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Culture & Cuisine - Regional specialties - Saying that the north is delicate, the centre bold and the south sweet is only a very rough generalisation. Real meals change with the province, the season, the household and its means; the more interesting difference lies in how the dishes support ..

Miscellany - Life around us - As children, siblings share a room and a meal. As adults, work, marriage and distance mean closeness is no longer automatic. From then on the bond has to be tended with deliberate habits. Do not get in touch only when something needs doing If every ..

Miscellany - Health & beauty - A gentle walk after a meal is a simple way to break up sitting time and fit movement into the day. The benefit does not come from walking fast on a full stomach, but from a pace that suits you, repeated regularly, and from your total activity acros ..

Travel & Backpacking - Tips & sharing - Hue has the Imperial City, the royal tombs, pagodas, the river, markets and a food culture deep enough to fill several trips. A sensible three days should be divided by area and by pace, so that each half-day has only one focus. Day one: the Imperi ..

World - World food culture - Yum cha means, plainly enough, going out for tea, but the experience has long included baskets of dim sum, the sound of conversation and the rhythm of families and friends meeting. The meal is remembered not only for the dumplings; it is also how a ..

Culture & Cuisine - Regional specialties - Breakfast in Saigon happens fast but is not careless: a banh mi finished in a few minutes, a cup of cloth-filter coffee dripping from years of practised rhythm, and a low stool that is enough for a pause before work. Banh mi is a structure of layer ..

Miscellany - Life around us - Relationships with neighbours rarely begin with something big. A regular greeting, a heads-up before building work, or taking in a parcel can build a thin but important layer of trust. Closeness that lasts needs boundaries alongside it, because bei ..

Culture & Cuisine - Regional culture - The southern Vietnamese table tends to impress through its openness: a pot of sour soup, braised fish, a plate of greens and a bowl of dipping sauce set in the middle for everyone to share. The sweetness, sourness and saltiness, and the scent of th ..

Miscellany - Life around us - One day the old photograph will still be there, but no one will remember who is standing in it. Recording what grandparents have to say is not a grand project; it is a way of keeping names, voices and small details before the memories slip away. St ..

Travel & Backpacking - Restaurant & hotel reviews - A hotel worth the money is not necessarily the cheapest or the one with the most stars. Value appears when the location, the sleep, the cleanliness, the service and the booking terms all match what this particular trip needs. Start from the purpose ..

World - World food culture - Mezze is a way of eating built from many small plates set in the middle of the table, where the conversation and everyone's presence matter as much as the food. From hummus and dressed vegetables to pickles and bread, each element contributes a fla ..

Culture & Cuisine - Regional specialties - Tuong Ban is a thick amber-brown sauce, salty and sweet at once, with the fermented aroma characteristic of Ban Yen Nhan in Hung Yen. From soybeans, glutinous rice, salt and water, the makers build the flavour through stages of toasting, culturing, ..

Travel & Backpacking - Tips & sharing - Two days and one night are enough for a first-time visitor to take in the limestone landscape, one boat trip and the historical depth of Ninh Binh — as long as you do not try to fit Trang An, Tam Coc, Bai Dinh, Hang Mua and everything else into the ..

Culture & Cuisine - Regional specialties - Three hundred thousand dong is not a fixed figure for every occasion, but it is enough to plan a day of eating in Hanoi with breakfast, lunch, a light bite and dinner — provided you pick modest places, order within your appetite and keep something ..

Culture & Cuisine - Regional culture - The Tay table in north-east Vietnam is built from sticky rice, forest greens, meat, stream fish, local seasonings and the rhythm of the farming year. Five-coloured sticky rice and khau nhuc are the famous names, but the deeper value lies in how the ..

World - World food culture - Zhejiang is located on the coast, a land of green mountains and blue waters, rich in natural resources, also known as the "land of fish and rice. " The local people place great importance on their daily meals and dishes. Below are 10 Zhejiang dishe ..

Culture & Cuisine - Regional culture - This is a common question from many families: - In a year with many death anniversaries: father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents, etc., which anniversary is the most important? - After burial, there ar ..

World - World food culture - Washoku is not simply a list of familiar Japanese dishes. It is a way of watching the seasons, choosing ingredients, combining colours and arranging a meal so that it feels harmonious. A tray that looks plain can tell a story about climate, land, f ..

Culture & Cuisine - Cooking guides - A good bowl of pho bo does not need an over-rich broth or a heavy hand with the sugar. What you want is a clear liquid with a deep sweetness drawn from bones and meat, the scent of charred onion and ginger, and the pho spices only faintly present i ..

Travel & Backpacking - Restaurant & hotel reviews - Tam Coc offers many kinds of accommodation, from guesthouses inside residential areas to homestays looking out over the fields and resorts with everything self-contained. This piece does not promote any particular place; it sets out practical crite ..

Culture & Cuisine - Cooking guides - A good thit kho tau has square pieces of pork that keep their shape, tender lean meat and fat that has turned translucent without being cloying; the eggs take on colour outside while the yolks stay moist; and the braising liquid is an amber brown, ..

Culture & Cuisine - Cooking guides - A good ca kho to is more than fish with an attractive brown colour. The pieces have to stay whole, the flesh just cooked and still moist, the sauce lightly glossy but not thick and gluey, and the balance of salt and sweetness carried by pepper, oni ..

World - Mysteries & the bizarre - An illustrated book transferred to the library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1838 contains a dense, unidentified system of symbols, with its author, language, or reading direction still unknown. The Rohonc Codex is named after the town of ..

Travel & Backpacking - Tips & sharing - Hoi An is an ancient town in Quang Nam Province recognized as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site in 1999. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Hoi An was one of the busiest trading ports in Vietnam, where merchants from many countries like Japan, Chi ..

Marketplace & Classifieds - Tours - Young people are becoming increasingly passionate about backpacking, because the further you travel, the more captivated you become—discovering the sheer beauty of the country, meeting kind-hearted people, and realizing just how much there is to le ..

Culture & Cuisine - Regional specialties - Ola88's cross-Vietnam specialty discovery journey has finally reached its destination. The final region we visit is the South; Saigon and the Southwestern provinces are not only ideal tourist destinations but also a hospitable land rich in flavorfu ..

World - World food culture - Fenghuang is a small, beautiful, and peaceful town. Fenghuang is charming for its ancient scenery and its simple, honest people. It carries the breath of a classic style, along with a truly unique ancient town culture. Fenghuang is most beautiful i ..

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Travel & Backpacking - Restaurant & hotel reviews - The restaurant is located right at the beginning of Yen Hoa - Trung Kinh with a varied menu. The 1st floor has floor seating while the 2nd floor has chair seating. Personally, I feel the dishes here are very delicious for sitting down to drink, wit ..

Travel & Backpacking - Tips & sharing - Mountain passes are what captivate backpackers, but they are also what claim the most lives. Most accidents on mountain passes do not result from high speed, but rather from riders not knowing what lies just beyond the next blind curve. This articl ..