No Reservations: Vietnam

Every time Anthony Bourdain has gone to Vietnam, he's encountered the same problem: he doesn't want to leave. He has come to love Vietnam with the passion and fervor of a first love, and no matter where his trips take him he finds himself pulled back to this country.

Tomorrow night, Bourdain journeys again to Vietnam and rediscovers old haunts. Here's what Ingrid had to say about the episode:

The next episode of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations is quite different from any this season.

There is no food destination in the world like Vietnam. The country is a clash of cultures mixed with a hectic urban pace- where people are serious about eating. It is never a question of where to go eat when in Vietnam, but a question of what you will miss. Tony wanders the streets of Saigon, walking past food stands, sidewalk cafes and hawkers, enjoying sizzling seafood and vegetable crepes, fresh beer, and garlic sautéed seafood.

He also reunites with the current owner of Les Halles, Philippe Lajaunie, for some iconic food that blends French and Vietnamese cuisine, and for a stroll around a local fish market: a loud, smelly, bustling market run mainly by women. They also befriend a water taxi driver who invites them for a true family meal back at his home.

Could Tony handle living in Vietnam for a year to write the great Vietnamese novel?

This is the last episode of the season and we won't be getting new Bourdain until AUGUST (woe), so you bet I'm watching tomorrow night.The new episode airs Monday, March 9 at 10pm EST on the Travel Channel.

Bourdain posted about his trip to Vietnam on his blog, which you can read here. Below is an excerpt from that post:

It's no mystery to anyone who knows me, or has ever heard me speak publicly, or ever read my books that I'm utterly besotted with Viet Nam. And as I may also have mentioned, I plan to spend a year there sooner or later. This show coming up is a sentimental return to Saigon -- where I first touched ground in-country back in 2000, a settling up of business with a much loved, departed friend, a reunion with Philippe Lajaunie, my former boss at Les Halles and my sidekick on those first heady days of making television for "A Cook's Tour." It's also a trip to the historic village of Hoi An and surrounding countryside for purposes of acquainting myself with the area -- the housing market in particular. Can I live there? Will my family be happy? (My little girl-by then age three -- or three and a half -- most importantly.) Will she like the new neighborhood? That's what the show's about. Another episode in my continuing love affair with Viet Nam.

Everything I've seen about the country and heard about from Bourdain's show and his books leads me to believe I would love it just as much as he does. And you know my obsession with Taro Boba... ;-D

I hope you've enjoyed my posts on Anthony Bourdain and that you will check out tomorrow night's episode if you haven't yet had a chance to watch the show. Here is a sneak peek of tomorrow's show to whet your appetite:

i carry your heart with me

One of my favorite all-time poets is ee cummings. It's almost ironic that I would love him so much, as he used no capitalization and barely any punctuation in his writing, whereas I am the (self-proclaimed) Queen-Bee of Grammar. But love him I do, and I wanted to share three of my favorite poems of his with you. Personally, I feel they are some of the most romantic poems ever written. Bar none.

[And Scriptor, if you're reading this, where does the expression "bar none" come from???]

"i carry your heart with me(i carry it in"

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

~

"somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond" *

somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously) her first rose

or if your wish be to close me,i and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility: whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody,not even the rain, has such small hands

~

"it may not always be so;and i say"

it may not always be so;and i say
that if your lips,which i have loved,should touch
another's,and your dear strong fingers clutch
his heart,as mine in time not far away;
if on another's face your sweet hair lay
in such a silence as i know,or such
great writhing words as,uttering overmuch,
stand helplessly before the spirit at bay;

if this should be,i say if this should be-
you of my heart,send me a little word;
that i may go unto him,and take his hands,
saying,Accept all happiness from me.
Then shall i turn my face,and hear one bird
sing terribly afar in the lost lands.

*A note about the second poem - it appeared as part of the wedding vows in an episode of the original Beverly Hills 90210. (I think) it was when Kelly and Brandon were getting married. (Or was it Dylan?!) Reader, I just about cried, and not from happiness, when I saw this. Because that was always my most favorite wish -- to have my future groom recite it as part of our wedding vows, and then friggin' 90210 had to go and ruin it for me. Woe.

Post Script

In case you're wondering where all the previous posts have gone, they're still there, it's just they've been buried under a deluge of poems and short stories. I've been transferring all of my creative writing pieces from Ficlets, this most wonderful site that was my home for a year. This most wonderful site which will disappear on January 15th. Woe is me.

You can see my work there, while it lasts, on these two pages:

http://www.ficlets.com/authors/asimon78

http://www.ficlets.com/authors/anacristina