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Khôi has a soft spot for em dashes, cats, and the occasional curry — the heat might be mild, but his metaphors aren't.
257 stories
Film & TV
When we entered the auditorium to watch Cù Lao Xác Sống , no theater attendant was there to check our tickets. Perhaps the telling emptiness of the room made them realize they could be doing better things with their life than shepherding unsuspecting watchers to such a vulgar display of cinematic abhorrence.
Film & TV
Maika is a loving tribute to Vietnam’s childhood icon of the 1980s, but for those who didn’t grow up with the original Eastern European series, what’s in it for us?
Saigon Hẻm Gems
Besides being the “it” place to obtain imported goods, Saigon’s chợ cũ , or Old Market, is also a treasure trove of hidden eateries.
Film & TV
Premiered less than 24 hours ago, a made-in-Vietnam animation project has quickly become the talk of the town in the local cybersphere thanks to its high production values and intriguing concept.
Saigon Hẻm Gems
The simplicity of an egg is an underrated beauty that we often take for granted.
Dishcovery
As Saigon inches towards the hottest months of the year, I find myself shying away from steaming hot soups while craving a little cooling treat to ward off the heat. Luckily for Saigon’s foodies, District 7 has just the right dish to scratch that itch.
Saigon
The 110-year-old market will receive a new tiled roof, as well as infrastructure and gate upgrades.
Saigon Hẻm Gems
Unlike a normal human, there is a chance that my body is not 70% water, but 70% curry; and a good 50% of that might actually be Japanese curry.
Saigon Hẻm Gems
Pick your favorite cupcake flavor; perhaps a pitcher of hot fragrant tea too. Ascend the dizzyingly steep flight of stairs. Mind your head. Tread gently on the wooden attic floor. There your friends are. They’re giggling over a joke. Their faces light up in the warm golden ambiance. Let’s have a blast.
Natural Selection
The story of Vietnam and cọp is not one where we will come out looking good.
Saigon Hẻm Gems
“He was a bold man that first ate an oyster,” satirist Jonathan Swift wrote in the 1700s. Famously fearful of the now-prized bivalves, Swift eventually grew to appreciate their briny, ocean-forward essence, going as far as writing oyster-gathering and -consuming into Gulliver’s Travels .
Music & Arts
Despite the drab outlook enveloping the entertainment industry for most of 2021, this year saw a boom in new faces across genres and the release of many pandemic albums.
Natural Selection
Don’t you find it bewildering when you have existed for centuries, and are suddenly thrust into stardom due to a small cameo in a nationalist saga?
Vietnam
A new era has begun for the increasingly busy mountain city.
Vietnam
The ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, combined with severe lockdown restrictions, has led to Vietnam's worst economic quarter in decades.
Tech
There is an exquisite but hard-to-name feeling that engulfs me every time I finish watching a particularly outstanding movie. It’s a lingering mixture of awe, fulfillment, wistfulness, anguish, contemplation, and everything in between. But most pronounced of all, it’s a sadness over the realization that a piece of art has concluded, and I can never experience it for the first time again.
Natural Selection
There’s a 99% chance that a Vietnamese child’s first exposure to lá dứa , or pandan, is in the form of rau câu .
Music & Arts
In 1925, Joseph Inguimberty stepped into the tropical humidity of Hanoi for the first time. Despite having been to Italy, Greece and even Egypt, the 29-year-old art professor probably couldn’t imagine that the dynamic, paradoxical, but relentlessly enchanting Southeast Asian city would become his home for the next two decades.
Saigon Hẻm Gems
As I gaze at the glorious eight-dish Malaysian banquet on our table at Makiucha, perfectly spaced by our photographer, popping with colors and wafting off aromas of rich spices, it becomes apparent to me how much I’ve missed hawker centers.
Saigon Hẻm Gems
A highlight of my last visit to Phở Lạc Việt was a special moment when I reached out and the tips of my fingers touched a warm bowl inside the heating cabinet.
Music & Arts
Da Lat is not merely a place, it’s a state of mind.
Vietnam Hẻm Gems
Walking down Da Lat’s Robin Hill amid emerald pine trees and languid fluffs of cloud, one’s eyes will inevitably encounter a visual disturbance in the form of bright orange plastic maple trees. They are not the heroes of this story, but reluctant antagonists that nonetheless serve as hurdles on the journey to discover a hidden treasure.
Saigon Hẻm Gems
Every time I lap up a spoonful of searing broth that’s so spicy I could almost count the number of times my face pulses, I feel grateful for taste buds.
