.

Meanwhile, cameraman Minh's photography was described as poetic and dignified in its simplicity and subtle technical perfection.

The 12-day Stockholm Festival, which ended on Sunday, was launched in 1990. It has become one of the leading film events in Europe. The festival takes place every November and typically features about 180 films from more than 50 countries. — VNS

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Vietnam Swans first time victors in Indochina Cup

Vietnam Swans play Thailand Tigers at Saturday’s Indochina Cup in HCMC. The Swans, who took the Cup, won all their matches against Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. - Photo: Adam Martin

The Australian Rules football team, Vietnam Swans, celebrated their first ever tournament victory on Saturday night after beating all comers at the Indochina Cup earlier that day.

The Swans  were joined at an over 200 strong party at La Cantine Restaurant in Dong Khoi St, District 1 by Aussie football players from fellow Indochina Cup teams, the Laos Elephants, Thailand Tigers and Cambodian Cobras, plus the Swan’s sister team, the Saigon Shooters, who also won a same-day netball IndochinaCup, and women’s netball teams from Hanoi and Thailand.

At the after-match function Vietnam Swan’s captain, Luke Creamer, said the Australian football Indochina Cup win was, “Epic.”

It was a very hard-fought-for win with several injuries early in the day including a broken jaw, a concussion and a badly split lip.

Before the game started Australian Consul General in HCMC, Graeme Swift, held a minute’s silence for the hundreds of Cambodians, who died in last week’s bridge tragedy in Phnom Penh.

The four Australian football teams played a round robin tournament with six 30-minute games played in total at the fields at RMIT in District 7.

“Not only the Indochina Cup, this is our first-ever tournament win. We’ve won a lot of individual games but never a tournament before,” Danny Armstrong, the Vietnam Swan’s national treasurer said.

Armstrong, who played his last game on Saturday, deciding to retire from playing after more than 30 years of footy, said winning the Cup was a terrific feeling.

“It was time for me to hang up the boots, whether we won or lost, so I asked the boys for a special effort to come up with a win. Couldn’t ask for more.”

Swan’s player, Matt Natalotto, who got his jaw, eyesocket and cheek bone broken in the first 10 seconds of the Swan’s first game against the Cambodian Cobras and had to get airlifted to Bangkok for surgery said from his hospital bed in Thailand on Sunday, “Great win for the Swans who definitely deserved it. So much hard work has gone into the team this year… and years past.”

Natalotto had also planned to hang up his boots after the Indochina Cup, but said that he couldn’t finish off a footy career like that, so he would continue to play at least until the ANZAC match next year once the injuries were healed.

Saul Morgan, captain of the Thailand Tigers, said the Indochina cup was one of the highlights of the Asian Football calendar. Morgan said the Vietnam Swans had organized the cup really well and he looked forward to next year’s Cup being held in Laos.

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French guitarist Manu Codjia jazzes Hanoi

French guitarist Manu Codjia, a world famous French jazz guitarist, will perform at the Tuoi Tre Theater, 11 Ngo Thi Nham Street in Hanoi at 8 p.m. on December 10.

The artist and his friends, contrabass player Jérôme Regard and drummer Philippe Pipon Garcia will take jazz fans on a passionate journey of sophisticated melodies from his latest album. They will also perform famous songs by the Jamaican musician Bob Marley and “the King of Pop,” Michael Jackson.

Graduated from the Paris Conservatoire under the guidance of Professor Francois Jeanneau, Manu Codjia began his career playing classical guitar but quickly found his passion in jazz.  His first album, ‘Songlines’ (Bee Jazz) was released in 2007 and received enthusiastic praise from both audiences and critics.

He won best guitarist at the 2007 Djangos d’Or Awards, one of the most prestigious honors for jazz in Europe, and the Victoires du Jazz Award for best new instrumentalist of 2008.

Tickets are available at L’Espace Center, 24 Trang Tien St., Hanoi for VND50,000 to VND100,000.

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VSIP charity day raises US$100,000

The eighth annual VSIP Charity Day, organized by Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park J.V., Co., Ltd (VSIP) and the park’s management board, raised over US$100,000 for the company’s charity fund.

Thousands of workers from the park turned up for the two day event to enjoy a fun fair, music shows, traditional games and a talent show.

There was also a charity dinner called “Enchanted Night. Under the Sea” that included a Mr and Ms VSIP beauty pageant.

“We hope to strengthen the business relationship with our esteemed partners as well as the enduring co-operation in community outreach. We trust that VSIP’s tenants will always accompany us in social activities not just by donating to the fund, but also by encouraging their workers to join the activities after their hard work,” said Nguyen Phu Thinh, general director of VSIP at the banquet.

Since the inception of Charity Day in 2002, VSIP has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars. The money raised in 2008 and 2009, was donated to Tan Binh Primary School for new buildings, Que Huong Charity House and scholarships in Binh Duong province.

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