To Vietnam With Love: A Travel Guide for the Connoisseur is finally out in the world. My favorite aspect of this book is that it is a collaboration, containing personal essays by more than fifty writers. Among them you will find a film professor, bird watchers, resort owners, charity organizers, war veterans, a photographer, travel guides, teachers, anthropologists, an adoptee, adoptive parents, a restaurant owners, a fitness instructor, a chocolatier, Fulbright scholars, and--of course--professional writers. Some are from Vietnam, many have lived there for years, and others have traveled extensively throughout the country. With so many individual voices---and with gorgeous photos by my sis Julie Fay Ashborn---
To Vietnam With Love truly is different from other guides.
To Vietnam With Love at ThingsAsian.com
To Vietnam With Love at ThingsAsian Press
To Vietnam With Love at Amazon
Nha Trang Market, by Julie Fay Ashborn
With
To Vietnam With Love published in the summer of 2008, the To Asia With Love series is underway. Next up: Myanmar, with Japan hot on its heels. Also in progress are Cambodia, Thailand, Nepal, North India, and Shanghai, with other countries planned in the future. To find out what's new in the series, check out my
To Asia With Love blog.
Part travel essay, part cookbook, part history, sociology and philosophy book, Communion: Meditations on Eating in Vietnam explores the culture of Vietnam through its intriguing culinary traditions.
Having lived for four years in Vietnam, I returned to embark on a five-week culinary journey from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City. Accompanied by my photographer sis Julie and best Vietnamese girlfriend Huong, I traveled beyond the world of cyclos, conical hats and war, sampling the flavors of the country’s regions along the way. We cooked with chefs that included the Julia Child of Vietnam, and dine with culinary experts such as the granddaughter of the chef of Vietnam's last emperor. We also became obsessed with clam rice, banana flower salad, clay pot fish, ragu, and strawberry wine. Exploring how a country eats during times of famine and feast, and how we eat reflects who we are as individuals and as communities, Communion provides a poetic journey and literary feast for armchair epicures.
To be published in December 2009 by Things Asian Press.
- edited by Kim Fay
- photographs by Julie Fay
The inspiration for the To Asia With Love guidebook series,
To Asia With Love is an amazing guidebook, if I do say so myself. Fifty unique writers joined me in penning personal essays recommending favorite (and often secret) places to eat, shop, unwind, escape and play. Contributors include Lonely Planet author Joe Cummings, Rough Guide author Jan Dodd, Bangkok shopping gurus Nancy and Nima Chandler,
Bangkok Post columnist Roger Crutchley and "FARANG" founder Jim Algie. The writing is singular, the recommendations are thoughtful and the full color photographs--by my sis, Julie Fay--are divine.
To Asia With Love is the perfect complement to your Lonely Planet, and an ideal companion for both actual and armchair travelers.
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