Tis the season for pancakes

When it comes to breakfast foods, I tend to favor savory ones over sweet. Eggs, in any form, are usually how I start the day. However, variety is the spice of life and breakfast is not to be excluded. Vietnamese Pho (soup), cereal, and muffins make an occasional appearance. Lately, I have had more time in the morning to venture into the pancake territory.

I love pancakes. They’re fluffy and filling. My favorite thing about them is the memory of eating them every last Sunday of the month at St. Patrick’s Pancake Breakfast. Grandma and Grandpa Young were always down in the church basement helping. Grandpa Joe was usually the pancake man, working the griddle and delivering us the perfect stack of pancakes on our breakfast trays. I remember the sausages and orange juice, but the pancakes were always my favorite.

As my collection of overly ripe frozen bananas began to take over the freezer, I decided it was time to have my own pancake breakfast. It was also the only way I could think of to use these bananas since we don’t have an oven. The banana pancakes turned out good. However, it was the second batch of pumpkin pancakes that were by far my ultimate favorite. The pumpkin pancakes seemed to fit perfectly with the cold, rainy weather in Da Nang. Not to mention, the markets are full of pumpkins, squash and sweet potatoes.

This week I plan on trying sweet potato pancakes. My mouth is watering just thinking about them!

Lighthouse Corporation throws a Party!

Piotr and I were invited to the celebration of Lighthouse Corporations (Piotrs employer) building completion this past weekend.  After attending the event I can undoubtedly say that these people know how to have fun and throw one helluva party!  The party was held at a fancy reception hall called 4U, fit with an enormous chandelier, stage lighting and stage, and 2 huge video screens on each side.  It was a formal event, so we recycled our Christmas eve outfits, smoky grey dress with ruffled neck for the lady and charcoal grey dress shirt and light Banana Republic khakis for the gentlemen.

The party started at 11am with wine and snacks, we arrived fashionable late in our matching greys at 11:20.   When the clock struck 12,  the snacks were replaced with 5 different delectable dishes and the wine was replaced with more wine.  The first dish was a seafood salad, the only ingredients I recognized was shrimp, but the flavor was the perfect combination of spicy meets sweet meets seafood.  I had thirds on the salad.  The next dish was a heavily seasoned beef wrapped around a mix of greens and served with slices of cucumber. Dish number three was roasted duck with gravy, mashed potato balls, and mini semi-sweet rolls.  The fourth dish was my favorite, baked fluffy white fish, lettuce leaves and finely chopped green chili pepper.  The idea was to take a decent sized chunk of fish, wrap it in the lettuce leave and then dip it in the chopped chilis.  YUM!  The fifth and final dish was the filler, stir fried rice.

Meanwhile, the MC's were keeping us all entertained with games.  The first game was who could count the highest in one breath.  The winner counted to 110 (I think... it was in Vietnamese.)  The next game involved lots of beer, 2 teams, a "help me" sign and Piotr and I on opposing teams.  Piotr slammed 3 glasses, I didn't slam any and my team still won:))) ha ha  Thanks to that game, I walked away with a free bottle of wine and wine glass to go with it.  However, games were not the only form of entertainment.  Intermittently, between the games there were singing acts put on by different employees of the company, many of whom are Piotr's students.  Did I mention that all the while, the wine glasses continued to be refilled, the beer continued to be poured and the food continued to be ate.   A performance by Mr. Vu, the top dog, and the rest of the engineers, signified the end of a great party.  The time was 1:30pm.  Thank you for coming, and don't forget to pick up your gift at the reception!

Would you be mine? Could you be mine?

Won't you be my neighbor?

Hello online neighbor, I'm glad we're together again!
I've been thinking about the importance of good neighbors and the role they play in our lives.  My online neighborhood network is made up of family and friends, who follow my life through status updates, new posts, photos and comments.  A few ways we stay connected are through reminiscent "remember when" comments, chat sessions with friends, fancy apps that declare ones relationship status and how they are connected to the rest of the "neighborhood" and friendly "pokes" to say hello.  Although these neighbors may not be able to water your plants for you when you're out of town, they will always be there when you need a laugh or just want to connect with someone.

On the other hand, there are the people who live around you and the benefits they provide, like making a livable, enjoyable, secured place for living.  These are the people you rely on to watch your place when you're not around, lend you a cup of sugar and make you more alive through their new friendship.  I would describe my neighborhood in Da Nang as loud, friendly, and close knit.  We live on the street of the welders and carpenters, so naturally it is quite loud on our street.  Not mention the weekly Karaoke sessions that start at 8am and go all day long.  Needless to say, there isn't a whole lot of peace and quiet on the streets once the sun comes up.   The people who live on our block could all pass for family in my book.  I can't tell who lives where, or who's mom, brother, sister, cousin is who, because it seems they all live everywhere.  There is an open door policy in this neighborhood, if the door is open, you're free to come in.   We were made aware of this policy early on, but luckily we were eased into it with the neighborhood kids.  It wasn't until we had three regulars at the house, Cam, Thinh and Hung, that the rest of the peeps on the block felt comfortable walking in... WHENEVER they wanted:)

The ladies of the neighborhood will walk in and bring you food, help cook, try and show you what you're doing wrong and how to do it right, like sweeping for example, or just sit in bed with you and google translate and try on jewelry.  The men will walk in for a quick game of Chinese Chess and a LaRue, and the old women walk in probably because they have no idea where they even are:)

However, its the kids that come over on a daily basis that have made this neighborhood special.  They are a huge part of our day and will be a huge part of our experience in Vietnam.  Although we have our three favorites, we still experience an influx of around 8-10 kids trickling in and out throughout the day.

Piotr and Cam (pronounced Gam.)  Cam's grandma lives right next door to us.











Tai and Hung.  Tai is Cam's little brother.  He doesn't venture over that often.  Hung is the most adorable little girl I've ever met.  She is the daughter of the cooking lady (2 doors down from us.)  Hung is very smart, she repeats everything in english and she loves to come over and color.  Her artwork, along with the artwork of Cam and Thinh is displayed in our kitchen.

Thinh and Cam posing on Piotr's motorbike.  Thinh (pronounced Ton) is sporting the colorful clown wig and Cam is giving us a nice leg shot.

The hammock has been a HUGE hit with the entire      

neighborhood.  75% of the day it is being used, 1% 

of that time is by Piotr or I.  

Neighbor girl, Uyen.

                                                   Cam showing off for the camera again :)

 

This is Ba. Ba is what you call Grandma.  Ba is a funny lady. Piotr calls her a jokester.  She's always walking around laughing at herself :)  I would say she puts in a good 5% hammock time:)

Cam and Thinh.  Strike a pose boys!

In honor of the New Year, our neighborhood put up the Vietnamese flag up and down the block.  Here is Cam showing off his national pride.

Piotr and Cam making a batch of delicious Vietnamese coffee!  Mmmmmmm :0

The neighbor ladies, myself and google translate, chillin on my bed.  The ladies decided to get out all of my jewelry and try it on.  The lady on the right is the cooking lady (Hung's mom).  She feeds the neighborhood every morning and afternoon, right outside her house.  The lady on the right is Cam's aunt.  She is pregnant in this picture.  I haven't seen her in a few days....I think she may have popped!  Her and her husband live right next door with grandma.  

As you can see there is always something going on in my neighborhood in Da Nang.  Thanks to the people in these pictures for making this such a beautiful, friendly place to live.  

So let's make the most of this beautiful day,

Since we're together, we might as well say,

Would you be mine?

Could you be mine?

Won't you be my neighbor?