Author: doodledweller
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The Folds Make The Clothes
When does a piece of cloth become clothing? In ancient Rome, the formal dress was the toga, to be worn during civic occasions. Using a large piece of wool cloth, between 12 to 16 meters in length, it was only folded into pleats and tucks to become an outer garment. To wear an ancient Roman…
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The Cook’s Apron
I wanted to design an apron for home cooks like me, those with penchants for random experiments in the kitchen. Which is to say that though I do not work in a restaurant, I spend lots of time cooking, from baking croissants, coagulating tofu out of soybeans, to fermenting ciders. Consequently, spending lots of time…
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Good Tastes
“What does finesse translate to? It translates into giving a shit.” – Anthony Bourdain To say that folks are interested in fine food and fine dining feels like an understatement. Given the contemporary circulation of books and magazines, television series, and movies about food, it would be more accurate to describe it as an obsession,…
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Bún Bò Huế
The city of Huế seated the last dynasty of Vietnam, the Nguyễn dynasty, until the country became a French colony. Feeding kings and lords, nobilities, commoners, and monks, Huế cuisine has become a class of its own, boasting around 1700 dishes, many being served in little plates and bowls, reminiscent of Hong Kong dim sum…
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Phở
Phở is considered the hallmark of Vietnamese cuisine. Yet it may surprise that it was only created about a century ago in the city of Nam Định, 50 miles south of Hà Nội, the capital city. In the 1950’s, phở migrated south of the country along with its people. Since then, it has traveled a…
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Stock & Broth
The difference between broth and stock is not apparent. Some say stock is made of the animal’s bones, while broth is made from its meat. Others say broth is a reduced stock with additional aromatics and seasonings. Call it a broth or a stock, it is an essential potable in the kitchen, whether as a…
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Loose Screw
The first time I heard the phrase, “art follows money,” was during a guided tour of the Hearst Castle, built in 1919 by the media tycoon William Randolph Hearst. Resting on a 40-thousand acre hilly estate with a sweeping view of the Pacific Ocean, it was described as “this is what God would have built…
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The Ideal Woman
Among the first movies I watched after immigrating to the U.S. was The Secret Garden, bedecked with beautiful garden footage in springtime. It’s the story of an unruly orphaned girl, Mary, who moved back to England from India when her parents died. Since no one taught her how to be a proper English girl in…
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Women In Vietnamese Literature
I have previously written about the Vietnamese poet Hồ Xuân Hương, who was truly an outlier in Vietnamese literature. In a culture heavily influenced by Confucianism, during a time when women were to abide by the three obediences and the four virtues, she had the audacity to write poetry that was outlandish and sexually clandestine. …
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Woman
That woman has been considered the secondary sex since the beginning of time is a mystery. Throughout the history of humanity, the construction of societies has been patriarchal, and current consensus sees matriarchal societies as exceedingly rare, if ever existing at all. In woman-led societies, the queen ruled together with men in her leadership ranks. …
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