Lễ ông Công ông Táo

Shortly before Tết and my work trip to the United States this year I spent time celebrating the kitchen gods with my close friends at Khách sạn Quang Hiệp, my old home in Hanoi.

It’s amazing to think that instead of moving into an apartment or house when I first arrived I decided to instead spend 18 months living in a guesthouse. It was an interesting—to say the least—experiment in patience, privacy, and the mixture of business and friendship.

When I made the decision to leave the guesthouse and move into my apartment in a district that’s 30 minutes away by taxi from Hoan Kiem lake, I knew that it was the end of the QH chapter of my life. I’ll certainly stop by every few weeks to say Hi and check in on the guesthouse, but things and people change, and a year from now I’ll likely hardly stop by.

That’s the way things go sometimes, I guess. For now, though, I’ll gladly take pleasure in knowing that without the gang at Quang Hiep Hotel my life would have been half as happy during the last year and a half. I’m fortunate to have met everyone there, and it gives me joy to know they feel the same way.

Here’s to the kitchen gods…