New lenses via new experiences

Food as a way to learn about culture and history, because who doesn't like food?

[hannahnguyn]

Molcajete de carne asada camarones y napoles. What I learned: molcajete is the mortar, used for grinding spices, and making salsas and guacamole. Interesting thing that they are impossible to completely clean, since they’re so porous, so they’re said to carry flavor from cooked item to item. The food (carne asada, cactus, shrimp, and a rich tomato sauce) came out steaming and stayed warm inside the molcajete. The carne asada here definitely is one of the best I’ve ever had. Gracias a Gloria’s Cafe.

[star-kissed-knights]

[coyote-the-trickster-deactivate]

This is sooo cute!

[hannahnguyn]

Mì quảng (top left) & bánh nậm (bottom right), some food items known from Húe, a city in central Vietnam. I have a special tie to this region of Vietnam, since this is where some of my family is from.

The noodles of mi quảng are yellow, dyed by bột nghệ (turmeric powder). It’s topped with chả lụa (a kind of pork sausage), shrimp, peanuts, pork, and bánh tráng, a baked crunchy sesame rice cracker.

Bánh nậm is made of a rice-based dough, topped with ground shrimp, wrapped in banana leaves, then steamed. They’re eaten along with núoc mắm (fish sauce), which in of itself is worthy of its own post. This might just be my favorite Vietnamese food item!

[hannahnguyn]

Finally got to go to the top of this thing! 

A little on what I've learned:

The sign was originally an advertisement for a real estate development, and read "Hollywoodland" in 1923. The sign was lit, and would flash "HOLLY," then "WOOD," then "LAND."  Come 1949, The City of L.A. stepped in and decided the sign would represent the whole region of Hollywood, and removed "LAND" from the sign. Each letter is 45 feet tall, and the word stretches 350 feet long.

While doing my research, I came across a prank, and just couldn't resist posting a picture. In 1993 before the annual UCLA-USC football game, some students altered the sign to read "GO UCLA." It's also read "HOLLYWeed" and "GO NAVY." 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_Sign

http://www.hollywoodsign.org/the-history-of-the-sign/beacon-of-a-new-wave-mt-lee-and-the-birth-of-television/

http://robertkaplinsky.com/work/ucla-prank/