Outside Viet

Send us Fan Mail From one of the hotels I stayed in, I heard a unique bird call. I have no idea what it is and I cannot find a non-Americas, non-European app for identification. Part of a series of what you can hear around Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City).

Send us Fan Mail I thought the rainy season ended after August, but that might just be true for the part of Vietnam where my dad is from. Jen tells me big heavy thunderstorms are normal in October. Part of a series of what you can hear around Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City).

Send us Fan Mail No Julie Andrew here. Dennis lays out his thoughts on “Vietnam’s” epic, the Tale of Kieu, a story of Confucian morals.

Send us Fan Mail Just a ramble about the various Vietnamese gang members I’ve met over the years.

Send us Fan Mail We talk about the struggles about becoming a war chief and if there is an exchange rate between elephants and horses.  A follow up to this episode is included at the start of the avocado episode.

Send us Fan Mail We, to Dennis' chagrin, talk about Vietnam's most famous cuisine, phở (if I hear an Oh sound, I will hunt you down). It's origins are murky, but whether it be French, Chinese or a hybridization with local recipes, there's no denying it's significance. Ramen (a completely different type of soup, listen and learn), takes a back seat to this savoury bowl of n...

Send us Fan Mail We delve into the SCB saga, the greatest criminal trial in Vietnam's, in SE Asia's history and the lady at the center of it all, Capitalist Lang (Trương Mỹ Lan).  Post script: On June 6, Al Jazeera reports more charges were filed against Capital Lang for transferring $4.5 billion USD in and out of Vietnam (https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2024/6/6/vietnam-tycoon-sentenc...

Send us Fan Mail As part of our ongoing gratitude to our listeners in Frankfurt Am Main, we thought we'd have a look at how Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) stacks up to this powerhouse of a German city.

Send us Fan Mail We talked about Sơn Tinh (Sonny) previously, but in this episode, Dennis and I do an overview of the other three immortals. This includes Sonny's brother in law, Chử Đồng Tử  (Chewie).

Send us Fan Mail We talk about lemongrass, Dennis' favourite herb and  its origin and its uses. There are a lot.

Send us Fan Mail I never fulfilled the Viet stereotype in Canada, but I surprisingly met a number of people who did. PS -  I was told viet folks will move to edmonton, calgary, saskatoon, etc. from vancouver / toronto, to escape heat from the police there

Send us Fan Mail It is weird on what Vietnamese will like from outside the nation. For example, in 2023, Jen tells me the popular foreign beer of choice is...Budweiser. For Vietnamese expats (Viet Kieu), Bud was popular in the 80s and 90s. Music wise, Hotel California seems to have made a lasting impression on older Vietnamese, including making me hate the song because it was played ad nauseum dur...

Send us Fan Mail Some random notes from my 76 (actually 6, no Dennis, I'm telling the truth) trips to Vietnam. Also a way to segue into our follow up podcast series about Vietnam. 

Send us Fan Mail One of the Four Immortals, who's legendary battles over a beautiful princess, describes how and why Vietnam lives through a monsoon season. Wrongly called a genie (djinn) by Wikipedia, Sonny (as we inappropriately call him) is more rightly called a Saint, a chief figure in the beliefs of the Red River Delta peoples. These peoples are the ancestors of the modern Vietnamese.  H...

Send us Fan Mail Dennis and I talk about former Buon  Don Elephant Races, how it would have been great with coffee (it's part of a larger coffee festival).

Send us Fan Mail The first of my 76 trips (it's actually 6 with a possible 7th coming at some point. Wait, Dennis is yelling at me about something), where I met my dad's mom for the first and only time. The bro went with and he hated it. We both went again in 2013 and he still hated it, but at least I got him to eat tasty food that wasn't fried potatoes or rice with soy sauce. PS: T...

Send us Fan Mail The first in a series on notable Vietnamese persons. In this episode, we briefly go over (based on what Wikipedia made available): The Trưng Sisters Phùng Thị Chính  Lady Triệu  Lê Lợi Trần Hưng Đạo Bùi Thị Xuân Hồ Chí Minh and Võ Nguyên Giáp. We also discuss what the French brought to the table after their conquest of Vietnam while reminiscing on the great bánh mì Dennis got from...

Send us Fan Mail Not the paying kind, but the saving kind. Recognizing the folks who brought my (and a bunch of other) Viet families out of the Malaysian refugee camp to Canada.

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to "Why an S and not a V?" - a podcast about Vietnam, from the perspective of a foreign born Vietnamese trying to learn about his homeland. This episode focuses on the foundation of Vietnam, a story wrapped in the mists of time and legend. I briefly talk about Lac Long Quan (the Dragon Prince) and Au Co (the Snow Fairy), called the Father and Mother of Vietnam. A...

Send us Fan Mail A redux and more focused episode on the types of strokes, including the one I had. PS: A redux of season 1, episode 3 "Stroke!".