The other day I had to order 20 lbs of banh beo for a party. I looked up online to find the phone number for Saigon Café, which locates across from Eden Center. To my surprise its web site comes up first on Google, but I had to look for a minute to make sure I was on the right site. The amateur design of the site has no connection to the restaurant.

I haven’t been back to Saigon Café for a while now so I can’t remember all the details of the place, but its simple yet vibrant interior design appealed to me. I like how a set of tea cups, which seemed be to cut in half, glued to the wall. What ironic about this place is that while the name clearly says Saigon, most of its best dishes are Hue. I tried pho, bun bo hue, banh canh and hu tieu, but none of them stood out. It’s banh bao, on the other hand, is a killer. It also has some mean banh bot loc.

After I made my 20 lbs order, I tempted to approach the owner to talk about redesigning its web site and to use the web as a marketing tool, something most Vietnamese restaurants don’t seem to take advantage of.

“No escape would be complete without the strength of seeking freedom by boat people. No words could describe how terrifying boat people suffered on that unforgettable escape.” –boatpeople.org

Words indeed could not describe the boat people’s experience and I have no intention of telling their stories. “Bien Nho” is a personal dedication to my eldest sister. If it wasn’t for my sister who risked her life, I wouldn’t be living in this country right now. This is just to show her my appreciation.

Although the concept came to me a couple days ago, “Bien Nho”— a tune written by Trinh Cong Son and performed by Khanh Ly—has been on mind for a while. I wanted to do something beyond the romantic relationship of the song and this is it: the relationship between Viet Nam and its people.

“Bien Nho” is not a political statement, but rather a reflection of a journey that would stay forever with those who had been through it. My sister is one of those millions who have made it through all the hardships and the sufferings. This is for her and all the boat people.

Winner of Asia Entertainment’s 2007 singing competition, Quoc Khanh has quickly become one of the rising pop stars with his charming voice and cute look. On his debut, Van Mong Ve Em, he shows more than just those two qualities. He could also write and produce his own tracks. Unfortunately, the title opener, one of the two tunes he has penned, sounds like a soundtrack to a romantic Chinese TV series from the hook to the melody to the incorporation of the traditional instrument.

Production wise, Quoc Khanh obviously spends way too much time with Truc Ho. Without looking over the credit, one would have guessed that “Moi Tinh Tho” was written and arranged by his mentor. That’s not necessarily bad a thing. At least he could deliver Truc Ho songs such as “Dung Khoc Hoi Em” and “Nhu Anh Can Em” with soul and sincerity. In addition to Truc Ho, Sy Dan is responsible for a couple of arrangements including the robotic dance mix of Truc Ho’s “Van Trang Tinh Yeu” and the lethargic “Tieng Song,” in which Quoc Khanh desperately tries to please his father who has written the lyrics for the tune.

“Tieng Song” is the only song that Quoc Khanh sounds unengaged. His honesty and personality come through on the rest. Looking past the lollipop hits and lackluster productions, the strength of Van Mong Em Ve is his fullest effort. He seems to give his best. There are plenty of room and time for improvements. He is young with potentials and this is just a beginning.

I was drifting off watching Asia 30 Year Anniversary until Anh Minh flashed her cans in “Tinh Yeu Tuyet Voi.” I honestly didn’t see it coming, but it sure grabbed my attention, the voice that is. She sounded confidence in giving Anh Bang’s old tune a new rock flavor. Rock on, girl!

The visual design for Visaulgui.com hasn’t changed much, but the structure and CSS have been completely rewritten. For the past two nights, I read up the HTML 5 spec and apply to this site while Duke asleep. Mocha BK Joe, currently on promotion for buy one get one free, has been my source of energy. The only way for me to learn is to actually doing it and Visualgui.com is the perfect project to do so. Here are a few resources I have found helpful: HTML5 Doctor, Baseline, Handcrafted CSS and most importantly HTML 5: The Markup Language. If you come across any glitch, please describe it in the comment with the browser that has the issue. It’s time for me to catch some sleep with Cu Dao.

Our good friend (a next-door neighbor in Viet Nam) who lives in Philly has a teenage son. Her son dropped out of middle school because he was getting jumped by black kids either from his way to school or home. Philadelphia Weekly finally picks up on this heartrending story with similar situations:

Dozens of the alleged incidents are relatively minor—name-calling, verbal threats, petty robberies, random punches in the head while walking down stairwells, and general intimidation. But according to Chen, at least six times last school year those minor incidents escalated into massive rumbles where outnumbered Asian students were pummeled by packs of teens, sending several of the victims to hospitals. Like the day last October when a group of around 30 kids allegedly attacked five Chinese students after school in the Snyder Avenue subway station, one block from school. That incident started when a black student walked up to a Chinese kid in the cafeteria, touched his hair and allegedly threw a carton of milk at him. Rumors of threats filtered through the school on the day after the subway rumble, and the notion of continued violence froze Asian students. 


Little Eric got beat up two days since he started school this week. I am worried about him.

On his debut Khong Gian Bach Bien, Vietnamese-Australian Ethan Thoi tries to please everyone from teenyboppers to club bangers to ballroom dancers. While he succeeds in giving “Thu Ca” a refreshing tango flavor, he flops miserably with the horrendous use of Auto-Tune effects (T-Paining too much) on “Hot Stuff.” Just when I thought “Hot Stuff” is an unsurpassable dud comes the Chinese bonus track, “Ai De Chu Ti Ya,” and the worst part is when he started to rap in Chinese. Ethan’s voice is actually decent (clear and forceful), but his song materials are pretty much garbage.

On September 11, 2001, Jay-Z’s now classic The Blueprint was born. Backing up by the then-hungry producers like Kanye West and Just Blaze, Jay-Z ran his own show with his impeccable rhymes and ruthless disses. The Blueprint featured only one guest spot (Eminem on “Renegade”) and no club hits (yet the beats were still banging). A year later, Jay-Z followed up with the double-troubled The Blueprint, Vol. 2: The Gift and the Curse and boasted, “Rumor has it, The Blueprint classic / Couldn’t even be stopped by bin Laden.” True, the first installment was unstoppable, but the second was a disaster full of distracting guests. The double disc was so unnecessary long that Jay-Z had to quickly release a 2.1 to trim down the fillers.

The final installment of the Blueprint trilogy is scheduled to release on September 11, 2009. Unfortunately, The Blueprint 3 is more like the second album than the first classic. Guests show up on most of the tracks and nearly every production is a club banger. On a Swizz Beatz’s typical bouncy production, “On to the Next One,” Jay-Z shows that he is still a maestro of flow and he could wrap his swag around any beat even the forgettable ones. The problem is that the beat doesn’t match up to his bravado: “Baby I am a boss / I don’t know what they do / I don’t get dropped / I drop the label / World can’t hold me / too much ambition / Always knew I will be like this when I was in the kitchen.”

One of Jay-Z’s artistic assets is, without a doubt, his braggadocio. The down side is that he uses it way too much already. We already know that Jay-Z doesn’t run rap anymore; he runs the map (“What We Talkin’ About”). We already know that Jay-Z’s the only rapper to rewrite history (“D.O.A.”). We already know that Jay-Z makes the Yankee hat more famous than the Yankee can (“Empire State of Mind”).

What lit the fire under Jay-Z’s ass though are his enemies. On the Kanye-produced “Already Home,” Jay goes hard at rappers and his critics: “Tell me I don’t get it / Everybody could tell you how to do it / They never did it.” Jay-Z obviously still doesn’t get it. If he got it, he would have learned his lesson from The Blueprint 2 and he wouldn’t cut embarrassing tracks like the sex-bragging “Venus vs. Mars,” self-congratulating “Reminder” and age-denying “Young Forever.” Jigga, get your grown-man on!

I am not yet a classical fiend, but I already am hooked on Michel Camilo’s jaw-dropping virtuosity. Backing up by the vigorous BBC Symphony Orchestra, jazz pianist Camilo displays his exemplary classical techniques on Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. The 15-minute opening track alone is captivating and the energetic “Tropical Jam” is highly addictive. Duke and I have been enjoying this album every night until he goes to sleep. Check out “Caribe,” an electrifying solo piano.

I signed the petition to stop the violence and help save Bat Nha Monastary, which is under severe governmental pressure to be abandoned. Find out more info at the Petition Site, sign and spread the word.