Cà Pháo

I won't even pretend that I know the English name of most of the food that goes on my plate when I am on the road in Vietnam. Most of the foods I see regularly, I know the Vietnamese name, and I know what it tastes like before I put it in my mouth. But anyone who has translated for an American in a Vietnamese food setting knows that saying what something is in the native language usually doesn't fly. Even if it does fly, you know the person asking the question thinks you aren't as good as you say you are. Forget about the fact that most of these foods can't even be found anywhere other than an Asian specialty store in the U.S. And even if you were to say the English name, they wouldn't recognize it.

A common food on the Vietnamese table that I have yet to see someone translate correctly is the cà pháo.  The classifier "cà" is a good clue.  Cà is the root word for Tomato and Egg Plant, so you figure it is in the same family. One of the more creative team linguists I know refers to them as firecracker tomatoes; phao translated directly as firecracker.  Wrong.

For the record, Ca Phao is commonly referred to as Garden Egg or Thai Eggplant.  I had never heard this particular fruit / vegetable made reference to in the English language before, so I guess it really doesn't matter, but I will definitely keep it in my back pocket the next time it is on the table and someone asks. I will even be able to reply, "Really!" when they give me that puzzled look.

Beaufort Scale

If you are reading this blog, you probably have some level of understanding of Vietnamese.  Obviously, the longer you study and/or live in the country the more you understand.  Part of gaining that understanding is watching the news. I have watched the news here for many, many years and some categories of news come easier than others.  If you watch the weather, it shouldn't take long to increase your rudimentary Vietnamese to be able to grasp most of what's going on.  That being said, some understanding goes beyond just knowing the vocabulary.

Having gone to school to learn Vietnamese some 30 years ago, I am a little embarrassed to admit that it wasn't until recently that I gathered enough curiosity that I actually did some research into what the written and broadcast weather reports meant when they referred to wind force levels, i.e., level 4 winds (gió cấp 4).  Apparently the Vietnamese use the Beaufort Wind Force Scale developed by Francis Beaufort in 1805. I won't go into the history of it, but if you go to the link, you will see everything you need to know about the system.

I only felt compelled to write this down, because it wasn't an intuitive research project. It took me a while before I finally found a good point of reference to figure it out.  Maybe the Beaufort Scale and wind measurements are well known in Europe and Asia, but I had never heard of the scale before.

It is pretty obvious that I don't update this blog often. My interests ebb and flow and I have been extremely busy in my work. I have a lot of ideas on new posts, and I hope to have some new material soon.

Mưa Phùn

In the Vietnamese language, mưa phùn means to drizzle. In Hanoi, Spring is the period when I think of the Hanoi Drizzle the most. It can go days on end without letting up and can seem interminable if you want to get out and do something. The local population says it is the weather of the poets. I guess they need the misery of the drizzle to get their artistic juices going.

It affects me the most on the motorbike. Not enough rain to force me to put on a rain jacket, but enough that when I get out in it, mud splatters onto my work clothes. There is something about the dirt in Hanoi that when it mixes with the drizzle on the road and gets into your clothes, it ain't coming out.

Thank God I am getting back on the road at the end of this week. We are in a good weather window for the southern region of Vietnam and I hear it calling.