Olive garden lunch menu hours

The “Our Planet” documentary film filmmaker David Attenborough urged for environment protection.

Launched in 2007 in Sydney (Australia), Earth Hour (held in the evening of March 27) is now the only, largest event which draws the biggest participation on the planet for environment protection.

This year, in the context of social restrictions against the Covid-19 pandemic being imposed in most countries, the event goes online and will rally millions of people around the world.

Many hotels, resorts and serviced apartments throughout Vietnam join the campaign with many activities in response to the Earth Hour campaign.

As part of its sustainability efforts, over 23 properties of CapitaLand across 10 cities in Vietnam will be participating in the Earth Hour, a World-Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) global movement tonight.

From 8.30pm, CapitaLand Vietnam and its lodging business unit, The Ascott Limited (Ascott) will go beyond the hour to switch off their buildings’ façade and non-essential lights throughout the night.

CapitaLand Vietnam and Ascott will also encourage their customers, guests, staff and other stakeholders to lead a more sustainable lifestyles by sharing tips on how to reduce plastic, electronic and water waste.

Metropole Hanoi Hotel will turn off the light and reduce the use of electrical equipment for 90 minutes from 8 to 9.30pm.

Lighting systems on hotel fronts, tree canopies, corridors, unused guest rooms, and hotel office areas will all be turned off to raise awareness about the importance of environmental protection and natural habitat preservation.

Meanwhile, the hotel’s restaurants and bakeries will use candles for lighting. The hotel is also taking steps towards a more sustainable development model such as replacing plastic bags with paper bags whenever possible.

The Anam Cam Ranh Resort in Nha Trang will host Earth Hour Dinner at Bai Dai and a movie show with one episode in the series Our Planet at the open-air cinema under the starry sky.

The resort also encourages guests to turn off lights and electrical appliances in their rooms from 8 to 9pm on March 27.

The episode of “Coastal Seas” by science filmmaker David Attenborough will be shown at 7pm. According to the filmmaker, “Coastal seas account for 7% of our ocean, yet they are responsible for 95% of the world’s marine production – these are our planet’s fishing grounds.

Despite their importance to humanity, few are protected. Yet wherever effective protection exists, life bounces back in huge abundance, the wildlife will thrive, and we will catch more fish,” he stated.

All three Azerai resorts have many practical activities in response to Earth Hour on the evening of March 27 this year. Azerai La Residence Hue Hotel cooperates with Hue Tourism College to hold a piano concert in a romantic garden space under sparkling candlelight.

Participants will join 60+ puzzle to take souvenir photos and enjoy cocktails in melodious piano music. Especially for the first time, the hotel will hold a contest “Share Earth Hour Video” for those who follow the hotel fanpage.

The most liked and viewed five videos will be entitled with valuable vouchers for using the service at Azerai La Residence Hue.

Azerai Can Tho and Azerai Ke Ga Bay will turn off electric appliances while lighting the whole resorts’ landscapes and properties with lanterns and candles for about one hour.

hanoitimes

From Singapore to Buenos Aires, cities around the world turned off their lights Saturday to mark Earth Hour, with this year’s event highlighting the link between the destruction of nature and increasing outbreaks of diseases like Covid-19.

After starting in Asia, the call to action on climate change made its way around a planet reeling from the coronavirus pandemic.

As the day came to an end, it was the turn of the Americas, where the lights dimmed at the Obelisk in Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro’s Museum of Tomorrow and the BBVA tower in Mexico City.

In London, the Houses of Parliament, London Eye Ferris wheel, Shard skyscraper and neon signs of Piccadilly Circus were among the landmarks flicking the switches.

“It’s fantastic news that parliament once again is taking part in Earth Hour, joining landmarks across the country and the world to raise awareness of climate change,” said Lindsay Hoyle, Speaker of the House of Commons.

In Paris, the three stages of the Eiffel Tower progressively went dark but there were few people to watch with the whole country under a 7 pm Covid-19 curfew.

The giant metal tower has been shut to the public since October 30, due to the pandemic.

In Rome, the lights went out at the 2,000-year-old Colosseum, while police enforcing Italy’s coronavirus restrictions checked the papers of a small crowd of onlookers.

Harmful human activity

Asia-Pacific kicked off the event after night fell there, with the skylines of metropolises from Singapore to Hong Kong going dark, as well as landmarks including the Sydney Opera House.

As the event crisscrossed time zones and continents, the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and Moscow’s Kremlin also joined the annual initiative.

This year, organizers said they wanted to highlight the link between the destruction of the natural world and the increasing incidence of diseases — such as Covid-19 — making the leap from animals to humans.

Experts believe human activity, such as widespread deforestation, destruction of animals’ habitats and climate change, is spurring this increase, and warn more pandemics could occur if nothing is done.

“Whether it is a decline in pollinators, fewer fish in the ocean and rivers, disappearing forests or the wider loss of biodiversity, the evidence is mounting that nature is in free fall,” said Marco Lambertini, director general of the WWF, which organizes Earth Hour.

“And this is because of the way we live our lives and run our economies.

“Protecting nature is our moral responsibility but losing it also increases our vulnerability to pandemics, accelerates climate change, and threatens our food security,” he said.

In Singapore, people at the waterfront watched as skyscrapers went dark and in a nearby park, Gardens by the Bay, a group of futuristic-looking tree sculptures had their lights turned off.

‘Impact on the environment’

Earth Hour is about “more than just saving energy, it’s more like remembering our impact on the environment,” Ian Tan, 18, told AFP at the park.

But he was not convinced the event, which has been running since 2007, made much of a difference.

“One hour is not enough for us to remember that climate change is actually a problem — I don’t really see (Earth Hour) as very significant,” he said.

In Hong Kong, people at viewing points above the city watched as lights were dimmed on hordes of closely packed skyscrapers, while in the South Korean capital Seoul, the historic Namdaemun gate went dark.

In Thailand, Bangkok’s ultra-popular CentralWorld mall counted down to 8:30 pm before its exterior glass displays went dark for an hour — though inside, the shopping center appeared to operate as usual.

Departing from the Youth Cultural House in District 1, participants rode their bicycles with banners, flags and T-shirts printed with propaganda slogans for the Earth Hour campaign. They travelled across the city along three routes to mobilise the people to use electricity economically and encourage the use of clean and renewable energy.

In addition, volunteers were engaged in challenge games on environmental protection at famous destinations in the city, such as Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens, the President Ho Chi Minh Statue, Thi Nghe Bridge, the Ho Chi Minh City Post Office, the Nha Rong Wharf, and the Municipal Theatre (Saigon Opera House).

Together with activities in Ho Chi Minh City, the Earth Hour campaign has also received strong support from neighbouring localities and a large number of online volunteers who have helped spread the programme to 63 cities and provinces nationwide and connect it with nearly 200 countries around the world.

All aforementioned activities aim to look towards the major event “Celebrating 10 years of Vietnam’s Earth Hour – Joining hands in turning off lights globally”, scheduled tonight (March 27) at the Youth Cultural House, AEON Mall Binh Tan, and Hoan Cau Hotel. The programme is expected to attract the participation of more than 2,000 youths and local people from across the city.

HANOI – Signs at two patio cafés here in my walkable patch of Tay Ho District have caught my eyes. Perhaps they are signs of change.

>> An audio version of the story is available here

First, I noticed some curious words scrawled on a white-board lunch menu: a dish that featured “false dog meat.” Hmm. Is this for people who tried thit cho (dog meat) and liked it – but now feel guilty about the real thing? And what sort of meat is it really? Thit meo (cat meat)? Thit chuot (rat meat)? Around the corner, my curiosity was piqued by a sign that said Dodo Coffee Store above a line drawing of two dogs.

Dodo, I have since learned, is the name of a Golden Retriever who belongs to Nguyen Minh Ngoc, the proprietor of what, to my knowledge, might be Vietnam’s first café that expressly caters to people accompanied by their pooches. Ngoc said she opened her place because so many cafés did not welcome Dodo.

Perhaps there are pooch-friendly bistros. But certainly there are more places with a thit cho theme.

The Vietnamese taste for dog meat is a source of culture clash. At times the criticism is over the top. A couple of years ago, an American journalist with impressive credentials embarrassed himself by penning an infamous, bizarre essay that conflated the Vietnamese appetite with an “aggressive” culture that resulted in a history or warfare – as though it was Vietnam that invaded China, Japan, France and the U.S. over the years.

While I have no interest in sampling dog meat, be it true or false, I don’t begrudge the culinary tastes of countries. Ngoc says that she often hears Vietnamese who argue that there is no moral difference between eating chicken or beef and eating dog or cat.

Yet it also seems clear that Ngoc is among a growing number of Vietnamese, probably numbering in the millions, who would agree with the sign that appeared at a recent dog show in Hanoi: “Dogs are friends, not food.”

Two dogs ‘get acquainted’ with each other at the “Vietnam Dog Show 2014” in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tuoi Tre

My wife took two of our three children to the show in part because the kids really want a pet puppy to call their own. When I was growing up, our family included a dachshund named Heidi and later a mutt named Fanny. I was perhaps five or six years old when I woke up to discover that Heidi was giving birth to a litter in the box just a few feet from my bed. Our pets were more than just playmates; they helped us understand life in various ways.

Ngoc said her family always had dogs, cats and song birds as pets. If one takes a purely utilitarian view of potential sources of protein, it seems obvious that dogs and cats provide psychic benefits to homo sapiens that most creatures simply can’t provide. Perhaps it’s possible to cuddle with chicken, steer or halibut, but how many people actually do it? Have you ever heard of a “watchcow”?  How many chickens can fetch a Frisbee? A friend of mine who was going through a tough time once told me how his dogs were his only source of uncritical devotion. The Asia Canine Protection Alliance, founded in May 2013, is pushing for change, calling attention to the commercial trafficking of dogs as meat from Thailand to Vietnam. As Vietnam grows more affluent, more Vietnamese are keeping dogs as pets. Sometimes dozens show up at a small park in Tay Ho on a weekend day. There are also satisfying news reports about how criminals caught stealing dogs are sometimes getting a taste of street justice. Dine on dog if you must, but a crime is a crime.

Dodo, the café, is doing its part. Now Dodo the dog counts Domi the Dalmatian as a friend. Ngoc said she traveled 200 kilometers and paid three million dong for Domi, having witnessed how she was cooped up indoors and hearing plans to butcher the dog. They’ve been joined by Qiu Qiu, a grey-eyed husky whose owner had planned to abandon him to the streets when he left Hanoi. Ngoc keeps some poodles on the premises as well. Sometimes she has to lock up the males if a mature female shows up, because dogs do have a way of being dogs.

We’re looking forward to the day when we’ll walk our pooch down to meet Dodo and the gang.

After years working in busy metropolises like London, Melbourne and Los Angeles, and at famous fine dining establishments like Soho House, Chef Simone decided to settle for a quiet tropical place.

“Luckily I found this beautiful island, it reminds me of my home island Sardinia.”

No matter where he hangs his apron, the chef shares his culture through food by marrying the influences of Italian regions and local cuisine. “Every morning, I walk barefoot on the beach and then head to the main market to explore new products.”

This pared-down way of living reinforced Simone’s connection to the environment, sourcing from local producers and working with what the land and sea provides.

“Great seafood is all about the freshness, and Phu Quoc’s access to the bounty of the ocean makes it a paradise for seafood lovers. I am very comfortable cooking with seafood. When I was a child, I would go to the sea side and spend time fishing with my friends all day long,” Simone recalled.

Chef Simone at il Muro Italiano Restaurant – Luxury Boutique Resort Restaurant. Photo by Salinda Resort.

Chef’s “Tagliolini Alle Vognole” is a tribute to his maritime adventures: thin homemade pasta (typical to the Emilia-Romagna region) blackened by squid ink tossed with Phu Quoc clams in white wine, garlic, and anchovies.

“One of the ingredients for the upcoming menu I am working on is the sea urchin. The sea taste reminds me of my island. We eat the raw spread on bread with some extra virgin olive oil.”

He loves to softly accentuate the Asian flavors in his dishes, like serving native scallops with crispy lemongrass, creamy coconut and dill reduction in his “Capesante.”

But carnivores will also rejoice at il Muro Italiano with such legendary dishes as traditional Sunday special “Papardelle alla Bolognese” or the most venerated recipe of Milan “Osso Bucco.” But Simone’s favorite is definitely working with lamb.

“Imagine, I lived on an island with just 1.5million people, but we have five times more sheep! Either you end up as a shepherd or in the travel business,” he laughed.

Made of sheep milk and being Sardinia’s most exported food product, Pecorino cheese also holds special sway in chef Simone’s creations from the antipasti to homemade pasta.

Adding fresh pepper from a large wooden pepper mill adds a touch of class to tableside seasoning service. Photo by Salinda Resort.

One of the most interesting yet challenging local products for Chef Simone is the island’s most beloved condiment – fish sauce. Salinda Resort has its own fish sauce factory “Ong Ky” that uses traditional production methods by pressing premium sea salt and fresh anchovies in a wooden barrel without any additives or preservatives.

“This ingredient is quite new to me, but I put a dash of it on some of my pizzas and appetizers, as it gives a distinctive umami taste to ocean-flavored dishes. But the black pepper here – I love. It’s so fragrant.”

Vegetable-focused dishes shine alongside sustainable proteins from the land and sea. He is also a passionate forager, incorporating indigenous ingredients into the menu like Phu Quoc forest mushroom, “nấm tràm”, that grows under the island’s eucalyptus trees to which he adds Italian porcini, creating a balanced fusion for his soup “Crema di Funghi.”

“Crema di Funghi”, a fusion Italian soup using Phu Quoc forest mushroom “nấm tràm”. Photo by Salinda Resort.

The enticing fragrance of fresh herbs – from Thai basil to coriander, mint, chives and more – in the newly planted organic garden at Salinda allows Simone to freshly enhance his dishes.

“When I was little, we had a small farm, where we could harvest fresh vegetables. Every season was different, with summer offering a more colorful palette to our family meals.”

Chef Simone in the organic herb garden at Salinda Resort. Photo by Salinda Resort.

From his cherished childhood memories on the coast of the Italian island to his culinary adventures on Phu Quoc, Chef Simone simply wants his food to tell his story. And there is nothing tastier than that.

By Thúy Hằng

In the weeks and months before Tết (Lunar New Year festival), I’d noticed that a small building within the confines of the Việt Nam Museum of Fine Arts was undergoing renovations. It had looked abandoned since the lovely Matchbox restaurant moved out five or six years ago, and what looked like elaborate renovations offered the promise of a new addition to the city’s dining scene.

PERFECT SETTING: The outdoor area of Lê Art looks over the front yard of the gorgeous Fine Arts Museum.

By chance, a few days before International Women’s Day, a long-time friend invited me to have lunch at a newly opened restaurant, which, in his words, was “super beautiful”.

“You need to dress nicely, to match its nice view,” he suggested.

And this was I got to have a look at Lê Art, in the Fine Arts Museum.

When I arrived, my friend, a super-caring guy, was there to meet me with a big smile. He had already selected a table outside, where, in a romantic setting, we could enjoy not only the great spring weather but also the green carpet of grass on the museum’s front yard as well as its gorgeous French design.

Every woman there was offered a special cocktail. I wasn’t overly impressed to be honest, as it was too sweet for my liking and was a little too much like syrup. But its hot pink colour was certainly evocative.

MOSTLY THE SAME: The Lobster Soup is quite similar to bisque.

Our lunch began with smooth Lobster Soup, which is similar to classic French bisque. Although it didn’t have any “Wow” factor, as its flavour was far from what I’d had before, it was perfectly fine. It only loses out when compared to fancy bisque.

The second course was “Torchons de foie gras with blueberry sauce and apricots”.

NEW EXPERIENCE: Torchons de foie gras with blueberry sauce and apricots.

The word “torchons” piqued my interest, so I Googled it to find out what it meant. “Torchons de foie gras is the sister of foie gras terrine,” I read on one site. “The main difference is the shape and cooking preparation. Both terrine and torchon are made from raw foie gras and little else. ‘Torchon’ means ‘dish towel’ in French, since the foie gras is traditionally wrapped in a towel for cooking. Many prepared torchons are sold wrapped in a towel, to make that historical connection.”

The torchons were placed on a piece of toast and topped with a pinch of apricot jam, which melted on the tongue and had a distinct sweetness that created a perfect balance, especially when you have the appetiser with a glass of wine. Like its sister terrine, the torchon “won over” my choosy taste buds. As always, amazingly, foie gras made me happy.

ON THE SIDE: Whole grain bread with butter and baked paté.

The menu also included a small basket of whole-grain bread with butter and baked paté. Though the foie gras came with toast, I still tried some of the bread, which together with baked paté was quite good. But, for me, bread feels redundant in a meal of such premium dishes.

For the main course, I decided on “Black Angus tenderloin with deep-fried calamari and red wine sauce”.

UNUSUAL COMBO: Black Angus tenderloin with deep-fried calamari and red wine sauce.

The premium beef well and truly met my expectations and was tender and succulent. The jury is still out on combining beef with calamari, however. For a meal that leans towards French-style cuisine, it reminded me of “Surf & Turf”, which is quite popular in the US. Still, the plate was clean when I finished.

For the dessert, I went with “Moist chocolate and avocado cheesecake” — a fruit-infused mousse-like treat. It was smooth, creamy, rich, velvety, fresh, and, most importantly for me, not too sweet. But after enjoying some high-calorie dishes already, finishing it was a bit of a challenge.

SWEET TREAT: Moist chocolate and avocado cheesecake.

Three days later, I was back at Lê Art on Women’s Day, with my best friend, to try the simpler side of the menu.

We ordered a Caesar’s Salad (VNĐ145,000) to share before our mains. My friend chose “Red wine braised lamb shanks fettuccine” (VNĐ185,000), while I picked “Grilled salmon with mashed potato and orange balsamic” (VNĐ315,000).

I have no complaints at all about the salad, as it was fresh and the salad dressing creamy, rich, and tangy. Romaine lettuce is normally the standard in such a salad, but I didn’t mind that the chef at Lê Art used my favourite – crunchy iceberg lettuce.

AS IT SHOULD BE: Grilled salmon with mashed potato and orange balsamic.

Though grilled salmon isn’t that difficult to prepare, if it isn’t cooked properly it can end in tears. This salmon, though, was grilled perfectly. The fillet was succulent and retained its moisture inside while the skin was crispy.

The nice spring weather has encouraged many people to head outdoors. And so, a few days ago, I found myself back at the restaurant with a bunch of friends, where we picked a table outside to take in the bright sunshine while indulging our taste buds with some more of its delectable dishes. VNS

Lê Art Café Wine Bistro

Address: 66 Nguyễn Thái Học Street (within the Việt Nam Museum of Fine Arts)

Tel: 035 365 5866

Comments: Great outdoor seating overlooking the museum’s front yard. An extensive menu featuring several flavourful dishes that could tickle anyone’s taste buds. You can order from the a-la-carte menu or select one of the three-course “The Chef’s Table” set menus, priced from VNĐ350,000 to VNĐ499,000.