thịt chó

Warning: If you are a dog lover, you might want to skip this post.



thịt (meat) chó (dog) means dog meat

I've been asked many times by my friends in Hanoi whether I've tried dog meat. I always tell them no and I don't plan to.
Eating dog meat is very much part of the Vietnamese culture. I guess it's relative - what is a delicacy to some may be repulsive to others. They eat dog meat just like they eat beef or pork. However, there are some significance to eating dog meat.
Vietnamese believe that eating dog meat drives away bad luck so they tend to want to eat dog meat at the end of the month, starting around the 20th of the month. This drives away bad luck for the month so that they are ready for the new month. It is very popular just before the Lunar New Year, so that they can start out fresh for the new year.
Black dogs are especially popular because they represent bad luck. Eating the "bad luck" will drive it away.
Where do they get the dogs? Dog buyers go around neighborhoods looking for dogs. They will ask the dog owners if they want to sell their dogs. So, they are not specially bred dogs but someone's pets.
One day I asked a good friend of mine about his dogs. He said he is sad; he can't eat dogs for two months. I asked him why. He told me that his father just sold one of his dogs. So, it's okay to eat dogs but not your own dog.
Below are pictures of a typical dog restaurant. They are not as common in the city center but more common as you go to the outskirts of the city. Some of the restaurants would display an entire dead dog to attract customers.

Again, if you find this story repulsive, please skip the pictures below.

Chinese New Year in Singapore

After a few days in Hanoi, we flew to Singapore to spend Chinese New Year (CNY) with family and friends. I have not been back to celebrate CNY for almost 40 years so this is definitely a nice treat.
CNY is typically a time for families to get together, so called reunions. It's almost like Thanksgiving or Christmas in the US. It's a major holiday in Asia.
Through the generosity of one of my close friends, we stayed at the 2500-room Marina Bay Sands (MBS) Hotel for 3 nights. This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. The MBS Hotel is Singapore's latest hotel and landmark. It's architecture is unique. It has 3 towers; on top of which sits a Skypark. The Skypark has an "infinity swimming pool." It looks like water is flowing over the edge of the pool down the side of the hotel. The view from the room is simply gorgeous. Here is a link with more information on the Skypark:
http://www.marinabaysands.com/SandsSkypark/Sands_Sky_Park.aspx
We also spent some time at Sentosa Island, a small island south of Singapore. This island was originally a British military base. The Singapore government recently has developed it into a tourist island, with a golf course, hotels, Universal Studios, museums, another casino, etc. We took the cable car there, although you can drive there or take a short train ride there.
Between all these interesting things to do, we did a lot of eating. Since this is Candy's first visit to Singapore, my relatives made sure she tries all the popular local delicacies. We also walked a lot so that makes up for all the eating.
I also had a small reunion of sort with some of my close high-school friends. We have known each other since we were 13 or 14 and amazingly, we still keep in touch and see each other occassionally.

Note: I don't know why the captions show up in large fonts when you first get on this website. But, if you hit the refresh button, it will reset to the correct size.