'Scuse me while I go to Vietnam

Former student guiding years-in-the-making trip; next Sunday News June 22

Since launching Four Bites on Dec. 1, 2023, my fledgling publication has offered 269 posts in 553 days.

Now it’s vacation time.

Here’s the skinny: There will be no Four Bites Sunday News column on June 8 or June 15.

Instead of restaurant reviews on June 10 and 17, patrons will get two fresh cooking articles with recipes. Rhubarb galette and mango sticky rice will each get their close-up.

Where am I headed? Glad you asked: Vietnam, a nation that has fascinated me since childhood, for my first real taste of Southeast Asia. (My visa for Vietnam is the background of the graphic above.)

A student in my Fall 2017 University at Buffalo journalism class, Huy Duc Pham, invited me and my partner Jen to tour the country with him and his fiance Giang. Since graduating, Pham made the Fortune 30 under 30 in education for developing online education software Classavo with Rohan Shah.

We plan to spend a week soaking up all the culture from one end of Vietnam to the other, including all the restaurants and food stalls, while completely forgetting about the day-to-day grind. To get to see Vietnam with Pham as our sensei appeals greatly to this teacher.

I expect to return replenished, and share my most extraordinary findings with y’all. In the meantime, remember you can keyword search the Four Bites archive.

See you on the flip side.

#30#