Author interview: Kim Fay

Kim Fay is the author of Communion: A Culinary Journey through Vietnam and the editor of To Vietnam With Love. Kim has lived in Vietnam for four years, and the years in Vietnam launched her travel writing career. Kim also has written for Vietnam Investment Review, Vietnam Today, and Destination: Vietnam.

For the readers who don’t know you yet, can you tell a bit about yourself?
I was born in Seattle and raised in the Pacific Northwest. After university I spent five years working at a bookstore. During that time I traveled to Thailand, Borneo, Singapore, and Bali, and I fell in love with Asia. In 1995 I decided to leave the store and teach English overseas. The first place where I was offered a job was Vietnam. I had never considered Vietnam as a place to travel, and I was intrigued. I went to Ho Chi Minh City on a six-month teaching contract and stayed for four years. My job quickly evolved from teaching to writing. Since then I have created the To Asia With Love guidebook series. Along with being the volume editor for the Vietnam edition, I have been the managing editor for Myanmar, Japan, Cambodia, and North India. More countries are forthcoming. I also wrote Communion, and I am just completing a novel about temple robbing in Cambodia in the 1920s. I live in Los Angeles.

What inspired you to write Communion; a culinary journey through Vietnam?
I love food, I love Vietnam, and I love the way cuisine reflects culture. Essentially, writing (and researching) Communion was a way of learning more about my favorite country. I had no idea how rich the project would become, and how much deeper my feelings for the country would grow as a result. But working on Communion and being able to share it with readers is one of the most meaningful experiences of my life.

What is the best advice you could give to someone about to step out of the comfort of their own city, state or country for the first time?
Be open and be brave, and at the same time don’t feel badly if you don’t like everything (this is especially true when it comes to food) or if at times you need something familiar (a latte, perhaps!) to make you feel more comfortable. I believe that we all experience a country uniquely, and the depth of the experience is not always in what or how much we do, but rather in our attitude toward the things we choose to do.

You have traveled around the world and have lived in Vietnam for four years. When do you think you really became passionate about Vietnam? Or better yet, when do you think you realized it?
I realized it the second I stepped off the airplane the morning I first arrived in Vietnam. Something about the country spoke directly to me—the weight of the air, the color of the light, the energy of the people I first encountered. I could feel Vietnam entering my heart as I walked across the tarmac. Perhaps this was because it was the first adventure in my life that I could truly call my own. At the same time, I simply love everything I have experienced about Vietnam, most notably the lifelong friends I made. I felt comfortable there from the start, and I knew immediately that Vietnam would be “my” country.

What were the most important lessons about Vietnamese food and cooking you learned during the writing of Communion?
Unlike French cuisine, for example, which relies heavily on an exactness of technique, Vietnamese cuisine inspires playfulness. Everyone we met made a dish differently. Take clay pot fish. We made this dish three times on our trip, and every time there were different nuances based on the region or the chef making the dish. What this means to me is that I can feel free to play with a dish and come up with a balance of flavors that feels right to me.

If there were just one concept of Vietnamese cooking you would like Americans to come away with, what would that be?
If it’s not fresh, it’s not Vietnamese cuisine. Vietnamese food relies so much on freshness, especially when it comes to produce. And it’s not just the ingredients that are fresh. This also has to do with preparation. Food does not sit around in refrigerators for days like it does in America. It is made and soon after it is served. This is why you can taste the sea and the fields in a dish. They are directly connected to a meal, rather than kept at a distance, as is the case with most food in the West.

You are also the author of To Vietnam With Love ; A travel guide for the Connoisseur. What makes this guide different than other travel guides for Vietnam?
To Vietnam With Love is selective. Rather than give a comprehensive overview of necessary facts, this guidebook presents personal essays from people who know Vietnam well, to provide inspiration. And if a reader is so inspired to follow in one of the writer’s footsteps, they can use the practical information at the end of each essay to undertake the same experience. To Vietnam With Love is as much about capturing the mood of the country as it is about imparting information. It is like having a conversation with a good friend who has just returned from a fabulous trip.

It must be great to edit such a rich collection of stories about the best of Vietnam from so many contributors! What did you like the most about writing this book?
When I started To Vietnam With Love, I knew some of the writers, but many were strangers. It was so satisfying to get to know people whose love for the country is as passionate as mine. Even more, they taught me about places and experiences I did not know, so I felt that as well as being the book’s editor, I was also a typical reader. My desire to return to Vietnam and discover the country anew grew with each page I edited.

Are there any local customs that a newcomer to Vietnam should be aware of?
My feeling is that a traveler should always be polite and respectful, no matter the country. Follow the lead of the locals around you, and if in doubt, ask. Asking is always appreciated. The most notable customs in Vietnam to be aware of have to do with temple etiquette—typical for Buddhist temples. Don’t wear your shoes inside, cover yourself modestly, etc. Otherwise, nothing stands out for me.

Many thanks Kim. For more about Kim and her books, visit http://www.kimfay.net/.

To Vietnam With Love by Kim Fay

To Vietnam With Love; A Travel Guide for the Connoisseur is different than the usual travel guide. While most travel guides are more providing practical information about the country and traveling,in this book you read about Vietnam by contributions written by people who know Vietnam the best and can tell you where the best things in Vietnam are to find.

The book is divided in chapters in specific topics: Moveable Feasts (food and dining), Seeing the Sights, Secret Gardens, Retail Therapy, Into the Wild, When In Rome, Paying it Forward and Resources for the Road. The chapters are also regional divided, so you can easily find where to shop or eat in Northern, Central or Southern Vietnam and even the best places in the Mekong Delta are included.

 The editor of the book is Kim Fay, who has lived in Vietnam for four years and so is one of the best Vietnam experts there is. Her sister Julie Fay Ashborn made the beautiful photographs for the book. To Vietnam With Love is one of the books in a series about many Asian countries (Cambodia, Thailand, Japan, Nepal, Myanmar, Shanghai, North India and Asia) by publisher ThingsAsianPress. To Vietnam with Love is the book you really have to have in your bag when going on a travel to Vietnam!

Communion: A Culinary Journey Through Vietnam by Kim Fay

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Author Kim Fay has lived for four years in Vietnam in the early 90's and during her stay, she fell in love with the country, the people and its food. Driven by the wish to prepare a real Vietnamese meal for her family and friends someday, she returned to Vietnam accompanied by her sister Julie and in Vietnam her best friend Huong joined them on the travel.

The book describes vividly the culinary journey (five weeks of traveling from Hanoi in the north of Vietnam to Saigon in the south) through Vietnam by the three of them.

They discover the culinary traditions of Vietnam and the relationship of the country and culture with food, exploring rituals and traditions, street cafés and haute cuisine, famine and feast, and Communism and the legacy of war. Each place they visit has their own traditions and specific dishes. They visit markets, small and simple street restaurants, the haute cuisine of Vietnam and attend cooking classes by a few of the best chef's of Vietnam.

The style of writing by Kim Fay was just fabulous, it just takes you with her as another friend on the travel crisscross to Vietnam, the pictures by Julie Fay are amazingly beautiful and the recipes are worth trying if you love Vietnames food or want to try it for the first time. A fantastic book for foodies and Vietnam fans!

All The Broken Pieces by Ann Burg

Matt Pin is a boy who was airlifted out of war torn Vietnam when he was a little child. He is a son of an American father and a Vietnamese mother. Now he is living in the United States with his adoptive parents.
Matt Pin is haunted: by bombs that fell like dead crows, by the family, and the terrible secret,he left behind. He is bullied by a boy in school who keeps saying to him; 'my brother died because of you!' , meaning that his brother fought on the American side during the war. But Matt is succesful in sports, and the baseball team wins a few games because of him. But then his coach is diagnosed with cancer and they get a new coach, will the team keep playing at the same level they did?

The book is written in verse form, which makes it an easy and quick to read book. Ann E.Burg did a wonderful job with writing a story this way. It was very dreamy and I thought Matt had amazing adoptive parents. Very differently written and very original.

This was the final book review in the Vietnam theme, I had so much fun reading Vietnam related book this month! But now its time to get back to all the other topics and genres, Goodbye Vietnam!

Shadow of the Dragon by Sherry Garland

Danny (his real name is Duong but he changed it to a more American name so he won't get nasty questions and comments from everyone)
is a Vietnamese boy who lives with his parents, troublemaking sister Kim and grandmother Ba in the Vietnamese community in Texas.


Danny has a lot of responsibilities, as he is the oldest son in the family. The apartments is always crowded with family and Danny hasn't much time and privacy for himself. He sometimes even hasn't time for his homework and to meet with his best friend Calvin.

His cousing Sang Le comes to live with them. Sang Le has spent the last years in a refugee camp in Hong Kong, after he spent most of his live in a reeducation camp in Vietnam. While Danny hasn't trouble adjusting to the American way of life, Sang Le has.
He has trouble at school and with learning English. And he gets in touch with Cobra, the dangerous Vietnamese gang that hangs around in the backstreets of the neighborhood.

Danny is dating Tiffany Marie, a girl from his school, but rumours are that Tiffany's brother Frank is a skinhead with racist actions against Vietnamese people in particular, and soon enough these rumours seem to be true, and Danny and Sang Le's are in danger.

Recently I have read Song of the Buffalo boy, also by author Sherry Garland. That was one of the best books I have read for sure, as books related to Vietnam are one of my most favorite books. But this books was just...amazing!It was so good. wow! The book just give an amazing look in the life of the Vietnamese community in the United States and a look in the Vietnamese family traditions. Danny is just an amazing boy to read about and it was just sometimes sad how he has to deal with al the things that came on his way. I was just speechless about the dramatic end. If you just ask me wich book I really, REALLY could recommend to you, then it would be without a doubt Shadow of the dragon, in a combination pack with Song of the buffalo boy. I truly hope we can expect more books about Vietnamese themes by Sherry Garland.

Song of the buffalo boy by Sherry Garland

It is 1989. Loi is a half Vietnamese half American girl, an Amerasian, (wich means for her snarky comments from people who look down on her)living in a small village in rural Vietnam. Her mother doesn't want to talk about the painfull period of when she met Loi's father, an American soldier during the Vietnam war.Loi is forced to marry Hiep, an abusive officer of the village commitee.
Loi has her eyes on Khai, a buffalo tender.He really understands Loi and they create a plan to escape the village and to go to Saigon. Because previously they met two American men who where looking for the lost daughter of one of the men, a former soldier during the war.They tell Loi about the Amerasian Homecoming program and that she has a serious chance to be accepted for it because the picture she has of her mother with the American soldier. She tells her mother but she doesn''t agree that Loi applies. Loi and Khai go on with their plan to go to Saigon, even if that means Loi will never see her family again..

But because of a few unexpected circumstances, Loi and Khai lose eachother out of sight and Loi is alone in Saigon where she doesn't know anybody, and then some guy named Joe steals her bag with her few belongings and the picture of her mom and the soldier. Will everything turn out right and will Loi get to America to find her real father and will she ever see Khai again?

I was soo impressed by this book. Wow. The story was so realistic and gripping. I could totally imagine how hard the life in Vietnam is for children of American fathers and Vietnamese mothers. I really felt sorry for all the tough decisions Loi had to make and I got real respect on how she survived all alone in Saigon and made the best of it. . This one was just amazing in every way, highly recommended read.