My Scholarship entry - Understanding a Culture through Food

colterfree — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 05:15:58 GMT

Riding passenger on a scooter through the streets of Ho Chi Minh City is daunting. Possibly it’s the buzz I’m still holding onto from the inexpensive beers at lunch or the constant clipping of my knees on other scooters as we weave through traffic at video game like speeds. This is my first day in Vietnam.

Rich in history and international influence, Vietnam’s cuisine isn’t only a fusion of Asian and French sensibilities, but a meeting of all cultures that have crossed paths with the nation. From spicy chili pastes, fermented fish oils, noodles, and spring rolls to European coffees and French pastries that rival most in Paris, the spread of culture exchange in Vietnam’s food is staggering.

The French introduced the baguette to Vietnam, and the sandwich was never the same. Often built on, but not limited to, smoky pork belly, fresh cilantro, hot peppers and pickled carrots. I’ve never had a more flavorful sandwich than the ones that still haunt me from my time in Vietnam. Add a sugar drenched, limeade soda and it’s sensory overload. Simple, but complex in flavor Ban Mi sandwiches became a staple of the people and of my own journey.

Getting to know the people of Vietnam makes the relation to food even more apparent. Coffee and cigarettes, bundles of sweet lychee fruit, meats and smoothies, everywhere you could see the influence, the importance, of tastes. Buying cheese and bread on a train platform, or over paying for a coconut as my friend buys one for 1/10th the cost; food is so much a part of Vietnam.

Sitting on the sands of China Beach, I crack open the last crab I’ll eat in Vietnam, beer adjacent as well as emperor spring rolls. The cut on my thumb from the last crab I tore open burns as I dip crabmeat into a mash of salt, pepper and lemon juice. It stings, but every second of discomfort is worth it. The food in Vietnam is one of the things I will never forget, it was present and fresh, in the moment and thinking about it brings be back every time.

My Photo scholarship 2010 entry

colterfree — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 08:25:18 GMT

October 2009 I found myself on a plane flying to Kiev, Ukraine with two good friends. We were (to the horror of our families) heading for the nuclear exclusion zone of Chernobyl. 23 Years prior the nuclear facility suffered an explosion sending 90 times the amount of radioactive material into the air than that of the Hiroshima bomb. The immediate result was evacuation, the lasting result; a generation of birth defects and an uninhabitable "zone of exclusion" that will remain dangerously radioactive for another 20,000 years. Riding in a small panel van with our barely English speaking driver and guide we passed military checkpoint after military checkpoint, going deeper into the zone of exclusion. Our first stop; about 40 feet from reactor no 4, the one that blew. You'd never suspect a thing; quiet, rich thick forests filled with young trees, grass, soil. Much less of a Mad Max world and more of national park. The reactor was more mausoleum than anything else at this point, large concrete dome over the failed reactor, a memorial in front. We entered the town of Pripyat next. A town of 50,000 that disappeared nearly over night. Basketballs laid half empty on the court, a kindergarten dismissed early with books still on desks. A beautiful modernist hotel lobby once of glass and steel now at the mercy of the elements. As close to a time capsule town as anywhere in the world. Trees growing through marble tile floors, Soviet hammer and sickle still crowning nearly every minimalist building. A trip back in time, preserved closely to the day residents left it. The silence was nearly deafening, no chirping birds, no barking dogs, no horns, no cars, no people. In 23 years of abandonment, nature was well into taking back the city. Life was living, minus humans.

Journeys and Treks

My Scholarship entry - Understanding a Culture through Food

My Photo scholarship 2010 entry