• About Jeff von der Schmidt, the Hà Nội New Music Ensemble & LA International New Music Festival

Sound Travels with Jeff von der Schmidt

~ A blog about new music, travel and food

Sound Travels with Jeff von der Schmidt

Tag Archives: Food

The Silence of Nôm Calligraphy: Memories of the Tết Lunar New Year

24 Friday Jan 2020

Posted by Jeff von der Schmidt in Ancient Ensemble of Tonkin, Hanoi, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Nom Calligraphy, Tet Lunar New Year, Uncategorized, Vietnam, Vietnamese Cuisine, Vu Nhat Tan

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Ancient Music Ensemble of Tonkin, Bamboo House Hanoi, Banh Chung, Buddhism, Food, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Hanoi Old Quarter, Nom Calligraphy, Poetry, Temple of Literature, Tet Lunar New Year 2018, Tet Markets, Travel, Vietnam, Vu Nhat Tan

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Craftsman Era sunset glows on “Good Health” our Nôm calligraphy scroll.

As we say a “good riddance” to the chaotic Year of the Boar and as the more hopeful Year of the Mouse approaches on Saturday January 25, 2020, my thoughts and dreams return easily to 2018. That was the year I experienced my first Vietnamese Tết Lunar New Year in Hà Nội, the Year of the Dog.

“Anh Jeff, we want to show you and chị Jan the real Việt Nam!” said our good friends.

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Liquid Tiramisù: An Introduction to Luscious Egg Coffee Spots in Hà Nội

03 Saturday Aug 2019

Posted by Jeff von der Schmidt in Ancient Ensemble of Tonkin, Café Giang, Food, Hanoi, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Hanoi Social Club, Loading T Coffee, Music, Uncategorized, Vietnam, Vietnamese Cuisine, Vietnamese Egg Coffee, Vu Nhat Tan

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Ancient Ensemble of Tonkin, Asia, Buddhism, Café Giang, Dam Quang MInh, Egg Coffee, Food, Hanoi Coffee, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Hanoi Social Club, Hanoi Street Food, Loading T Coffee, Vietnamese Ceramics, Vietnamese Cuisine, Vietnamese language, VTV4, Vu Nhat Tan

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The luscious egg coffee of Hà Nội at Loading T Coffee.

“You and Jan are Hanoians now, no longer outsiders anymore,” said our friend Vũ Nhật Tân, a few days before our recent Hà Nội residency concluded in April. He was quickly seconded in French by Đàm Quang Minh. “Monsieur Jeff et Madame Jan, nous marchons toujours ensemble!”

I continue to slowly absorb our most recent residency with the Hà Nội New Music Ensemble. Always SRO concerts, important media interviews, long range planning meetings for an ever brighter future, new friends met and old friends brought closer, even progress with the labyrinth of first pronouncing and now speaking Vietnamese.

And always memories upon memories of the amazing cuisine of Việt Nam!

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Welcome to Sound Travels!

28 Monday Aug 2017

Posted by Jeff von der Schmidt in Contemporary Music, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, LA International New Music Festival, Southwest Chamber Music, Tambuco Percussion Ensemble, Travel, Uncategorized, Vietnam

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Anthony Bourdain, Bill Clinton, Chasen's Restaurant, Food, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Jeff von der Schmidt, Julia Child, Kaiseki, LA International New Music Festival, Tambuco Ensemble, Tomasso Restaurant, Travel

2017-05-24 10.34.42

A big thank you to all my blog readers around the world!

Thanks to everyone who reads my blog, all 22,347 of you, from every continent on Planet Earth!

Let me start my post with gratitude to my Top Ten Countries, grouping them in a geographical if not statistical order. Those readers start, naturally close to home since I live in California, with the United States and Canada. Southeast Asian friends and travelers to Việt Nam, Singapore and Malaysia are big readers and then, perhaps, journey to the inspiring Old World of England, Germany and France (which is becoming new again in the 21st century), looking for tips and ideas from my posts. People interested in the vibrant life colors of Latin America join in from Brazil and México. All in all, our readership is in over 150 countries from every continent around the globe.

After almost four years and 115 posts, it’s time for a little upkeep. Let’s welcome my new blog name of Sound Travels!

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Périgueux & A Most Beautiful Farmers Market in France

25 Tuesday Jul 2017

Posted by Jeff von der Schmidt in Food, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Music, Paris, Perigueux, Travel, Uncategorized, Vietnam

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Cezanne, Chasen's Restaurant, Dalton Trumbo, Dordgogne, Food, French Food, Gregory Peck, Hector Berlioz, Humphrey Bogart, In Search of Lost Time, L'Essentiel Restaurant, Lauren Bacall, Marlon Brando, Perigueux, Proust, Travel, Truffles

2017-05-27 10.18.45

The delicious red strawberries at the Saturday Farmers Market of Périgueux.

With an apple I will astonish Paris. Paul Cézanne

The impressions of the sights and smells of cuisine, of tea, of sweet and warm baked madeleines, of savory asparagus, permeate the towering pages of In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust. The still life paintings of Paul Cézanne helped shift perception in the visual arts to a new way of geometric seeing, the French translation of still life, nature morte, a telling Gallic metaphor for a symbolic death. The musical fruits of Erik Satie would astonish a dismissive public when he wrote Trois morceaux en forme de poire.

Cuisine, with all its timeworn clichés, still defines France.

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Who Knew? Chez Janou and 80 Types of Pastis in Paris

16 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by Jeff von der Schmidt in Ancient Ensemble of Tonkin, Buddhism, Composers, Contemporary Music, Food, Hanoi, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Japan, Kim Ngoc Tran, Kyoto, LA International New Music Festival, Los Angeles, Minh Dam Quang, Paris, Travel, Uncategorized, Vietnam, Vu Nhat Tan

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Ancient Ensemble of Tonkin, Asia, Buddhism, Chez Janou, Dam Quang MInh, Food, French Food, Gilbert Nouno, Guangxi Arts Festival, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, India, IRCAM, Munich Biennale, Paris, Pastis, Pierre Boulez, Travel, Vietnam

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Jan at Chez Janou.

Invariably, when one searches the internet for restaurant reviews of places to go in Paris, the general observation includes a few “rude service” comments. Personally, I’ve never experienced what they’re talking about, but that might be because I have a decent amount of French. I’ve always found Parisians pretty easy going if you just say “Bonjour” when you walk into a restaurant or a shop. You aren’t the first tourist they’ve ever seen. Smiles always help you.

Jan and I are in Europe for planning meetings for next steps for our Hà Nội New Music Ensemble in Việt Nam. Things are moving forward, for while we’re in Europe, my Vietnamese colleagues have concerts in Hà Nội with the directors of the Münchner Biennale and then tour to the Guangxi Festival in Nanning, China. By dividing our resources we’re getting ready for an ambitious future.

Allow me to share with you where a Parisian friend recommended we meet for dinner? And the staff is friendly and fantastic. Feel free to make your own reservation!

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The Markets of Mérida and Valladolid with a Glass of Xtabentún

11 Tuesday Apr 2017

Posted by Jeff von der Schmidt in Chichen Itza, Cobá, Food, Merida, Mexico, Music, Paseo de Montejo, Travel, Tulum, Uncategorized, Uxmal, Valladolid, Yucatan

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Achiote, Apoala, Casa de Los Venados, Food, La Chaya Maya, Merida, Mexican cheese, Mexico, Sosa Xtabentun, The Coffee Bike Station, Travel, Valladolid, Xtabentun

2017-02-12 11.39.38

Happy to meet the owner of Pescaderia La Tempesta in Mérida.

“…poor México, poor United States, so far from God, so near to each other.” Carlos Fuentes The Crystal Frontier

“Hola, amigo gringo!” The friendly fishmonger of Pescaderia La Tempesta looked at me kindly as I was admiring his catch of the day at the Mercado Lucas de Gálvez in downtown Mérida, the capitol city of the Mayan Yucatan.

“I’ll hire gringo immigrants when La Naranja finally drives you loco! Come here, put on an apron and visit my shop.” Little did my new friend know that I’d grown up in a white apron, working for my parents in our family restaurant. I was not a fish out of water.

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Mérida and the Paseo de Montejo, the Champs Élysées of México

16 Thursday Mar 2017

Posted by Jeff von der Schmidt in Chichen Itza, Cobá, Merida, Mexico, Paseo de Montejo, Uncategorized, Uxmal, Valladolid, Yucatan

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Chichen Itza, Cobá, Ek Balam, Food, Hacienda Abal, Mercado Lucas de Galvez, Merida, Mexico, Paseo de Montejo, Travel, Tulum, Uxmal, Valladolid, Yucatan

2017-01-27 11.43.52

The vivid color pallette of Mérida is easy to see.

There is something about walking quietly on the streets of México that captures and holds my heart. The distressed walls or new vivid colors take me away from the pervasive black and white world of North American function. The smell of corn masa tortillas and frying pork lard seem to permeate the country. I hear music everywhere.

“Once you have the dust of México on your clothes, it will never come off,” was a proverb my uncle gave to me as a young child. And so my walks in México help me contact his angelic presence.

But maybe it is the sleeping sense of history that made me fall in love with México.

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Got Dragon Fruit? Street Food Strategies in Hà Nội, Vietnam, Pt. 2

06 Wednesday Nov 2013

Posted by Jeff von der Schmidt in Composers, Contemporary Music, Food, LA International New Music Festival, Music, Southwest Chamber Music, Travel, Uncategorized, Vietnam

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Food, French Quarter, Hanoi, Hanoi Conservatory of Music, Hanoi Opera House, Palais Garnier, Street Food, Vietnam

The Hanoi Opera House.

The Hà Nội Opera House.

Modeled on the Palais Garnier in Paris and begun in 1901, the Hà Nội Opera House opened in December, 1911. But for the purposes of this post, its history is not significant. Southwest has performed here in 2006 and 2010, both highlights of our Southeast Asian tours. The acoustics are jewel box superb.

But for this post about Hà Nội’s Street Food what’s important is the vantage point of my photo. Hope you’re hungry…

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