Delicious art that’s edible from top to bottom Shirley started baking as a small kid growing up in the Philippines. Her parents ran a Spanish restaurant and so for Shirley, food has always had a starring role in her life. After leaving school, she did a brief stint at a bank but soon realized she was in the… Read more »
Category Archives: Features
Rebel with a Cause
Johnny Tri Nguyen talks MMA in Vietnam, his banned movie Chinatown and why he’s always the bad guy Hearing Johnny Tri Nguyen talk about his grandfather, the “White Crane of Ca Mau,” so named for his long sleeved shirts to hide metal arm and shin guards, it’s hard to separate fact from fiction. The story sounds a lot like a Hong… Read more »
Footloose
Find out how Linh Rateau’s journey from France to Vietnam resulted in the creation of one of the city’s most popular dance centers Looking at the current Dancenter in District 2 - the villa, the spacious dance studios, the well-lit rooms and clean white walls, the star-studded list of instructors and the whopping 600 students on its roll call -… Read more »
Decadent Dumplings
Japan’s famous luxury sweet will satiate any sugar cravings In the space of two years, Mochi Sweets (77 Hai Ba Trung, D1) has not just arrived in Vietnam but is fast taking over the sweet snack scene with 14 stores already open and more on the way. Mochi is a type of traditional sweet Japanese cake made from mochigome,… Read more »
The Happy Baker
A local speaks about his experience coming out in Vietnamese society Chatting with Yun Lukas, one gets the impression that life couldn’t be better, but not for the reasons you might expect. Yun is an increasingly respected fashion & lifestyle commentator who rubs shoulders with models, celebrities, and prominent designers – and yet he completely fails to mention this during our… Read more »
All the World’s a Stage
…and all the (expat and Vietnamese) men and women are merely players Saigon Players, the oldest and most loved English speaking theater group in Saigon, began 10 years ago with a couple of beers, a handful of enthusiastically tipsy expat friends and a dollop of sheer boredom. At some point, love and passion for theatrical arts were also involved. It’s hard to… Read more »
Wherefore Art Thou?
‘Art promoter’ Alex McMillan wants to propel the art movement to the forefront with his latest project Alex, tell us about yourself. AM: Since I was 12 I was interested in audio production. I used to have a Tascam 4-Track in my bedroom on which I would record tracks of me howling and playing my guitar. I made music up… Read more »
The Myth: How does firefighting work here?
Is it true that you have to pay them first before they will put out the fire for you? If so, how much? There are lots of rumors on firefighting practices in Vietnam and whether or not firefighting is under the ‘money-first-service-later’ procedure that is an all too common practice here. I’ve actually never thought of it myself or what I would… Read more »
Blazing Saddles
A crazy horse lady builds the city’s first equestrian center For a self-proclaimed equestrian center and farm, Bach Ma is as weird as it gets. One, it doesn’t accept passing guests. Two, it has been around for the last six years, but is only known to about a couple dozen people plus 200 Facebookers who may or may not count…. Read more »
My life as a transgender funeral performer
Call me Mimi, Mimi as in Mimi Doraemi, the robotic cat in the Japanese anime series. I was born a man, but now I am a woman by choice. My work as a transgender funeral performer is… to be honest, even to this day I’m not quite sure whether it was more by chance or by sheer necessity. Nevertheless, this… Read more »