The Bureau Asia Podcast

With the biggest public health crisis we’ve confronted this century playing out, it's forced us indoors for the foreseeable future. Governments are demanding that we stay home and leave only for essential purposes like grocery shopping or medical checkups. Schools have been closed for most of the year in Vietnam, students aren’t likely to return until at least June and workers in non-essential ind...

When you think of Italy, you think of great food and wine and great cities like Milan and Venice. In 2018, over 60 million tourists visited Italy, making it the 5th most visited country in the world behind France, Spain, the US and China. Meanwhile, Venice is Italy’s most popular city for tourists with close to 28 million foreign visitors checking out its romantic canals and architecture in 2017....

In this episode of The Bureau Podcast, we're celebrating the first 10 Bureau Bites episodes, our new shortened "pod-bite" series in which we interview a whole bunch of interesting people with a connection to Vietnam. In this first part of two, we revisit the first five stories which delve into the impact COVID-19 is having on travel and hospitality in Vietnam. And for a little added extra fun, we...

Vietnam can be quite a perilous place to live. Traffic accidents remain the biggest single cause of fatalities in the country. While the number of fatalities has been steadily falling each year from around 14,000 deaths in 2010 to around 7,600 in 2019, there were still 48 reported traffic accidents that claimed 21 lives per day last year on our roads. Meanwhile, drownings remain the leading cause...

Singapore has been widely praised internationally for its efforts in containing COVID-19 and limiting fatalities to two people so far. But concern is afoot as the number of COVID-19 cases in the small island state has doubled over a 48-hour timespan, with an estimated 200,000 citizens yet to return home from overseas. Meanwhile, the livelihoods of just about everyone in every industry have been ha...

As of March 25, the Vietnamese Government reported that there has been a total of 141 COVID-19 cases since the outbreak, with 17 of those having fully recovered already, which leaves 124 cases, with 93 of those being Vietnamese and the rest foreign. It's a very impressive result so far, indeed, although those numbers have risen since this recording. According to the Vietnamese Deputy Prime Ministe...

Bureau Bites is a regular "pod-bite" bringing you the latest news from Vietnam and the region. Episode Background The Australian Government has increased measures in its bid to stem the rise of COVID-19 infection rates across its states and territories. They include operating bans on pubs, gyms and indoor sporting venues, cinemas and nightclubs, restaurants and cafes, and places of worship, and in...

Bureau Bites is a regular "pod-bite" bringing you the latest news from Vietnam and the region. Episode Background Walter Mason is an Australian author who has been visiting Vietnam since 1994 and since then has kept coming back. He has travelled the country with a Vietnamese-Australian monk, stayed in remote monasteries, and spent six months back in 1999 studying Vietnamese language at the Ho Chi...

Bureau Bites is a regular "pod-bite" bringing you the latest news from Vietnam and the region. Episode Background The outbreak of COVID-19 worldwide has dominated the news for weeks now with stories of illness, death, economic hardship and isolation. This means there hasn’t been many positive, uplifting, feel-good stories at the top of local and international news feeds. However, recent stories li...

Bureau Bites is a regular "pod-bite" bringing you the latest news from Vietnam and the region. Episode Background In a previous episode, we reported that bars and nightclubs in all of Saigon's 24 districts were to be closed from Sunday, March 15th from 6pm. However, a high-profile case has emerged since, where a British man unknowingly carrying COVID-19 visited a District 2 bar on multiple occasio...

Bureau Bites is a regular "pod-bite" bringing you the latest news from Vietnam and the region. Episode Background The Vietnamese Government has moved swiftly in its efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19. Travellers entering the country or who have travelled or transited through COVID-19 hotspots will go into quarantine (as of recording date). Some businesses have been directly affected and for...

Bureau Bites is a regular "pod-bite" bringing you the latest news from Vietnam and the region. Episode Background The Vietnamese Government has announced temporary changes to the entry & exit of foreigners due to Coronavirus Visas on arrival for all foreign nationals have been suspended Vietnam's tourism industry has been decimated with estimated losses starting at US$7 billion for the first q...

Bureau Bites is a regular "pod-bite" bringing you the latest news from Vietnam and the region. Background City officials have decided it's time to close bars and nightclubs in Saigon indefinitely in a bid to contain COVID-19 Restaurants remain open Chris Thompson (editor-at-large Harper's Bazaar Vietnam magazine) answers these questions: 1. What immediate impact is the decision to close bars and c...

In this "sporty" episode on location at much-loved Saigon pub Coolabah , we celebrate International Women's Day with special guest Naomi Skinner ( namrunsnam.com ) who has spent the past 6 months running 2,000km from Hanoi to Saigon to raise money for charity. On her rest day, she pops in and tells us over a few sneaky "rehydrating" beers about her odyssey and how she reckons roadside dogs in sout...

In the 2020 return of The Bureau Podcast, Matt, Mike & Mel get straight into Bureau Bites, a segment in which they tell each other what they've got up to related to F&B in Saigon since the previous episode. Mel revisits some old favourite dining haunts from over a decade ago, Mike let's us know about a new burger joint in town, and Matt introduces his #MealsOnWheels side project on Instagr...

In this "Royal-themed" episode with Matt, Mike & Mel, The Bureau Briefs returns in which Mel gives a big tick of approval to an iconic Saigon teahouse & bakery that has reopened its doors, but then stunningly cries "foul" over a much-hyped (and highly-rated) flame grilled chicken restaurant new to town. Meanwhile, Mike pays out on Matt for taking him on their own wild goose chase in search...

In another fun-packed episode with Matt, Mike & Mel, The Bureau Briefs is back bigger than ever in which we chat about some of the many events we wriggled our way into AND didn’t quite make it to over the past two weeks, we get the lowdown on the Harper's Bazaar Vietnam Star Awards night of nights, we get all fuzzy and excited about some new arrivals on the Saigon foodie scene, and we announce...

This episode The Bureau Briefs is back with some of the events we wriggled our way into over the past fortnight, we drool over some of Saigon’s best set lunches for business meetings as recommended by 5-star hotel concierges about the city, then we get all fuzzy and excited about some new arrivals on the scene, and finally, we give a shout out to some of our favourite influencers. Get excited!

In this episode of The Bureau Podcast we’re at long-running, neighbourhood favourite Ruby Soho, a Saigon bar dedicated to pop-culture and the love of music, we introduce The Bureau Briefs, a new segment in which we review our past week or so in hospitality, we reveal what's got us excited in F&B since our last episode, and we chat to our headliner, French animator and Ruby Soho owner, Fred Ser...

This week on The Bureau Podcast we’re at The Studio Saigon and we chat about what’s got us excited in F&B in Saigon since our last episode, the "bartist" Richie Fawcett steps in for Mike who's gone MIA in Danang, and we chat with architect Dr Hoanh Tran about Saigon's rapidly changing skyline and its gentrification, while Richie talks about his Cloud 9 Project. 

In this episode on location at Fresh Catch Vietnam, we chat about what's got us excited in F&B in Saigon since our last episode, we sink our teeth into Beyond Burgers, then catch up with serial Saigon restaurateur Albin Deforges to talk about seafood sustainability, we "sip test" two beers about to be released on the market, and we ask, what ever happened to the Strawpocalypse?

In our very first episode we chat about what's got us excited in F&B in Saigon the past week or so, we wonder whether we actually care if food is "authentic" or not, the meaning of W.T.F.A.T.B.A.O.F.N. is revealed, and we wonder what ever happened to celebrity chef Bobby Chinn?