With Cris

Before n After ;-)

Best Chinese foods In Brussels ;-)

Together with Azusa n kimono ;-)

Azusa bought Ao dai in VN when she was travelling there, so she was helping me to put on her winter kimono to take a picture together ;-). Can't imagin how complicated it is to wear kimono, and difficult to eat ;-))

Fraternity evening

Xmas

Congrats on new wed ;-)

Champagne and good wine for the celebration ;-)

Cheese fondu and meat fondu together with very old bottle of wine (year my sister was born ;-))), and definitely very good wine.

No wonder why French gourmet is rather famous ;-)

Dinner with Perez Bohen family ;-)

Together with Cristine's sisters and her mom, with Fox on the other picture.

Was almost a month that i haven't seen Cris, she seems to get on very well with her new housewife role ;-P

Hair extension

Only when you have hair extension, you realise how much time African girls spend on their hair ;-). For me, it is an art! I can not imagin that they were so good in playing with hair style until I sat in an African hair-dresser...

It was funny to see how an African woman entered and then they started to take out all the fake hair, then they made new braids on the top of her head, and then with new fake hair, they sew them into the braids, and voila a new trendy head ;-) (the result is unbelievable, btw)

"You don't know having Asian hair is the dream of every African girl" ;-), for my hair, doing extension was said to be more difficult because it's too straight, but well, the result turned out very good. Love it!! I think the next time I travel, this is the type of hair that I wanted to have, so unconvenient. I guess this is the way to earn money in VN, too if I know how to do it ;-).

Delphine, the Congo girl from my class was shock when she saw my head, " it's very nice, and you are so beautiful" ;-). Most of the Chinese girls in my school wanted to do the same, "where did you do it?, how much did you pay for it..."

So, having it done is not it, have to buy products to take care of the braids (so you know how much money the African girls spend on their hair, too ;-)), and the products are very good quality and cheap, most of them is produced in US, and most importantly, no animal testing!!!

Oh yeah, in case any of you likes to make nails, go to Africans, they surely know what they do, I didn't do my nails because I love cooking, and cooking needs clean nails ;-). But before you go, make sure there is an African friend goes with you for they might trick you ;-), that's part of the culture I guess....

Disappointment once again

Damn it, is there anything else that we can be proud of?

GRHHHHH

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Flood in Central VN

There will be a fraternity evening organised to get donations within the Vietnamese community in Belgium, hopefully we will get a fund in order to support our fellow citizens to have foods and shelters for end of year feast

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Xmas tree

Korean barbecue

We went to Arirang yesterday to eat Korean. For me, it was the first time.

At first, we had some ideas of where to go, but at the end it was so cold, so Ben suggested to go to Arirang, of course, he said it was not that great, but it is not that bad either.

I found it is quite ok since I don't know much about Korean foods, a lot of garlic and ginger ;-), and the meat was marinated a little bit sweet. I like the taste of the plum wine, and it smells good...

Foods are ok, I think (unless I will try somewhere that serves better Korean foods), staff is also very nice.

Fried vegetables, seafoods, and raw beef marinated

Korean egg soup

The matter of love ;-)

Apparently there are still people who probably know that love is priceless, so the world isn't that hopeless after all ;-)

"Just tell me you love me, and that is enough"...singing voice in my head ;-P

Isn't it because of that the sun is shining? ;-)

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Banh Bo

To be honest I do not know how to translate the name of this Vietnamese cake, in Vietnamese, it is called "beef or crawl cake" (well "Bo" means both beef and crawl) but there is no meat inside of course or that when you make the cake you have to crawl or something ;-), so I have no idea. I guess it is better to keep its name as it is.

We can steam or grill this cake, but I prefer steaming, and no colour was used, if I had time, I would have used red colour from the beet root...but well

Recently, I have been envious of vegetarian dishes, my favourite is "Buddhist Monk's soup" -Canh Kiem, or coconut skicky rice...MMMM. Anyway, will have to cook these dishes one of those days...

Don't you feel like you have so many things to do, and not much time? ;-)

Being pessimistic

So, yeah I think I am disappointed about people in general ;-).

I am not any better but when it comes to friendship, it does matter to me. I have known people who keep on talking about how friendship should be, but the truth is they do not understand anything about what friendship is all about.

For me, it is very clear and simple to understand, being friends is being able to support, and help whenever we can. The thing is that it is also a relationship that needs nurturing, and not just whenever, we need our friend we keep on calling and asking for favour, and when we don't need them anymore, that's it...

Any relationship needs compromises and works both ways, we can not expect people to keep on investing their time in someone who does not deserve at all. Time flies. That is to say no wonder why more and more people fall in love with their dogs, cats, pets...

I guess I lost faith in people, I find it harder and harder to trust a person, I think the darkness has surrounded me ;-).

So, yeah anybody who is chasing me for help with their stupid selfish issue, they can just get lost today!!!!

Beef rolled in fragant leave-Bo La Lot

Tofu soup

Love through internet ;-)

Ever look at a couple and wonder what is this smart interesting woman doing with this guy? ;-), happened to me last Saturday when I met Azusa and Serge.

Actually before I met them, I thought Serge was an interesting guy, well he is not. But he is probably a nice guy. Azusa is from Japan, somewhere very close to Tokyo apprently. The thing was that when we were talking about China, Serge had been there a couple of times, but hardly remember much about the country. He told me he has been for 9 years but he has never eaten springrolls, and the Vietnamese restaurant he went to is crappy Dakao (you can already imagin my disappointment ;-)). Azusa has already been here a year, and seems to know much more, she had also been to Vietnam (that's a plus ;-), and remember how to say the Vietnamese word for Springroll (goi cuon) (that's definitely a plus ;-)).

God, are all the interesting men hiding somewhere or they all become monks? ;P

Life is really not fair ;-((

BTW, they are married and met each other before through internet, see love goes beyond borders, and technology helps to bring love to people.

So, looking for soulmates? Get connected to ICQ or MSN ;-)

Mika is really F.A.T now

I have to take him to vetenarian soon to put on diet, I am worried.

Bad mother, me...;-(((

Tiramisu

I think in order to run a restaurant, the supplier is really important, especially now people tend to eat healthy foods, having fresh ingredients is crucial. So, one of the task, besides improving cooking skills is to find out shops that provide quality vegetables, meats...and so forth, and building relationship with the shopkeepers. So, as long as they have fresh things arrive, they will let you know.

Cambodian soup

Hu tieu Nam Vang

Although most Vietnamese from the South says that it's typical from the south Viet Nam, the name itself reveals its original from Cambodia. I don't know if it's true because I have not been to Cambodia, but I plan to find out some time in the future whether this is Vietnamese or Cambodian hehehehe

I personally prefer this than Pho, and btw, making this one takes more time than making Pho (if you want to have one that taste properly like the real hu tieu)

Springrolls and curly flower salad

Flower

Bring a certain freshness in the house, I love plants, and this one starts giving flowers, so cool.

Steamed whole daurade (snapper?) with Asian flavours

Before and After

Served with rice and home made pickles...really nice mmmmm

Carot soup made with chicken broth and grilled onion

Internet banking

Well with the life style that we are having today, this is one of the small steps that each of us is taking..no time for queuing long hour at the bank, and everything is done through internet, even most of my Xmas shopping is done online.

The United States of Europe

So, do you think it will be possible? In any cases, the prime minister of Belgium, Guy Verhofstad will publish a book concerning this subject, he is quite optimistic about it.

We had a European Parliament visit yesterday afternoon, the last time I had a visit in these immense buildings was when I first joined UBI, and the economic professor works there, so she arranged a visit for us. This time, it was much more formal, and we did somehow saw how the parliament representative held their meeting in one of the chamber. No need to say how much security they put into these building...

Of course, after a long introduction about the how the EU institutions work, they also give info on new member States, how the seats are divided in the parliament, the possibility of Turkey to enter, or will Romania and Bulgaria qualify to join in 2007..etc.

I do not know that the EU actually the first national corp that actually let their citizens to choose their own representatives for the country, and the number of women occupy the seats are rather high as well.

When I read one the the economic report of the FT the other day, the economic growth of EU is lowest with high unemployment rate (understandable with the social system, I think it will always be high)

BTW, according to the newspaper this morning, Belgians are the richest citizens in the EU, apparently 1/3 Belgians have more than 50000 E in their account without taking into considerations that number of properties they own. Impressed? ;-)

Cats n Dogs

"Mommy, why do you always have to leave so early in the morning? I am still sleepy. Can you wash me as well?" This is the new habit of Mika, he just sits in the sink watching me when I start leaving for school ;-).

This morning, I got so upset when I opened the door and found in front of my house a big dog's poop!!!!, right on the door steps. One of the questions that I keep on asking, eventually give up why some people are so irresponsible when it comes to respect others. It is not the question of loving animals or not, but being responsible. I love dogs, it is just the owners of the dogs who gets on my nerves. I don't understand why they love their dogs so much but afraid of their own dog's shit, what's about the people who do not own this dog? Imagin that tomorrow you find this stinky piece of shit in front of your house, in the morning (let alone you have to clean before some people step on it...) just before you are ready to leave, how f*ucking frustrated is that? It is not the first time that it happens to me, btw. The next time I see the owner of this dog, I am gonna to take the poop and put it in his mailbox! Iam gonna do it.

It likes you have a baby but you don't want to wipe your baby's ass or something...And it's not like there is no place for them to bring their dogs to shit, some communes have put a little corner somewhere for dogs but no, they want their dogs to shit in front of other people house. So f*cking selfish

Anyway, besides the toilet subject, this is another subject that really drives me crazy. GGhhhrrr, where is my gun?

a seasonal meal

Apples stuffed with cranberries jam, croquette, game and Belgian endives served with a Bordeaux 2000

snack and starter

Really nice Porto-Dow's as aperitif.

For starter, goose liver and smoked salmon on toasts served with a bottle of sweet white wine 2001 (a good year of wine)

The magic of Xmas

Weekend was rather hectic, but nice. I went to a food/wine tasting session on Sunday, it was very an event organised by the Wallon region (Hainaut/ Namur/ Liege province) in Belgium. So, there were lot of strange but tasty foods, that also an event where suppliers/farmers try to get restaurant owners to buy their products. Lot of interesting things...

Remember that not so long ago (and until now, HK summit), many farmers have been manifested against the removal of subsidies...that has been protected them from the global competition. Those manifestations from Korean/ Japanese farmers are rather fierce because for them farming is not only about making profit but also tradition...Without the government's protection, they will hardly compete with Chinese farm products for instance...

Anyway, not a time for serious economic discussion ;-), joined Fox and Ben for a movie and hot wine in downtown Brussels. We went to see Harry Potter together although only Fox has actually read all the books.

Movie is nice, I think it is indeed better than any other Harry Potter before, even darker and scarier for kids. However, it does give a little bit of magic into the holidays mood ;-), I find it also a bit funny. Imagin if you are a witch, what sort of spell will you throw? probably for George Bush is something like "war war war" or something heheheheh

That reminds me one of the things that people usually confuse between religion and a practice. For instance, many people think that Buddhism is a religion, in fact it is a practice that everybody include saints should study. In Buddhism, there is no God, so what's about Buddha you may ask? He is a master who just taught us that in order to get rid of all the suffering that will lead us to unhappiness and death, the repeating of our lives on the wheel of life, we should get rid of all the attachments, free from desire...etc. A practice that will help us to reach Nirvana.

Therefore, if we do not want to suffer, we have to cut all the attachments, sadly not many of us can do that, we just run from one life to another, every life is a debt, so we are stuck on the wheel of life...

Although I believe all religions only teach people do good, but for instance in Christian, once someone does something good, they will become a saint or will go to heaven, but in Buddhism, even you are saint you might still trapped on the wheel of life, and therefore the rule is that you have to be back down on earth, pay whatever your due is, then you are certainly reach Nirvana (therefore, there is a difference between Heaven and Nirvana in my personal believe ;-))

Anyway, it is always good to believe in planting a good seed will only give you good fruits.

Don't forget to have a look at Brussels's Xmas market, well it's always the same, but it always bring joy, just to see many nice things...;-), and well maybe an ice- skating session? ;-)

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...and the result was...

Artisan Farm products show and wine tasting session

France and Italy

ostrich eggs and sausages