Hue Imperial City

Posted on December 9, 2019 by Ginger

There is a satisfying symmetry in having visited, in the same day, a structure begun by the first emperor of the Nguyen dynasty, and a structure completed by the last emperor of that dynasty. Fitting, too, perhaps, that the last structure was a tomb (a very impressive one, to be sure) in which the penultimate emperor was buried, while the first was the Imperial City in which the initial and subsequent emperors lived.

The place is huge, a city within a city. Begun in 1804 and employing thousands of workers, the fortifications surrounding the outer city are themselves surrounded by a moat more than ten kilometers long. Water was diverted from Hue’s Perfume River to fill the moat. The inner Imperial City was the abode of the royal family. It is surrounded by its own wall (above) and itself encompasses an impressively large area.

Gia Long, the first Nguyen emperor, unified his empire across all of what we now know as Vietnam–stretching from the border with China in the north to the South China Sea in the south. He established the capital of this empire at Hue, the ancestral home of his family. Nguyen emperors continued to live here until the Nguyen dynasty was overthrown in 1945. The Imperial City at one point contained over a hundred buildings, but much of it was destroyed during the French and the American wars. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is being restored.

A model of the Imperial City in its fully restored state

The Imperial City is spacious, with wide plazas and gracious buildings.

Deep within the complex are more intimate structures, surrounded by gardens.

They have amazing roof lines.

Somehow, the roofs harmonize with the artful garden arrangements.

In one area, we saw delicate and impressive bonsai trees.

Within the walls are also a couple of coffee shops. We passed one on our way out a different gate from the one we entered. The coffee shop and its adjacent courtyard were entirely charming. So was the gate!

We had lunch in a restaurant that was outside the Imperial City but still within Gia Long’s old city walls. Lunch, too, had its charms.

Help! I’m trapped in the kitchen!

Posted on September 30, 2017 by Ginger

I think this may be the penance I have to pay for escaping on a vacation to Spain during harvest season.

It all started innocently enough with a five-cent wine sale at our local big-box alcoholic-beverage store. Buy one bottle of certain specific wines, and you can get a second bottle for five cents. Now, as anyone who knows me will tell you, I am not one to turn away from a bargain easily. And besides, since we were preparing for our trip to Spain at the time, I had a hankering for a good Rioja. But how could I know if this particular Rioja that was on sale would be any good? Never fear, they told me. If you don’t like the wine, just bring back the unopened second bottle, and we’ll refund half your money.

This seemed like a good deal. We bought the wine.

It was pretty bad.

So we returned the second bottle, got half our money back, and were left with an almost-full bottle of wine in our refrigerator that no one wanted to drink, but we were too conscious of waste to throw out. “Never mind,” I told Dan. “I’ll use it to make coq au vin.” This traditional French recipe calls for a bottle of red wine to cook the chicken in, and it doesn’t have to be your best wine. Your leftover undrinkable Rioja will do just fine.

A little bit of research–this was tricky–led to a couple of recipes for coq au vin that did not call for pork parts. It also led to some pretty interesting ideas for side dishes: a hash of Brussels sprouts and leeks, and something delicious-looking called “smashed potatoes.” I needed leeks anyway for the chicken recipe, so I bought a couple more, along with some potatoes and Brussels sprouts, and now I was committed.

Only problem was that our garden was producing tomatoes about as fast as dandelions shoot seeds; there were more cucumbers hiding under the cucumber leaves than we had thought possible; several fat zucchini were working up the bulk for sumo wrestling, and our delicate purple-flowered eggplant plants had finally set fruit.

The refrigerator was beginning to resemble a hoarder’s closet. And I’m not sure I can escape.

I made coq au vin from a whole bird–meadow-raised and purchased at our farmers market from Rossotti Ranch. This was quite good but impossible to finish before we went away, so into the freezer it went. I made Brussels sprouts hash and smashed potatoes–both a bit of a disappointment, and into the freezer went these leftovers too. I made ratatouille, which had to be finished, and seemed to call for brown rice; and I made endless helpings of cucumber salad and cucumbers with yogurt,and tomato salad.

And no, I may never get out of the kitchen.

Gazpacho

Posted on September 18, 2017 by Ginger

I have become interested in gazpacho lately. Partly, this is because we enjoyed some wonderful gazpacho while traveling in Spain recently. But more urgently, this interest arises from the overwhelming quantity of tomatoes we are harvesting each day from our garden.

Here’s what I have learned about gazpacho recipes.

They can be divided into those that use canned or jarred tomato juice or equivalent, and those that don’t. In my mind, the ones using canned tomato juice can be ignored. It’s not that it’s cheating (though it probably is), but rather that the whole beauty of gazpacho lies in the garden-fresh goodness of the tomatoes, a trait that’s completely lacking in the canned juice. And you can tell.

Among the remaining recipes, these can be divided into those that use bread in some form as a thickening agent, and those that don’t. There are reputable advocates on both sides of this divide, but I side with those who do not use bread. I am a tomato purist.

Among the recipes still remaining, there are those that call for the whole soup to be pureed to a silky smoothness, and those that prefer chunks. The gazpachos we enjoyed in Spain recently were the pureed type, and quite delicious. On the other hand, in the past we have also enjoyed very chunky gazpachos in both Spain and Portugal on a past trip to different regions. I like to have it both ways: noticeable chunks in an otherwise smooth soup.

After all this research, I ended up with five not-quite-right-for-me recipes from the Internet. I used features of all five, and what follows here is my own recipe. It came out with perfect all-tomato, no-bread, smooth-yet-also-chunky goodness. I hope you enjoy it, but be warned: Use the very best fresh, local tomatoes you can find. The better the tomatoes, the better the soup.

Ginger’s Own Summer Gazpacho

4 servings

Ingredients

1 English cucumber, peeled, seeded
½ large red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded
1 small hot red pepper (such as cayenne), minced (optional)
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 – 2 ½ pounds very ripe red tomatoes, peeled
½ large onion, chopped (chop about 1/3 of this coarsely, the rest finer)
2 Tbsp (or more) sherry or red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper, to taste
3 Tbsp olive oil, more or less
Quartered cherry tomatoes (optional), chopped chives and basil (for serving)

Preparation

Cut 2-3″ of the cucumber into ¼” pieces and set aside; coarsely chop remaining cucumber and place in a large bowl. Cut one-quarter of the bell pepper into ¼” pieces and set aside; coarsely chop remaining bell pepper and add to bowl with chopped cucumber. Chop one-quarter of the onion into small pieces (1/8”) and set aside; coarsely chop the rest and add to the large bowl with the cucumbers and peppers.

Cut the tomatoes into four or six wedges and seed them over a strainer set above a bowl to catch the liquid. Squeeze liquid out of the seeds.

Transfer about ¾ of the tomatoes and all of the juice to a blender. Add about ¾ of the cucumber mixture. Add garlic, hot peppers, vinegar, salt, and oil; and purée on medium speed until smooth. Adjust seasonings with salt and vinegar, if desired. Add the rest of the tomatoes and the cucumber mixture from the large bowl, and puree only briefly so that coarse pieces still remain. Add the pieces that have been set aside. Transfer to a large bowl or pitcher and chill at least an hour; overnight is better.

Divide gazpacho among bowls. Top with cherry tomatoes if you use them, chives, and basil.

Asakusa — the temple area

Posted on October 31, 2016 by Ginger

We didn’t discover the interesting area around the temple until the second time we went there, and had more time to wander.

There were, to begin with, several statues of Buddha (or perhaps of Bodhisattvas).

A short digression is perhaps in order here. Dan and I are illiterate in Japanese, and we have gained a whole new–and sympathetic–understanding of the dilemmas that must face functionally illiterate people in our own country. We were certainly able to get around fine in Japan. Most public transportation have signs in English as well as Japanese; and people were also wonderfully friendly and willing to help. We also understood where we were and what we were seeing, at least in broad terms. But the details on explanatory signs (and most menus!) were too much for us. So I present here the beauty, or cuteness, of what we saw–and the Japanese are very, very good at both beauty and cuteness–but no details. Just as we experienced it.

And now on to the Buddhas. Or Bodhisattvas.

Finally, my favorite. I actually don’t know who this little guy is, or anything about him. I just know: you gotta love him!

There was a small but lovely landscaped area, with a stream running through it.

The stream had myriads of red-and-white fish in it.

And the fish were hungry.

There were also numerous other objects of mystery.

One small shrine I do know about (because they were kind enough to post its story in English as well as Japanese). Once upon a time, it seems, in the early eighteenth century, a housewife, digging in her garden, discovered buried there a jar full of gold coins. She worried that she and her husband would rely too heavily on those coins and become lazy and lose what they had. So she buried the coins again, and with this mindset, she and her husband worked hard and became very wealthy. They placed a statue of the Bodhisattva Jizo on the spot where they buried the coins. Today, this shrine is built over those coins.

It contains the statue of the Bodhisattva (and several other statues of him, too). People come here to pray for success in their business enterprises.

Today’s garden harvest

Posted on August 30, 2012 by Ginger

Things are beginning to get under control in the garden. Almost.

Well, I didn’t harvest any of the arugula or the basil, which I probably should have. And I didn’t scrummage around through the bean patch, either. It’s the beginning of the end of tomato season, alas. But on the other hand, despite being cruelly crowded out by the green beans, the basil, and the zucchini, the peppers are now starting to come in. This is our first.

Dealing with the garden, part 2

Posted on August 12, 2012 by Ginger

You know the garden situation is getting out of hand when you turn down an invitation from friends to go out for dinner because you *must* *keep* *eating* *salads*.

Really, really good salads.

But today for lunch I made a zucchini frittata with one of the (er, many) garden zucchinis. Thanks to my friend Vicki Rowland for the idea!