Drum roll please . . . I caved in and there's now a Viet World Kitchen Facebook fan page. You can get updates on Facebook, if that's more convenient for you. I enjoy the conversations that we have here but realize that you can't stand in the face of progress. Don't ask me to Twitter. I have a very very basic cell phone that I barely know how to use. [5/16 Update: Robyn and Jaden -- you and others prodded and now I tweet at http://twitter.com/aqnguyen.]
On another high-tech note, I've started to put audio files up to help people pronounce key Vietnamese words. Right now the files are Word Media Files but I'll be converting them to MP3 in the not-so-distant future. When I wrote Into the Vietnamese Kitchen, I had planned on including phonetics but they just looked awful in the book's layout so we pulled them. Vietnamese is a tough language to master so I hope to help move things along with downloadable audio files.
And, to support my new book on Asian dumplings, I built a new website to provide supplemental information to readers and also to fuel my oddly endless fascination with dumplings and Asia. When you've got a chance, mozy on over to: Asiandumplingtips.com. You'll find recipes, audio, and video. No, not 'dumplings gone wild' but pretty fun nevertheless!
Thanks for your support!
Robyn says
Congrats on the very slick and readable new site! (But I'll never make my own dumpling wrappers.)
As for Twitter, I think I'll be caving within a week. My my words, you'll be tweeting by the time the book comes out....
Robyn says
that should be 'mark' my words. please edit me?
Lisa says
Thank you so much for the audio files! I was excited to see that you had started to include them and I really appreciate you taking the time to make them. My husband and I will be traveling to Vietnam later this year and I'm trying to learn the basics. We love to eat, so being able to order successfully in non-tourist restaurants comes right after learning how to say "thank you" and "where's the bathroom?" in importance for us.
Mike says
I too would love to learn Vietnamese but we did get by quite well with a lot of smiling and pointing when we were there last year, and not just at tourist places 🙂
in my dreams, I somehow manage to go back there every year and learn to actually communicate verbally
Andrea Nguyen says
Oh Robyn -- are you on Facebook? Do we tweet together?
The audio files are helpful, huh? Greatly appreciate your comments, Lisa and Mike. Maybe I need to do a little something about basic Viet for eaters and travelers? What do you think would be helpful to know how to say?
Lisa says
Well I'm still working on how to pronounce pho bo, so anything at all would be helpful. I'm saying it kind of like the "feu" in the french "pot de feu" - sort of fuh? - is that even close? So far when eating at our local Viet restaurants I've only tried out my hello/goodbye and thank you and I always bravely try and pronounce my order rather than using "number 43" like everyone else. The waiters try and help me out, but they all seem to pronounce things a little differently and I just have trouble hearing the tones. I'd like to be able to confidently order my favourite foods (pho, bun bo hue, bahn xeo, bo kho, spring rolls and salad rolls, papaya salad, shrimp on sugarcane, cafe sua da and more) and I'd like to be able to say that the food was delicious. I know while traveling I'd likely do just fine with pointing, charades and smiling, but I always like to learn a little of the language before I go. I have a lot of trouble understanding the phonetic pronunciations from books, so hopefully I'd do a bit better with audio files.
Robyn says
I did join facebook but only so I could look at a restaurant's page. I haven't touched it since! I'll let you know when I'm tweeting. ;-0
Tangled Noodle says
Thank you for the link to your wonderful Asian Dumpling Tips site. I've bookmarked and I'm ready to make some dumplings!
Andrea Nguyen says
Okay, Lisa, I've got your order for the Viet food terms. Give me a few weeks!
Tangled Noodle, thanks for the bookmark! You've got a great site at:
http://tanglednoodle.blogspot.com/
Lisa says
It was really just a wish that somebody could teach me those things, Andrea. I don't expect you to actually go to all that trouble! Maybe you could start slowly working on adding audio files to some of your previous recipes, essentials and ingredients posts?
marlon says
Congrats on the very slick and readable new site! (But I'll never make my own dumpling wrappers.)