#only an egg but that’s hardly comparable (or filling) as rice

[misharkfin]

hungry. trying to make a midnight snack with the few things we have i deem ‘easily’ cookable. and it’s corned beef. or instant noodles, actually. i just don’t know if you can air-fry those. i’d also like a sunny-side up egg. i want plenty of things but it seems as though i am only capable of giving myself a little

[justnerdthings]

New Beginnings Ch.2

Female Reader x Liu Kang/Kung Lao (Not sure which yet)

Note: Chapter 2. Friend said last one was good. So have another. >w<

Raiden had introduced himself properly and explained Mortal Kombat to you. You were at a complete loss. You hadn’t believed any of it at first, but Raiden had made it clear that this was not a dream or trick. The man shot lightning out of his hand! You were convinced. This was real. It had to be. You weren’t creative enough to dream this up. He was a god.

You were still in shock as Liu led you through the hallways again, this time avoiding any views of the outside. You were lost in your own mind until he stopped at a door. Again, a very simple door.

“This is your room,” He told you, eyes searching you again as he opened the door and gestured for you to take a look.

The room was small and very modest. A simple bed was pushed against a wall. A small wooden table and chair was pushed against the other side. Another doorway led to a small bathroom that, thankfully, had a modern-enough sink and toilet. It would do for one night at least.

“Will you stay and fight Shang Tsung?” Liu asked gently, feeling you out. Raiden had admitted that you didn’t need to help them. Raiden would not force you. But Raiden did say it was your duty. The dragon mark on your left shoulder blade was proof.

Funny. People always did say your birthmark looked like a dragon.

But would you stay? You weren’t sure. This was so much to take in. Why you? You had no experience fighting. You once punched a bully in grade school, but that was it!

You sighed and combed your fingers through your hair. “I don’t know,” You answered. Obviously it wasn’t the answer Liu had hoped for. “I just… This is crazy.”

He nodded. “I understand,” He said, sincerity in his voice. “It’s your decision.”

You turned and looked at him standing in the doorway. “You do understand, don’t you?”

He lifted a brow curiously. “Yes. I felt similar when I was told of Mortal Kombat as well.”

“When was that?”

He thought for a moment. “A little over ten years now.”

“Ten years? You’ve been training here for ten years?”

“Here? Yes. But I grew up in a shaolin monastery. I’ve been training most of my life.”

So he was a monk. Now his behavior made sense. “Did you get taken here out of the blue too?”

“No.” He shook his head. “I defeated a child trafficker and gained his mark. I unlocked my arcana soon after. Lord Raiden found me then. I’ve been here ever since.”

“You never left? At all? Not even to visit family?”

“Oh, yes. I am free to come and go as I please. I often leave to run errands for Lord Raiden.”

“Errands?”

“Yes.”

“Like eggs and milk errands?”

He laughed and shook his head. “To find people and information mostly.”

“Oh.” You weren’t sure what to say to that.

“Does this help you decide if you will stay?”

“I think I just need some time to digest this,” You admitted.

He nodded again. “Speaking of digesting,” He spoke, “Would you like some dinner?”

Oh, god, yes, you thought. You still had no idea when the last time you ate was. A day? Two? Raiden said you were passed out for quite some time. “Yes.” You nodded. “Please.”

Liu smiled again. You liked his smile. It was genuine. Kind. Sincere. He stepped back out of the doorway, allowing you to step out of the room.

You were led into a large room filled with fur rugs and handmade cushions. A low table was placed in the center and another man was already seated and eating. He looked up as Liu led you over.

“Brother, this is Y/N,” Liu introduced you. “She has the mark,” Liu told him as he sat across from him at the table.

“Hello.” You hesitated. This guy had a different energy about him. Or maybe it was just your anxiety. He, you, and Liu were all about the same age. And he, like Liu, was attractive. He probably had a nice ass too.

You weren’t sure if you imagined it or not, but Raiden’s laugh echoed in your mind. Averting your eyes, you lowered yourself next to Liu.

“You don’t look like a fighter,” the man said with a mouth full. His eyes were looking you up and down critically.

“Don’t be rude,” Liu chided as he watched.

The man glanced to Liu as he swallowed his food, then looked back to you. “My name is Kung Lao,” He introduced. “Descendant of the Great Kung Lao.” He was proud of himself.

“Oh…” Was he a prince or something?

“You have no idea who that is, do you?” Kung Lao accused, pointing his chopsticks at you.

A small shrug tugged up your shoulders as you shook your head slowly.

Lao grinned and shook his own head as he looked to Liu. He stopped once he noticed his brother’s disapproval. “So what do you do, Y/N?” he asked as he looked back to you. The way he said your name didn’t bring you much comfort in his presence.

As you stared at him, trying to think of how to answer him, he’d bitten into an egg roll while keeping eye contact with you. “Um… Not really anything, I guess,” you said, nerves starting to get the best of you. This guy was more intimidating than Raiden was.

“Nothing?” Lao asked. “You must do something. You’re breathing right now. That’s something.”

“Lao…” Liu warned and passed you a bowl of rice.

You took the bowl with a small, awkward smile to Liu and began to make your plate. Maybe if you just didn’t look at Kung Lao, you wouldn’t feel so judged. “Well, I’ve been a nurse for the past seven years… But it’s hardly anything to talk about. I just work at a small office. Nothing ever really happens there.”

“That’s an honorable career,” Liu said as he began to eat.

“If nothing happens there, why do you stay? Seems boring,” Lao commented.

“I kinda like boring,” You admitted. “I uh… I used to have real bad anxiety as a kid. Boring is comfortable. Routine.”

“Anxiety?” Lao asked.

“Yeah. It uh… It got so bad that eventually I was scared to leave the house.”

“That’s awful,” Liu said with a frown.

You nodded. It was always hard to talk about your anxiety. But Liu seemed mindful enough to not tease you or make you feel like an idiot. “Eventually I couldn’t take it anymore and went to see a doctor. They put me on medication for it. I was a new person after I got used to the meds. Felt like I could breathe again.”

“What made you so anxious that you would be afraid of leaving your house?” Lao asked, harsher in his words. What did you have to worry about compared to him.

“I don’t really know,” you admitted. “I was always teased as a kid. I was the weird kid. Didn’t have a lot of friends.”

“Childhood trauma?” Liu asked.

“Maybe?” You shrugged, not sure. You never really tried to get to the bottom of it.

“Is that where your fear of heights comes from?” Liu asked.

That one you did know. You gave a small laugh as you straightened up a bit. “No. That was me falling out of a tree as a kid.”

“Did you hurt yourself?” Liu asked.

You shook your head. “No. Just some scrapes and bumps. It just kinda stuck with me after that though. Never climbed another tree.”

“Well, at least you weren’t harmed,” Liu said as he ate.

“If you didn’t get hurt, then why were you so scared to climb another tree?” Lao asked.

“I don’t know. Guess it’s one of those weird things that happens when you’re a kid,” You told him.

“You have bigger things to worry about now, than falling from trees,” Lao pressed.

You stared at your plate of food. Lao was right. Scared of climbing trees sure did sound stupid now that you knew about Mortal Kombat. Weird, the idea of Mortal Kombat didn’t freak you out as much as climbing a tree. “Anxiety doesn’t ever really make sense,” You told Lao. “I used to be perfectly fine one minute, then crying and convinced I was about to die the next.”

“Were you being attacked?” Lao asked.

“Not by a person,” You answered.

“Animal?” Liu chimed in, curious.

You shook your head. “Anxiety.”

Lao just stared at you. It didn’t make any sense to him.

Liu was more curious than confused. “So your own mind was attacking you,” he concluded after a moment of thought.

You nodded. “Yeah.” You moved some food around your plate idly. “I know. It makes me sound crazy. But it hasn’t happened in years.”

“Because of the medicine the doctor gave you,” Liu concluded again.

“Right,” you answered.

“So, let me get this straight,” Lao began. “A nervous wreck of a person, who is scared of climbing trees, and has no formal training to fight, has the dragon mark?”

“Yeah, I’m kinda lost on that too,” you admitted.

Lao looked to Liu in disbelief. “Is Lord Raiden out of his mind?”

“I’m sure he knows something we don’t,” Lui told him.

“Mortal Kombat is only a few years away. She won’t be ready!” Lao exclaimed in annoyance.

“We’ll just have to do our best,” Liu answered and lifted some rice to his mouth.

“She’ll have to train every hour, every day, to be even remotely decent,” Lao said.

“Lord Raiden knows what’s best,” Liu said.

“Lord Raiden’s out of his damn mind!” Lao shouted.

You’d gotten used to people talking about you as if you weren’t there when you were a kid. But it hadn’t happened much since then. You set your chopsticks down. “Look, I don’t know if I ever could be ready for Mortal Kombat. I don’t know if I’ll even try. But do you really think it’s a good idea to talk that way about guy who literally shoots lightning out of his hands? And another thing, I am not a nervous wreck of a person!” You looked right at Kung Lao, clearly unamused.

Lao just looked at you, at a loss for words, for what seemed like forever. It was really only a few seconds before he looked to Liu and grinned.

Liu was already grinning, looking at his food.

With a huff, you pushed away from the table. “Sorry, Liu. I think I lost my appetite,” you said, annoyed… Doubting yourself… Still hungry, but you’d had enough of Lao.

Liu looked over with concern as you stood. He set his bowl down and stood with you. He was going to try and convince you to stay, but decided against it. “Would you like me to walk you back to your room?” He asked kindly.

You’d get lost if you didn’t have help. You nodded and turned for the door.

Lao was still grinning as he continued his meal.

Liu quickly joined you in the hallway. “Y/N,” He spoke carefully. “I apologize for Lao’s behavior. He’s not usually like that.”

You sucked in a stiff breath. You shook your head. “No. It’s okay. He’s right. I have no business being here.”

“Don’t let him scare you away. Lord Raiden believes you’re worthy. That’s enough for me. Lao will come around,” Liu said as he began to lead you down the hall.

Maybe. Maybe Raiden did know something you didn’t yet. “The monk I met when I woke up… Feng, I think. He said something about my arcana saving me.”

Liu looked at you, then nodded. “I heard about that. I don’t know the details though…”

“I don’t even remember doing anything,” You said.

After leaving you at your room, Liu returned to Lao. He sat back at the table. Looking to a still grinning Lao. He returned it.

“She has a fire in her,” Lao said.

“She does.” Liu agreed.

“I heard she passed your test,” Lao inquired.

Liu, glancing to him, sipped from his tea, then nodded. “Five times.”

Lao was surprised to hear that. He figured you’d only make it once if at all.

“It took some coaching the first couple times, but by the fourth one she was doing it on her own,” Liu explained.

“Impressive. If her anxiety is as bad as she said, she manages it well,” Lao said.

Liu nodded again. “How much of it was the medicine, I wonder.”

Lao had almost forgot. “Ah. That may be an issue.”

“Withdrawal from it may prove difficult.”

“Meditation training is first on your list,” Lao suspected. He knew how Liu thought.

Liu nodded. “How about yours. Did she pass your test?”

“I would have liked to see more, but it's a start,” Lao answered with a nod.

“You may get your wish if you keep up that act of yours,” Liu said.

“Oh, I intend to.” Lao smirked.

"Don't scare her away," Liu warned.

"She'll stay," Lao said with his mouth full. "She faced her fear five times. She's determined. And a nurse?" He nodded as he took another bite. "She commits herself to helping."

[agentgut]

Last night, I had by far the best dream I’ve ever had.

Was busy with work all day, so I didn’t have time to write it all down until now, but I’ve been thinking about it all day, and have been a little distracted from work. It was a fantasy involving my favorite gainer, who’ll probably never read this so I think I’m safe to write it down here. I felt kinda bad about having a dream involving him since he has a boyfriend right now, so I figured I’d donate to something he’s working through in the meantime. I tried to write it down from my perspective. This is mostly just so I don’t forget it. 

Friday

I wake up to your alarm, set half an hour before mine.  I see you groggily sit up. The bed is warm, and you reluctantly pry my arms from around you and leave to take a shower. For a moment I consider burrowing deeper into the blankets before I hear you singing in the shower. I decide to make you breakfast. I know you’re in a rush, so I stick with the basics; buttery scrambled eggs with cheese and crispy bacon, toast with jam and butter, and grits. You appear, still wet from your shower but I don’t mind at all.  You snag a piece of bacon and we kiss, the first of the day.  I catch a faint whiff of your shampoo, one you’ve probably used forever, so long that scent always reminds me of you.  You sit down and eat a full breakfast before heading off to work.  As you leave I can already see the buttons of your work uniform straining, and can only imagine what will happen when you hit up your usual fast food joints for lunch. 

As you head out the door, I retreat to my office and begin my work.  The day passes quickly, I stop at one point to eat a quick lunch and walk our Siberian Husky, Faraday. He’s the best. I manage to finish up quickly enough to begin preparing dinner. It’s nothing special, but as I cook the chicken gumbo I begin to hum a song you sometimes play on your viola, thinking how happy I am. You get home, and I can see you’ve stuffed yourself even more. I give you a kiss and ask you how your day went, grabbing a bowl and filling it with rice, garlic bread, and heaping amounts of gumbo. You get out of your work clothes, and into your underwear. Just looking at you is driving me crazy, but I manage to maintain calm and ask if you want to sit at the table, or couch, already knowing your answer.  

We sit side by side, as you put on something mindless to watch.  As you eat, I alternate between massaging your feet, and rubbing your belly. The time quickly passes, and the episode ends, and between me getting up and refilling your bowl you’ve eaten 4 bowls.  Five being your best, but I don’t want you to be to painfully full. You lean back into me, and I feel the full weight of you, smell your sweat from work, hear your food digest. Faraday jumps up onto the couch and on your other side where you begin to pet her, as I absentmindedly rub circles around your sizable gut and relax.  We talk a bit about tomorrow, and I can’t wait.  Throughout the night, I continue to get you snacks and dessert whenever I think your ready or you ask.  By the end, we fall asleep wrapped in each other’s arms.

Saturday

The morning is brisk, and clean.  We dress warmly, put Faraday on a leash, and begin our drive to a hiking trail we’ve both enjoyed. There’s a fruit orchard at the bottom of the hike, and we collect a few bags of apple to be made into pies and other things later. Then we begin the climb.  Your tight shirt that barely covers your belly drives me crazy, and when I hear you out of breath, it’s hard to contain my arousal. We reach the top, and I let Faraday explore off leash.  You stand at the edge of the mountain, catching your breath, and take off your jacket, revealing more skin.  You catch me staring and smile. After a quick check to make sure no one’s around, we make love, and all I can think about is pleasing you. Based on your success, I imagine you’re doing the same.

After getting redressed, we walk back down the mountain, with your hand in mine. The little old lady who runs the orchard chuckles as she sees us pack up. A quick drive back through town and we stop at your favorite bakery. You get yourself a dozen donuts, and I get you a dozen more. The baker knows us well by now, we come by every weekend at some point or another. He even throws in about a half dozen extra, which is good since you’ve already dug in before I’ve paid for them. You demolish the first bag on the drive back home, and make for the shower once you’re in the door. I suggest we conserve water by sharing one, and we spend time discovering and admiring each other some more.  Around dinnertime, some friends of ours come over and we resume our weekly game of Dungeons and Dragons, albeit a custom enough campaign and rules over the years that a bystander could hardly tell.  I, as the benevolent D.M., make sure things go as smoothly as possible, and surrounded by food and beer, the rest of you comply. As everyone leaves and the house quiets down, you pull out your viola. You play beautifully, the notes at once graceful, then urgent, then serene.  I sit in silence, trying to soak it all in, watching your facial expressions as you play, that tell a story all on your own.  When you finish, I sit in the silence a moment before trying to describe your playing, how good it was, how I don’t even feel qualified to explain it. You smile again, a vibrant one, my favorite of yours. We spend the rest of the evening in bed.

Sunday

The next day, you don’t want to get out of bed.  I can tell you’re having a tough time, so I walk the dog and try to be there when you need me and away when you don’t.  I bring you breakfast in bed, wishing for all the world I could take any bad thoughts away from you, to keep you happy all the time. I love you for you and don’t ever want to stop you from feeling like you have to change, or not be yourself. By around four, you’re over the worst of it, and I suggest going to see a movie.  At the theater, you get a giant bowl of popcorn, “too big to share”, as the attendant puts it, with more pumps of butter than I could count, along with a few of your favorite brand of candy.  The movie starts – one that you chose – though the movie’s the last thing I’d rather be watching at this point, as you put an arm around me, and the other into your popcorn.  As you watch the movie, I sneak glimpses of you, your face alight and mesmerized by the story being told on the screen.  Halfway through, I slip a hand under your shirt and rub slow circles around your belly, and the sigh and look of contentment that crosses your face is all I could ever ask for.  

After the movie we go out for ice cream, with my single scoop looking pitiful compared to your quadruple scoop that towers over mine.  I taste mine, but decide to save it for when you finish yours.  The night ends as most do, with me wrapped around you beneath the covers, warm and content, the only place I’d rather be. I drift of to sleep… and wake up, alone.  The warmth of the dream quickly fades, and I’m left staring up at the ceiling wondering if it was just that, or a sign of things to come.

[emmatrustsno-one]

Food (and class) in Harry Potter A (lengthy) guide for fans who aren’t British

After another user asked me some questions about British food as it appears in Harry Potter I decided to make a post about it, as no doubt other foreign readers have similar questions. I will talk about EVERYTHING so sorry if you have to scroll through loads of stuff you know to find what you want, but I have written it to be accessible to literally anyone and I don’t want to assume people know what something is just because I do.

Also, it was impossible to make the post without referencing class. The fact that it was impossible only goes to show how it’s probably impossible to understand the books in depth without an understanding of class in Britain. The whole texts are encoded with references to class which are so subtle (much like class itself) that even I, who grew up being encoded in the same way, had to analyse the texts to find them. At some point I’ll make a post about just class, but for now we’ll stick to the light-hearted topic of food!

Foods eaten at Hogwarts:

Main courses:

Probably to give a subtle wave to the fact that Hogwarts is the magical version of a public school, nearly all the food consumed there is traditional and British. A public school here is NOT a state-maintained school, it is a private, extremely expensive, prestigious, boarding school, e.g Eton, which only the children of people with a lot of money and a lot of influence attend. By default, these people are usually upper class or aristocracy. (Obviously in the wizarding world money isn’t a factor in school attendance, but nevertheless that is what Hogwarts is modelled on.) There is never any mention of processed foods at Hogwarts except chips and a few common desserts. Here is a list, with explanation, of foods mentioned there:

stew/casserole (meat and vegetables cooked together with stock for several hours)

roast beef and chicken (the two most commonly eaten meats here, I would say)

pork/lamb chops (cuts of those meats with a bit of bone through the top)

sausage (usually made with pig meat in the UK)

bacon (here it is larger and softer than in many countries)

steak (a cut of beef, usually expensive)

boiled (in water until soft, no skins), roast (in the oven until brown, no skins) and mashed (boiled and puréed, no skins) potatoes

chips (not crisps, of course, but rather fat French fries)

Yorkshire pudding (pancake batter which is cooked in a muffin pan in the oven until risen and crispy; originated from the county of Yorkshire and usually served with roast beef)

PLEASE NOTE THAT ‘PUDDING’ IS NOT NECESSARILY SWEET, NOR A MOUSSE-LIKE SAUCE THING. I MADE A BLOG POST LAST WEEK ABOUT ‘PUDDING’.

peas (usually small and taken out of the pod, a bit like petit pois, – garden peas; occasionally larger and softer – marrowfat peas; sometimes mashed up into a purée – mushy peas, which are usually served with chips)

carrots (peeled and either boiled or roasted)

gravy (like meat jus, but nowadays normally made from a flavoured powder that you add water to and stir. It’s brown and fairly thick)

ketchup (this one annoys me because no-one I know says ketchup – it’s tomato sauce, at least in the north)

sprouts (brussels sprouts )

steak and kidney pie (pastry filled with steak and kidney in a gravy)

PLEASE NOTE THAT PIE IS USUALLY SAVOURY HERE. We do have fruit pies, but if someone says ‘pie’ a British person will picture a savoury thing, probably with meat in it.

steak and kidney pudding (steak and kidney in gravy encased in suet pastry, which is a crumbly, soft pastry made from just suet, flour and water. It is steamed, not baked, usually)

sausage rolls (a staple of British lunchtime foods – sausagemeat wrapped in a flaky pastry and eaten hot or cold)

jacket potato (also called a baked potato, it’s a whole potato baked in the oven with the skin still on until it’s crisp on the outside and soft on the inside, and is usually served with cheese in it)

porridge (oats cooked in milk or water, often called oatmeal in other countries)

marmalade (jam made from citrus fruits, usually orange)

PLEASE NOT THAT JAM IS NON-CITRUS FRUIT AND SUGAR COOKED UNTIL IT SETS INTO A SPREAD.

Desserts:

jam tart (a small, open pastry case with jam in it)

ice cream (the most common flavours here are vanilla, chocolate and strawberry)

apple pie (pastry case with sweetened apples)

treacle tart (pastry case with a sweet, thin filling made from golden syrup and breadcrumbs, not treacle)

éclairs (popular French cream cake – long choux bun filled with cream and topped with chocolate)

jam doughnuts (dough fried in oil and filled with jam, most often strawberry)

jelly (called jell-o in some countries – flavoured gelatine)

NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH JAM – AMERICANS CALL JAM JELLY.

rice pudding (short grain rice cooked for several hours in milk and sugar until it forms a thick mixture not unlike sweet porridge)

custard tart (pastry case filled with an egg, milk and sugar mixture which has been baked until set)

spotted dick (steamed suet pudding, which is like a warm sponge cake, filled with raisins and served with custard)

chocolate gateau (fancy chocolate cake with cream on top)

trifle (layered fruit, jelly, sponge cake, custard and cream – a classic)

mint humbugs (a hard mint to freshen your breath after eating)

At Christmas:

roast turkey (the meat we traditionally eat at Christmas)

chipolatas (tiny pork sausages)

buttered peas (just peas with a bit of butter on the them)

cranberry sauce (cranberries and sugar cooked together until set – served with savoury foods like turkey – it’s not as sweet as jam)

turkey sandwiches (literally the entire country eats this on Christmas night to use up some turkey)

Christmas cake (very rich, dense fruit cake topped with a layer of marzipan and then a layer of icing)

Christmas pudding (hot, very rich steamed pudding made from dried fruits, nuts and suet, often served with brandy sauce)

crumpets (these aren’t a Christmas food, they just happen to eat them at Christmas. They are round, flat buns, though not exactly bread, with holes in them, that you toast and butter. Often people eat them for breakfast, or, like in the book, as a snack at night. They are savoury, not sweet)

mince pies (small pies filled with a mixture of dried fruits, sugar and brandy – sweet, not savoury – they were made with minced meat a few hundred years ago, and the name mince pie has stuck)

fudge (a type of sweet made by heating sugar, butter and milk until it sets)

During the Triwizard Tournament:

bouillabaisse (French fish stew/soup that hardly anyone here has heard of/would try!)

goulash (Eastern European stew made with meat and paprika that a lot of people have at least heard of and would try!)

blancmange (French dessert which is a basically white, almond-flavoured jelly that some people have heard of and a few would try)

It’s necessary to mention here, how the fact that Hermione knows what the bouillabaisse is and has tried it is a DEFINITE indicator of class. She is upper middle class. I’ll talk more about why when I do a class post, but for now it’s enough to say that no working-class child, unless they have family ties to France or have learned about it in French at school, would even know what it was and would be very unlikely to try it if given the opportunity. You can’t read that scene, as a British person, and not understand that Hermione comes from a cultured, moneyed background.

It’s also interesting to compare these foods with the foods usually served at state-maintained schools at the time HP was written: we are talking about fatty, greasy, processed rubbish with no nutrition at all, e.g. turkey twizzlers, nuggets, pizza, chips, hot dogs, cakes. You do still find such foods in state schools but normally alongside more healthy options. Since Jamie Oliver’s war on school food things are a lot better, but the point is that the food at Hogwarts is a clear nod to the privilege of the pupils: working-class kids wouldn’t have been able to eat things like that at school. My primary school (ages 4-11) served stew sometimes, with overcooked vegetables, but that’s all, and my secondary school served pizza, hot dogs, nuggets and chips every day and that was it.

Foods mentioned but not eaten in the Great Hall:

sherbet lemons (real sweets, they are strong, lemon-flavoured hard sweets that contain a powder that makes your tongue fizz)

custard creams (biscuits made from 2 square simple biscuits with vanilla cream sandwiched between them)

Foods eaten at the Weasleys’:

Food is one of the main ways by which the Weasleys are coded as working-class. Everything they eat is either a comfort food your grandma makes or some cheap thing you eat and don’t mind but wish was something else.

corned beef sandwiches (corned beef is beef which has been processed and salt-cured and has the mushy consistency of cat food. It was popular during the war, when meat was scarce and rationed, and is associated with poverty and lack of better meat. That isn’t to say that people don’t like it, but it is true that many people don’t)

Speaking of processed meats, the Weasleys eat a lot of sausage and bacon, which are very popular but also available cheaply.

chicken and ham pie (this is the only time I can think of that it is mentioned that the Weasleys were having a ‘proper’ meat, as in unprocessed, and if I remember correctly it was for Harry’s birthday, so a special occasion. It’s pastry filled with chicken and ham in a white sauce and is the sort of thing your grandma probably made)

boiled potatoes (they do have boiled potatoes at Hogwarts, but alongside other types of potato.)

It’s hard for me to explain why, but boiled potatoes, specifically, have a working-class connotation. You are definitely more likely to eat boiled potatoes in a working-class family. Here are 2 anecdotes form my life about boiled potatoes to illustrate my point!

1. I know someone from a privileged background. Her father was an electrical engineer who held government contracts. She went to a grammar school (a school that’s free but you have to pass a test to go to) and lived in an affluent city where one of the main public schools is. As soon as she opens her mouth you can hear that she’s from an upper middle-class background. I once discussed cooking dinner with her and said I was making boiled potatoes. She scoffed and said she never did as she couldn’t see the point – if she has boiled them she might as well mash them.

2. At university my friend started going out with a guy from a solid middle-class background. His parents had a second home in South Africa, where his father worked for part of the year. They were staunch Tories (supported the political party to the right of the centre). She and I once discussed making dinner and she said it was her turn to make it tonight and the guy wanted sautéed potatoes. Her exact words next were “he’ll just have to make do with boiled, I’m too tired”.

Somehow the fact that the Weasleys eat boiled potatoes makes them working-class, an under-class. It’s somehow seen as lazy and simple by people from higher classes.

rhubarb crumble (stewed rhubarb topped with a flour, butter and sugar mixture that goes hard and crumbly, usually served with custard)

Again, this is a working-class mainstay. Many people used to grow rhubarb in their gardens because it grows easily and is hardy in our weather. Add a bit of sugar and it’s an almost free dessert.

chocolate pudding (not to be confused with chocolate pudding in American terms, ours is a suet pudding made with chocolate and served hot, usually with a chocolate sauce)

Foods eaten with the Dursleys:

a bun from the bakers (could be either a sandwich made from a bread roll or a sweet bun such as an iced bread roll, without more info it’s not clear. The word ‘bun’ is used to describe many things, and it’s different depending on where you are in the country. For example, I would never say ‘bun’ and mean sandwich but I know some people do. I personally picture an iced bun).

knickerbocker glory (an ice cream sundae)

fruit cake (dense cake made with dried fruits, like a dressed down version of Christmas cake, seems quite old-fashioned now)

roast pork (a joint of pork roast in the oven, often with a layer of fat over it that goes crispy)

soup (a common starter)

salmon (usually a whole fish, baked or poached)

lemon meringue pie (the French dessert anglicised – a pastry case filled with a layer of set lemon cream and topped with meringue)

grapefruit

I want to pause at this point to point out how clear it is that the Dursleys are higher class than the Weasleys. For one, Uncle Vernon just buys whatever he fancies from the bakers for lunch but Ron (and presumably the whole family) are given sandwiches made by Mrs Weasley, containing what they can afford. Secondly, roast pork and salmon are expensive and only eaten by people with more than the basic amount of money and even then really only on special occasions. Sometimes people will have a salmon on the buffet at their wedding, for instance. It’s a far cry from processed meats and chicken and ham pie. Not least because you can make a decent pie out of even poor quality meat, but to make a good roast, especially if you are trying to impress your boss, you need a good quality joint. Thirdly, if on a diet it’s unlikely someone working-class would eat grapefruit for breakfast. I know working-class kids who wouldn’t even be able to identify a grapefruit. Moreover, the fact that they served the meal to Vernon’s boss in three courses, followed by after-dinner mints shows that they either are middle-class, or, more likely, trying to appear so. The Weasleys just have their main course and pudding, even on special occasions. I don’t think I’ve ever had a starter in my life except for in restaurants. Furthermore, at the zoo Dudley and Piers get ice creams and Harry gets a lemon ice lolly. I don’t think there is any more striking a symbol of a working-class person in the 90s trying to treat themselves than cheap lemon ice lollies! All ice cream stands had one and it was always the cheapest thing. By doing this, Vernon is showing that he views Harry as a lesser-class than himself and Dudley. Lastly, while Petunia is preparing the meal for Vernon’s boss, Harry is given bread and cheese for his supper. Bread and cheese conjures up images of Scrooge sitting in the dark eating alone because it was so cheap: Victorian levels of poverty and definite allusions to being a lesser-class.

On a side note, the Dursleys still got their milk and eggs from the milkman, a man from a dairy who delivered to people’s houses in the mornings. In those days lots of people still did, and you do still get milkmen now to a lesser degree. My grandparents got their milk from the milkman and so did my husband’s parents, up until at least 2000.

whipped cream and sugared violets (I had to look up sugared violets myself. I think I am probably too working-class, or possibly too northern, to have heard of them. They seem to be the head of the violet flower dipped in egg white and sugar so that it becomes hard. I have never heard of putting them in cream to make a pudding before.)

Additional foods relating to Hagrid:

birthday cake (usually sponge and covered in icing. In Britain, unlike many countries, you do not buy your own birthday cake: your parents usually get one for you)

rock cakes (these are real, though I grew up calling them rock buns. They are a basically a blob of cake cake batter with currants in, baked for a short time. They are like a cross between muffins and cookies)

treacle toffee (hard black toffee, often eaten around bonfire night)

stoat sandwiches (as far as I am concerned these are not real! I have never heard of anyone eating that! A stoat is small animal like a weasel)

Foods sold by magical establishments, e.g. Honeydukes/the Hogwarts Express:

these foods don’t exist outside HP, but could theoretically be made –

pumpkin juice

pumpkin pasties (a pasty is like a pie but the pastry is filled and then folded over, not topped with a lid)

chocoballs filled with strawberry mousse and clotted cream (clotted cream is thick, rich cream that has thickened naturally, not by whipping)

mulled mead (you can get mead, though it’s not common, and mulled just means it’s cooked through with various spices)

cherry syrup with soda (to us, soda is carbonated water, not pop)

these foods aren’t real but are based on real ones –

Drooble’s best blowing gum (wizard bubble gum)

liquorice wands (you can get sticks of liquorice

fizzing whizzbees (imo based on a sweet called a flying saucer, which is a     thin, rice paper-like shell shaped like a flying saucer and filled with sherbet

exploding bonbons (bonbons here are round and soft, sometimes with a powdery centre, which break apart easily and fill your mouth

these foods are real –

peppermint creams (icing sugar mixed with peppermint oil until soft but firm, often coated in chocolate        

mars bars (chocolate coated nougat-cream and caramel)

these foods aren’t real and aren’t really based on anything, as far as I can tell –

                                                  butterbeer

                                                  gillywater

                                                  sugar quills

                                                  ice mice

  ��                                               cockroach cluster

                                                  blood pops

                                                  toothflossing stringmints

                                                  pepper imps

                                                  cauldron cakes

these foods weren’t real before HP but now exist as part of the HP merchandise –

Bertie Bott’s every flavour beans (they are like jelly beans)

Chocolate frogs

Two final things. Firstly, on the topic of class it is worth noting that Lupin felt he had to apologise for only having teabags. Literally nobody who is working-class drinks tea in any other form than teabags 99.9% of the time. You can get loose leaf tea, which is seen as fancy, nicer and is certainly more expensive. I got some for Christmas last year, for instance. Nobody working-class would ever even bat an eyelid at someone offering them tea in bag form. It’s totally normal. The fact that Lupin apologises shows that he is acutely aware that he is more lowly than the average Hogwarts teacher. He is embarrassed by something that most of the population find normal. He feels under them, in class terms. Even though he knows Harry grew up without privilege (though the Dursleys themselves are middle-class), now that Harry is part of Hogwarts he has ascended enough in class terms that Lupin is concerned he will disappointed to have tea from a bag. This goes some way to showing how class isn’t just about money: it’s about tastes and habits.

Secondly, in compiling this post it became really clear that sausages are a leitmotiv marking times when Harry feels cosy, familial and homey. The first thing Hagrid does is cook him sausages, which represent being lifted out of the world of cold and hunger he is living in; becoming someone who others care about and want to care for. When he is rescued to the Weasleys in CoS and is blown away by the wizarding house and starts to feel at home and safe, the first thing Molly does is feed him loads of sausages. Sausages are often mentioned at breakfast at Hogwarts, especially when Harry is in a good mood. Perhaps it was unconscious and JKR herself associates sausages with feelings of family and at home-ness.

One final thing and that’s it, I promise. While writing this it struck me how different what I mean when I say “privilege” is from what an American means when they say it. I have mentioned this before, and at some point will do a blog post about it, but race is bound up so intricately with American history and life that words like “privilege” are encoded with images of skin colour. I bet the average American read “privilege” and pictured a white person, but in the UK that wouldn’t be the case. Skin colour has nothing to do with it. Here, “privilege” means what you have access to, how valid other people see your tastes and way of life, what you have grown up doing, seeing, eating, hearing, believing. It is bound up inexorably with how much money you have, what you do for a living and where you live and, crucially, with your family’s status historically. That one thing is the reason that comparisons between death eaters and Nazis don’t really hold up: HP is about genealogy and not ideology.

[lookatthedawn]

A.k.a Paradise on Earth

People ask me if I'd want to come to Vietnam again.  In a heartbeat, I answer!  And I'm not even talking about Phu Quoc Island, I'm talking about Hanoi, my job here and the Vietnamese people.  I like it all.  I like the solitude, I find that I'm rather good at being alone.  But Phu Quoc Island is something else.  It's not a place to work, or at least I don't see it as a place to work.  It's a great place to take a respite from life.  

The hotel has a main building with a beautiful foyer and a gazebo-style dining room where there's a constant ocean breeze.  Stretching toward the back are all the bungalows between patches of green grass and vibrant flowers.  I have reserved a room, not a bungalow.  As I go upstairs to the second floor, I realize that I'm their only guest at the moment.  I wonder why since the place is clean and gorgeous if only a little bit isolated.  There's a gym, though, located on the right side of the hotel, which plays non-stop electronic music.  I'm prejudiced against the genre.  In fact, I've always thought that if hell has a soundtrack, this is it.  

My room is spacious, with all the usual appliances.  I'm happy to be properly installed, but I want to explore.  After refreshing myself and resting for a bit, I take a walk along the main road, looking for the beach.  I have often compared Vietnam to Brazil, and I'll do it again here.  Vietnam is probably like a hundred other countries, but you can only compare with what you know, and I do know the rural roads of Brazil.  They are my crib, actually.  I remember when my parents took my four siblings and me to Euxenita village, how the dusty road stretched ahead of us and seemed long compared to my short legs.  Those early memories are so deeply engraved in my mind that any similar place or people throw me right back there.  At this roadside, there are little rustic shops selling mainly food but other things as well.  I stop at a store and buy a small pack of Oreos.  At home I don't like Oreos, find them too sweet, but since I arrived in Vietnam I can't have enough of them, possibly because I'm not having my regular sugar-fix in processed foods.  Vietnamese people don't eat as much sugar as Americans or Brazilians. Their breakfast is often rice, noodles, eggs, and vegetables.  For dessert, they eat fruits with the same gusto my fellow Westerns eat chocolate.   I walk while listening to The Creative Penn podcast, coincidentally, one episode in which the host mentions my name.  After walking for perhaps ten minutes, I find a little passage that might be the one the hotel owner said would take me to the beach.  It doesn't.  Instead, it takes me to a muddy strip of land with a few shanties.  People dressed in worn-out Bermuda shorts and t-shirts come out and stare at me, some of them say hello, the children smile and hide behind adults.  Thin dogs watch me while lying by the hut's door.  Some wag their tails, others are either too bored or too weak to wag or bark.  Children and adults alike are stepping on the mud, busy with cooking, washing, and fixing things.  The place is quiet, so quiet, in fact, that you can hear a fly buzzing around.  The people go about their business peacefully.  In their eyes, you can see ten years gone without changes.  Far away a radio plays pop music.  

I turn around and walk back to the main road.  I feel a thousand eyes watching me, but in fact, I'm alone.  Just another Western lost in these parts.  They'll forget me by the time the sun sets over the Gulf of Thailand.   The rain comes without warning.  It comes fast and strong, so I enter the first covered place, which happens to be a house/business, selling blocks of ice.  A lady greets me with a smile.  She doesn't speak English, and neither do the men in their late twenties, early thirties, busy cutting and packing ice.   They see that I need a place to wait for the rain to pass, they greet me warmly and the lady of the house brings me a chair.  Other people arrive in motorcycles, covered in plastic from head to toe, and they too greet me with a nod and a brief smile.  They know I don't speak Vietnamese.  They are familiar with Westerns like me, who can hardly say 'thank you' in their tongue.  So they do their best to communicate with me and act as though not knowing my language is their personal failure.   As sudden as the rain came it goes. I thank them and continue on my way, looking for the beach.  I know I'm close to the sea.  It's just a question of finding the passage.  I stop at a snack bar and ask for directions.  I have a hard time making myself understood, but then they nod and repeat bai a lot.  A gentleman, probably in his seventies, tells me to get on his motorcycle, he'll take me there.  That's the Vietnamese approach, that's how they help you.  In the U.S. this would sound strange, but not in Phu Quoc Island.  Sure, I get on his motorbike and we go to the beach, but when we get there I'm disappointed, as this is not a leisure beach but a place for fishermen and boat owners to fix their gear.  I don't need to say anything, he can see that this is not what I was looking for.  We head back to the main road, where he stops and discuss with another local, trying to decide where I want to go and the best way to get there.  I watch them, getting hints of their meaning by the way they point their fingers towards the beach and gesture about directions.  Finally, they agree on the best course of action.  But this is almost 6 p.m. and I decide to go back to the hotel and get some rest and dinner.   Of course, I find the Bai Sao the next day.  Following the hotel's owner's suggestion, I borrow a book from his library and take a cab to the beach. Maybe I should have rented one of the motorcycles they have available at the hotel but the cab was inexpensive and quick.  

I'm fully aware that this moment, swimming in the crystalline water and reading Engleby under the hot Vietnamese sun is one of the best moments I have in Southeast Asia.  I bask in the sun, enjoying each minute.  I don't have suntan lotion, didn't even think of that, to be perfectly honest, but I'm enjoying myself too much to care. There are a few Westerns at the restaurant, but most are Vietnamese from other parts of the country.  Two young women, one from Belgium and the other from England are swimming next to me and we chat briefly.  Then I explore.  Another part of the beach is completely desert.  I've got my books, my music, the ocean and a gorgeous day ahead of me.  Color me happy! The problem with being the sole guest at the hotel is that I have a small staff working for me alone.  I'm the one who interrupts their leisure and requires that they work.  I don't like that.  On my last night in Phu Quoc Island, I come down to chat with the hotel owner.  We talk about books, about the island, and about Vietnam.  He's very interested in Brazil, which he plans to visit one day.  The conversation turns to politics and corruption in both Brazil and Vietnam.  I tell him that I've always thought that criminality in Brazil is the result of governmental corruption, but knowing that in Vietnam also there is corruption in the government and yet criminality is very low has cracked my logic.  I ask him why he thinks that's the case and his answer surprises me.  He credits the police for being tough and effective.  He is not the first or the only one to tell me that the Vietnamese police is fast, tough and efficient.  But I know Rio de Janeiro.  I know that if the carioca police gets tough, the slum kings get tougher, madder and more effective.  I wonder if things would have been different had the Brazilian police taken serious and proactive action thirty or forty years ago when criminality was more manageable and gangs didn't possess military warfare.  My host's theory is plausible but does not satisfy me.  I believe crime in Brazil is deeply rooted in the population's mindset.  Crime is allowed.  It's a culture where small infractions are expected and often encouraged by people who consider themselves above reproach.  "But everyone does it," they say.  Or even, "there's no way to live honestly in Brazil".  My Brazilian family and friends tell me they can no longer leave the house after dark.  The freedom I enjoyed in my youth is denied to this generation.  The situation is sad and frustrating.  And I think the necessary measures go beyond police efficacy.  

As I get up to go back to my room my host asks me when and what I want for dinner.  I tell him that I'll be happy with the same I had the night before, rice and steamed vegetables, and would like to eat in about an hour. He nods.  "Will you have a glass of wine with me?" "Sure," I say. I'm not much of a drinker and I haven't eaten much all day, so, an hour later, when he pours the red drink into a glass, I know that I should take it easy.   "Cheers!" He says as we bump glasses.  He downs his wine and gestures for me to do the same.  I do.  He refills my glass.  "This is a very special wine," he tells me.  "You won't find it anywhere else but here on the island.  Sim wine.  Will you remember the name?" "Sim wine," I repeat.  "Yes, I will." "It's from the myrtle fruit.  It's only produced in Phu Quoc Island." He raises his glass.  "Your dinner is coming soon. Drink up!" I see that the bottle is almost empty and that's a good thing.  I really shouldn't be drinking on an empty stomach.  I'm alone on this island and the hotel is deserted, so I figure I should have my wits about me the whole time.   "Do you like the wine?" "Yes, it's very good." "Well, that's it for this bottle," he says.  "But I have another." He brings the second bottle, fills our glasses and we drink.  Then he refills our glasses again.  "This is for drinking with the food," he says and leaves with his glass to bring me the food.  Is it my impression or is he a little tipsy? I open my laptop as I wait for dinner.  I'm in the circular gazebo-style dining room. There's only one wall in the back, where the bar is located, behind which is the kitchen.  Plants hang all around the room, swaying gently in the night breeze.  I can smell the food being cooked in the kitchen and subtler than that, the salty scent of the ocean, not far away.  My host places a steaming plate before me, then brings me napkins, salt, pepper, and sauces.  He goes to the other table and clicks the TV on, leaving to my dinner.   After a while, I walk upstairs to my room where I call my best friend in Brazil and we talk for a long time.  For some silly reason, we start laughing and can not stop.  She blames it on the wine, I blame it on being in this amazing place, having just a grand ol' time.  Phu Quoc Island is a crowning moment of my stay in Southeast Asia, one that will stay with me for years to come. As I talk to Nara and brush away laughing tears, I'm aware of that.  

[mensbodybuildingtips]

12 Week Prep Plan For A Contest Ready Physique

It could be your first, or your 21st, performance as a body builder, yet the enjoyment and also nerves that integrate in the weeks that approach the special day hardly change.

Part of those nerves owe to the fear that you'll spend that much time in quest of something and also not have it function out in your support in the long run. And not because you don't win, but because you can be found in 'off' form or miss an area by a minute.

PRE-PRE-CONTEST EVALUATIONS as well as PREPARATION:

Assessing Body Composition

To start, you need to assess where you are with body make-up. That's your proportion of lean mass to body fat. If you're over 20 or 22 percent body fat, you'll most likely take a different approach compared to if you are only 16 percent body fat. Believe it or not, that added little of fat could take another 4 weeks, so understanding is necessary or you establish on your own for failure.

Assessing Time

Knowing exactly how fat you are as you go into a diet plan, aids you reasonably analyze the amount of time it will certainly require to shed the fat that currently shrouds your hard-earned muscle. Diet plans customarily take 12 weeks, however if you require added time, take 16 weeks. It's much better to be down to within 5 or six pounds of your phase weight a few weeks prior to the day, so you can promptly drop it by the time you get to both week mark, then "eat right into" your ideal weight and hold it there.

Don' t sweat 25 or 30 pounds. Do sweat 50 extra pounds in a 12 week diet. You could do it, however it will be mighty unpleasant.

PREPARATIONS CHECKLIST

Inventory About a week prior to you start your competition prep, you'll desire to make the effort to inventory your cabinets and kitchen to ensure that you get all the black out of there that could tempt you on a day when you really feel aggravated or haven't seen the sort of modifications you may have desired. When your carbohydrates are reduced, and also your mind isn't dealing a full deck, you'll be most vulnerable to cheats. Remove the temptations.

Scale and Measuring Tape Invest in a suitable electronic restroom range. You don't should weigh daily, but you must obtain weekly weights or bi-weekly weights so that you understand if you are proceeding at the pace you should be. We recognize body make-up adjustments don't usually correspond to large decreases, however ...

Trustworthy Eye You'll be looking at your personal body a lot more times a day than anybody else, as well as you'll notice things many people would not. Again, a trusted eye of somebody you could count on to be sincere could take away the desire to assume you look great when you do not. Take the criticism with grace and make essential adjustments.

The Pre-Contest Game Plan We'll think you're a 12 week individual for our purposes here, and will certainly lay things out in two, 3 or four week increments as you count backwards and down to the show.

With the competition date coming close to, below's a shopping list by week( s) in order to help you prepare and come in razor sharp:

14 to12 Weeks Out: Assess body make-up. Clean cupboards and fill them with things you can make use of to prepare diet plan food only, such as low-salt flavorings, and sugar-free drink products - all wonderful for the initial 10 weeks or two. This is additionally the time to make lists of foods you like that get on a diet, PRO TIP: Making lists of foods you will certainly as well as won't eat maintains you honest, and making checklists of workout goals, training quantity, as well as cardio scheme is important.

12 to 10 Weeks Out: Phase 1 Begin by getting rid of 50-75 grams (200-300 calories) of carbohydrates. Add 20 grams more of protein. Fat needs to be moderate and also all healthy and balanced resources, such as flax seed oil, avocado, olive oil, and also almonds or walnuts.

Have one rip off meal each week on a day off.

Do three 20-minute cardio sessions per week.

10 to 8 Weeks Out: Continue your removal of carbohydrates by 40 to 50 grams, relying on power. Add an extra 12 to 15 grams of healthy protein, so that your diet totals around 400 grams per day.

Add an additional cardio session weekly, for an overall of 4, and enhance time to 25 mins. Attempt to differ the kind you do, including treadmill, biking, or stair-climbing (in or out of the gym).

From below on out, you will not be eating a cheat dish up until after the competition.

8 to 6 Weeks Out: Yep, you presumed it: Take out 50 extra grams of carbohydrates daily. Your complete now ought to be around 300 grams of carbohydrates, depending after where you began. Keep adding healthy protein in tiny increments of 12 to 15 grams per day.

You ought to be eating healthy protein at every dish, as well as adding a little fat whenever you feel reduced in power. Take a teaspoon of flax oil each morning. Your cardio sessions should now amount to 5 weekly, and the period of each must be 30 minutes.

6 to 4 Weeks Out: Continue curtailing on the carbs by 50 grams each two week period. You ought to be eating a total of around 250 grams, as well as still including between 12 grams and also 15 grams of healthy protein daily, which means you'll be eating in between 475 and also 500 grams.

Now, here's where you intend to take note of macronutrient groups, types of carbs, and also healthy protein resources:

Protein: Should be all lean chicken, egg whites, fish, and also super lean beef (just occasionally)

Carbohydrates: Low glycemic carbs, such as oat meal, wild rice, yams, berries. Starchy veggies, such as beets, turnips, and parsnips are alright, but eliminated refined carbs like pasta.

Fats: Oils and nuts, or fish oils in moderation You'll relocate to a 35 min/ 6-day weekly cardio timetable here.

4 to 2 Weeks Out: Drop an additional 50 grams of carbohydrates from your diet regimen, as well as include 20 grams of protein.

Keep cardio at six days, however add time up to 40 minuters each session for four days, as well as do high-intensity sprint periods on treadmill, bike and stepper. Do fifty percent of your longer cardio sessions in the morning on an empty stomach.

2 Weeks Out: Keep your diet plan the very same right here, or if you are not where you feel you need to be, either cut 50 more grams of carbs, or stop complicated carbs by 1 p.m. and eat absolutely nothing but veggies (non-starchy) throughout the day and also evening

Stop all cardio below and educate more intensely, incorporating compound movements with weight as well as reps on the high side, with reduced weights as well as failing or decline sets.

6 Days Out: The competition is on Saturday, so carb deficiency begins on Sunday prior to the program as well as undergoes Tuesday or Wednesday, relying on exactly how rounded, water-filled or fat you could still look. Cut carbohydrates to about 100 to 125 grams each day through Tuesday.

Eat one smoked steak each day. We favor Ribeyes for slightly even more fat. Sodium isn't as essential when you are not consuming several carbs as well as drinking a great deal of water, so a little spices on the steak is okay.

Drink one gallon of water daily. If you generally do, then just drink typically. If consuming a steak daily isn't really sufficient, include a little fat for energy as required, by capfuls of oil or 10 to 15 walnuts per time.

3 Days Out: Begin adding carbs back into the diet regimen on Wednesday morning. If you cut 500 from Week 12 to currently, include 500 daily back in. If you are not filling and getting vascular, include 200 grams more by Thursday evening.

Conversely, if you are filling too fast as well as looking watery, slow it down.

1 Day Prior to Contest: You ought to look virtually filled as well as need to not look like you are water-filled or "spilled-over" - you should resemble a slightly smaller sized and slightly less vascular version of how you wish to look tomorrow, however must be ripped as well as still slightly level as well as filling a bit extra each hour. By afternoon, start to consume carbohydrates moderately as you back off the water to concerning a half gallon.

PRO POINTER: The evening before a program consume a steak and baked potato with butter, after that keep water to just sips when thirsty until morning.

The Big Day: Get up and also examination muscular tissues for fullness and electrolyte equilibrium by bending hard. You must be able to get a relatively fast pump and feel no cramping. If you identify you look perfect, consume eggs as well as oatmeal for morning meal as well as consume alcohol a sports drink. If you require to fill a little, there is nothing incorrect with eating a piece of pizza or a hamburger and fries three hours before you go on stage. It's not going to destroy your problem, it's simply going to far better it. PRO TIP: Consume sugar-free Powerade in sips as required prior to you hit the stage.

( Note to Jay: You can make Pro Tips right here at the end as well as throughout resemble ton of money cookie strips or something)

[marcos008-blog]

Home sweet home

Jackfruit.

The jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus), also known as jack tree,[7] is a species of tree in the fig, mulberry, and breadfruit family (Moraceae) native to southwest India.[8][9][10]

The jackfruit tree is well-suited to tropicallowlands, and its fruit is the largest tree-borne fruit, reaching as much as 55 kg (120 lb) in weight, 90 cm (35 in) in length, and 50 cm (20 in) in diameter.[10][11] A mature jackfruit tree can produce about 100 to 200 fruits in a year. The jackfruit is a multiple fruit, composed of hundreds to thousands of individual flowers, and the fleshy petals are eaten.[10][12]

Jackfruit is commonly used in South and Southeast Asian cuisines.[13][14] The ripe and unripe fruit and seeds are consumed. The jackfruit tree is a widely cultivated throughout tropical regions of the world. It is the national fruit of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and the state fruit of the Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Etymology and history:

The word "jackfruit" comes from Portuguese jaca, which in turn is derived from the Malayalamlanguage term chakka (Malayalam chakka pazham).[12][15] When the Portuguese arrived in India at Kozhikode (Calicut) on the Malabar Coast(Kerala) in 1498, the Malayalam name chakka was recorded by Hendrik van Rheede (1678–1703) in the Hortus Malabaricus, vol. iii in Latin. Henry Yuletranslated the book in Jordanus Catalani’s (f. 1321–1330) Mirabilia descripta: the wonders of the East.[16]

The common English name "jackfruit" was used by physician and naturalist Garcia de Orta in his 1563 book Colóquios dos simples e drogas da India.[17][18] Centuries later, botanist Ralph Randles Stewart suggested it was named after William Jack (1795–1822), a Scottish botanist who worked for the East India Company in Bengal, Sumatra, and Malaya.[19]

The jackfruit was domesticated independently in South Asia and Southeast Asia, as evidenced by the fact that the Southeast Asian names for the fruit are not derived from the Sanskrit roots. It was probably first domesticated by Austronesians in Java or the Malay Peninsula. The word for jackfruit in Proto-Western-Malayo-Polynesian is reconstructed as *laŋkaq. Modern cognates include Javanese, Malay, Balinese, and Cebuano nangka; Tagalog, Pangasinan, Bikol and Ilocano langka; Chamorro lanka or nanka; Kelabit nakan; Wolio nangke; Ibaloi dangka; and Lun Dayeh laka. Note, however, that the fruit was only recently introduced to Guam via Filipino settlers when both were part of the Spanish Empire.[20][21]

Botanical description:

Shape, trunk and leaves:

Artocarpus heterophyllus grows as an evergreen tree that has a relatively short trunk with a dense treetop. It easily reaches heights of 10 to 20 meters and trunk diameters of 30 to 80 centimeters. It sometimes forms buttress roots. The bark of the jackfruit tree is reddish-brown and smooth. In the event of injury to the bark, a milky juice is released.

The leaves are alternate and spirally arranged. They are gummy and thick and are divided into a petiole and a leaf blade. The petiole is 1 to 3 inches long. The leathery leaf blade is 7 to 15 inches long, and 3 to 7 inches wide and is oblong to ovate in shape.

In young trees, the leaf edges are irregularly lobed or split. On older trees, the leaves are rounded and dark green, with a smooth leaf margin. The leaf blade has a prominent main nerve and starting on each side six to eight lateral nerves. The stipules are egg-shaped at a length of 1.5 to 8 centimeters.

Flowers and fruit:

The inflorescences are formed on the trunk, branches or twigs (caulifloria). Jackfruit trees are monoecious, that is there are both female and male flowers on a tree. The inflorescences are pedunculated, cylindrical to ellipsoidal or pear-shaped, to about 10-12 centimeters long and 5-7 centimeters wide.

Inflorescences are initially completely enveloped in egg-shaped cover sheets which rapidly slough off.

The flowers are very small, there are several thousand flowers in an inflorescence, which sit on a fleshy rachis.[22] The male flowers are greenish, some flowers are sterile. The male flowers are hairy and the perianth ends with two 1 to 1.5 millimeters membrane. The individual and prominent stamens are straight with yellow, roundish anthers. After the pollen distribution, the stamens become ash-gray and fall off after a few days. Later all the male inflorescences also fall off. The greenish female flowers, with hairy and tubular perianth, have a fleshy flower-like base. The female flowers contain an ovary with a broad, capitate or rarely bilobed scar. The blooming time ranges from December until February or March.

The ellipsoidal to roundish fruit is a multiple fruit formed from the fusion of the ovaries of multiple flowers. The fruits grow on a long and thick stem on the trunk. They vary in size and ripen from an initially yellowish-greenish to yellow, and then at maturity to yellowish-brown. They possess a hard, gummy shell with small pimples surrounded with hard, hexagonal tubercles. The very large and variously shaped fruit have a length of 30 to 100 centimeters and a diameter of 15 to 50 centimeters and can weigh 10-25 kilograms or more.

The fruits consist of a fibrous, whitish core (rachis) about 5-10 centimeters thick. Radiating from this are many 10 centimeter long individual fruits. They are elliptical to egg-shaped, light brownish achenes with a length of about 3 centimeters and a diameter of 1.5 to 2 centimeters.

There may be about 100-500 seeds per fruit. The seed coat consists of a thin, waxy, parchment-like and easily removable testa (husk) and a brownish, membranous tegmen. The cotyledons are usually unequal in size, the endosperm is minimally present.[23]

The fruit matures during the rainy season from July to August. The bean-shaped achenes of the jackfruit are coated with a firm yellowish aril (seed coat, flesh), which has an intense sweet taste at maturity of the fruit. [3] The pulp is enveloped by many narrow strands of fiber (undeveloped perianth), which run between the hard shell and the core of the fruit and are firmly attached to it. When pruned, the inner part (core) secretes a very sticky, milky liquid, which can hardly be removed from the skin, even with soap and water. To clean the hands after "unwinding" the pulp an oil or other solvent is used. For example, street vendors in Tanzania, who sell the fruit in small segments, provide small bowls of kerosene for their customers to cleanse their sticky fingers.[citation needed]

An average fruit consists of 27% edible seed coat, 15% edible seeds, 20% white pulp (undeveloped perianth, rags) and bark and 10% core.

The number of chromosomes is 2n = 56.[24]

As food:

Ripe jackfruit is naturally sweet, with subtle flavoring.[10] It can be used to make a variety of dishes, including custards, cakes, or mixed with shaved ice as es teler in Indonesia or halo-halo in the Philippines. For the traditional breakfast dish in southern India, idlis, the fruit is used with rice as an ingredient and jackfruit leaves are used as a wrapping for steaming. Jackfruit dosas can be prepared by grinding jackfruit flesh along with the batter. Ripe jackfruit arils are sometimes seeded, fried, or freeze-dried and sold as jackfruit chips.

The seeds from ripe fruits are edible, and are said to have a milky, sweet taste often compared to Brazil nuts. They may be boiled, baked, or roasted. When roasted, the flavor of the seeds is comparable to chestnuts. Seeds are used as snacks (either by boiling or fire-roasting) or to make desserts. In Java, the seeds are commonly cooked and seasoned with salt as a snack. They are quite commonly used in curry in India in the form of a traditional lentil and vegetable mix curry.

Aroma:

Jackfruit has a distinctive sweet and fruity aroma. In a study of flavour volatiles in five jackfruit cultivars, the main volatile compounds detected were ethyl isovalerate, propyl isovalerate, butyl isovalerate, isobutyl isovalerate, 3-methylbutyl acetate, 1-butanol, and 2-methylbutan-1-ol.[25]

A fully ripe and unopened jackfruit is known to "emit a strong aroma", with the inside of the fruit described as smelling of pineapple and banana.[10] After roasting, the seeds may be used as a commercial alternative to chocolate aroma.[26]

Nutritional value:

The flesh of the jackfruit is starchy and fibrous and is a source of dietary fiber. The pulp is composed of 74% water, 23% carbohydrates, 2% protein, and 1% fat. In a 100-g portion, raw jackfruit provides 400 kJ (95 kcal) and is a rich source (20% or more of the Daily Value, DV) of vitamin B6 (25% DV). It contains moderate levels (10-19% DV) of vitamin C and potassium, with no other nutrients in significant content.

The jackfruit also provides a potential part of the solution for tropical countries facing problems with food security,[12] such as several countries of Africa.[27]

Culinary uses:

The flavor of the ripe fruit is comparable to a combination of apple, pineapple, mango, and banana.[10][13] Varieties are distinguished according to characteristics of the fruit flesh. In Indochina, the two varieties are the "hard" version (crunchier, drier, and less sweet, but fleshier), and the "soft" version (softer, moister, and much sweeter, with a darker gold-color flesh than the hard variety). Unripe jackfruit has a mild flavor and meat-like texture and is used in curry dishes with spices in many cuisines. The skin of unripe jackfruit must be peeled first, then the remaining jackfruit flesh is chopped in a labor-intensive process[28] into edible portions and cooked before serving.

The cuisines of many Asian countries use cooked young jackfruit.[13] In many cultures, jackfruit is boiled and used in curries as a staple food. The boiled young jackfruit is used in salads or as a vegetable in spicy curries and side dishes, and as fillings for cutlets and chops. It may be used by vegetarians as a substitute for meat such as pulled pork. It may be cooked with coconut milk and eaten alone or with meat, shrimp or smoked pork. In southern India, unripe jackfruit slices are deep-fried to make chips.

South Asia:

In Bangladesh, the fruit is consumed on its own. The unripe fruit is used in curry, and the seed is often dried and preserved to be later used in curry.[29] In India, two varieties of jackfruit predominate: muttomvarikka and sindoor. Muttomvarikka has a slightly hard inner flesh when ripe, while the inner flesh of the ripe sindoor fruit is soft.[30]

A sweet preparation called chakkavaratti (jackfruit jam) is made by seasoning pieces of muttomvarikka fruit flesh in jaggery, which can be preserved and used for many months. The fruits are either eaten alone or as a side to rice. The juice is extracted and either drunk straight or as a side. The juice is sometimes condensed and eaten as candies. The seeds are either boiled or roasted and eaten with salt and hot chilies. They are also used to make spicy side dishes with rice. Jackfruit may be ground and made into a paste, then spread over a mat and allowed to dry in the sun to create a natural chewy candy.

Southeast Asia:

In Indonesia and Malaysia, jackfruit is called nangka. The ripe fruit is usually sold separately and consumed on its own, or sliced and mixed with shaved ice as a sweet concoction dessert such as es campur and es teler. The ripe fruit might be dried and fried as kripiknangka, or jackfruit cracker. The seeds are boiled and consumed with salt, as it contains edible starchy content; this is called beton. Young (unripe) jackfruit is made into curry called gulai nangka or stewed called gudeg.

In the Philippines, jackfruit is called langka in Filipino and nangkà[31] in Cebuano. The unripe fruit is usually cooked in coconut milk and eaten with rice; this is called ginataang langka. The ripe fruit is often an ingredient in local desserts such as halo-halo and the Filipino turon. The ripe fruit, besides also being eaten raw as it is, is also preserved by storing in syrup or by drying. The seeds are also boiled before being eaten.

Thailand is a major producer of jackfruit, which are often cut, prepared, and canned in a sugary syrup (or frozen in bags or boxes without syrup) and exported overseas, frequently to North America and Europe.

In Vietnam, jackfruit is used to make jackfruit chè, a sweet dessert soup, similar to the Chinese derivative bubur cha cha. The Vietnamese also use jackfruit purée as part of pastry fillings or as a topping on xôi ngọt (a sweet version of sticky rice portions).

Jackfruits are found primarily in the eastern part of Taiwan. The fresh fruit can be eaten directly or preserved as dried fruit, candied fruit, or jam. It is also stir-fried or stewed with other vegetables and meat.

Americas:

In Brazil, three varieties are recognized: jaca-dura, or the "hard" variety, which has a firm flesh, and the largest fruits that can weigh between 15 and 40 kg each; jaca-mole, or the "soft" variety, which bears smaller fruits with a softer and sweeter flesh; and jaca-manteiga, or the "butter" variety, which bears sweet fruits whose flesh has a consistency intermediate between the "hard" and "soft" varieties.[32]

Africa:

From a tree planted for its shade in gardens, it became an ingredient for local recipes using different fruit segments. The seeds are boiled in water or roasted to remove toxic substances, and then roasted for a variety of desserts. The flesh of the unripe jackfruit is used to make a savory salty dish with smoked pork. The jackfruit arils are used to make jams or fruits in syrup, and can also be eaten raw.

Wood and manufacturing:

The golden yellow timber with good grain is used for building furniture and house construction in India. It is termite-proof and is superior to teak for building furniture. The wood of the jackfruit tree is important in Sri Lanka and is exported to Europe. Jackfruit wood is widely used in the manufacture of furniture, doors and windows, in roof construction,[10] and fish sauce barrels.[33]

The wood of the tree is used for the production of musical instruments. In Indonesia, hardwood from the trunk is carved out to form the barrels of drums used in the gamelan, and in the Philippines, its soft wood is made into the body of the kutiyapi, a type of boat lute. It is also used to make the body of the Indian string instrument veena and the drums mridangam, thimila, and kanjira.

Cultural significance:

The jackfruit has played a significant role in Indian agriculture for centuries. Archeological findings in India have revealed that jackfruit was cultivated in India 3000 to 6000 years ago.[34] It has also been widely cultivated in Southeast Asia.

The ornate wooden plank called avani palaka, made of the wood of the jackfruit tree, is used as the priest’s seat during Hindu ceremonies in Kerala. In Vietnam, jackfruit wood is prized for the making of Buddhist statues in temples[35] The heartwood is used by Buddhist forest monastics in Southeast Asia as a dye, giving the robes of the monks in those traditions their distinctive light-brown color.[36]

Jackfruit is the national fruit of Bangladesh,[29] and the state fruit of the Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.[37][38]

Cultivation:

In terms of taking care of the plant, minimal pruning is required; cutting off dead branches from the interior of the tree is only sometimes needed.[10] In addition, twigs bearing fruit must be twisted or cut down to the trunk to induce growth for the next season.[10] Branches should be pruned every three to four years to maintain productivity.[10]

Some trees carry too many mediocre fruits and these are usually removed to allow the others to develop better to maturity.

Stingless bees such as Tetragonula iridipennis are jackfruit pollinators, so play an important role in jackfruit cultivation.[39]

Production and marketing: Edit In 2017, India produced 1.4 million tonnes of jackfruit, followed by Bangladesh, Thailand, and Indonesia.[40]

The marketing of jackfruit involves three groups: producers, traders, and middlemen, including wholesalers and retailers.[41] The marketing channels are rather complex. Large farms sell immature fruit to wholesalers, which helps cash flow and reduces risk, whereas medium-sized farms sell the fruit directly to local markets or retailers.

Commercial availability:

Outside of its countries of origin, fresh jackfruit can be found at food markets throughout Southeast Asia.[10][42] It is also extensively cultivated in the Brazilian coastal region, where it is sold in local markets. It is available canned in sugary syrup, or frozen, already prepared and cut. Jackfruit industries are established in Sri Lanka and Vietnam, where the fruit is processed into products such as flour, noodles, papad, and ice cream.[42] It is also canned and sold as a vegetable for export.

Outside of countries where it is grown, jackfruit can be obtained year-round, both canned or dried. Dried jackfruit chips are produced by various manufacturers.

Invasive species: Edit In Brazil, the jackfruit can become an invasive species as in Brazil’s Tijuca Forest National Park in Rio de Janeiro. The Tijuca is mostly an artificial secondary forest, whose planting began during the mid-19th century; jackfruit trees have been a part of the park’s flora since it was founded.

Recently, the species has expanded excessively, and its fruits, which naturally fall to the ground and open, are eagerly eaten by small mammals, such as the common marmoset and coati. The seeds are dispersed by these animals; this allows the jackfruit to compete for space with native tree species. Additionally the supply of jackfruit as a ready source of food has allowed the marmoset and coati populations to expand. Since both prey opportunistically on birds’ eggs and nestlings, increases in marmoset or coati population are detrimental for local bird populations.

References:

Under its accepted name Artocarpus heterophyllus (then as heterophylla) this species was described in Encyclopédie Méthodique, Botanique 3: 209. (1789) by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, from a specimen collected by botanist Philibert Commerson. Lamarck said of the fruit that it was coarse and difficult to digest. "Larmarck’s original description of tejas". Retrieved 2012-11-23. On mange la chair de son fruit, ainsi que les noyaux qu’il contient; mais c’est un aliment grossier et difficile à digérer. ^ "Name – !Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam". Tropicos. Saint Louis, Missouri: Missouri Botanical Garden. Retrieved 2012-11-23. ^ "TPL, treatment of Artocarpus heterophyllus". The Plant List; Version 1. (published on the internet). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden. 2010. Retrieved 2012-11-23. ^ "Name – Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam. synonyms". Tropicos. Saint Louis, Missouri: Missouri Botanical Garden. Retrieved 2012-11-23. ^ "Artocarpus heterophyllus". Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). Agricultural Research Service (ARS), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Retrieved 2012-11-23. ^ "Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam. — The Plant List". Theplantlist.org. 2012-03-23. Retrieved 2014-06-17. ^ "Artocarpus heterophyllus". Tropical Biology Association. October 2006. Archived from the original on 2012-08-15. Retrieved 2012-11-23. ^ Love, Ken; Paull, Robert E (June 2011). "Jackfruit" (PDF). College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawaii at Manoa. ^ Boning, Charles R. (2006). Florida’s Best Fruiting Plants:Native and Exotic Trees, Shrubs, and Vines. Sarasota, Florida: Pineapple Press, Inc. p. 107. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Morton, Julia. "Jackfruit". Center for New Crops & Plant Products, Purdue University Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture. Retrieved 19 April 2016. ^ "Jackfruit Fruit Facts". California Rare Fruit Growers, Inc. 1996. Retrieved 2012-11-23. ^ a b c Silver, Mark. "Here’s The Scoop On Jackfruit, A Ginormous Fruit To Feed The World". NPR. Retrieved 19 April 2016. ^ a b c Janick, Jules; Paull, Robert E. The encyclopedia of fruit & nuts. p. 155. ^ The encyclopedia of fruit & nuts, By Jules Janick, Robert E. Paull, pp. 481–485 ^ Pradeepkumar, T.; Jyothibhaskar, B. Suma; Satheesan, K. N. (2008). Prof. K. V. Peter, ed. Management of Horticultural Crops. Horticultural Science Series. 11. New Delhi, India: New India Publishing. p. 81. ISBN 978-81-89422-49-3. The English name jackfruit is derived from Portuguese jaca, which is derived from Malayalam chakka. ^ Friar Jordanus, 14th century, as translated from the Latin by Henry Yule (1863). Mirabilia descripta: the wonders of the East. Hakluyt Society. p. 13. Retrieved 2012-11-23. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition, 1989, online edition ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. Bartleby. 2000. Archived from the original on 2005-11-30. ^ Stewart, Ralph R. (1984). "How Did They Die?". Taxon. 33 (1): 48–52. doi:10.2307/1222028. JSTOR 1222028. ^ Blench, Roger= (2008). "A history of fruits on the Southeast Asian mainland" (PDF). In Osada, Toshiki; Uesugi, Akinori. Occasional Paper 4: Linguistics, Archaeology and the Human Past. Indus Project. pp. 115–137. ISBN 9784902325331. ^ Blust, Robert; Trussel, Stephen (2013). "The Austronesian Comparative Dictionary: A Work in Progress". Oceanic Linguistics. 52 (2): 493–523. doi:10.1353/ol.2013.0016. ^ D. KN G Pushpakumara: Floral and Fruit Morphology and Phenology of Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam. (Moraceae). In: Sri Lankan J. Agric. Sci. Vol. 43, 2006, pp. 82-106, online (PDF), on researchgate.net, accessed May 24, 2018. ^ N. Haq: Jackfruit Artocarpus heterophyllus. International Center for Underutilized Crops, 2006, ISBN 0-85432-785-1, p. 4-11, 72 f. ^ Artocarpus heterophyllus at Tropicos.org. In: IPCN Chromosome Reports . Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis. ^ Ong, B.T.; Nazimah, S.A.H.; Tan, C.P.; Mirhosseini, H.; Osman, A.; Hashim, D. Mat; Rusul, G. (August 2008). "Analysis of volatile compounds in five jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus L.) cultivars using solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and gas chromatography-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC-TOFMS)". Journal of Food Composition and Analysis. 21 (5): 416–422. doi:10.1016/j.jfca.2008.03.002. Retrieved 2013-02-02. ^ Spada, Fernanda Papa; et al. (21 January 2017). "Optimization of Postharvest Conditions To Produce Chocolate Aroma from Jackfruit Seeds". Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 65 (6): 1196–1208. doi:10.1021/acs.jafc.6b04836. PMID 28110526. ^ Mwandambo, Pascal (11 March 2014). "Venture in rare jackfruit turns farmers’ fortunes around". Standard Online. Standard Group Ltd. Retrieved 20 December 2016. ^ Gene Wu [@@GeneforTexas] (2018-08-21). "Look for this thread later when we do: "You don’t know Jackfruit."" (Tweet) – via Twitter. ^ a b Matin, Abdul. "A poor man’s fruit: Now a miracle food!". The Daily Star. Retrieved 2015-06-12. ^ Ashwini. A (2015). Morpho-Molecular Characterization of Jackfruit. Artocarpus heterophyllus. Kerala Agricultural University. ^ Wolff, John U. (1972). "Nangkà". A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan. 2. p. 698. ^ General information Archived 2009-04-13 at the Wayback Machine, Department of Agriculture, State of Bahia ^ "Nam O fish sauce village". Danang Today. 2014-02-26. Retrieved 2015-09-22. ^ Preedy, Victor R.; Watson, Ronald Ross; Patel, Vinood B., eds. (2011). Nuts and Seeds in Health and Disease Prevention (1st ed.). Burlington, MA: Academic Press. p. 678. ISBN 978-0-12-375689-3. ^ "Gỗ mít nài". Nhagoviethung.com. Retrieved 2014-06-17. ^ Forest Monks and the Nation-state: An Anthropological and Historical Study in Northeast Thailand, J.L. Taylor 1993 p. 218 ^ Subrahmanian, N.; Hikosaka, Shu; Samuel, G. John; Thiagarajan, P. (1997). Tamil social history. Institute of Asian Studies. p. 88. Retrieved 2010-03-23. ^ "Kerala’s State fruit!". Retrieved 2018-03-17. ^ Kothai, S. (2015). "Environmental Impact on Stingless Bee Propolis (Tetragonula iridipennis) Reared from Two Different Regions of Tamilnadu — A Comparative Study". International Journal of ChemTech Research. ^ Benjamin Elisha Sawe (25 April 2017). "World Leaders In Jackfruit Production". WorldAtlas. Retrieved 23 May 2018. ^ Haq, Nazmul (2006). Jackfruit: Artocarpus heterophyllus (PDF). Southampton, UK: Southampton Centre for Underutilised Crops. p. 129. ISBN 978-0-85432-785-0. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-10-05. ^ a b Goldenberg, Suzanne (23 April 2014). "Jackfruit heralded as ‘miracle’ food crop". The Guardian, London, UK. Retrieved 17 October 2016.

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Da Lat beckons: Now is best time to visit Vietnam’s ‘Little Paris’

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Da Lat beckons: Now is best time to visit Vietnam’s ‘Little Paris’

Da Lat beckons: Now is best time to visit Vietnam’s ‘Little Paris’

Da Lat is much loved by its year-round cool climate, green pine forests, misty landscape, and resplendent architectural gems dating back to the colonial era.

Given various nicknames like Little Paris, the city of eternal spring, the city of flowers and the city of love, Da Lat high up in the Central Highlands of Vietnam has gained popularity both as a romantic place for honeymoon couples and an oasis in a country that usually sweats all year round.

The town, situated 1,500 meters above sea level, has repeatedly garnered global attention. The New York Times named Da Lat among the world’s 52 must-visit places in 2016 while TripAdvisor readers ranked it in the top 10 list of rising destinations in Asia.

If you are just starting to plan a holiday to Da Lat during the year-end travel season, here’s the itinerary for a three-day trip that allows you to catch the best of the highland town.

Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

Day 1

Hanoi/HCMC- Da Lat- Rooster Church – Truc Lam Zen Monastery– Tuyen Lam Lake

Day 2

Hang Nga Guesthouse – Golden Valley – Langbiang Mountain – Hell Market 

Day 3

Da Lat Train Station – Linh Phuoc Pagoda – Cau Dat Tea Plantation

Day 1: Rooster Church – Truc Lam Zen Buddhist Temple– Tuyen Lam Lake

For a trip-around-town, make your way to the Saint Nicolas Cathedral, one of the oldest and most beautiful architectural works left by the French that lies on Tran Phu Street around a kilometer from downtown Da Lat.

Built between 1931 and 1942, it is considered the largest church in Da Lat and a convergence point for Catholics living in the Central Highlands.

One of the most impressive features of the church is the rooster statue on top of the 47-meter bell tower which has earned it the nickname “rooster church.”

Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

From the church, head north for five kilometers and you will reach Truc Lam Zen Buddhist temple, the largest temple in Vietnam, lying at the foot of Phung Hoang Mountain and the edge of Tuyen Lam Lake.

Pass through the gate and be rewarded with a calm and tranquil atmosphere.

The temple evokes the spirit of Zen Buddhism practiced under the Tran Dynasty, which ruled the country from 1225 CE to 1400 CE. The tradition was initiated by King Tran Nhan Tong, the third king of the Tran Dynasty, who abdicated the throne when he was 35 and spent the rest of his life on Yen Tu Mountain and founded the Truc Lam Zen.

A visit to Da Lat will be incomplete without a stop at Tuyen Lam Lake, one of the most beautiful in Vietnam and one whose raw beauty has yet to be undermined by tourist hordes.

  Tuyen Lam Lake in Da Lat City. Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

No one knows for sure when and why the lake was named Tuyen Lam, but many think Tuyen stands for stream and Lam for forest. Tuyen Lam is this a place where water and trees meet.

The magnificent scenery around the 3.2-square-kilometer lake, comprising mountains and vast pine forests, is much admired. If viewed from the cable car above, Tuyen Lam Lake looks like a miniature ocean with its own continents. 

You can hire a boat for VND300,000 ($12.85) for a group of six to take a sightseeing tour around the lake.

If you go into the pine forests for camping overnight, you can also get a chance to discover the customs and traditions of the K’ho ethnic minority people, who live in small stilt houses built on mountain slopes. At night the sound of gongs invites you to join young K’ho men and women dancing around a fire.

Day 2: Hang Nga Guesthouse – Golden Valley – Langbiang Mountain – Hell Market

Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

Situated around one kilometer from Da Lat, the guesthouse opened in 1990, and has been compared to the amazing architecture of world-acclaimed constructions such as the Salvador Dalí Museum and Walt Disney Concert Hall.

U.K. travel magazine Lonely Planet last April listed the bizarre building, dubbed the “Crazy House”, among the 120 most breathtaking human constructions on Earth.

Once forgotten, it has now emerged as one of the most popular tourist attractions in the city, and visitors have to pay VND50,000 ($2.20) for an entrance ticket to sate their curiosity.

From ‘Crazy House’, travel 30 kilometers to reach Golden Valley. Continue riding your motorbike until you reach the so-called pink grass fields and enjoy the scenery, which is best at sunset and sunrise.

Pink muhly grass is relatively common in China and North America but extremely rare in Vietnam. Not surprisingly, the hill constantly attracts photographers and nature lovers.

The blooming season starts in September and November and December are the best months to visit.

Before conquering the peak of Langbiang Mountain at a height of 2,167 meters above sea level, find a restaurant to fill your stomach and take a break as the trip could be tiring.

Take a jeep ride to the peak of Rada hill at a height of 1,929 meters for a panoramic view of Da Lat in the mist and listen to the touching love story of a couple named Lang and Biang.

The cost of a jeep ride ranges from VND100,000 to VND120,000 for a group of four and a one-way trip takes you 15 minutes.

Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

It is a thrilling and unforgettable experience for young people to conquer the two highest peaks in the Langbiang plateau, the 2,124-meter Ong Mountain and 2,167-meter Ba.

Don’t miss a chance to experience a cozy family meal with the Lach ethnic people at the foot of Langbiang Mountain and learn about their daily lives and spiritual values.

At night return to Da Lat and go for a walk around the night market, dubbed “Hell Market,” a unique destination that can be hardly found anywhere else in Vietnam.

Visitors can find random shirts and warm clothes at the market, but it’s really a place for foodies with a wide choice on the menu such as warm fresh soymilk and artichoke tea, sweet tofu in ginger sauce, grilled scallops, chicken porridge, steamed corn and banh trang nuong (grilled rice paper).

Day 3: Da Lat Train Station – Linh Phuoc Pagoda – Cau Dat Tea Plantation

Begin the last day of your trip at one of the most popular destinations in the highlands town: Da Lat Railway Station.

The station was built by French architects in 1932. When it opened in 1938, the station was part of the Thap Cham – Da Lat railway line, running from the former coastal Champa Kingdom in Ninh Thuan to Da Lat.

It has been crowned as the oldest and most beautiful railway station in Indochina with a touch of unique French architecture. 

But after French troops withdrew from Vietnam in 1954, people stopped using the trains and the tracks were dismantled by people looking to sell scrap metal.

But a section of the track, for a short distance of seven kilometers, has been relaid and trains are operating from Da Lat to Trai Mat to take visitors to Linh Phuoc Pagoda.

Photo by Tuan Dao

Linh Phuoc Pagoda, situated around seven kilometers to the west of the station, piques the curiosity of visitors, especially foreigners, with its colorful appearance made up of tens of thousands of pieces of porcelain. Though the materials used are scrap, the craftsmanship on display is indubitable.

Don’t forget to drop by Cau Dat tea plantation, a 30-minute drive from Linh Phuoc Pagoda and the place where the Vietnamese tea industry originated.

The tea farm has gained fame as a tourist attraction in Da Lat and become the most mentioned on Instagram, the world’s largest photo sharing network, after many young people take photos here and share them on social media.

Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

Here is a preview for the must-try food tour in Da Lat. 

Banh can on Tang Bat Ho Street

It is said that no one leaves Da Lat without having tasted banh can. Situated at the end of the steep Tang Bat Ho, the place has been serving the treat with only two options, quail egg and duck egg, for over 15 years.

Banh uot and chicken guts on Tang Bat Ho Street

Trang’s has been treating its customers to the famous banh uot for three generations. The dish is a combination of banh uot (literally wet cake) and chicken meat and guts, eaten with a well-seasoned dipping sauce.

Tile Grilling on Nguyen Luong Bang Street

This specialty dish is cooked over hot coals, not on the usual iron grill but a clay tile.

The grilled items include seasoned pork, beef, seafood, and game meats usually accompanied by a mixed salad. It is not a bad idea to spend a rainy day with fresh vegetables, meat roasting over a fire and a bottle of wine. You can find this grill restaurant on Nguyen Luong Bang street.

Grilled pork roll on Phan Dinh Phung Street

Grilled pork roll in Da Lat is made by folding minced pork around a bamboo stick. After it is grilled, it is rolled in rice paper with pickles and herbs. The most essential thing again is the dipping sauce, a special mixture created from pig liver, shrimp, pork, and ground bean paste.

Tasty, greasy and crispy grilled pork roll is a wonderful treat when the weather turns cold in Da Lat. You can find several grilled pork shops on Phan Dinh Phung Street.

  The town has been a holiday paradise in Vietnam for years and is always packed during the holidays and high travel season. Therefore, accommodation services are well developed.  

You can opt for hotels near the downtown area and Da Lat night market, which makes transportation convenient. Prices range from VND150,000 to VND250,000 per night.

Homestays are also worth considering. You can choose from Jang & Min’s house, The Barn Home Farm, Moonrise Garden Dalat, and Dalat Lacasa Homestay II. Prices range from VND70,000 ($3) to VND300,000 ($12.85) per night.

From Hanoi and Saigon, the best way to reach Da Lat, which is best enjoyed during the year-end flower blossom season, is by flight.

Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet Air have direct flights to Da Lat every day. Return tickets cost around VND1.1 million ($47) from HCMC and VND2.4 million ($103) from Hanoi.

Lien Khuong International Airport is around 40 kilometers from the town. You can take a shuttle bus from the airport or take a cab to reach Da Lat.

Those looking for cheaper options can hop on a sleeper coach from HCMC that takes around eight hours and costs VND220,000 ($9.42).

– It’s best to travel to Da Lat in October when wild sunflowers are in full bloom them, weaving a yellow carpet along streets.

– Remember to take warm clothes though since the weather could get quite, especially at night, with temperatures from 19 to 21 degrees Celsius (66-69 degrees Fahrenheit).  

– It is better that you book a hotel room in the downtown area of Da Lat before arriving. But in case you cannot find any hotel room, a homestay is not a bad choice.

– Tourists can get ripped off when buying local specialties, so beware

Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

Story by Nguyen Quy

Video contributed by Nhung Nguyen 

Photos by Phong Vinh

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[consulting-celiac-in-the-tardis]

7 Gluten Free Sources of Vegan Protein (That Aren't Tofu)

New blog post! Vegan. Plant-based. Flexitarian. Whatever you call it, eating less meat and more plant-based protein is in. In fact, one 2016 study found that 55 percent of Americans wanted to incorporate more plant-based foods into their diet that year. And, as those who follow my Instagram have probably realized, I'm one of them.

While I still sometimes eat meat and don't worry about sticking to a strict "vegan" diet with baked goods or processed foods, I've enjoyed experimenting with more vegan protein. The only problem? Tofu and I...well, we don't get along (in taste or my body's reaction to it). What's a girl to do? Find other ways to get protein, of course!

Today, I thought I'd share my top seven favorite sources of vegan protein - that aren't tofu! Ready to dive in? Just have a bib on hand! 1. Banza Pasta First off, I had to share one of my favorite gluten free pastas lately: Banza. I first discovered this brand when a box was included in my monthly Love With Food delivery (PSA: if you've never heard of Love With Food, check out my in-depth reviews here and here!). More recently, Banza contacted me about receiving free products in return for a review...and, of course, I couldn't type "yes" quick enough. 

Banza pasta is actually pasta made mostly of chickpeas, which means it's an A+ source of protein. In fact, one-fourth a cup of their rotini pasta (the kind I received) boasts 14 grams of protein and 8 grams of fiber. My favorite part, though, is the flavor. Compared to my typical rice pasta, Banza tastes a lot heartier. It holds up well when baked in my slow cooker mac n' cheese or just boiled on the stove top (which only takes 8-10 mins - score!).

Banza = bumpin' up the flavors!

As you could probably guess, my fave way to enjoy Banza is in vegan mac n' cheese with my homemade cheese sauce. However, it also tastes delish with pesto, spinach and extra chickpeas (got your protein, bro?) or even tossed in a salad. There really are as many options as there are Banza shapes! 2. Chia Seeds If I had to list the foods I always eat everyday, chia seeds would be at the top of the list. True, I had never heard of chia seeds before my celiac diagnosis, but once I met Mamma Chia, I've never looked back. 

Chia seeds respectively provide more omega-3, antioxidants, calcium, potassium, protein and fiber than salmon, blueberries, milk, bananas, soy beans and flax seeds. Basically chia seeds prove that good things come in small packages. I always throw in one or two tablespoons of chia seeds into my batch of smoothies. This not only bumps up the protein, but also makes my smoothies even thicker - just how I like 'em!

Chia seeds are also a MUST if you're cravin' thick and fluffy (oatless) oatmeal. The chia seeds expand and suck up the moisture, giving your oatmeal a lot of volume even if you use the same amount of ingredients as usual. Chia seeds are also a secret weapon for vegan baking, especially if you're allergic to flax seeds like I am. Instead of an egg, you can mix together one tablespoon of ground chia seeds with three tablespoons of water, as seen in my paleo and vegan pancakes.

My fave pancakes...

Chia seeds may not sound the most appetizing and, whenever my sister sees me eating them she still says, "You're going to grow a chia pet in your stomach!" But, really, chia seeds are as delicious as they are versatile for a gluten free, plant based chef.

3. All the beans! I've written about the magic of beans before, but this post wouldn't be complete without mentioning them as a source of vegan protein. When I first started eating beans, my stomach was not a fan (and I think you can fill in the blanks on what I'm talking about). However, I kept eating just small amounts of beans along with small amounts of meat/fish, and my stomach slowly adapted. 

Since I seem to be sensitive to fodmaps, I still have to watch how much I eat of certain bean types beans like chickpeas. However, I love trying out new ways to get my protein. As I've shared on my Instagram, my latest addiction is smashed black beans with potatoes and chips (for some killer creaminess and crunch).

My latest love...

One pro tip: you can also freeze your beans if, like me, you don't eat cans at a time (now that would be dangerous). Simply distribute your beans equally in a sealed plastic bag and freeze them in a layer. This let's you break off a chunk of beans and defrost just that portion whenever you like! It also keeps the beans from going bad, which saves money in the long run. Talk about a win/win. 4. YoFiit Nutritional Bars When you hear the phrase "protein bars," you probably don't think of "vegan" right after. While there are certainly plenty of bars relying on whey or other dairy/animal-based proteins, though, vegan protein bars are becoming more common. 

Recently, YoFiit reached out to me to try their new vegan (gluten free, nut free and soy free) nutritional bars. I immediately loved their ingredient list, which includes items like oats, quinoa, pea protein, cacao, and goji berries - all while offering 7 to 15 grams of protein, around 12 grams of fiber and added probiotics! I also like that they sell three different "types": a lemon coconut protein bar, an apple cinnamon morning fibre bar and a choco goji midday energy bar. Admittedly, these weren't as tasty as some of the other bars I've tried. The lemon coconut bar seemed to have a medicinal aftertaste, and the cacao goji is an acquired taste because of the bitter dark cacao. The apple cinnamon is my hands-down fave - which came as a huge surprise since I'm usually not a big apple girl!

In smoothies and granola!

As for how to use, you don't have to simply eat the bars whole! In fact, I hardly ever do that unless they're my emergency snack as I'm out running errands. Instead, I like crumbling the bars on my morning smoothie bowl or my nightly yogurt parfait for an extra hit of protein. You can even use protein bars as the secret ingredient to baked goods like homemade granola or my chocolate mug cake. Your loved ones won't even be able to tell that you snuck extra protein into their treat!  

5. Nuts and seeds Speaking of snacks, nuts and seeds are perhaps the easiest way to snack on plant based protein. While all nuts and seeds provide a degree of protein, some superstars include:

Pumpkin seeds - 28.8 grams of protein per 100 grams of seeds

Peanuts - 24.4 grams of protein per 100 grams

Pistachios - 21 grams of protein per 100 grams

Almonds - 21.2 grams of protein per 100 grams

Sunflower seeds - 19.3 grams of protein per 100 grams

As my Instagram followers know, I'm also a huge fan of nut and seed butters (I mean, who isn't?!?), ranging from sunbutter to cashew butter. They all offer varying amounts of protein, so eat what tastes best to you! 

Now, the more interesting part: how to eat them. For a savory meal, you can turn whatever nuts or seeds you have into a pesto (like with my Seed-Stuffed Pesto). If you combined this with a serving of Banza pasta - bam! Protein = met. My favorite way of eating nuts and seeds, though, will always be trail mix and homemade granola.

Pesto + roasted potato wedges = <3

Trail mix is an easy food you can take anywhere and enjoy anytime. You can also customize it to your taste buds (my personal favorite: cashews + sunflower and pumpkin seeds + shredded coconut + dried pineapple and raisins). As for granola, well, my various recipes reflect how completely addicted I am. You can sprinkle granola on smoothies or yogurt, eat it as a cereal or simply scoop it from the bag (pairing it with nut butter for even more protein)! When dessert can be healthy, the world truly is a better (delicious) place... 6. Quinoa and Buckwheat Now, both of these function as grains but are actually seeds - making them delicious, protein-packed alternatives to rice. In particular, quinoa offers 4.4 grams of protein per 100 grams (along with high levels of calcium, phosphorous, magnesium and folate) while buckwheat boasts 3.4 grams of protein as well as plenty of manganese, magnesium, and copper. 

Quinoa and buckwheat are also super versatile. You can buy quinoa flakes and buckwheat flakes, which are epic oatmeal alternatives. I used to eat quinoa flakes (upgraded with a variety of fruits, but butters and trail mix) for breakfast every morning. My mom, meanwhile, is still happily riding the buckwheat-flake train, eating a simple bowl of microwaved buckwheat flakes, banana, cinnamon and honey every morning.

No description needed...

You can also eat quinoa and buckwheat in savory forms, cooking them on the stove top and using them on top of salads or as the base of a stir fry or pilaf. You can also grind the grains into flour for baked goods like my pancakes or veggie-loaded pizza. And, since basically everything can go into granola, you can also toss raw buckwheat groats or quinoa into your granola batter. 7. Spirulina

Finally, last but not least, spirulina - which is also the highest source of plant based protein today. As I've written before, spirulina is actually an algae. However, this is one algae you do want to see in your food: spirulina is composed 60 to 70% of protein and offers high amounts of calcium, niacin, potassium, magnesium and iron.  

Compared to the other ingredients on this list, I definitely would not suggest eating spirulina straight. The taste isn't awful (in my opinion), but it's definitely a lil' funky. Instead, try to sneak in teaspoons of spirulina wherever you can. Add a small spoonful to your smoothie, which will not only boost the protein but also create a gorgeous green color. 

When "ice cream" = plant based protein, life is good!

You can also mix spirulina into your yogurt, (oatless) oatmeal, chia seed pudding or bliss balls/banana bombs. Just remember that less is more (because it's better to get some spirulina than add so much, you can't even eat what you created!), and add more according to taste. While spirulina's health benefits are probably best when left uncooked, you can also experiment with spirulina in baking. 

Sure, sometimes cooking with plant-based protein is harder than just grilling a steak. However, vegan protein can be just as delicious - and easy to use - as meat once you know what sources to look for and how to get creative in the kitchen. 

And if you're ever craving a protein-packed breakfast that isn't eggs...just remember that you can't go wrong with a spirulina smoothie bowl topped with granola, chia seeds and nut butter! 

*I received products from Banza and YoFiit in return for an honest review. However, all opinions, recipes and photographs are my own.*

What's your favorite way to eat your protein? What plant based proteins do you enjoy? Help me get inspired by commenting below! 

via Blogger http://ift.tt/2o3ul1a

[marketingadvisorvietnam]

Da Lat beckons: Now is best time to visit Vietnam’s ‘Little Paris’

Marketing Advisor đã viết bài trên http://www.ticvietnam.vn/da-lat-beckons-now-is-best-time-to-visit-vietnams-little-paris-20/

Da Lat beckons: Now is best time to visit Vietnam’s ‘Little Paris’

Da Lat beckons: Now is best time to visit Vietnam’s ‘Little Paris’

Da Lat is much loved by its year-round cool climate, green pine forests, misty landscape, and resplendent architectural gems dating back to the colonial era.

Given various nicknames like Little Paris, the city of eternal spring, the city of flowers and the city of love, Da Lat high up in the Central Highlands of Vietnam has gained popularity both as a romantic place for honeymoon couples and an oasis in a country that usually sweats all year round.

The town, situated 1,500 meters above sea level, has repeatedly garnered global attention. The New York Times named Da Lat among the world’s 52 must-visit places in 2016 while TripAdvisor readers ranked it in the top 10 list of rising destinations in Asia.

If you are just starting to plan a holiday to Da Lat during the year-end travel season, here’s the itinerary for a three-day trip that allows you to catch the best of the highland town.

Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

Day 1

Hanoi/HCMC- Da Lat- Rooster Church – Truc Lam Zen Monastery– Tuyen Lam Lake

Day 2

Hang Nga Guesthouse – Golden Valley – Langbiang Mountain – Hell Market 

Day 3

Da Lat Train Station – Linh Phuoc Pagoda – Cau Dat Tea Plantation

Day 1: Rooster Church – Truc Lam Zen Buddhist Temple– Tuyen Lam Lake

For a trip-around-town, make your way to the Saint Nicolas Cathedral, one of the oldest and most beautiful architectural works left by the French that lies on Tran Phu Street around a kilometer from downtown Da Lat.

Built between 1931 and 1942, it is considered the largest church in Da Lat and a convergence point for Catholics living in the Central Highlands.

One of the most impressive features of the church is the rooster statue on top of the 47-meter bell tower which has earned it the nickname “rooster church.”

Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

From the church, head north for five kilometers and you will reach Truc Lam Zen Buddhist temple, the largest temple in Vietnam, lying at the foot of Phung Hoang Mountain and the edge of Tuyen Lam Lake.

Pass through the gate and be rewarded with a calm and tranquil atmosphere.

The temple evokes the spirit of Zen Buddhism practiced under the Tran Dynasty, which ruled the country from 1225 CE to 1400 CE. The tradition was initiated by King Tran Nhan Tong, the third king of the Tran Dynasty, who abdicated the throne when he was 35 and spent the rest of his life on Yen Tu Mountain and founded the Truc Lam Zen.

A visit to Da Lat will be incomplete without a stop at Tuyen Lam Lake, one of the most beautiful in Vietnam and one whose raw beauty has yet to be undermined by tourist hordes.

  Tuyen Lam Lake in Da Lat City. Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

No one knows for sure when and why the lake was named Tuyen Lam, but many think Tuyen stands for stream and Lam for forest. Tuyen Lam is this a place where water and trees meet.

The magnificent scenery around the 3.2-square-kilometer lake, comprising mountains and vast pine forests, is much admired. If viewed from the cable car above, Tuyen Lam Lake looks like a miniature ocean with its own continents. 

You can hire a boat for VND300,000 ($12.85) for a group of six to take a sightseeing tour around the lake.

If you go into the pine forests for camping overnight, you can also get a chance to discover the customs and traditions of the K’ho ethnic minority people, who live in small stilt houses built on mountain slopes. At night the sound of gongs invites you to join young K’ho men and women dancing around a fire.

Day 2: Hang Nga Guesthouse – Golden Valley – Langbiang Mountain – Hell Market

Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

Situated around one kilometer from Da Lat, the guesthouse opened in 1990, and has been compared to the amazing architecture of world-acclaimed constructions such as the Salvador Dalí Museum and Walt Disney Concert Hall.

U.K. travel magazine Lonely Planet last April listed the bizarre building, dubbed the “Crazy House”, among the 120 most breathtaking human constructions on Earth.

Once forgotten, it has now emerged as one of the most popular tourist attractions in the city, and visitors have to pay VND50,000 ($2.20) for an entrance ticket to sate their curiosity.

From ‘Crazy House’, travel 30 kilometers to reach Golden Valley. Continue riding your motorbike until you reach the so-called pink grass fields and enjoy the scenery, which is best at sunset and sunrise.

Pink muhly grass is relatively common in China and North America but extremely rare in Vietnam. Not surprisingly, the hill constantly attracts photographers and nature lovers.

The blooming season starts in September and November and December are the best months to visit.

Before conquering the peak of Langbiang Mountain at a height of 2,167 meters above sea level, find a restaurant to fill your stomach and take a break as the trip could be tiring.

Take a jeep ride to the peak of Rada hill at a height of 1,929 meters for a panoramic view of Da Lat in the mist and listen to the touching love story of a couple named Lang and Biang.

The cost of a jeep ride ranges from VND100,000 to VND120,000 for a group of four and a one-way trip takes you 15 minutes.

Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

It is a thrilling and unforgettable experience for young people to conquer the two highest peaks in the Langbiang plateau, the 2,124-meter Ong Mountain and 2,167-meter Ba.

Don’t miss a chance to experience a cozy family meal with the Lach ethnic people at the foot of Langbiang Mountain and learn about their daily lives and spiritual values.

At night return to Da Lat and go for a walk around the night market, dubbed “Hell Market,” a unique destination that can be hardly found anywhere else in Vietnam.

Visitors can find random shirts and warm clothes at the market, but it’s really a place for foodies with a wide choice on the menu such as warm fresh soymilk and artichoke tea, sweet tofu in ginger sauce, grilled scallops, chicken porridge, steamed corn and banh trang nuong (grilled rice paper).

Day 3: Da Lat Train Station – Linh Phuoc Pagoda – Cau Dat Tea Plantation

Begin the last day of your trip at one of the most popular destinations in the highlands town: Da Lat Railway Station.

The station was built by French architects in 1932. When it opened in 1938, the station was part of the Thap Cham – Da Lat railway line, running from the former coastal Champa Kingdom in Ninh Thuan to Da Lat.

It has been crowned as the oldest and most beautiful railway station in Indochina with a touch of unique French architecture. 

But after French troops withdrew from Vietnam in 1954, people stopped using the trains and the tracks were dismantled by people looking to sell scrap metal.

But a section of the track, for a short distance of seven kilometers, has been relaid and trains are operating from Da Lat to Trai Mat to take visitors to Linh Phuoc Pagoda.

Photo by Tuan Dao

Linh Phuoc Pagoda, situated around seven kilometers to the west of the station, piques the curiosity of visitors, especially foreigners, with its colorful appearance made up of tens of thousands of pieces of porcelain. Though the materials used are scrap, the craftsmanship on display is indubitable.

Don’t forget to drop by Cau Dat tea plantation, a 30-minute drive from Linh Phuoc Pagoda and the place where the Vietnamese tea industry originated.

The tea farm has gained fame as a tourist attraction in Da Lat and become the most mentioned on Instagram, the world’s largest photo sharing network, after many young people take photos here and share them on social media.

Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

Here is a preview for the must-try food tour in Da Lat. 

Banh can on Tang Bat Ho Street

It is said that no one leaves Da Lat without having tasted banh can. Situated at the end of the steep Tang Bat Ho, the place has been serving the treat with only two options, quail egg and duck egg, for over 15 years.

Banh uot and chicken guts on Tang Bat Ho Street

Trang’s has been treating its customers to the famous banh uot for three generations. The dish is a combination of banh uot (literally wet cake) and chicken meat and guts, eaten with a well-seasoned dipping sauce.

Tile Grilling on Nguyen Luong Bang Street

This specialty dish is cooked over hot coals, not on the usual iron grill but a clay tile.

The grilled items include seasoned pork, beef, seafood, and game meats usually accompanied by a mixed salad. It is not a bad idea to spend a rainy day with fresh vegetables, meat roasting over a fire and a bottle of wine. You can find this grill restaurant on Nguyen Luong Bang street.

Grilled pork roll on Phan Dinh Phung Street

Grilled pork roll in Da Lat is made by folding minced pork around a bamboo stick. After it is grilled, it is rolled in rice paper with pickles and herbs. The most essential thing again is the dipping sauce, a special mixture created from pig liver, shrimp, pork, and ground bean paste.

Tasty, greasy and crispy grilled pork roll is a wonderful treat when the weather turns cold in Da Lat. You can find several grilled pork shops on Phan Dinh Phung Street.

  The town has been a holiday paradise in Vietnam for years and is always packed during the holidays and high travel season. Therefore, accommodation services are well developed.  

You can opt for hotels near the downtown area and Da Lat night market, which makes transportation convenient. Prices range from VND150,000 to VND250,000 per night.

Homestays are also worth considering. You can choose from Jang & Min’s house, The Barn Home Farm, Moonrise Garden Dalat, and Dalat Lacasa Homestay II. Prices range from VND70,000 ($3) to VND300,000 ($12.85) per night.

From Hanoi and Saigon, the best way to reach Da Lat, which is best enjoyed during the year-end flower blossom season, is by flight.

Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet Air have direct flights to Da Lat every day. Return tickets cost around VND1.1 million ($47) from HCMC and VND2.4 million ($103) from Hanoi.

Lien Khuong International Airport is around 40 kilometers from the town. You can take a shuttle bus from the airport or take a cab to reach Da Lat.

Those looking for cheaper options can hop on a sleeper coach from HCMC that takes around eight hours and costs VND220,000 ($9.42).

– It’s best to travel to Da Lat in October when wild sunflowers are in full bloom them, weaving a yellow carpet along streets.

– Remember to take warm clothes though since the weather could get quite, especially at night, with temperatures from 19 to 21 degrees Celsius (66-69 degrees Fahrenheit).  

– It is better that you book a hotel room in the downtown area of Da Lat before arriving. But in case you cannot find any hotel room, a homestay is not a bad choice.

– Tourists can get ripped off when buying local specialties, so beware

Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

Story by Nguyen Quy

Video contributed by Nhung Nguyen 

Photos by Phong Vinh

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[marketingadvisorvietnam]

Da Lat beckons: Now is best time to visit Vietnam’s ‘Little Paris’

Marketing Advisor đã viết bài trên http://www.ticvietnam.vn/da-lat-beckons-now-is-best-time-to-visit-vietnams-little-paris/

Da Lat beckons: Now is best time to visit Vietnam’s ‘Little Paris’

Da Lat beckons: Now is best time to visit Vietnam’s ‘Little Paris’

Da Lat is much loved by its year-round cool climate, green pine forests, misty landscape, and resplendent architectural gems dating back to the colonial era.

Given various nicknames like Little Paris, the city of eternal spring, the city of flowers and the city of love, Da Lat high up in the Central Highlands of Vietnam has gained popularity both as a romantic place for honeymoon couples and an oasis in a country that usually sweats all year round.

The town, situated 1,500 meters above sea level, has repeatedly garnered global attention. The New York Times named Da Lat among the world’s 52 must-visit places in 2016 while TripAdvisor readers ranked it in the top 10 list of rising destinations in Asia.

If you are just starting to plan a holiday to Da Lat during the year-end travel season, here’s the itinerary for a three-day trip that allows you to catch the best of the highland town.

Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

Day 1

Hanoi/HCMC- Da Lat- Rooster Church – Truc Lam Zen Monastery– Tuyen Lam Lake

Day 2

Hang Nga Guesthouse – Golden Valley – Langbiang Mountain – Hell Market 

Day 3

Da Lat Train Station – Linh Phuoc Pagoda – Cau Dat Tea Plantation

Day 1: Rooster Church – Truc Lam Zen Buddhist Temple– Tuyen Lam Lake

For a trip-around-town, make your way to the Saint Nicolas Cathedral, one of the oldest and most beautiful architectural works left by the French that lies on Tran Phu Street around a kilometer from downtown Da Lat.

Built between 1931 and 1942, it is considered the largest church in Da Lat and a convergence point for Catholics living in the Central Highlands.

One of the most impressive features of the church is the rooster statue on top of the 47-meter bell tower which has earned it the nickname “rooster church.”

Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

From the church, head north for five kilometers and you will reach Truc Lam Zen Buddhist temple, the largest temple in Vietnam, lying at the foot of Phung Hoang Mountain and the edge of Tuyen Lam Lake.

Pass through the gate and be rewarded with a calm and tranquil atmosphere.

The temple evokes the spirit of Zen Buddhism practiced under the Tran Dynasty, which ruled the country from 1225 CE to 1400 CE. The tradition was initiated by King Tran Nhan Tong, the third king of the Tran Dynasty, who abdicated the throne when he was 35 and spent the rest of his life on Yen Tu Mountain and founded the Truc Lam Zen.

A visit to Da Lat will be incomplete without a stop at Tuyen Lam Lake, one of the most beautiful in Vietnam and one whose raw beauty has yet to be undermined by tourist hordes.

  Tuyen Lam Lake in Da Lat City. Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

No one knows for sure when and why the lake was named Tuyen Lam, but many think Tuyen stands for stream and Lam for forest. Tuyen Lam is this a place where water and trees meet.

The magnificent scenery around the 3.2-square-kilometer lake, comprising mountains and vast pine forests, is much admired. If viewed from the cable car above, Tuyen Lam Lake looks like a miniature ocean with its own continents. 

You can hire a boat for VND300,000 ($12.85) for a group of six to take a sightseeing tour around the lake.

If you go into the pine forests for camping overnight, you can also get a chance to discover the customs and traditions of the K’ho ethnic minority people, who live in small stilt houses built on mountain slopes. At night the sound of gongs invites you to join young K’ho men and women dancing around a fire.

Day 2: Hang Nga Guesthouse – Golden Valley – Langbiang Mountain – Hell Market

Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

Situated around one kilometer from Da Lat, the guesthouse opened in 1990, and has been compared to the amazing architecture of world-acclaimed constructions such as the Salvador Dalí Museum and Walt Disney Concert Hall.

U.K. travel magazine Lonely Planet last April listed the bizarre building, dubbed the “Crazy House”, among the 120 most breathtaking human constructions on Earth.

Once forgotten, it has now emerged as one of the most popular tourist attractions in the city, and visitors have to pay VND50,000 ($2.20) for an entrance ticket to sate their curiosity.

From ‘Crazy House’, travel 30 kilometers to reach Golden Valley. Continue riding your motorbike until you reach the so-called pink grass fields and enjoy the scenery, which is best at sunset and sunrise.

Pink muhly grass is relatively common in China and North America but extremely rare in Vietnam. Not surprisingly, the hill constantly attracts photographers and nature lovers.

The blooming season starts in September and November and December are the best months to visit.

Before conquering the peak of Langbiang Mountain at a height of 2,167 meters above sea level, find a restaurant to fill your stomach and take a break as the trip could be tiring.

Take a jeep ride to the peak of Rada hill at a height of 1,929 meters for a panoramic view of Da Lat in the mist and listen to the touching love story of a couple named Lang and Biang.

The cost of a jeep ride ranges from VND100,000 to VND120,000 for a group of four and a one-way trip takes you 15 minutes.

Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

It is a thrilling and unforgettable experience for young people to conquer the two highest peaks in the Langbiang plateau, the 2,124-meter Ong Mountain and 2,167-meter Ba.

Don’t miss a chance to experience a cozy family meal with the Lach ethnic people at the foot of Langbiang Mountain and learn about their daily lives and spiritual values.

At night return to Da Lat and go for a walk around the night market, dubbed “Hell Market,” a unique destination that can be hardly found anywhere else in Vietnam.

Visitors can find random shirts and warm clothes at the market, but it’s really a place for foodies with a wide choice on the menu such as warm fresh soymilk and artichoke tea, sweet tofu in ginger sauce, grilled scallops, chicken porridge, steamed corn and banh trang nuong (grilled rice paper).

Day 3: Da Lat Train Station – Linh Phuoc Pagoda – Cau Dat Tea Plantation

Begin the last day of your trip at one of the most popular destinations in the highlands town: Da Lat Railway Station.

The station was built by French architects in 1932. When it opened in 1938, the station was part of the Thap Cham – Da Lat railway line, running from the former coastal Champa Kingdom in Ninh Thuan to Da Lat.

It has been crowned as the oldest and most beautiful railway station in Indochina with a touch of unique French architecture. 

But after French troops withdrew from Vietnam in 1954, people stopped using the trains and the tracks were dismantled by people looking to sell scrap metal.

But a section of the track, for a short distance of seven kilometers, has been relaid and trains are operating from Da Lat to Trai Mat to take visitors to Linh Phuoc Pagoda.

Photo by Tuan Dao

Linh Phuoc Pagoda, situated around seven kilometers to the west of the station, piques the curiosity of visitors, especially foreigners, with its colorful appearance made up of tens of thousands of pieces of porcelain. Though the materials used are scrap, the craftsmanship on display is indubitable.

Don’t forget to drop by Cau Dat tea plantation, a 30-minute drive from Linh Phuoc Pagoda and the place where the Vietnamese tea industry originated.

The tea farm has gained fame as a tourist attraction in Da Lat and become the most mentioned on Instagram, the world’s largest photo sharing network, after many young people take photos here and share them on social media.

Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

Here is a preview for the must-try food tour in Da Lat. 

Banh can on Tang Bat Ho Street

It is said that no one leaves Da Lat without having tasted banh can. Situated at the end of the steep Tang Bat Ho, the place has been serving the treat with only two options, quail egg and duck egg, for over 15 years.

Banh uot and chicken guts on Tang Bat Ho Street

Trang’s has been treating its customers to the famous banh uot for three generations. The dish is a combination of banh uot (literally wet cake) and chicken meat and guts, eaten with a well-seasoned dipping sauce.

Tile Grilling on Nguyen Luong Bang Street

This specialty dish is cooked over hot coals, not on the usual iron grill but a clay tile.

The grilled items include seasoned pork, beef, seafood, and game meats usually accompanied by a mixed salad. It is not a bad idea to spend a rainy day with fresh vegetables, meat roasting over a fire and a bottle of wine. You can find this grill restaurant on Nguyen Luong Bang street.

Grilled pork roll on Phan Dinh Phung Street

Grilled pork roll in Da Lat is made by folding minced pork around a bamboo stick. After it is grilled, it is rolled in rice paper with pickles and herbs. The most essential thing again is the dipping sauce, a special mixture created from pig liver, shrimp, pork, and ground bean paste.

Tasty, greasy and crispy grilled pork roll is a wonderful treat when the weather turns cold in Da Lat. You can find several grilled pork shops on Phan Dinh Phung Street.

  The town has been a holiday paradise in Vietnam for years and is always packed during the holidays and high travel season. Therefore, accommodation services are well developed.  

You can opt for hotels near the downtown area and Da Lat night market, which makes transportation convenient. Prices range from VND150,000 to VND250,000 per night.

Homestays are also worth considering. You can choose from Jang & Min’s house, The Barn Home Farm, Moonrise Garden Dalat, and Dalat Lacasa Homestay II. Prices range from VND70,000 ($3) to VND300,000 ($12.85) per night.

From Hanoi and Saigon, the best way to reach Da Lat, which is best enjoyed during the year-end flower blossom season, is by flight.

Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet Air have direct flights to Da Lat every day. Return tickets cost around VND1.1 million ($47) from HCMC and VND2.4 million ($103) from Hanoi.

Lien Khuong International Airport is around 40 kilometers from the town. You can take a shuttle bus from the airport or take a cab to reach Da Lat.

Those looking for cheaper options can hop on a sleeper coach from HCMC that takes around eight hours and costs VND220,000 ($9.42).

– It’s best to travel to Da Lat in October when wild sunflowers are in full bloom them, weaving a yellow carpet along streets.

– Remember to take warm clothes though since the weather could get quite, especially at night, with temperatures from 19 to 21 degrees Celsius (66-69 degrees Fahrenheit).  

– It is better that you book a hotel room in the downtown area of Da Lat before arriving. But in case you cannot find any hotel room, a homestay is not a bad choice.

– Tourists can get ripped off when buying local specialties, so beware

Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

Story by Nguyen Quy

Video contributed by Nhung Nguyen 

Photos by Phong Vinh

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Da Lat beckons: Now is best time to visit Vietnam’s ‘Little Paris’

Marketing Advisor đã viết bài trên https://www.ticvietnam.vn/da-lat-beckons-now-is-best-time-to-visit-vietnams-little-paris/

Da Lat beckons: Now is best time to visit Vietnam’s ‘Little Paris’

Da Lat beckons: Now is best time to visit Vietnam’s ‘Little Paris’

Da Lat is much loved by its year-round cool climate, green pine forests, misty landscape, and resplendent architectural gems dating back to the colonial era.

Given various nicknames like Little Paris, the city of eternal spring, the city of flowers and the city of love, Da Lat high up in the Central Highlands of Vietnam has gained popularity both as a romantic place for honeymoon couples and an oasis in a country that usually sweats all year round.

The town, situated 1,500 meters above sea level, has repeatedly garnered global attention. The New York Times named Da Lat among the world’s 52 must-visit places in 2016 while TripAdvisor readers ranked it in the top 10 list of rising destinations in Asia.

If you are just starting to plan a holiday to Da Lat during the year-end travel season, here’s the itinerary for a three-day trip that allows you to catch the best of the highland town.

Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

Day 1

Hanoi/HCMC- Da Lat- Rooster Church – Truc Lam Zen Monastery– Tuyen Lam Lake

Day 2

Hang Nga Guesthouse – Golden Valley – Langbiang Mountain – Hell Market 

Day 3

Da Lat Train Station – Linh Phuoc Pagoda – Cau Dat Tea Plantation

Day 1: Rooster Church – Truc Lam Zen Buddhist Temple– Tuyen Lam Lake

For a trip-around-town, make your way to the Saint Nicolas Cathedral, one of the oldest and most beautiful architectural works left by the French that lies on Tran Phu Street around a kilometer from downtown Da Lat.

Built between 1931 and 1942, it is considered the largest church in Da Lat and a convergence point for Catholics living in the Central Highlands.

One of the most impressive features of the church is the rooster statue on top of the 47-meter bell tower which has earned it the nickname “rooster church.”

Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

From the church, head north for five kilometers and you will reach Truc Lam Zen Buddhist temple, the largest temple in Vietnam, lying at the foot of Phung Hoang Mountain and the edge of Tuyen Lam Lake.

Pass through the gate and be rewarded with a calm and tranquil atmosphere.

The temple evokes the spirit of Zen Buddhism practiced under the Tran Dynasty, which ruled the country from 1225 CE to 1400 CE. The tradition was initiated by King Tran Nhan Tong, the third king of the Tran Dynasty, who abdicated the throne when he was 35 and spent the rest of his life on Yen Tu Mountain and founded the Truc Lam Zen.

A visit to Da Lat will be incomplete without a stop at Tuyen Lam Lake, one of the most beautiful in Vietnam and one whose raw beauty has yet to be undermined by tourist hordes.

  Tuyen Lam Lake in Da Lat City. Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

No one knows for sure when and why the lake was named Tuyen Lam, but many think Tuyen stands for stream and Lam for forest. Tuyen Lam is this a place where water and trees meet.

The magnificent scenery around the 3.2-square-kilometer lake, comprising mountains and vast pine forests, is much admired. If viewed from the cable car above, Tuyen Lam Lake looks like a miniature ocean with its own continents. 

You can hire a boat for VND300,000 ($12.85) for a group of six to take a sightseeing tour around the lake.

If you go into the pine forests for camping overnight, you can also get a chance to discover the customs and traditions of the K’ho ethnic minority people, who live in small stilt houses built on mountain slopes. At night the sound of gongs invites you to join young K’ho men and women dancing around a fire.

Day 2: Hang Nga Guesthouse – Golden Valley – Langbiang Mountain – Hell Market

Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

Situated around one kilometer from Da Lat, the guesthouse opened in 1990, and has been compared to the amazing architecture of world-acclaimed constructions such as the Salvador Dalí Museum and Walt Disney Concert Hall.

U.K. travel magazine Lonely Planet last April listed the bizarre building, dubbed the “Crazy House”, among the 120 most breathtaking human constructions on Earth.

Once forgotten, it has now emerged as one of the most popular tourist attractions in the city, and visitors have to pay VND50,000 ($2.20) for an entrance ticket to sate their curiosity.

From ‘Crazy House’, travel 30 kilometers to reach Golden Valley. Continue riding your motorbike until you reach the so-called pink grass fields and enjoy the scenery, which is best at sunset and sunrise.

Pink muhly grass is relatively common in China and North America but extremely rare in Vietnam. Not surprisingly, the hill constantly attracts photographers and nature lovers.

The blooming season starts in September and November and December are the best months to visit.

Before conquering the peak of Langbiang Mountain at a height of 2,167 meters above sea level, find a restaurant to fill your stomach and take a break as the trip could be tiring.

Take a jeep ride to the peak of Rada hill at a height of 1,929 meters for a panoramic view of Da Lat in the mist and listen to the touching love story of a couple named Lang and Biang.

The cost of a jeep ride ranges from VND100,000 to VND120,000 for a group of four and a one-way trip takes you 15 minutes.

Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

It is a thrilling and unforgettable experience for young people to conquer the two highest peaks in the Langbiang plateau, the 2,124-meter Ong Mountain and 2,167-meter Ba.

Don’t miss a chance to experience a cozy family meal with the Lach ethnic people at the foot of Langbiang Mountain and learn about their daily lives and spiritual values.

At night return to Da Lat and go for a walk around the night market, dubbed “Hell Market,” a unique destination that can be hardly found anywhere else in Vietnam.

Visitors can find random shirts and warm clothes at the market, but it’s really a place for foodies with a wide choice on the menu such as warm fresh soymilk and artichoke tea, sweet tofu in ginger sauce, grilled scallops, chicken porridge, steamed corn and banh trang nuong (grilled rice paper).

Day 3: Da Lat Train Station – Linh Phuoc Pagoda – Cau Dat Tea Plantation

Begin the last day of your trip at one of the most popular destinations in the highlands town: Da Lat Railway Station.

The station was built by French architects in 1932. When it opened in 1938, the station was part of the Thap Cham – Da Lat railway line, running from the former coastal Champa Kingdom in Ninh Thuan to Da Lat.

It has been crowned as the oldest and most beautiful railway station in Indochina with a touch of unique French architecture. 

But after French troops withdrew from Vietnam in 1954, people stopped using the trains and the tracks were dismantled by people looking to sell scrap metal.

But a section of the track, for a short distance of seven kilometers, has been relaid and trains are operating from Da Lat to Trai Mat to take visitors to Linh Phuoc Pagoda.

Photo by Tuan Dao

Linh Phuoc Pagoda, situated around seven kilometers to the west of the station, piques the curiosity of visitors, especially foreigners, with its colorful appearance made up of tens of thousands of pieces of porcelain. Though the materials used are scrap, the craftsmanship on display is indubitable.

Don’t forget to drop by Cau Dat tea plantation, a 30-minute drive from Linh Phuoc Pagoda and the place where the Vietnamese tea industry originated.

The tea farm has gained fame as a tourist attraction in Da Lat and become the most mentioned on Instagram, the world’s largest photo sharing network, after many young people take photos here and share them on social media.

Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

Here is a preview for the must-try food tour in Da Lat. 

Banh can on Tang Bat Ho Street

It is said that no one leaves Da Lat without having tasted banh can. Situated at the end of the steep Tang Bat Ho, the place has been serving the treat with only two options, quail egg and duck egg, for over 15 years.

Banh uot and chicken guts on Tang Bat Ho Street

Trang’s has been treating its customers to the famous banh uot for three generations. The dish is a combination of banh uot (literally wet cake) and chicken meat and guts, eaten with a well-seasoned dipping sauce.

Tile Grilling on Nguyen Luong Bang Street

This specialty dish is cooked over hot coals, not on the usual iron grill but a clay tile.

The grilled items include seasoned pork, beef, seafood, and game meats usually accompanied by a mixed salad. It is not a bad idea to spend a rainy day with fresh vegetables, meat roasting over a fire and a bottle of wine. You can find this grill restaurant on Nguyen Luong Bang street.

Grilled pork roll on Phan Dinh Phung Street

Grilled pork roll in Da Lat is made by folding minced pork around a bamboo stick. After it is grilled, it is rolled in rice paper with pickles and herbs. The most essential thing again is the dipping sauce, a special mixture created from pig liver, shrimp, pork, and ground bean paste.

Tasty, greasy and crispy grilled pork roll is a wonderful treat when the weather turns cold in Da Lat. You can find several grilled pork shops on Phan Dinh Phung Street.

  The town has been a holiday paradise in Vietnam for years and is always packed during the holidays and high travel season. Therefore, accommodation services are well developed.  

You can opt for hotels near the downtown area and Da Lat night market, which makes transportation convenient. Prices range from VND150,000 to VND250,000 per night.

Homestays are also worth considering. You can choose from Jang & Min’s house, The Barn Home Farm, Moonrise Garden Dalat, and Dalat Lacasa Homestay II. Prices range from VND70,000 ($3) to VND300,000 ($12.85) per night.

From Hanoi and Saigon, the best way to reach Da Lat, which is best enjoyed during the year-end flower blossom season, is by flight.

Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet Air have direct flights to Da Lat every day. Return tickets cost around VND1.1 million ($47) from HCMC and VND2.4 million ($103) from Hanoi.

Lien Khuong International Airport is around 40 kilometers from the town. You can take a shuttle bus from the airport or take a cab to reach Da Lat.

Those looking for cheaper options can hop on a sleeper coach from HCMC that takes around eight hours and costs VND220,000 ($9.42).

– It’s best to travel to Da Lat in October when wild sunflowers are in full bloom them, weaving a yellow carpet along streets.

– Remember to take warm clothes though since the weather could get quite, especially at night, with temperatures from 19 to 21 degrees Celsius (66-69 degrees Fahrenheit).  

– It is better that you book a hotel room in the downtown area of Da Lat before arriving. But in case you cannot find any hotel room, a homestay is not a bad choice.

– Tourists can get ripped off when buying local specialties, so beware

Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

Story by Nguyen Quy

Video contributed by Nhung Nguyen 

Photos by Phong Vinh

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[marketingadvisorvietnam]

Da Lat beckons: Now is best time to visit Vietnam’s ‘Little Paris’

Marketing Advisor đã viết bài trên http://www.ticvietnam.vn/da-lat-beckons-now-is-best-time-to-visit-vietnams-little-paris/

Da Lat beckons: Now is best time to visit Vietnam’s ‘Little Paris’

Da Lat beckons: Now is best time to visit Vietnam’s ‘Little Paris’

Da Lat is much loved by its year-round cool climate, green pine forests, misty landscape, and resplendent architectural gems dating back to the colonial era.

Given various nicknames like Little Paris, the city of eternal spring, the city of flowers and the city of love, Da Lat high up in the Central Highlands of Vietnam has gained popularity both as a romantic place for honeymoon couples and an oasis in a country that usually sweats all year round.

The town, situated 1,500 meters above sea level, has repeatedly garnered global attention. The New York Times named Da Lat among the world’s 52 must-visit places in 2016 while TripAdvisor readers ranked it in the top 10 list of rising destinations in Asia.

If you are just starting to plan a holiday to Da Lat during the year-end travel season, here’s the itinerary for a three-day trip that allows you to catch the best of the highland town.

Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

Day 1

Hanoi/HCMC- Da Lat- Rooster Church – Truc Lam Zen Monastery– Tuyen Lam Lake

Day 2

Hang Nga Guesthouse – Golden Valley – Langbiang Mountain – Hell Market 

Day 3

Da Lat Train Station – Linh Phuoc Pagoda – Cau Dat Tea Plantation

Day 1: Rooster Church – Truc Lam Zen Buddhist Temple– Tuyen Lam Lake

For a trip-around-town, make your way to the Saint Nicolas Cathedral, one of the oldest and most beautiful architectural works left by the French that lies on Tran Phu Street around a kilometer from downtown Da Lat.

Built between 1931 and 1942, it is considered the largest church in Da Lat and a convergence point for Catholics living in the Central Highlands.

One of the most impressive features of the church is the rooster statue on top of the 47-meter bell tower which has earned it the nickname “rooster church.”

Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

From the church, head north for five kilometers and you will reach Truc Lam Zen Buddhist temple, the largest temple in Vietnam, lying at the foot of Phung Hoang Mountain and the edge of Tuyen Lam Lake.

Pass through the gate and be rewarded with a calm and tranquil atmosphere.

The temple evokes the spirit of Zen Buddhism practiced under the Tran Dynasty, which ruled the country from 1225 CE to 1400 CE. The tradition was initiated by King Tran Nhan Tong, the third king of the Tran Dynasty, who abdicated the throne when he was 35 and spent the rest of his life on Yen Tu Mountain and founded the Truc Lam Zen.

A visit to Da Lat will be incomplete without a stop at Tuyen Lam Lake, one of the most beautiful in Vietnam and one whose raw beauty has yet to be undermined by tourist hordes.

  Tuyen Lam Lake in Da Lat City. Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

No one knows for sure when and why the lake was named Tuyen Lam, but many think Tuyen stands for stream and Lam for forest. Tuyen Lam is this a place where water and trees meet.

The magnificent scenery around the 3.2-square-kilometer lake, comprising mountains and vast pine forests, is much admired. If viewed from the cable car above, Tuyen Lam Lake looks like a miniature ocean with its own continents. 

You can hire a boat for VND300,000 ($12.85) for a group of six to take a sightseeing tour around the lake.

If you go into the pine forests for camping overnight, you can also get a chance to discover the customs and traditions of the K’ho ethnic minority people, who live in small stilt houses built on mountain slopes. At night the sound of gongs invites you to join young K’ho men and women dancing around a fire.

Day 2: Hang Nga Guesthouse – Golden Valley – Langbiang Mountain – Hell Market

Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

Situated around one kilometer from Da Lat, the guesthouse opened in 1990, and has been compared to the amazing architecture of world-acclaimed constructions such as the Salvador Dalí Museum and Walt Disney Concert Hall.

U.K. travel magazine Lonely Planet last April listed the bizarre building, dubbed the “Crazy House”, among the 120 most breathtaking human constructions on Earth.

Once forgotten, it has now emerged as one of the most popular tourist attractions in the city, and visitors have to pay VND50,000 ($2.20) for an entrance ticket to sate their curiosity.

From ‘Crazy House’, travel 30 kilometers to reach Golden Valley. Continue riding your motorbike until you reach the so-called pink grass fields and enjoy the scenery, which is best at sunset and sunrise.

Pink muhly grass is relatively common in China and North America but extremely rare in Vietnam. Not surprisingly, the hill constantly attracts photographers and nature lovers.

The blooming season starts in September and November and December are the best months to visit.

Before conquering the peak of Langbiang Mountain at a height of 2,167 meters above sea level, find a restaurant to fill your stomach and take a break as the trip could be tiring.

Take a jeep ride to the peak of Rada hill at a height of 1,929 meters for a panoramic view of Da Lat in the mist and listen to the touching love story of a couple named Lang and Biang.

The cost of a jeep ride ranges from VND100,000 to VND120,000 for a group of four and a one-way trip takes you 15 minutes.

Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

It is a thrilling and unforgettable experience for young people to conquer the two highest peaks in the Langbiang plateau, the 2,124-meter Ong Mountain and 2,167-meter Ba.

Don’t miss a chance to experience a cozy family meal with the Lach ethnic people at the foot of Langbiang Mountain and learn about their daily lives and spiritual values.

At night return to Da Lat and go for a walk around the night market, dubbed “Hell Market,” a unique destination that can be hardly found anywhere else in Vietnam.

Visitors can find random shirts and warm clothes at the market, but it’s really a place for foodies with a wide choice on the menu such as warm fresh soymilk and artichoke tea, sweet tofu in ginger sauce, grilled scallops, chicken porridge, steamed corn and banh trang nuong (grilled rice paper).

Day 3: Da Lat Train Station – Linh Phuoc Pagoda – Cau Dat Tea Plantation

Begin the last day of your trip at one of the most popular destinations in the highlands town: Da Lat Railway Station.

The station was built by French architects in 1932. When it opened in 1938, the station was part of the Thap Cham – Da Lat railway line, running from the former coastal Champa Kingdom in Ninh Thuan to Da Lat.

It has been crowned as the oldest and most beautiful railway station in Indochina with a touch of unique French architecture. 

But after French troops withdrew from Vietnam in 1954, people stopped using the trains and the tracks were dismantled by people looking to sell scrap metal.

But a section of the track, for a short distance of seven kilometers, has been relaid and trains are operating from Da Lat to Trai Mat to take visitors to Linh Phuoc Pagoda.

Photo by Tuan Dao

Linh Phuoc Pagoda, situated around seven kilometers to the west of the station, piques the curiosity of visitors, especially foreigners, with its colorful appearance made up of tens of thousands of pieces of porcelain. Though the materials used are scrap, the craftsmanship on display is indubitable.

Don’t forget to drop by Cau Dat tea plantation, a 30-minute drive from Linh Phuoc Pagoda and the place where the Vietnamese tea industry originated.

The tea farm has gained fame as a tourist attraction in Da Lat and become the most mentioned on Instagram, the world’s largest photo sharing network, after many young people take photos here and share them on social media.

Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

Here is a preview for the must-try food tour in Da Lat. 

Banh can on Tang Bat Ho Street

It is said that no one leaves Da Lat without having tasted banh can. Situated at the end of the steep Tang Bat Ho, the place has been serving the treat with only two options, quail egg and duck egg, for over 15 years.

Banh uot and chicken guts on Tang Bat Ho Street

Trang’s has been treating its customers to the famous banh uot for three generations. The dish is a combination of banh uot (literally wet cake) and chicken meat and guts, eaten with a well-seasoned dipping sauce.

Tile Grilling on Nguyen Luong Bang Street

This specialty dish is cooked over hot coals, not on the usual iron grill but a clay tile.

The grilled items include seasoned pork, beef, seafood, and game meats usually accompanied by a mixed salad. It is not a bad idea to spend a rainy day with fresh vegetables, meat roasting over a fire and a bottle of wine. You can find this grill restaurant on Nguyen Luong Bang street.

Grilled pork roll on Phan Dinh Phung Street

Grilled pork roll in Da Lat is made by folding minced pork around a bamboo stick. After it is grilled, it is rolled in rice paper with pickles and herbs. The most essential thing again is the dipping sauce, a special mixture created from pig liver, shrimp, pork, and ground bean paste.

Tasty, greasy and crispy grilled pork roll is a wonderful treat when the weather turns cold in Da Lat. You can find several grilled pork shops on Phan Dinh Phung Street.

  The town has been a holiday paradise in Vietnam for years and is always packed during the holidays and high travel season. Therefore, accommodation services are well developed.  

You can opt for hotels near the downtown area and Da Lat night market, which makes transportation convenient. Prices range from VND150,000 to VND250,000 per night.

Homestays are also worth considering. You can choose from Jang & Min’s house, The Barn Home Farm, Moonrise Garden Dalat, and Dalat Lacasa Homestay II. Prices range from VND70,000 ($3) to VND300,000 ($12.85) per night.

From Hanoi and Saigon, the best way to reach Da Lat, which is best enjoyed during the year-end flower blossom season, is by flight.

Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet Air have direct flights to Da Lat every day. Return tickets cost around VND1.1 million ($47) from HCMC and VND2.4 million ($103) from Hanoi.

Lien Khuong International Airport is around 40 kilometers from the town. You can take a shuttle bus from the airport or take a cab to reach Da Lat.

Those looking for cheaper options can hop on a sleeper coach from HCMC that takes around eight hours and costs VND220,000 ($9.42).

– It’s best to travel to Da Lat in October when wild sunflowers are in full bloom them, weaving a yellow carpet along streets.

– Remember to take warm clothes though since the weather could get quite, especially at night, with temperatures from 19 to 21 degrees Celsius (66-69 degrees Fahrenheit).  

– It is better that you book a hotel room in the downtown area of Da Lat before arriving. But in case you cannot find any hotel room, a homestay is not a bad choice.

– Tourists can get ripped off when buying local specialties, so beware

Photo by Shutterstock/Vietnam Stock Images

Story by Nguyen Quy

Video contributed by Nhung Nguyen 

Photos by Phong Vinh

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