#summer chapter

Snack Attack

Cà Rem Cây, Kem Chuối and the Frozen Tickets to Our Childhood

Sometimes, when I hear the distant sound of a tinkling bell, fond memories of summer days from my wonder years come flooding back to me.

In Plain Sight

An Ode to Saigon’s Chò Nâu Trees

It’s too cold for chò nâu to grow where I’m from, but we still gave it an English name: dipterocarp.

Saigon

How Saigon's Free Water Coolers Quench Thirst and Spread Kindness

In recent years, stories about climate change's impacts on the lives of Vietnamese people have been increasingly making the news.

Natural Selection

The Rise and Fall of Phượng Vĩ, the Summer Icon of Our Teenage Dreams

I was a teenage cliché. No matter how much I try to rack my brain to find any other personal connection to the incandescently red tree that is phượng vĩ, I keep going back to my middle school crush and that one tree in the front yard of our school.

Saigon

A Brief History of Cung Văn Hóa Lao Động and Saigon's First Swimming Pool

Once a fashionable rendezvous for the elite of colonial society, the Labour Culture Palace ( Cung Văn hoá Lao động ) at 55B Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai is today one of Hồ Chí Minh City’s most popular sports and recreation facilities.

Saigon

Food, Art, Heritage and Everything of the Essence in My #SaigonSummer

“In summer, the song sings itself.” ― William Carlos Williams

Hanoi Ngõ Nooks

Ngõ Nooks: What a Tea Ceremony Taught Me About Our Lotus Tea Traditions

“The lotus is our national flower, and lotus tea is regarded as the national tea.”