Random stuff....

I had a working weekend, making RTR icing with Doan and some xmas mince tarts with Luyen, but my pals David and Amanda were on the prowl round the old quarter and took this cool shot of a very inventive warning sign!  Hole in road!!

It's sitting in the hole it's warning about...clever!

I've been trying to remember to take photos of my meals for you.  This is com rang or fried rice.  It came with a bowl of dressed cucumber, which I may add is nothing like the bitter, watery, nasty stuff I won't eat at home.  It's crunchy with a firmer texture a delicate refreshing flavour and with none of the bitterness at all.  The soup was a delicate chicken broth loaded with fresh coriander and some slivers of tomato.  I love my com rang here, it comes topped with very fine shredded dried pork or beef - yummy and  there are jars of pickled raw garlic and chilli on the tables too so you can add even more flavour if you need to.  The cost?  20,000vd ...about $1.

No one cares about the chipped china when the food tastes so good!

One of the ubiquitous sounds of Hanoi is the cockerel's crow, especially if you happen to be near a chicken restaurant.  The birds are a strange collection of types, some normal (or what we would consider normal) and then there's the 'dinochook'!  The 'dinochook' bears less resemblance to a chicken and more to a T Rex or a raptor of some kind...take a look. These strange looking birds scrounge around in the refuse for food and live right beside one of the busiest roads in Hanoi but I've never seen one wander onto the road...street smart!    However given their diet and environment I haven't been feeling like eating a lot of chicken lately!

Alongside a normal size chook

Part vulture perhaps?

Straight after taking the 'dinochook' shots I looked up to see a veritable swag of Santas coming at me down the laneway...I dont know what it was in aid of but it looks hilarious.

Even the Vietnamese were taking photos as they came...

and came.....

and came!  The third one back had his nose sticking out of the mouth hole of his beard...he looked like a yeti!

The country is gearing up for Tet at the moment, apparently Xmas is looked upon as a fun American thing to do - lots of tinsel 'snow' and funny clothes but Tet is the main holiday.  I passed the water park - which is of course closed for the winter - but saw these gorgeous things on a stage of some kind.  I couldn't get close enough to see exactly what they were but it looked like fabric stretched over a frame...a bit like the lanterns used at the Chinese Lantern Festival in Sydney.

Sorry about the angle I was sticking my camera through wire mesh.

A beautiful crane's behind!

I guess you might want to see some of the work we have been doing of late - when there's been an oven to use and when we've had a kitchen to get into.  We made my yummy xmas mince tart filling with a few minor changes to the fruit content - dependent on what can be found.  Here's a shot of Doan using the cutters donated by Frazer and Hughes in Sydney to create lovely little minis for the restaurant.  Doan is going to be running the pastry section and in that role he will also be training the kids coming through who have an interest in pastry.

Happy in his work.

The other thing we've been doing for Xmas are making one or two gingerbread beach babes... 83 today and another 80 tomorrow...I'll be going into ginger overload soon!

Don't forget your sunnies....

Does it remind you of Bondi?

That's it for now, I'm about to get ready to go to the Xmas party at Donkey Bakery.  I went there yesterday afternoon to help prepare two Buche de Noel for the buffet.  I've never done one before but it's just a Swiss roll slathered in buttercream to make it look like a log...we used some of the RTR I'd made and fashioned holly leaves and berries.  I am going to make some for the Koto Xmas do on 27th so I'll remember to take photos then.