An exciting extra-curricular event in two weeks

xem phim đi! ♥ Mùa hè chiều thẳng đứng ♥

Có ai muốn đi xem phim cùng nhau không? Phim nay có vẻ hay lắm nhỉ? :)

Anyone wants to watch this movie together? It seems interesting! :)  -Chi ♥

2011 VIP Registration

Do you love learning while travelling? 
Do you love travelling while learning?
Are you interested in getting yourself immersed in Vietnam's beautiful landscapes and enriching culture?


If yes, join us in our 2011 VIP. The 2011 Vietnam Immersion Programme is now open for registration. 


For more information, please email clshgal@nus.edu.sg or call 6516. 2489.

Vietnam Immersion Programme 2009 - Quynh

For best viewing pleasure, and readable words, please click on the 'scrapblog' icon at the right bottom.
When the new window pops up, view the scrapblog at Full Screen mode.
Switch to 'tortoise' speed below the volume bar (bottom right, in full screen mode)
Next, put on your earphones and enjoy.
Thank you (:

Vietnamese Dance Performance for CLS Day

LAV@NUS presents to you a special dance performance in celebration of the 10th Anniversary of the Centre for Language Studies. 

And my journey in Viet 3 continues...

Chào các bạn! (Hello friends!)

Times flies.. 3 consecutive semesters down the road and I’m now a Vietnamese level 3 student!

I always have friends asking me:

“ Why you wanna take Viet! =/ “,

 “ Take Korean la! Or Jap! IN!”,  to..

“Huh… why you still continue taking Viet 3!!!!!!????????”

The reasons are really different.

Why did I take LAV1201 in the first place..

I remembered Cô Lê asking us this question during the first lesson. And my reply to her was: I wanted to take Bahasa, but the bidding point is too high.’

( and actually…bidding points for Korean was even WAYYYY higher, Jap is hard to score.. and the Thai(which serves its uses when I do shopping in Thailand) exam clashed with my core – of course I kept to myself all these otherwise it’s going to be too overboard! Haha)

True enough, I did not take this module because I have an interest in it, but because I have no other choices =p

Why then did I continue taking LAV2201..

Because I had fun in and out of classroom! Being a Sci student where tutorials usually = copying down answers fervently, the lessons I had during Vietnamese class were so so so refreshing to me. Lessons were more of chit-chat and laughing, mingling sessions. No doubt, speaking in a totally new language was daunting especially when I first started out, but it doesn’t matter when most of us are equally not eloquent , does it? =) And the test papers.. they are so primary-school-like! It’s a good time to refresh your olden days’ memories. =)

Of course, I enjoyed the cooking project, movie screening etc too..  You can see that the teachers really put in their best foot forward in engaging us in the Vietnamese culture^^

And why LAV 3201..

Because I want to continue having fun lessons! If Viet 1 is interesting, Viet 2 is even more. With a smaller class of 9 students in my Viet 2 class, there were more interactions between the students and teacher. Most of the time, we were either laughing at others’ or our own mistakes ; or making fun of pronunciations that meant something else in our non-Vietnamese languages which the teachers of course, don’t understand=p

Also, I learnt much more as compared to Viet 1, be it new vocabulary, pronunciation, writing blogs in total Vietnamese or cultures. Lessons were also less stressful in Viet 2 and there were times where we just hung around in class celebrating each other’s birthdays and chitchatting (with minimal teachings)!

And so with that, my journey in Viet 3 continues……

Oh..one thing I’ve noticed in all these modules: there is never a lesson in Viet classes where you won’t have a good laugh. =) 

                                                            Eng Pei Sze Fronia, Vietnamese 3 (Sem 2 AY 10/11)

Gỏi Cuốn Một

Chào các cô, Chào thầy, và Chào các bạn. Vào thứ bảy tuần trước, chúng tôi - em  Bình An,  Bình Đạt, Bích Diệu và Bích Anh gặp ở Bukit Panjang, nhà thầy Minh. 

Our group was tasked to prepare Gỏi Cuốn for lớp nấu ăn Việt. Upon waiting for the grand arrival of cô Bích, she động từ chúng tôi how to prepare this tradition Vietnamese dish - Gỏi Cuốn (Fresh Cold Salad Spring Roll). Her amazing creativity of using undesirable ingredient such as tomato skin, chilli, capsicum và cucumber and transforming them into attractive decoration for the various dishes left us in awe and motivated to get started with our very own version of Gỏi Cuốn!

Our Group (Gỏi Cuốn Một)

Bình An

When I arrived at nhà thầy Minh, I was surprised to see so many people there commencing on their lớp nấu ăn Việt. Finally our group settled down in a small room with 2 other groups. With 15 full-grown size people squeezing in a small room, I felt as though an innocent sardine in a can grasping for that last bit of air for survival. *Exaggerating* Nevertheless, it did not dampen our spirit! 

My group is the most efficient bunch, we got all our ingredients ready at home, which left us with the wrapping and decorating to be done there. Being a newbie when it comes to handling food, I must admit I made the ugliest Gỏi Cuốn among my fellow members. Thankfully, they were an understanding lot. I truly had a great time with them and the rest of the class.

Bình Đạt

Gỏi Cuốn was the simplest dish, but to make the perfect fresh springroll, one must indeed have delicate fingers. The rice papers were very fascinating to us because it turned soft immediately upon gently pouring water over them. One by one, we assembled the ingredients onto a round netting which cô Bích provided, and folded them into individual springrolls. The prawns simply made the whole dish look so pretty. 

When it came to the tasting part, cô Bích commented that we had added too little mint and basil leaves. The springrolls were not as flavourful without the herbs. We forgot to make a sauce to go with the springrolls but thankfully, cô Bích made her special concoction of hoisin sauce that made everything taste so delicious. Thanks to all các giáo viên for making this cooking project a memorable and enjoyable experience.

Bích Diệu

The thought of learning how to make an authentic Vietnamese dish has never crossed my mind. When cô told us that we are going to have this cooking project, I was really excited! Our group chose to make Gỏi Cuốn as it seems really interesting. On the day itself, we tried our best to produce the most fantastic and delicious Gỏi Cuốns and I think we did pretty well for our first tries. CHEERS!

I like to eat the Gỏi Cuốn when it is dipped with hoisin sauce! The rest of the Vietnamese food prepared by các cô và các bạn was very good. After eating, các em rất vui! This experience of making our own Vietnamese dish will definitely stay with me even after graduation! 

Bích Anh

I was really excited about the cooking project albeit having to wake up so early on thứ bảy! *Yawn!!* Nevertheless, it was really a one of a kind experience with the cosy environment with saliva and feet flying across dishes *joking*! We all had a go in Gỏi Cuốn making, and I must say, I definitely am one of the better đầu bếp in our group.

Having seen what all the other groups are capable of making, we are most certainly a cohort of culinary potential!

Our Final Product!

Everything else... :)

Hấp Dẫn Gỏi Gà

Chào các cô và các bạn,


Đây là Sue Ling, Wei Ling, Wei Chuen và Wai Chun……..(From left to right)!!!

We made Vietnamese Chicken salad (Gỏi Gà) for tiếng Việt cooking project. Vào thứ bảy, chúng em ₫i Thầy Minh nhà ở Bukit Panjang Mayspring. Đây là ingredients của chúng em:

Gỏi Gà – Chicken and Cabbage Salad Recipe

1/2 kg cooked shredded chicken (or uses the chicken meat from making the congee)

1/4 cabbage, finely sliced

1 carrot, peeled and thinly sliced matchsticks

1/2 onion (red or brown)

1 cup herbs (Vietnamese mint, mint and coriander)

3 tablespoons roasted peanuts, roughly chopped

3 tablespoons fried shallots

1/2 lemon juice

4 tablespoon of white vinegar

2 teaspoons salt

3 teaspoons sugar

1 cup fish sauce dipping sauce

Method

In a small bowl, there are combination of lemon juice, vinegar, salt and sugar. Stir until sugar and salt dissolves.

In a large bowl, add cabbage, carrot, onion, herbs, chicken and vinegar mixture. Gently toss to well combine.

Turn salad to a serving platter and sprinkle roasted peanuts, fried shallots and serve with fish sauce dipping sauce.

On Friday before the actual day, we headed to Sheng Shiong at West Coast to get our ingredients-chicken breast, vegetables, onions, garlic, prawns, roasted peanuts, chillies and herbs. We were told that certain seasonings such as sugar, salt, vinegar and fish sauce will be prepared by Cô Bích. On Friday night, we steamed the chicken and washed the vegetables. The prawns were washed and steamed on Saturday morning itself to maintain the sweetness and freshness.

We reached Thầy Minh’s house at 10am and we started preparing the salad by shredding the chicken cutting the vegetables and onions. Salad preparation is actually simple as its just simply mixing all the ingredients together. However we took quite some time to cut the ingredients (sliced thinly) and the most challenging part were the sauce preparation and the decorations!

Cô Bích has patiently taught all of us how to make simple decorations with food to make our dish more presentable  .The decorations were very pretty but the process of making them were not as simple as how it looked. Cô Bích taught us how to make boat, basket and fan with cucumbers and also rose with tomato skin. We learned that we really need to be patient and conscientious in order to make pretty decorations! And not forgetting the sauce preparation, in which we mixed fish sauce, sugar, lime and water (all prepared by our dear Cô Bích). This was not easy as we have to taste the sauce ourselves to decide whether it was good enough. Luckily we had some help and advice from Cô Bích which made the process much easier.

Finally after the sauce was ready, we started mixing the salad by adding the ingredients first and finally the sauce. We served the chicken salad on our presentation plate and decorated the plate with the decorations we prepared beforehand. Tadaa!! Our final result can be seen below  pretty right?? And also a group photo with các cô after the presentation! Look at their happy faces..hehe..

We were very proud and glad that we managed and successfully came up with our first and very own Vietnamese dish. Although Cô Bích commented that ours was a bit dry, we were happy that we got to learn and try different Vietnamese food! The spring rolls, pomelo salad and some other dishes prepared by sinh viên hai and ba were all simply AWESOME! And we all especially love the soup and dessert prepared by our dear các cô!

This cooking project was very enriching as we learned not only about Vietnamese food but it was a good avenue for us to learn more about Vietnamese culture. Apart from that, it was also a time whereby we all can bond with các bạn and các cô! And most of all, we all had FUN!! We would like to take this opportunity to say cảm ơn to các cô and Thầy Minh for organizing this activity. It’s definitely a memory and experience that is meaningful and something to take away from this module.

Gỏi bưởi tôm 2

Chào các Cô! Chào Thầy! Chào các em! We are from Gỏi bưởi tôm 2. Nhóm của Bích Thao, Binh Hai, Bích Đào, Bích Lan và Bình Lâm.

The Ingredients

  

Recipe

Gỏi Bưởi Tôm – Pomelo Salad with Prawns

Serves 4

1 large pomelo

400g prawns, cooked, peeled, deveined, with tails intact

1/2 small carrot, grated

1/2 cup sliced herbs leaves (Vietnamese coriander, perilla leaves and Vietnamese mint)

2 tablespoons fried red Asian shallot

2 tablespoons roughly chopped peanuts

3 tablespoons of fish sauce dressing

Method

Peel the pomelo and remove the flesh from each of the segments. Break the flesh into bite size pieces and place in a large bowl. Add the cooked prawns, grated carrot, herbs and fish sauce dressing and gently toss to mix well.

Transfer to a serving platter and sprinkle with peanuts and fried shallots.

Basic Dipping Sauce (Nuoc Cham)

Makes ¾ cup

3 tablespoons lime juice (1 fat, thin skin lime)

2 tablespoons sugar

½ cup water

2 ½ tablespoons fish sauce

Optional additions:

1 small garlic clove, finely minced

1 or 2 Thai chilis, thinly sliced or 1 teaspoon homemade chili garlic sauce or store bought (tuong ot toi)

1. Make limeade. Combine the lime juice, sugar and water, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Taste and as yourself this question: Does this limeade taste good? Adjust the flavors to balance out the sweet and sour.

2. Finish with fish sauce. Add the fish sauce and any of the optional ingredients. Taste again and adjust the flavors to your liking, balancing out the sour, sweet, salty and spicy. Aim for a bold, forward finish -- perhaps a little stronger than what you'd normally like. This sauce is likely to be used to add final flavor to foods wrapped in lettuce or herbs, which are not salted and therefore need a little lift to heighten the overall eating experience. My mother looks for color to gauge her dipping sauce. When it's a light honey or amber, she knows she's close.

Notes

Advance Preparation - This sauce may be prepared early in the day and left to sit at room temperature.

Variation - Use half lime juice and half Japanese rice vinegar for a less assertive sauce. Some delicately flavored dishes require this.

Reflection

Cooking Vietnamese food for the first time is FUN! The ingredients used are very few, simple and easy to get as compared to Malay food which uses lots of spices. The taste of fish sauce was not nice at all initially as it tastes too salty! But after adding and adding and adding more sugar to the lime and sauce, finally it tastes just nice :D It requires lots of patience making the perfect sauce as we have only tasted but never tried doing it ourselves. To me, its hard to taste what is considered 'nice' as I have never tasted Vietnamese food in my life :) It was an unforgettable experience and I also realised that Viet food are realy colourful and decorative! Cucumbers that are usually cut in circles can be designed into baskets and fan. Tomatoes can be made into flowers and carrots too can be cut into beautiful shapes!

If given another chance, I would love to learn how to make Viet desserts! :))

-Bích Thao (Amalina)-

This is my first-ever cooking project in university life. It is awesome and enriching. Besides learning how to cook, we are taught to decorate our dishes too! Before that, I don't know that so many other things can be done to cucumbers and tomatoes. >.<

In this project, we have the opportunities to taste many delicious Vietnamese dishes! Yummy! Other than the food, we had a lot of fun too! Viet 1 is a must-take module! ^^

-Binh Hai (Zhenghao)-

I have never eaten Vietnamese food before and all along I thought that Thai food and Vietnamese food are the same. The cooking project was a really fun way of learning about the Vietnamese culture. My group members and I prepared the cutting and cooking of prawns and chicken at home. When we reached Thầy Minh’s house, we were left with the fish sauce and presentation to do. It was our first time making Gỏi Bưởi Tôm and so we did not know how it would turn out. Since none of my group members actually tasted Gỏi Bưởi Tôm we did not know how the fish sauce should taste like. With the help from Cô Quỳnh as our taster, we adjusted the proportion of fish sauce, sugar and lime. I got to try other types of Vietnamese dishes as well. I really enjoyed myself that afternoon:)

-Bích Đào-

Making Gỏi bưởi (Prawn Pomelo Salad) was both an enjoyable and memorable experience. The most memorable part of the cooking project to me was the mixing of the condiments to make the salad’s dipping sauce! I had fun trying to mix and match with the ingredients to get the right taste for the sauce! Something I learnt from the cooking project was not to add too much lime juice to the sauce even if one were to follows strictly to the recipe because the recipe does not always suit everyone’s taste!

Nevertheless, I’ve learnt some “cooking” (although it was just making salad) skills and carving skills from Cô Bích! It was an eye opener for me to be able to learn to carve out beautiful carvings out of plain looking vegetables and to see how the rest of the groups whip up wonderful dishes! I also love the banana dessert and the interesting basil seed drink made by Các cô. I hope to learn how to make my favourite Vietnamese dish ‘BÚN THỊT NƯỚNG’ (Barbeque Pork Noodles) which I last ate at Danang the next time round!

-Bích Lan(Evelyn)-

This is my first ever cooking project in NUS.  It was a totally new and enriching experience for me.  Having tasted a few Vietnamese signature dishes in different parts of Vietnam, I came to realise that the food eaten by the Vietnamese not only reflects their culture and way of life but also their history and attitudes towards life.  Hence that was my motivation in learning how to cook a Vietnamese dish.  Although my project only focused on making the Pomelo Salad, it was not as easy as it seems to be.  The ‘true’ challenge of the Pomelo Salad lies in its dressing sauce.  The key to ‘perfecting’ it, I realised, does not only depend on the ingredients and procedures.  Merely following the recipe does not necessarily lead to good dressing sauce, only through experience (which we have gotten our guidance from Cô Bích).  Overall, I enjoyed myself for this cooking project :)

-Bình Lâm (Soon Xiang Long)-