However, my eyes weren’t indulging in delectable deserts that day.  Instead, my eyes were feasting on what appears to be an instant nostalgic reminiscent of my childhood favorite dish, Vietnamese Pho!  That’s right, that white gelatinous rice noodle neatly cuddled next to that savory bo vien, drenched in that sweet beef bone broth.  The smell of sweat on my skin was soon replaced by the tender aroma of pixelated pho emitting from the 20 inch plasma television right down to my flaring nostrils.

Why must you tempt me, food network? It’s bad enough that you are being broadcast at the gym, but to showcase one of my favorite dishes on television? Now, you are just patronizing me. However, as my eyes continue to be glued onto the television screen, I noticed that this wasn’t your typical Pho.  Rather, this was a 9 lbs bowl of Pho (meat, soup, noodles included)!  But you’re probably wondering, how big exactly is 9 lbs of Pho?

Imagine 8 bowls of Pho Xe Lua (“Pho Train”) pour into one bowl.

Apparently the show was called “Outrageous Food”, whose purpose is to “unearth the most jaw-dropping, eye-popping, occasionally heart-stopping foods in the country.”  The show is hosted by Tom Pizzica (such a fitting name since it phonetically sounds like pizza), who essentially travels around the U.S. looking to find unique restaurants that carries “outrageous food” in their menu.  In this episode, Pho 87, located in Las Vegas, just so happens to be one of Tom Pizzica’s stop.

What amazes me is the growing trend of Vietnamese “Pho Challenges” in this country.  For instance, we have the popular Pho Garden in San Francisco, Pho King 2 in Sacramento, Bistro B in Dallas, Texas, and now, Pho 87 in Las Vegas.  What is it about large consumption of Vietnamese cuisine that attracts the hearts of Americans (or stomachs for that matter)?  What ever happened to the traditional hot dog or pie eating contests?

I suppose it’s a good culinary exposure, bridging the gap between America’s food-eating contest hype and traditional Vietnamese cuisine.  But for those who are not familiar with Vietnamese taste buds, I recommend enjoying Vietnamese food in a satiable portion.  Take the time to allow this 100 year-old tradition of a warm bowl of soup to marinate your body and soul.  I mean what’s next? Nuoc mam drinking contest?

Share your thoughts on this Pho eating phenomena.

Four score and seven minutes ago (party-on dudes!), I expressed some ambivalent feelings about Vietnamese representation in

Normative Masculinity

Within the last few months, Americans have been inundated with images of masculinity run amok.

The women (and some thoughtful men) in VTP’s readership may laugh here, direct our attention to the male-dominated political arena of American politics, and derisively snort, “When isn’t it?” To which I retort, “Ewwwww, gross. Stop snorting,” before feebly replying with a shrug, “When congress isn’t in session?”

But even such detractors have to admit, the testosterone level has reached ridiculous highs as of late. We’ve learned recently that the Governator harbored an illegitimate lovechild for the past ten years, John Edwards used campaign finances to cover-up his infidelity, and an irony (and common sense) deficient Anthony Weiner has been sending pictures of his junk to a number of women via social media.

Behind all these scandals is an internalized concept of masculinity that’s hyper-sexualized – and grossly over-rated. Sadly, this isn’t some odd convergence for American politics, but an extension of a prototypical masculine image in American society. Simplified to Neanderthalian extremes, it grunts, “Muscles, Sex, Violence: Good!” Summer movie goers can attest to that fact.

One consequence of such a mentality for the Vietnamese community in America is the continued emasculation of the Asian man. With the niche exception of Karate-Chop-Action (KCA) movies – which present a fetishized problem in and of themselves – Asian men are sparingly portrayed as anything but feeble stereotypes. This produces a false dichotomy between the hyper-masculine and the effeminate – and the racial categories that embody them.

Who, dare I ask, is man enough to deconstruct such a rigid paradigm, but Luke Nguyen?

Questionable Vietnamese Masculinity

As portrayed in Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam, Nguyen represents an image of masculinity that refuses to fit within the mold of standard archetypes of Western manhood. He constantly performs a mediated form of masculinity, fluctuating between exaggerated extremes with a kind of self-aware humor that both reveals and mocks the hidden precepts of what it means to be “a man” in Western culture.

Consider the opening scene in Episode 10, Season 2 of Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam. (Sadly, the episode has been taken off of YouTube. You can still watch Nguyen get drunk and perform a traditional bamboo dance at the end of this segment. Or see him use his chopped bamboo here.)

Adam Richman Dominating his Food

Like many other cooking-show hosts, Nguyen exaggerates the “freshness” of his ingredients, and in Mai Chau he goes so far as to climb a coconut tree himself to attain his desired bounty. This display of agility is typical of the masculinist desire to conquer and dominate. In Man v. Food, for instance, host Adam Richman travels the country conquering the culinary monstrosities that push the limits of the edible.  But where Richman always seems to confront his challenges with artificial first-pounding manliness, Nguyen continually places the performance of masculinity in crisis. Its at the height of his triumph over the coconut tree – a kind of Bear Grylls Man vs. Wild moment – that Nguyen shows a subversive streak and breaks the testosterone-laced display of uber-manliness with a shrill scream.

Its cause? An ant.

This constant undermining at the most crucial moment of masculine exertion helps to draw our attention to the ridiculousness of the initial precepts of masculinity. We chuckle when he jumps at the ant not only because it contradicts the masculine display, but also because it reveals the performativity of the masculine act to begin with.

In the same episode, Nguyen prepares a whole carp cooked in bamboo. The scene begins with Nguyen looming over a batch of bamboo, phallic machete in hand, telling us that he is about to conquer nature once again in some awesome display of masculine power. What actually happens? He jumps back, tells his virile Vietnamese sidekick/laborer to chop the bamboo down. In this scenario, his instrument of phallic power isn’t merely metaphorical (as in the machete), but mediated through the young man – a vexing hierarchy of first and third world positionality. As troubling as this may be in a post-colonial sense, it’s also incredibly subversive. The scene has Nguyen not only give up his phallic power, but hand it over to another (native) man. This homosocial mediation structures a kind of entertaining triangle in which production is enacted through (hired) labor, and all the grandiose notions of Western phallic power that’s invested in the image of a machete-wielding Nguyen goes flaccid.

Compare these situations in Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam to the many shows of Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey. Ramsey berates all those around him in a display of dominance, never tolerating challenges to his power or control. You’ll never see Ramsey vest his power in someone else without first toting his own abilities. All his shows have essentially the same premise: he teaches (lesser) chefs how to cook and any challenges to his authority are portrayed as fool-heartly and unproductive.

Luke Nguyen Dancing with the Ladies

Refreshingly, Nguyen makes no such claims to that dominating position. (Such a stance would be even more problematic give the historical power dynamic between western and Vietnamese culture). Instead, he showcases a self-depreciating sense of humor, challenges restrictive archetypes of masculinity, and willingly learns from his native Vietnamese brethren. They teach him how to cook, how to labor, and yes, even how to dance. Its a safe bet you won’t see Gordon Ramsey dance about in an episode of Kitchen Nightmares.

There’s little doubt that many issues arise from Nguyen’s portrayal of and interaction with the Vietnamese people on his show. His treatment of masculinity, however, is one that challenges simple binaries and self-consciously questions the rigid boundaries of what it means to be “a man.” Instead of giving credence to normative understandings of manliness by attempting to attain the exaggerated hollywood version of the Uber-Mensch, Nguyen situates himself within those categorizing practices only to highlight their absurdity. His Vietnamese masculinity is exactly what it show be: self-aware and questioning.

Go on, I’ll wait. Now that we’ve all basked in the glory of the ever-dapper Luke Nguyen, consider what a significant achievement Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam represents. As the first Vietnamese expatriate to headline a successful transnational television show (Maggie Q’s horrendous re-reincarnation of La Femme Nikita not withstanding), Nguyen exposes a Western audience to an image of Vietnam that often contradicts their common knowledge. The show takes for its subject not simply food or travel, but the people and culture of Vietnam. It is, in essence, a Vietnamese expatriate’s fantastic journey through the perils of modern Vietnamese society in an attempt to reclaim culinary and ethnic authenticity.

I’ve learned quite a bit from Luke Nguyen, the most enlightening of which is that unless it’s cooked in lemongrass, it isn’t truly Vietnamese. This places my entire life in crisis: am I really Vietnamese or have my parents mislead me? How much lemongrass must I consume to reaffirm my Vietnamese authenticity?

The Ever-Dapper Luke Nguyen

These signifiers of Vietnameseness, of course, are arbitrary, and in the case of lemongrass, environmental. But the question of authenticity continually re-emerges as we watch Luke Nguyen interact with his native brethren. The audience sees him cook in strange, exotic locales as a flurry of Vietnamese people surround him. Often, he invites a guest to sit and (uncomfortably) watch him cook, acting as a kind of living backdrop that attests to his authority. “Look,” it says, “a real Vietnamese person accompanies me.” This, of course, raises several questions: is Luke Nguyen not a real Vietnamese person? Is he some fake Vietnamese/Australian cyborg sent back in time to kill John Connor? And if he really is Vietnamese, why must the show constantly strive to prove as much to its Western audience?

That Sweet Aussie Accent

The show’s desire for authenticity may stem from the standard stereotype of the accented Asian. But let’s first be clear about what an accent is. Regional “accents” are, in actuality, dialects. Accents, instead, are a matter of (mis)pronunciation – what, for instance, someone Fresh Off the Boat would have. The FOB stereotype is so pervasive that it haunts even the most pompous Ph.D. candidates in English literature. On more than one occasion, I’ve been congratulated, in all sincerity, on how well I speak English. “Why thank you,” I always reply, “yours is aight.” Such an experience reveals the assumptions being made about what a typical Vietnamese (or Asian) person should sound like, and these are the same assumptions that challenge Nguyen’s claim to authenticity. If the stereotype imagines all Asians, whether first- or second-generation, as an accented caricature, it also inversely questions the ethnic and cultural knowledge of “unaccented” Asian people. As someone with a distinctly Western dialect, Nguyen is forced to continually remind his audience that despite his Aussie “accent,” he is ethnically, culturally, and linguistically Vietnamese. The relatives he visits, his scripted knowledge of Vietnamese culture, the people he awkwardly speaks to on screen – all attest to his Vietnamese heritage. This constant reiteration helps Nguyen gain much of his culinary authority. After all, who would watch a show called, “John Smith’s Vietnam?”

Authenticity and Exploitation by Proxy

On some level, the show is also about Luke Nguyen’s personal odyssey to reclaim his Vietnamese ancestry.

Luke Nguyen Attacked by Sea Creature

He roams the countryside flirting with young ladies, gets himself into all kinds of trouble, and narrowly escapes with help from the native inhabitants. He even gets attacked by a sea creature – or two-inch squid – in the middle of the night. Homer would be proud.

This reclamation of his authenticity, however, sometimes comes at the expense of the native Vietnamese population. Whether their presence is necessary or a twisted form of tokenism, it’s never made clear. And that is at once the beauty and frustration of Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam. It straddles the line between homage and exploitation, between a celebration of culture and an incitement to tourism. As a Vietnamese expat who is also culturally Western, Nguyen acts as a tour guide to the “real” world of Vietnam. But like the contradiction between his English dialect and his Vietnamese dialogue, the audience never experiences an “authentic” Vietnam. As the title suggests, Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam is a mediated experience. When he says, “It’s a pity I’m here alone” while cruising down a serene river in Tam Coc, you can’t help but feel sorry for the invisible Vietnamese person rowing him around. Or when he makes a game out of carrying 40-kilo baskets, an activity, he recounts, that “these little ladies” do all day, you’re not sure whether you should be buoyed by their strength or question his privileged trivialization of their harsh life.

At moments, the tension between what he says and what occurs on screen is palpable. Check out his interaction with the elderly Hmong woman starting at 22:00:

You feel for the old Hmong lady as Nguyen informs the audience that the Hmong in this area are incredibly poor and can rarely afford meat in their diet. He tells you this all before slicing up a piece of smoked duck breast and tasting it in front of the poor woman’s eyes. He even asks, “Thu Khong?” but then seemingly changes his mind and shoves it in his own mouth. The scene highlights a very clear disconnect between what he says and what he does. It signals an incredible failure on his part to appreciate the situation as he recites from the script. His words acknowledge that many people – like the woman perched behind him – can’t afford meat even as his actions reveal an apparent incomprehension of its consequences.

The Trouble with Translations

But the show’s mediation goes beyond simply using the native Vietnamese population as props to promote Nguyen’s authenticity. It also makes judgments as to what counts as legitimate and intelligible speech. Anyone who speaks multiple languages knows that the act of translating is a tricky business. The cultural production of language makes it nearly impossible to translate the literal, idiomatic, and connotative at the same time.

Translations are even trickier in Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam.

In some instances, the Vietnamese is subtitled as well as can be expected. In others, however, the show simply ignores the Vietnamese words uttered. The value judgment here, that these words aren’t important or lack the intelligible content viewers can comprehend, typifies the Western notion of foreign languages as insignificant gibberish. At times, subtitles are absent when Nguyen translates for the audience. At others, both subtitles and translations go missing. When he asks the Hmong lady if she’d like to try the smoked duck in Vietnamese – and then fails to follow through – the show gives neither subtitle nor translation. Non-Vietnamese speakers miss the disconcerting exchange, and its import, altogether.

Luke Nguyen Taunting Old Lady

The show’s selective representation, strangely, is even more problematic when he offers translations, since his renditions are almost always misleading. He often asks his guests in Vietnamese if the food smells good. They’ll give a little nod or quietly say “yeah” – how else could they respond? – and he’ll translate it emphatically as, “She said it smells delicious!” And all in that charming Aussie accent.

It’s likely that correctly subtitling these leading questions would raise doubts as to his authority and authenticity. If a chef has to ask for validation and receives a quick nod in return, it doesn’t exactly instill confidence in his abilities. And Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam, like all cooking shows, is heavily invested in its chef’s ability to not only produce, but astound. Instead of subtitles with that ambivalent nod, then, the viewer sees a real Vietnamese person supposedly enamored with Nguyen’s food. And what better verification of his Vietnamese and culinary authenticity than confirmation from a native Vietnamese person?

A large part of these questionable situations come from the artifice of the show’s “reality” format. We don’t expect authentic castaway life from Survivor, so why from Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam? Still, it’s difficult to come to terms with some of these representations of Vietnameseness.

What do you think the lesson from Luke Nguyen’s desire for authenticity is? Or, better yet, what the hell is Vietnamese authenticity, anyway?

This article is the first in a proposed series that examines Luke Nguyen’s journey to his native land in order to explore the often troubled, and always entertaining intersections between culture, identity, sexuality, and, of course, food. Look for Questionable Vietnamese Masculinity in the near future.

We all know the “scary” boiled duck egg with the tiny fetus still growing inside of it, known as balut, or hot vit lon, in Vietnamese. If you weren’t introduced to this food at a young age—it’s a scary thing to eat, as it was demonstrated on the show Fear Factor in 2006. There are many other exotic foods that were enjoyed in Vietnam—but not anymore.

There are areas of Vietnam that are protected natural wildlife, and it would be favorable to keep it that way. With so many exotic foods coming from this natural wildlife, authorities are beginning to crack down on poachers in order to preserve one of the few beautiful rain forests left in the world.

Two weeks ago, officers had raided a restaurant in Dalat, Vietnam, confiscating over twenty different species of illegally poached animals amounting to over 850 lbs of meat. Meats on the protected list that were confiscated included, but are not limited to, pangolins, porcupines, mouse deer, monitor lizards, bears and snakes. (1) Over a dozen restaurant owners were arrested for violating such a serious law.

Along with restaurant owners, those who were also arrested were the poachers, and those involved in transporting and selling them—the middlemen. Regarding the arrests, the head of Lam Dong Forest Protection Department, Mr. Binh Thanh Tran publicly stated that “the campaign today is our warning shot to illegal wildlife traders that Lam Dong province will not condone wildlife violators anymore.” (2)

Many restaurants have already taken the pledge not to participate in the gruesome slaughtering and serving of endangered protected animals of Vietnam. When the campaign committed to protecting Vietnam’s biodiversity by not serving wildlife products or species protected under Vietnamese law was launched on October 1, 2009, over 150 restaurants took the pledge in that month alone. (3)

These are only a few restaurants among the infinite within the country of Vietnam that have taken this pledge. What about the mom and pop shops and small street vendors? How will the country enforce the law to protect endangered animals from being slaughtered, fried and boiled for a few bucks on the street? The future and fate of the ecosystem of Vietnam is much more important than a small profit.

The director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Asian Programs, Joe Walston, called the illegal (though sometimes legal) trade in wildlife the “single largest threat” to biodiversity in Asia. In a statement he released in relation to the raids conducted on the restaurants in Vietnam, he declared that “strict enforcement of existing laws, such as what is happening in Lam Dong, is crucial to stemming this crisis, so that wildlife can thrive for future generations.” (4)

Vietnam is a beautiful country fortunate enough to have more than one climate and environment, and the natural environment must be preserved. We can’t just protect the trees and flowers and hope everything will be okay. It is a web and a connection between the wildlife and the natural plants that help keep an environment stable, and these animals must be protected to conserve the country that more and more foreigners are visiting and vacationing in each year.

Taking in his surroundings, Tony reflects on his trip back to Vietnam

Anthony Bourdain does it again!  He is returning to “his favorite place on Earth,” Vietnam, on the upcoming No Reservation episode on Monday, March 29.  During his last visit, he seriously considered moving to Vietnam.  See our blog on this episode here.

This time, Anthony Bourdain is taking his show to Vietnam’s Central Highlands.  You’ll see Bourdain at Linh Phong Monastery Pagoda in Da Lat enjoying some “thuc an chay,” delicious duck dishes on the street-side, and some good old sticky rice (xoi yen). Yesterday we told you about lake-side Vietnamese coffee.  On Monday, Anthony Bourdain will show us how to get a “taste of the forest” at a lakeside restaurant near Dankia Lake.  He will also make some stops in Ha Noi to sample some native “Bac” dishes: pho Ha Noi and banh cuon (noodle dumpling).  (You can read our article on Pho.)

Banh Cuon (Rice Noodle dumpling); Image from: http://www.bamboogrillrestaurant.com

Anthony Bourdain has travelled to 80-90 countries, and Vietnam remains “his favorite place on Earth.”  He has been to Vietnam at least three times on his shows!  Last night, Brian, our VTP Editor said, “Since Bourdain loves Vietnam so much, I wonder if we can get him to channel some of this love for Vietnam to OneVietnam?”  So I thought, maybe all we have to do is ask.  Why don’t we create some buzz on VTP and Facebook and get Anthony Bourdain’s attention!

Who wants to get Anthony Bourdain to talk about OneVietnam on his show No Reservation?  Better yet, maybe he can make an appearance at our launch party!  If we can get 100 people to comment on this post, I’ll personally send a letter with your comments to No Reservation.  Leave a comment and get your friends to comment too!  Let’s show Bourdain some love.  We at OneVietnam Network sure love him!

While it is still uncertain whether potential customers will buy its rice, Vietnam has to compete with  the two new rivals.

Vietnam rice export is in difficult situation  with rice exporters gaining few commercial export deals. Vietnam Food Association (VFA)  is concerned that if this situation continues, it is not only rice exports that will be severely affected, but will also lead to decreased purchase power of domestic rice.

Many Indefinable Unknowns

Mr. Pham Van Bay, Vice President of VFA said: “The hardest thing for local rice exporters is that they could not find any commercial contracts, especially in Africa where it used to be a vastly potential market for Vietnam businesses. The worse thing is that even with the signed deals, importers still did not execute the contract with the reason of inadequate finances. It is expected that not until early of the second quarter of 2010 could the rice market be eventful again.”

Another potential market is Iraq, which is bidding for 120,000 tons of rice. Previously, Vietnam businesses sold rice to the Iraq market via intermediaries and gained many contracts. Yet, since the Ministry of Industry and Trade identified that this should be a concentrated market and assigned the Vietnam Northern Food Corporation (VNFC) as a single point of finding rice export contracts, there have been no more contracts for domestic rice exporters.

Moreover, the other two countries considered as the unknowns of the world rice market, India and Indonesia, have showed signs of importing rice in order to ensure national food security. However, it is still unclear whether these two nations will import rice or not.

Another trouble for Vietnamese rice exporters in the African market is the appearance of two competitors, Myanmar and Pakistan. At present, the selling price of low-class rice of these two countries is around US$320-330 per ton, which is considered to be reasonable for the African market. However, the advantages of Vietnamese export are convenient shipping and a stable political situation, which make importers feel secure.

Rice market analysts in the world all agreed that rice is an uncalculated item. It is because apart from production and supply-demand, rice is also a product of political influence.

Restricting Private Merchants to Buy Rice From Farmers at Low Prices

With rice yield at an estimated 5.5 million tons from now until the end of this year, together with stock of above 1.2 million tons, the current deals totaling 2 million tons is not enough. Therefore, what rice exporters should do at the moment is to speed up acquiring new commercial deals in order to reduce pressure once new harvest is ready.

VFA policy his year is to make sure that the price of raw rice is above VND4,000 per kg (US$0.22). If the price falls below this benchmark, VFA will interfere by buying rice for temporary stocking. In 2009, VFA already bought for stocking twice when the price of raw rice fell too low. In some ways, this method has proved to be efficient.

At present, the Ministry of Finance has not published the production price ,but VFA estimated it at around VND2,500 (US$0.14) per kg. With that estimation and with the purchasing price of VND4,500 – VND4,600 (US$0.24 – 0.25) per kg, farmers could make a profit of 60%.

A new point for this year is the VFA and Vietnam Southern Food Corporation (VSFC) will have measures to curb the situation of private merchants  forcing farmers to sell rice at a low price. To do this, rice will be bought by merchants at a price above VND4,000. Then rice exporters will pay them more than VND4,000 (US$0.22) per kg. The terms and conditions of the deals will be published on mass media so that farmers can have a full understanding of this policy.

However, the difficulty is that private merchants will still try to force farmers to sell rice lower than VND4,4000. VFA and VSFC does not have enough manpower to go to every single area of the country to buy rice directly from farmers. Furthermore, farmers in Vietnam often have small rice paddy fields, which makes rice purchasing in a collective way problematic. Also, farmers are usually under pressure to pay debts as soon as they can. As they have to borrow money for investing in rice seeds, insecticide, fertilizer, etc., long before growing rice, they are beleaguered of securing the money from their harvest. Therefore, farmers have no choice but to agree on selling rice at cheap price even before harvesting time.

(From Vietnamnet and Phapluat Newspapers)

Bourdain in Vietnam

The Travel Channel’s Anthony Bourdain revisited Vietnam yet again on the last episode of No Reservations.  Bourdain fell in love with Vietnam the first time he visited it and likens his feelings to “when you meet the love of your life for the first time.” Bourdain’s book, A Cook’s Tour, is often called his love letter to Vietnam.

Whether he is serious or not about moving there next year (he seems serious), it really reminds you of how great Vietnam is.  Great food, beautiful scenery, and a rich history.  I find myself feeling very proud when I see Vietnam on a national stage in such good light.  For a long time Vietnam has been over shadowed by stories of the war, but perhaps it’s time for the country’s rich culture and beauty to take the stage.

Speaking of great food, I’ll leave you with some images of Vietnam’s cuisines that will make your eyes hungry.