Saigon Saigon

Tauranga, NZ

Every time I come back to Vietnam, there's always an agenda. This time, it was 2 concerts, celebrating 40 years of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Australia. I was honored and humbled to be asked to represent in this iconic and historical moment, especially being the child of a refugee! The concert went swimmingly well and the performance as well as the behind the scenes footage will be up soon on my YouTube channel HERE.

Of course in the moments I had in between rehearsals, dress fittings, interviews and photoshoots, I love to suss out the new hangouts and eateries as well as Vietnamese designers so here are my recommendations and findings:

1. Lunch Lady

Where: google map it. Just type in lunch lady and it actually comes up - it's District 1 :)

What: made famous by Anthony Bourdain, it's a street vendor. Don't expect fancy. You're on low plastic seats, in the heat and she cooks a different soup everyday sitting at about 35,000 VND ($1.50USD) They also have rice paper rolls at 5,000VND (25 cents a pop) so winning all round! 

Recommend: trying whatever is on offer on the day. 

2. Quan Bui 

Where: there are 2. The one i went to was 17A Ngô Văn Năm – District 1.

What: Vietnamese home style cooking, great for lunch or dinner but in a very pretty old-school setting, not quite as lavish as Cuc Gach but similar vintagesque feel. I went on a Tuesday and booked and would highly recommend it because it does fill out. There are 3 floors, ground floor doesn't have A/C and the other 2 do.

Recommend: all the traditional stuff - caramelised pork in clay pot, lotus salad, kankong or morning glory in garlic sauce, lemongrass beef. 

Pricing: very reasonable. You'll see higher end Vietnamese or ex pats here. 

3. Fê Cafe

Where: 26 Ly Tu Trong, District 1 (literally across from Vincom)

What: cafe newly opened by the founding director and designer for Valenciani, Adrian Anh Tuan. Super cute, small but full of character and befittingly designed. It also houses the Devon London line of clothing. What more could a girl want? Coffee and clothes :)

Recommend: coffee ... Duh! And their iced teas are fab too! 

4. M2C Cafe

Where: 44 Ly Tu Trong St, District 1(just around the corner of Quan Ngon, corner of Ly Tu Trong and Pasteur, and right next to Fenetre de Soleil)

What: cafe and restaurant. This place literally had its soft opening the day I arrive in Saigon this time (Sunday 8th dec) and 2 days later I was in there with the Elle Magazine girls tasting the menu. Opened by the same owners of the I.D Cafe, Art Director Dzung Yoko and ex model and entrepreneur Minh Anh so finely curated this beautiful cafe. Spread across 3 levels, the lounges through to the light fixtures, plants, resurfaced walls and who could forget the Unicorn are so carefully positioned to create a beautiful setting to have coffee or a meal. The food is fantastic! 

Recommend: Bun Cha (it's a vermicelli fish soup), honey banana smoothie as well as the M2C rice paper rolls! Tastes a bit like Brodard rice paper rolls in California! 

5. L'usine

Where: I know I've posted L'usine before but that's their flagship cafe on 151/1 Dong Khoi St. Their second one is 76B Le Loi St, 

What: cafe, kitschy hipster clothing and accessories, perfect gifting ideas and stocks Australian designers like Finders Keepers along with Herschel Bags etc they sell all their outfittings from lights to tables to decor. Just think Alexandria/Surry hills feel for you Aussies. 

Recommend: caramelised pork salad, a latte (real tasting coffee, not the Vietnamese coffee because sometimes you just don't need that speed hit!), olives and then of ochre some vino during their daily happy hour from 4-8pm! 

6. Dong Pho

Where: 57 Ho Xuan Huong, P. 6 District 3
What: a central-Vietnam cuisine restaurant! Seriously delicious and so many different dishes. Nice and quiet setting too with great decor. Seemed to have a lot of Japanese and French tourists.
Recommend: all the different 'savoury cakes' like 'banh bot loc', 'banh cuon', 'banh it' etc. There's also a French cakes section to the restaurant so go nuts, all you non-gluten intolerant people :)

I will need to do a post on clothing separately I think! 

That's all from me for now folks! Go nuts!

Love and grace,

Van-Anh

And for the Right Nows:

Wearing: lime green Dawn Lu Shoes, J Brand waxed denims, Tommy Hilfiger belt, LF peplum, Carrera sunglasses.

Favorite food: rice paper rolls ... Gets me every time. Oh and green mangoes. Major salivation happening right about now!

Current city: Tauranga

Next city: Bay Of Islands
Listening to: Pharell Williams 'Happy'

Reading: Shantaram ... Never got to finish it

Wish list: a GoPro Hero 3

Missing: the same amounts of food I devoured over the Christmas period. Plane food sucks! Oh and missing a hell of a lot of sleep too! :)

H is for ...

Every so often, I gift myself something. Not out of shopaholic senses but because I work hard, I am married to my job - that is married to the piano, I spend more times in hotels, up in the air, on the ocean, in other countries and in airports more than I am at home. There's no need to buy souvenirs from each place (bar the token fridge magnet for the country). Rather, I pick up pieces of designer items that remind me of that place. That moment. What my state of mind was. And you know, when in doubt, I tell myself 'I deserve it'. 

I was at LAX airport yesterday with some time to kill so after scoffing down a Cali Umami burger, I roamed the airport. The usual designer stores popped up but then there was Fred Segal. Quirky, hipster, left field items. I spotted three heart pendants and one of them had the engraving of 'hot mess'. I'm not sure why i was drawn to it but I waved the shop assistant down and bought it on the spot. I soon found out that the store doesn't sell online and they pride themselves for being a SoCal based brand with the airport store being the third store out of three (the other two are down by Santa Monica and Melrose).

That was the second 'H' thing I had bought in 2 days. The first was a white sweater with H stitched on the front. Everyone I saw during those two days asked me what Harold for. 

The first word that came to mind was Happiness. 

Then i thought a little harder.

Honesty 

Health 

Hope

Heaven 

Hot

Home

So many important H words! It's all about H right now :) 

What does H stand for you?

With love and grace,

Van-Anh 

And for the Right now:

Current city: Taipei 

Next city: Saigon 

Most recent purchase: IGWT 'hot mess' hand made pendant 

Reading: 'where chefs really eat'

Wearing: Tommy Hilfiger rose tee, Tommy Hilfiger 'H' sweater, lee denims, mango bomber jacket, pink converse chucks, Tommy Hilfiger pulled-leather belt, cotton-on leopard print scarf. 

Wish list: Lassen hoodie, oh and any Toni Maticevski dress. 

Missing: home. And also the energy that only comes from connecting with a like-minded musician. It's like an oxygen boost. 

Fashion worlds collide

Talk about serendipity. So. Arrived in saigon yesterday morning and in true Van-Anh style, went straight to my place, freshened up and was out and about, roaring to seize the day!
First stop, the Park Hyatt for some Sunday brunching with a great group of people.

Second, the cigar club to tinkle the ivories for some friends, be a human Shazam for a bit.

Third stop, Fê Cafe (26 LY Tu Trong St) for some fashionising with Devon, a fabulous designer for label Devon London. She had just launched her A/W13 collection the night before which I was bummed out I missed on but now I got one on one time with her. I had already perused the look book so knew exactly what I wanted.

This is like one of my all time favorite hobbies. Playing designer dress ups with the designers themselves. Adrian from Valenciani was also there too  (being his cafe of course) so that was awesome.

There was another girl sitting there of which I thought was a journalist or Publicist for Devon or Adrian. She was about to leave and we said goodbye and Devon mentioned she was also a fashion designer from Australia. Wait a minute! Just wait on a minute! What? Who? Where? Which part? There's only 1 designer I love who is Vietnamese who is in australia. It was on the tip of my tongue.

She said Betty Tran. Oh my frickin god! I had been following her stuff for forever! And she was standing right there in front of me!

I was like 'omg I love your stuff, particularly your green dress that Jess Hart has worn'.

How cool was that? Sitting right there in saigon was someone who I had admired the designs and successes of for quite some time!

We chatted and rattled on about fashion and music! So cool!

Serendipity! It seems to happen more and more to me! Full of positivities and wonderful networks!

Love and grace,

Van-Anh

And for the right nows:
Current city: Saigon
Next city: Sydney (finally!!)
Wearing: LF daisy crop top, vintage gold poof skirt.
Reading: thinking, fast and slow by Daniel Kahneman
Favorite food: craving a Mekong Merchant coffee and also L'usine olives (random I know)
Missing: the US ... Weird I know but I do! Always wanting what you can't have!
Missing:

Show post-mortem

Playing the piano is truly the icing on the cake. Everything else that happens behind the scenes is why you get paid. From flying to getting your body adjusted to a new time zone, from promoting your show through all avenues possible (even if it means going clubbing to meet and greet and shotting Hennessy shots) to not knowing who will actually come to your show, from drawing up a VIP list to printing name cards to personally place on seats ... The list is endless. The stresses of putting your own show on in another country is something that I would not wish upon anyone. But it happened and I couldn't have done it without a handful of people. I say a handful because there are a lot (let me stress A LOT) of talkers. Then of course, there are the doers. 

Doing such a show definitely showed who were my true friends and had my best interest at heart. It exposed those who used my name in vain, it drew me closer to the right people and sent me running the other way to those who were complete shit-talkers and used my name only to get themselves further. 

I could ellaborate but there's no need to ponder in the past. The show itself went great and musically, I was happy with the versatility that our show had. 

Orange County, you will be missed. The 24 hour Pho joints, Trà Teahouse, the various local clubs that need not be named because the locals know what I'm talking about. 

I'm ready to go home. This last stint of touring has been taxing on the body. I sure have had fun but you know it's time. 

Til next Easter, thank you OC! 

Love and grace,

Van-Anh

And for the Right nows:

Wearing: pink converse chucks, Dotti crop navy sweater, Claude maid tee, Zara denims

Favorite food: Pho at 2am at Thanh long on westminster

Wish list: a new suitcase (how I managed to break a new IT hard case bought only 6 months ago!)

Reading: where chefs really eat 

Current city: San Diego

Next destination: Phoenix Arizona 

Missing: home, that is, Sydney

 

The steel magnolia

En route Shanghai, China 

Last night, I performed my first concert of two for this week. Regardless of where I am, what I'm playing and how many people I'm playing to, I get butterflies and jitters. Good jitters. It's that element of the unknown again, popping up. 

Standing backstage is nerve-racking, staring into the full length mirror with my headphones on, cranking Beyonce's Love On Top over and over. Yes it's my ritual. What better than a fiercely independent power woman singing a song with 5 key changes to gee me up?! :) 

The lights dim, the MC is heard over the speakers, applause and I step out, embracing the blinding light. Then it's a 45 minute work-out of playing, chatting, story-telling and utterly being in the zone! 

When I finally finish and half the house lights are up for my bow, I see faces for the first time. It's usually so dark I feel like I'm playing to a massive black hole. To my surprise, they're standing up.

It's a standing O! It's not like it hasn't happened before but it's always such a pleasant surprise. 

Then having audience members come up to you afterwards, genuinely congratulating you, giving you words of encouragement. 

'You've put craftsmanship and showmanship together ... Brilliant' through to 'not only is it virtuosic playing, you come across withconfidence and grace'.... My favorite is 'you are a steel magnolia'. 

Some of these audiences are true poets and so lovely and I'm not writing out of ego or anything close to that but I am truly surprised at these comments, people going out of their way to tell me these things. 

In the words of Lao Tzu:

That is exactly what I've been doing and will continue to do so. 

I feel so blessed that playing piano can even be called a job because it's truly the icing on the cake! 

With confidence and grace,

Van-Anh 

Xoxo

the land where dreams are made of

California, USA

It is astonishing that its been almost 6 months that I have written on my blog. It is only now that I am surfacing from what feels like a 2 day coma of absolute fevers, chills, shakes, coughing, sneezing and everything nasty that I wouldn't wish upon ANYONE. Now that I have a moment to breathe, reflect, ive realised thay I haven't written in  THAT long! I know my vlogs have taken over a bit and I totally enjoy making them with many great responses but my fingers itch to type and write away. 

Goodness what has happened in the last 6 months? Well I flew emergency home from Beijing from a 2 month stint away and had a near miss of glandular fever. Bed bound for almost the entire month of May, i only left bed for the moments that I had performances and recording sessions. Mid June and July led me over to the US with an amazing trip, reigniting my love of America. 

There is no doubt about it that I am an outgoing person and due to that very reason, I had the opportunity to make new acquaintances of which have transpired into longer friendships. Friendships which I have been able to develop this time around being in the US. That's not to say that I revisited friendships that I had made amidst my travels during the last 2 years, if not from high school or musical adventures.

That same trip, I was able to spend time in San Diego, a new city which I grew to love and get to know quite well. I sailed Alaska for a week and was able to go ziplining and dogsledding, things that were on my bucketlist which I happily ticked off. Then of course, there was New York. Seeing Kinky Boots, experiencing 4th of July in NY itself and then leaving on the 5th July with 2 tickets in hand: one to London and one back to California. Talk about fork in the road?! I had never had such a situation before and i chose the latter. Saddened by the fact that I wasn't going to make it back to Europe this year, I flew back to California hoping it was the right decision and it sure was. 

Amidst all of this, Chris and I were mastering our Sentimentales album which came out last month and is available now through my website, on iTunes or CDBaby. This of course led to the launch concerts of the album in both Sydney and Melbourne and filming our first music video clip. We filmed til 4am after our Sydney Fringe Concert, the night before I flew back to the US. Talk about no rest for the wicked!!

Which leads up to now. The last 2 weeks, i've spent in the O.C with an amazing group of people. Not only have i met great musicians, been guest artist to some great events and shows, eaten to my hearts content but have hung with some wonderful people who i so rightfully can call friends. Sure we've had some rough nights, late night hang outs at BCD or a Pho joint, dancing til our feet were numb, laughed til our stomachs hurt and sung til our voices were no more. But DID WE DIE??? NO! The fact you didn't kill me, I have everything to thank for! :)

Health is gold. Nothing can happen unless you are in tip top condition and I feel so lucky to have an incredible group of calvins and fake-ratchets (Thy, Winnie, Adam, Michael, David, Alex, Sing, Brian) to count on! You guys have made these last 2 weeks incredibly memorable!

I have nothing to complain about really. I am living out my dreams and speak out my dreams daily. I can't wait to share more of my journey with you all.

MUCH LOVE and i promise i'll write more!

Love and Grace,

Van-Anh xoxo

And for the RIGHT NOW:

Fav food: tastea drinks

Reading: a theater hiring manual.

Wishlist: Jeffrey Campbell Shoes ... any will suffice :D

Current city: Orange County, California

Listening to: All Of Me, John Legend

Fav clothing item: my BCBG jumpsuit & my LF daisy crop

Next destination: Denver, Colorado

Missing: my hairstylist ... if only i could have you travel around with me ALL THE TIME! life would be pretty darn blissful :D