Ttntag preparation

Vietnam’s football administrators are planning to test the competency of their Golden Stars ahead of the 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games by organizing an under-23 friendly match with class opponents Nigeria.

The friendly between Vietnam U23s and their Nigerian counterparts will take place in Hanoi, possibly at the end of September or in early October, Le Hoai Anh, general secretary of the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF), announced on Wednesday.

The match comes from a suggestion by Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Nigeria in Vietnam Francis Efeduma, who was only appointed to his new tenure in the Southeast Asian country earlier this week.

During a meeting with VFF chairman Le Khanh Hai on Monday, Ambassador Efeduma said he was impressed with Vietnamese football’s recent achievements and would love to watch a friendly between the two teams.

For his part, chairman Hai replied that VFF would work around the schedules of both sides to propose a day for the match.

Playing with the successors of the six-time FIFA World Cup players and one-time Olympic champions like Nigeria will be a precious experience for Vietnam U23s, especially in terms of preparation for the 2019 SEA Games set to take place in the Philippines this November, general secretary Anh emphasized.

To prepare for this 30th edition of the biennial multi-sport event involving participants from the current 11 countries in Southeast Asia, the young Vietnamese squad will go through a training camp in Hanoi, according to Anh.

Last Friday, Vietnam beat Myanmar 2-0 in another under-23 international friendly in the northern Vietnamese province of Phu Tho.

Nigeria took part in the finals of the FIFA World Cup in 1994, 1998, 2002, 2010, 2014, and 2018,

The Super Eagles won the gold medal of men’s football at the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996.

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Despite few opportunities to hone their skills in 2020, Vietnamese professional athletes are yearning for a thriving year with a set of ambitious targets in 2021.

“There were times I thought I would never be allowed to return to the swimming pool, and I would have to give up my sporting career,” said swimmer Nguyen Huu Kim Son, 18, from Ho Chi Minh City.

Son’s fear came as the central city of Da Nang, the locality the swimming prodigy is competing for, went into social distancing for COVID-19 prevention and control between late July and late August when the beach city reported a whopping number of community infections.

Son, together with several other swimmers of Da Nang, could not practice although their training center is only some hundreds of meters away from their dormitory.

It was the first time for Son to not swim every day.

“I can’t stand not swimming every day. Sometimes I feel like an otter, living in water is more familiar than on land,” Son said.

The teenage swimmer was worried that his career would go downhill without practice and competitions.

The long days of practicing on land only ended for Son and his colleagues when Da Nang gradually relaxed social distancing rules late in August.

That was when the city’s swimming team geared up for the National Swimming Championships taking place in Ho Chi Minh City from October 16 to 21, 2020.

Despite having only four weeks to prepare for the competition, Son and his teammates showed an impressive performance at the event.

Son earned one individual gold medal and two teamwork gold medals at the championships.

Swimmer Nguyen Huu Kim Son (left) and his Da Nang teammates are pictured with their medals at the National Swimming Championships in Ho Chi Minh City, October 2020. Photo: T.P. / Tuoi Tre

Most importantly, his achievement was similar to his best performance, promising good results in international competitions in the future.

Other swimmers from Da Nang, including Hoang Quy Phuoc and Ngo Dinh Chuyen, also pocketed a handful of gold medals in different categories.

A positive mind

Nguyen Van Duong was proud when he secured a spot at the Tokyo Olympics in the men’s featherweight boxing competition, which was set to take place from July 24 to August 9, 2020, but as the Olympics were postponed, he only felt disappointment.

“It’s really disappointing because this is a feat I never thought of a year ago,” Duong said.

Despite that, Duong is still optimistic about his opportunities in 2021, with his keen determination set on the Tokyo Olympics, which have been rescheduled to July 23 – August 2, 2021, and the 2021 Southeast Asian Games that are set for November 21 to December 2, 2021 in Hanoi.

“I think I’m not the only one who faces difficulties during this time, boxers from other countries were also not trained in the ideal environment throughout the past year,” Duong said.

“The most important thing now is that I already won a ticket to the Olympic Games.

“And I’m practicing for it every day.”

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Ho Chi Minh City chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong has requested competent authorities and sectors to prepare treatment plans for a scenario where the city records up to 200 COVID-19 cases.

During a teleconference on Thursday, chairman Phong stated that residents in the metropolis had welcomed a special Lunar New Year against the backdrop of the complicated COVID-19 pandemic.

Local authorities had to cancel multiple unnecessary programs, festivals, and sports and cultural activities to ensure safety during the holiday.

Most officials and public servants in charge of pandemic prevention and control efforts could not go back to their hometowns for the Tet holiday and instead stayed in the city to prepare for any urgent situation.

Ho Chi Minh City has been able to control the virus spread so far and is taking further measures to combat the pandemic.

In order to carry out developmental plans effectively in 2021, chairman Phong asked all sectors and citizens to continue focusing on COVID-19 prevention and control.

Everyone must strictly comply with the five rules including wearing face masks, disinfecting, keeping safe distance, avoiding gatherings of crowds, and filling out health declaration forms.

Local authorities are tasked with imposing hefty fines upon those breaking regulations on COVID-19 prevention and control.

The health sector must keep a sufficient number of test kits and maintain a testing capacity of 15,000 samples per 24 hours.

Detailed treatment plans must be made to prepare for scenarios when the city records 50-100 or 100-200 COVID-19 cases.

The city’s chairman also mentioned further support for local businesses that have been hit hard by the new wave of infections.

Relevant sectors must continue improving the investment environment, remove difficulties faced by businesses, and improve Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI).

Vietnam has documented 2,347 COVID-19 cases as of Friday afternoon, with 1,605 recoveries and 35 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health.

A total of 755 local infections have been recorded in 13 provinces and cities since January 27.

Among them, 36 cases were detected in Ho Chi Minh City.

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WASHINGTON/NEW YORK — Government investigators warned of dangerous overcrowding at more migrant facilities on the southwest U.S. border, publishing photos on Tuesday of packed cells in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley where some children have no access to showers or hot meals.

A report issued by investigators for the Department of Homeland Security said supervisors raised concerns for the health and safety of detainees and agents, warning that the overcrowding represented a “ticking time bomb.”

The DHS watchdog issued the report after June visits to five U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency facilities in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) sector, the busiest area of the border for migrant arrests.

It came as President Donald Trump’s administration pushed back against criticism of its migrant detention centers on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Conditions at the centers have been a flashpoint since May when the watchdog warned of similar conditions at facilities in the El Paso, Texas sector, west of the Rio Grande Valley, with migrants held for weeks instead of days, and adults kept in cells with standing room only.

Security incidents among men at RGV facilities included detainees clogging toilets in order to be released from cells, migrants refusing to return to cells, and special operations teams brought in to show that Border Patrol was prepared to use force, the report on Tuesday said.

Migrants banged on cell windows and shouted when investigators visited. Most single adults had not had a shower despite several being held as long as a month. One photo showed a man in a cell with 88 men, that was built to hold 41, holding a message reading: “Help 40 Day(s) Here.”

The watchdog’s report recommended CBP accelerate transfer of single adults to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency responsible for long-term migrant detention.

Border Patrol stations have been overwhelmed after migrant apprehensions hit a 13-year high in May during a surge in Central American families.

Migrant flows have since dropped after Mexico deployed thousands of militarized police as part of a deal with the United States to avoid U.S. tariffs on Mexican goods.

Border-wide apprehensions fell 30% to 100,037 in June from 144,278 in May, including people who appeared at border crossings and were deemed inadmissible, the Mexican government said on Tuesday, citing U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

Drink out of toilets

Members of a congressional group visiting facilities in El Paso on Monday said migrants were being kept in deplorable conditions.

The delegation had been told to surrender its phones ahead of the tour, but Democratic U.S. Representative Joaquin Castro smuggled a device into a Border Patrol station and took video of women in a cramped cell.

Some said they had been held for 50 days, some separated from children, denied showers for up to 15 days and in some cases, medication, Castro tweeted.

According to Democratic U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, women were told to drink out of a toilet.

“I don’t know what Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is talking about,” White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said in an interview with Fox Business Network, calling members of CBP “some of the bravest men and women on the planet.”

“They provided three meals a day to people who are here illegally and unlawfully, two snacks in between,” Gidley said.

Trump has made a crackdown on illegal immigration a centerpiece of his domestic policy agenda and 2020 re-election bid. But his efforts to build a wall on the southern border have been blocked in Congress, and he was forced last year to backtrack after his “zero tolerance” border policy of separating migrant children from their parents provoked widespread outrage.

A federal judge in Seattle on Tuesday blocked a Trump administration policy that would have kept thousands of asylum seekers in custody while they pursued their cases.

The American Civil Liberties Union, and other immigrant rights groups, sued the government to stop the policy of denying bond hearings to asylum seekers.

U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman ruled that people detained after entering the country to seek asylum were entitled to such hearings.

In New York, several hundred people gathered on Tuesday to demonstrate against the Trump administration’s treatment of migrants, part of a planned nationwide day of protests by rights groups targeting members of the U.S. Congress.

The demonstrations were fueled by fears the Trump administration is preparing a roundup of immigrants who are in the country illegally. Trump last month delayed the raids by two weeks.

In October 2020, according to the National General Statistics Office, central Vietnam was hit by four tropical storms with heavy rains and landslides that killed 129 people and damaged more than 111,200 houses. Even though the local people are no strangers to killer tropical storms, Nguyen Ngoc Huy, a Vietnamese international expert and senior advisor for Oxfam on climate change, believes more needs to be done in order to save lives and property after natural disasters.

Huy received a PhD in Environmental Studies from Kyoto University with a focus on drought risk management and climate change adaptation in 2010. He has over 15 years of experience working on water resource management, climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and education in emergencies in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. He has also served as an international consultant for UNISDR, UNCCD, IFAD, ADRC, and UNESCO in conducting research, studying policy, and developing tools for disaster risk reduction.

While he was a Ph.D candidate researching natural disaster mitigation, he realized that disaster management needed precise data from many fields. He continued to learn about meteorology, floods, droughts, climate change, and recovery efforts after disasters in his quest for knowledge. 

Since 2008, Huy has used social media to spread information and warnings about disastrous weather. He is motivated to share this information as he believes that forecasted information can save lives and property. Aware that countries have differences in disaster response and management and also suffer from gaps between forecasts and the needed response, he tries to narrow the gap.

To understand the weather forecast

Internet users in Vietnam refer to Nguyen Ngoc Huy as “Huy, the weather boy” and follow his weather forecasts online as they find them more understandable and useful than other forecasts.

On December 29, one forecast post about the unusually cold weather that occurred from late December to mid-January in the north and central northern parts of Vietnam had reactions from 7,000 people, 1,700 shares, and 614 comments on Facebook.

Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Huy is seen in this provided photo at Oxford University in 2019

Next to the temperature forecast for each province, Huy included recommendations: senior citizens in the area should wear proper clothes inside and outside and avoid sudden temperature changes, people in the mountainous areas should protect their buffalo and cattle by herding them and burning wood to provide heat when and where affordable. He also suggested that people consider harvesting farm-raised striped bass to avoid losses.

On the nights of October 17, 18, and 19, tropical storm Vamco caused historic flooding in Quang Tri, Quang Binh, and Ha Tinh, Vietnam. Numerous people in the provinces had to escape to their roofs in the middle of the night when circumstances were not appropriate for them to evacuate properly.

Although many other Vietnamese were moved and shocked to see such events, Huy was among a small group of people who knew historic rains were due to happen as early as mid-2020. This ability to foresee a disaster in the future through science could have avoided so many losses. However, what happened in October and November 2020 seems to show that there was a lack of readiness and preparation.

 “We can’t tell how many people knew that 2020 was going to be an extreme year of rain in central Vietnam, and we also don’t know how many people believed the prediction when they heard it. If the people had known that there would be excessive rain on the night of October 17, 2020 in Quang Tri Province, they could have evacuated sooner and the hotline for emergency rescue would not have been overwhelmed,” Huy reflected.

Huy believes that knowing about a storm one to two days in advance is enough for people in the vulnerable areas to protect their properties, as well as move to a safe place. Sometimes, those evacuating do not need to run far away from the area. It is as simple as temporarily staying at the house next door or somewhere a little farther as long as the building can properly resist the storm.

The reality of the poor response in the flood prone areas of Vietnam clearly showed that there was a need for a more meaningful weather forecast that could provide helpful information to people instead of just data and numbers.

“If we tell people that a precipitation of 20 mm will be seen in Quang Tri, most people won’t understand what it means. However, if we tell them that heavy rain will last for so many hours, where it will fall, and how likely it is that a flood will happen after so many days, the people will understand and be more likely to believe us,” Huy said.

Another example could be instead of using latitude and longitude information, which most people need to refer to a map, Huy suggested that news forecasts about storms should provide the most needed information: when and where the storm will hit the land, how strong it will be when it hits the land, and what type of housing could withstand the wind. In short, weather forecasts should be as accurate as possible while also providing useful and easily understood information.

“A very broad weather forecast that predicts a large range of possibilities and is read a few times a day everyday won’t trigger the required sense of alert,” Huy believes.

Resilient community

In an exclusive interview with Tuoi Tre News, Huy confirmed that 2020 was a historic year of tropical storms for the people in central Vietnam and emergency relief was indeed necessary. Without support from domestic and international communities, it would have been very difficult for the flood survivors to get back on their feet.

Vietnamese people, both from within and outside of the country, were called to donate money and goods to send to hard-hit provinces in the central region. The act reflected a famous proverb “La lanh dum la rach”, which simply translates into English as “the good leaves protect the worn-out leaves” and describes acts of unity in difficult times.

The question though is how to help in a sustainable and beneficial way? Social media posts showed food and clothes being tossed into the trash in the flooded areas soon after relief was sent, which demonstrated that those items were not needed. However, these things continued to pour into those areas weeks after the storm.

Partially because of this, Huy emphasizes that it is important for flood vulnerable communities to build their own resilience. In the case of the killer tropical storms in central Vietnam in October and November 2020, during the first three days, clean water, warm clothes, and ready-to-eat food were the most necessary items. However, after that, relief and reconstruction needed to be implemented.

In times of disaster, support needs to be enough and accessible for those who lose all means of living, but they also need to motivate those who can still thrive on their own. For example, people who still have land might only need some money to buy seeds for short-term vegetable crops or to start to raise poultry. Thus, loans should be provided based on the details and proposals based on needs such as rebuilding houses or restarting a resident’s livelihood.

It is important for everyone to understand that the rebuilding process takes time and it must involve the local people. No matter how long it takes, the people have to be the key players to drive it by their motivation to fix things. People in flood vulnerable areas should not be seen as victims who are waiting for the compassion of society. Contrary to that image, their dignity should be realized by strengthening their capacity to get back up with strong will and determination. This capacity is built through a process of learning through experience, continuously adapting to the changing environment, and passing the knowledge on to future generations, as has already been seen in Japan.

Not so far from Vietnam, Japan is particularly vulnerable to natural disasters because of its climate and topography, and it has experienced countless earthquakes, typhoons, and other types of disasters.

Aware of how vulnerable the country is, Japan has developed a comprehensive disaster response plan in which each individual in the society respects the plan and fulfills their role. For example, when there is a call for evacuation, clear information is released regarding where to evacuate to and the deadline to show up at the safe shelter. The people then manage their business and show up at the designated time. With this spirit and capacity, in case of disasters, it is less challenging for the government to carry out emergency response in an organized way.

For building resilience capacity in Japan, construction technique and raising awareness were among the key priorities. Infrastructure in Japan such as buildings and bridges are resistant to a certain level of earthquake or storm.

Most Japanese learn about natural disasters at school, and they are aware of their part in responding to natural disasters. This spirit and practice is passed through generations.

In Vietnam, there is a gap in passing on this disaster knowledge or experience. In areas that are prone to natural disasters, most of the people have the experience of facing storms. However, in areas where natural disasters are fairly new or only occasionally happen, such as the Mekong Delta area, the experience and knowledge is lacking.

In 1997, tropical storm Linda hit Ca Mau province, a deep southern province of Vietnam, and killed more than 3,000. Since then, a gap of 23 years is long enough for young adults in the area to lack the knowledge of how to respond to a similar storm. Due to climate change, which affects Vietnam more than most other countries according to a report of the International Panel on Climate Change, the weather will be more unstable, extreme, and more difficult to forecast in the future. Thus, the gap between generational understanding in terms of responding to natural disasters needs to be filled.

Even though weather forecasts can’t be guaranteed correct, it is wise for the people to consider the advice of the government and experts in the field. Here in Vietnam, instead of showing up at the safe shelter, local governments usually have to force villagers to evacuate. This could be avoided, if the people had enough information to evaluate the risks for themselves.

Take up lesson

For Vietnam, the stormy and historic year of 2020 meant many lessons were learned, both for short-term and long-term change.

There were questions and concerns raised in regard to building resilience for vulnerable communities. If this is not in place years into the future, after each storm, Vietnamese in other parts of the country will still need to call for donations.

“I think that emergency response should happen for a short time when really big disasters that hit people hard. For mild and average disasters, the community should be able to resist,” Huy suggests.

It is the tradition of Vietnamese to unite and share their fortune with one another. However, carrying out donation drives is not as important as building and strengthening the capacity of the vulnerable communities overall.

There is so much to learn through example in central Vietnam, such as protecting the roof (housing or factories) better. A better roof may increase building costs by 10 percent or so, but businesses and people can protect 100 percent of their properties after the storm.In central Vietnam, people typically redo their roof the same way after a storm or disaster, and this is not considered a good practice. As the saying goes, the old path does not take us to a new destination. Based on past experiences, people must renovate what needs to be better in order to prepare for the next storm. In 1999, a historic flood happened in Hue. Since then, when building new houses, local people try to have their house foundation at least equal to or even higher than the historic water level. Reflecting on what happened in the storm season of 2020, local authorities should review their capacity to respond to extreme disasters.

If the region is not fully capable of handling such events, what can be done to change the situation? Reality has shown in some places that, even when all resources are in use, they are not enough. So, local authorities should plan for alternatives to address this. Perhaps they can mobilize resources from nearby provinces? Maybe privately owned trucks or canoes can be considered for rescue purposes? In order to do such a thing, a detailed plan needs to be in place for coordination before a disaster happens.

“Extreme weather events such as heat waves and large storms are likely to become more frequent or more intense with human-induced climate change,” Huy emphasized. Around the world, including Vietnam, climate change creates the need to improve current forecast and warning systems, practices, and response plans. Studies also show the impact of disasters on the economy has increased in many countries over the years, especially coastal countries. While the economy seems to be better in many countries, the cost related to disasters has been increasing at a similar rate. It’s obvious that climate change and natural disasters are linked, so we need to change our ways to adapt to it so we can all prosper instead of suffer.”

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To many Vietnamese people, the Islamic world is still kept behind a curtain. Is it possible for pho – Vietnam’s national pride – to win over Muslims with their religious beliefs and practices, especially their Halal diet, and come closer to the community of 1.6 billion followers?

After coming to Vietnam for the first time in 2014, falling in love with a Vietnamese woman and moving to Hanoi in 2016, more than anyone, Ibrahim Rakaa – an Egyptian chef – understands that food is the biggest barrier to the Islamic community here.

With strict dietary laws set up by religious beliefs and culture, all foods served to Muslims have to meet the Halal, meaning permissible or lawful, standards.

Although the Islamic community accounts for one-fourth of the world’s population, the term Halal is still unknown to most Vietnamese people.

Rakaa and his wife have poured their hearts and souls into opening a Halal Egyptian restaurant to service Hanoi’s tiny Islamic community and bring Arabic cuisine closer to the locals.

On a menu full of dishes strange to Vietnamese people, there is a familiar friend: pho.

“It’s a special dish exclusively to treat my regular guests and close friends,” said Rakaa on an early winter day.

“Pho is suitable for Muslims as none of its ingredients are prohibited.

“It only needs cooking by a Muslim chef using Halal beef.”

Sourcing permissible ingredients, however, is not as easy as it seems.

To cook an authentic pot of pho for Muslims, Rakaa and his co-workers spend days in different northern localities in search of high-quality oxen and do the butchering by themselves.

“Supermarkets have started importing frozen beef with Hala certification but we cannot cook pho with that meat,” said Rakaa.

The quintessence of Vietnamese pho lies in the ultimately clear but rich broth which can only be achieved by stewing freshly-cut bones in meat for at least eight hours.

Despite having a strong appetite, Muslims are easily persuaded by pho as the dish has flavors similar to their food’s.

“After being taught to cook pho by my wife, I realized spices used in this dish, onion, black cardamom, cinnamon or star anise, are also what made biryani – spiced rice loved by every Musim,” he explained.

Pho bears special characteristics of Vietnamese cuisine while adhering with the Islamic diet.

“That is the key to bringing Vietnamese food closer to the community,” he said.

Barrier

“A wonderful dish,” exclaimed Palestinian Ambassador to Vietnam Saadi Salama as he recalled his early days in Hanoi back in the 1980s.

Going to Vietnam for study, the Palestian student, at the time only, dared to eat banh mi with boiled eggs and pepper salt as he was afraid of violating the dietary laws.

“A Palestian friend later took me to eat a bowl of chicken pho,” he recollected.

“Every spoon of hot broth warmed me up from the inside.

“Since the first sip, I have become a dedicated fan of pho.”

The ambassador has never let any week pass by without having a bowl of pho.

Besides his favorite chicken pho restaurant on Ngu Xa Street in Hanoi’s Tay Ho District, he enjoys discovering new pho shops around the capital city.

Decades of living in Vietnam has enabled Salama to learn by heart the list of renowned pho shops, usually those specializing in a single variety.

“Medium-rare beef pho, stir-fried beef pho with a lot of onion or chicken pho with clear broth – there are so many choices for pho fans,” he said.

Armenian Ambassador to Vietnam Vahram Kazhoyan and his spouse enjoy pho at a gala dinner in Hanoi in December 2020. Photo: Nam Tran / Tuoi Tre

Unlike beef pho which requires a sophisticated and complicated preparation, simpler chicken pho is a dish that Ambassador Salama’s family usually has at home.

Learning tips from famous chicken pho shops, he said to make a delicious pot of pho, chickens have to be boiled at the right time to get crunchy skin.

Chickens should be cooled down before being deboned and torn into pieces.

“People from the Middle East hate poultry smell from chicken so I always open the lid and add cardamom – a familiar Arabic spice – to the broth to wash away bad smell while still preserving the original taste of the dish,” he shared his tip.

“It will be sold well,” said Ambassador Salama when talking about pho’s potential of winning over eaters in the Middle East where 30 percent of the world’s Islamic population live.

“Pho soup is easy to eat and comforting while stir-fried pho is boldly tasty.

“Pho can be eaten any time.”

Unfortunately, pho is still unpopular in the Middle East.

The market is still open, not only because of the cultural matter but also a barrier of Halal certification.

Cuisine passport

Yully Yudhantari Saputri – third secretary at the Indonesian Embassy in Hanoi – lost count of the times she answered inquiries on Halal pho restaurants in Hanoi from tourists.

“Besides the excitement to enjoy famous pho in its homeland, Indonesian travelers have to deal with worries about Halal standards,” Saputri told Tuoi Tre News .

There are just some Halal restaurants in Hanoi, those which serve pho are fewer.

Calling herself a liberal person and always wanting to try pho if she knows there are no prohibited ingredients, lard for example, Yully said it was crucial for restaurants to meet Halal standards to attract and receive Islamic tourists to Vietnam.

“Transparency is pho’s biggest advantage to win over Muslims,” she said, explaining that despite complicated cooking techniques, it was easy for diners to point out ingredients used to make a bowl of pho.

However, to seriously make further moves to Halal food markets, including Indonesia – the world’s largest Muslim country – being certified as Halal by appointed agencies is essential.

“Especially when Vietnam has an advantage of producing special instant pho which is loved by many customers,” said Saputri.

The Indonesian Embassy’s third secretary said there was just “another small step” to have Vietnamese pho receive the welcoming it deserved.

“Pho is a dish capable of introducing Vietnam as a nation,” she said.

“It is a ‘passport’ bringing the Vietnamese cuisine to the world.

“This is actually what we are trying to do with our fried rice nasi goreng yet the reality is still behind expectations.

“Vietnam is able to do so.”

Nguyen Trung Kien, head of the Middle East-Africa Department under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Vietnamese cuisine could still meet standards set by religious beliefs.

“The Vietnamese tolerance and openness are well reflected through pho,” he said.

Pho featured in royal menu

Sitting on a small chair by a sidewalk in the Vietnamese capital, Swedish Ambassador to Vietnam Ann Måwe ordered a boiling hot bowl of vegetarian pho with poached eggs.

It was an early winter day in Hanoi and a chilling breeze blew from West Lake.

Skillfully using chopsticks to twirl a small bunch of pho to a spoon, Ambassador Måwe said Scandinavian people had simple breakfast with cool food such as cereal with milk, unlike Vietnamese people who prefer hot and filling dishes.

“How fortunate it is that we can have pho anytime during the day,” she said.

That lunch, she also ordered some crispy deep-fried breadsticks to dip into the savory broth.

Recalling the historic visit to Vietnam of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia in 2004, she told Tuoi Tre News a popular story.

“Extremely impressed by the pho served at the banquet, His Majesty the King and Her Majesty the Queen decided that they had to incorporate it in their tradition,” she said.

“So what I heard is that in the Royal Palace they have pho during the Christmas week, nowadays.”

Sweden’s Crown Princess Victoria Ingrid Alice Desiree told Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc this story during her official visit to Vietnam in May 2019.

“Pho is loved by Swedish people as a delicious, fulfilling, and heart-warming dish,” said the ambassador.

“We’ve had a lot of Vietnamese restaurants in Stockholm in the last five to 10 years or so,” she added.

“This special dish is opening the door for Vietnamese cuisine to Nordic countries.”

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