Conv-Vietnamese and other Beers

From: Dick Ellis

Dated: June 13, 2020

Subject: Have you had one or two or three?

From: Jim White

Dated: June 14, 2020

Subject: Have you had one or two or three?

Steve,
Close, but "Ba Mi Ba" is correct. The "Ba" is as in "bomb" and the "Mi" is the the same as "meter" in English. (Based upon a grand total of 100 hours of Vietnamese at Fort Bragg before going on to AFVN in 1970.)
Jim W

From: Marc Yablonka

Dated: June 15, 2020

Subject: Have you had one or two or three?

There was French-Vietnamese restaurant here in L.A. several years ago called Le Colonial that served up a brew called Hue Beer that was pretty good. Saw it a couple times in our local BevMo liquor store, but then it disappeared never to be seen again. Have in my curio cabinet a bottle of BIere La Rue that has to date back to the 50s or before. It's got the face of a Tiger painted on it (NOT to be confused with Tiger Beer from Singapore) and the writing is in French, Vietnamese and Chinese.
Le Colonial was quite the place. Took a couple Special Forces friends there once and one of them remarked, "The only thing missing from this place are the gekkos!"
Marc Phillip Yablonka

Have You ever had One, Two, or Three of These?

Vietnamese and Other Oriental Beers

June 2020

From: Marc Yablonka

Dated: June 17, 2020

Subject: Have you had one or two or three?

My fave with sushi is Asahi Dry, Steve. Love it!
Marc

From: Marc Yablonka

Dated: June 17, 2020

Subject: Have you had one or two or three?

Bobbie, The Happy Buddha was given to me by some Vietnamese English professors upon departing Vietnam in `92. I'd been invited through a program at the U of Wisconsin that sponsored English profs to guest lecture in Vietnamese colleges and universities. The airport officials scrutinized it fiercely, making sure that I wasn't taking any imbedded drugs or, perhaps, explosives (?) aboard my Thai Air flight out.

Marc

Hue Beer [Courtesy of Marc Yablonka]

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From: Rick Fredericksen

Dated: June 16, 2020

Subject: Have you had one or two or three?

Marc, I have no history about Huda, and it could well have been a joint venture. It was tasty. Here is a brief entry from Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huda_Beer

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From: Ken Gilder

Dated: June 14, 2020

Subject: Have you had one or two or three?

I vaguely remember a song or jingle, that started out "Ba Mi Ba, Ba Me Ba. for 33 beer. Might have been from a Vietnamese band at one of the clubs.
Ken G

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Possibly some nice examples of Japanese lacquerware (left) and Chinese pottery (right) in the background. JimW

From: Rick Fredericksen

Dated: June 16, 2020

Subject: Have you had one or two or three?

Never saw the Hue beer label. Perhaps it's the Huda beer packaged for export. When I was in Vietnam in 2018 I drank "Saigon" beer and it was terrible. I preferred Tiger, the Singapore beer, but probably brewed in Vietnam.
Rick Fredericksen

From: Marc Yablonka

Dated: June 15, 2020

Subject: Have you had one or two or three?

Wish I could have found a source or photographer to attribute it to, Bobbie, but there was none!
Marc Phillip Yablonka

From: Ann Kelsey

Dated: June 15, 2020

Subject: Have you had one or two or three?

I went to the New York Le Colonial a number of times. The decor and the sepia photos really set the scene. I agree the only thing missing were the geckos. The food wasn’t bad either. It was a nationwide chain at one time.
Ann

From: Mike Goucher

Dated: June 16, 2020

Subject: Have you had one or two or three?

Maybe had one or two when I was rotating into AFVN but we were generally told to stay in the newbie compound back then. I do remember an in-country R&R in Saigon when Gary Gears and I tore up some bars - but I couldn't tell ya what I was drinkin' 'cause I got too drunk to remember. Up-country at Dragon Mountain we actually built a saloon right next to the studio hootch but I felt insecure enough to NOT "cut loose" and really get into it. Good thing, too! We came under attack a couple of times and sobriety kept my aim accurate. ...just sayin'...

From: Steve Pennington

Dated: June 16, 2020

Subject: Have you had one or two or three?

The local Korean market has Hite, OB, and Soju wine.

SLP

From: Ann Kelsey

Dated: June 14, 2020

Subject: Have you had one or two or three?

It’s now Ba Ba Ba, 333, but each region has its own beer, Saigon ,Ha Noi , Huda, Dai Viet. I’ve bought 333 in New York, LA, and DC.

From: Marc Yablonka

Dated: June 17, 2020

Subject: Have you had one or two or three?

Pulled a few more out from the curio. The one on the left, Chau Tien, is actually brewed in the San Francisco Bay area by a young Vietnamese entrepreneur. For a brief time I could get Dai Viet beer at our local Trader Joe's, but no more. Beer Lao is very hard to find here but, occasionally shows up in the Vietnamese and Chinese markets in southern California. The Angkor Beer bottle was courtesy of the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Phnom Penh, where I was on assignment in `96. See attached.
Marc

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From: Marc Yablonka

Dated: June 17, 2020

Subject: Have you had one or two or three?

Drank Soju in Kyushu, Japan years ago. I think it's actually fermented potato. That stuff will "knock a moose off a rancher's wall," as the old proverbial saying goes!
Marc Phillip Yablonka

From: Marc Yablonka

Dated: June 23, 2020

Subject: Have you had one or two or three?

I think you spelled it right come to think of it. My former father-in-law pronounced it more like "Sochu" as I recall. That was back in `88. [The rest of this message, talking about his time in Tano, Japan, is on his Photos and Stories page.]

From: Jim White

Dated: June 23, 2020

Subject: Have you had one or two or three?

Marc,
Shochu (as it is normally pronounced in standard Japanese but "soju" may be a Kyushu variant or even Korean) is made from fermented sweet potatoes and it does pack a punch. Most of it is made in Kagoshima, the southern tip of Kyushu. Never heard your proverb before, but it easily take the wall along with the moose. It was the drunkards' drink because it was cheaper than sake but, to me, tasted somewhat like white gasoline so I seldom drank it. I can remember that 50-60 years ago, with Yen at 360 to the US$ a glass of sake would cost perhaps Yen120 but a glass of shochu would cost perhaps just Yen80 or Yen90.

To All: "Me and My Beer...."
I left Kansas in early 1954 when the only legal drink was 3.2 beer in a beer hall. You couldn't take it home--but who worried about drunken drivers in those days.... I drank a little beer before leaving for Korea. Mostly likely I drank Coors since in those days it was considered a local Colorado (and Kansas?) beer. Didn't drink much, however, because neither of my parents drank and even if I was 19 and in the Army--they rather disapproved of my drinking.
Got to Korea in May 1954 as a SGT (one rocker) E5. That put me in the "top 3" (no 8s or 9s yet) so I became a fairly regular customer of the NCO club. US beer was $0.10 a can. For a dollar or so you could get rather buzzed--and I did--rather more often that necessary. I drank Japanese beer while on R&R in Tokyo (September 1954 and May 1955). And then I continued a more "intense relationship" with Japanese beer between October 1955 and October 1957 when stationed in Kyushu and then in Tokyo. In those days each of the three major (three only?) breweries made one basic flavor of beer so one's choice was limited to Kirin Lager, Asahi or Nippon Beer (i.e. "Japan Beer") or from 1958 Sapporo Beer. It was further limited to which one of the three was served at the drinking place you happened to be in. All of these places had exclusive contracts with one and only one of these three breweries. During this period, you could get a "large (22+ oz.?)" bottle for Yen100 ($0.28) at a regularly drinking place or for Yen200 ($0.56) at a girlie bar which catered to the GIs and had a young lady attached who pestered you for Tokyo Tea (tasted exactly like Saigon Tea).
To go back a bit there was a "Sakura" beer when I first got to Kyushu in October 1955 but it disappeared with a year or two.
I went dry when I was back to the states in late 1957. Stayed "very dry" from April 1958 to March 1959 when at the Army Language School in Monterey, CA because it was hard enough to learn Chinese when sober and impossible when drunk!
Got back to Korea in May 1959. Unlike the first tour, when going off-base was almost possible, I learned about Korean beers. O.B. (Oriental Brewery) and Crown. Both tasted very much like Japanese beers because the Japanese had built breweries in Korea during their occupation (1905 to 1945) and the Koreans were quick learners. However for most of this tour I was the Custodian of the small club we had on our compound--I therefore ordered Japanese Kirin beer for me and various brands of US beers for nearly everyone else. Then when I got back to Japan in June 1960, most of my drinking was with my wife's three brothers and the four of us all preferred Kirin Lager. Between June 1960 and August 1965, the beer makers and market was little changed from the 1950's.
However, perhaps in 1963, Suntory, which had started out in perhaps the 1910s or 1920s making Suntory Akadama Wine (think cough syrup) and then later was very successful making various whiskeys decided to go into the beer market. They built a brewery and started making Suntory Beer. What a bust! One night, after work, I went out with three US military drinking buddies. We saw a place which advertised the "new Suntory Beer." We went in and cautiously ordered one large bottle for the four of us. Filled four, perhaps 6 ounce glasses and said "cheers" in chorus. Also, in chorus, we all left our glasses about half full, paid the bill and walked out. It was the worst excuse for beer any of us had ever tried. Evidently many Japanese had the same reaction because within six months Suntory came out with a new version called "Suntory Dry" which proved to be rather good so today there are four major breweries in Japan, not just three.
Today there may be 25 or so various flavors of beers in the supermarkets and liquor stores today, but except for Heinekens (Dutch) they are all made by the four major breweries. I drink but very little anymore so I really can't relate what all they are. Budweiser had a brief boom in Japan in the 1980s or so, but I think it has now almost disappeared.
Back in the states from late 1965 to early 1967 I again, became a very light drinker. But being back in Japan from 1967 to 1970, I fell back into my old habits of drinking with my brothers-in-law on weekends. Was back in the states at Fort Bragg from May to July 1970 and again was a fairly light drinker. Got to AFVN in August 1970 and left in June 1971. Again, perhaps did more than my share of drinking but was pretty well stuck with (UGH!) Budweiser.
I went on R&R to Thailand in February 1971 and introduced myself to the local beer in a big way. The first evening I stayed in at the hotel and ordered a fried chicken and fries basket. Also ordered a very ordinary looking and tasting beer (name no longer remembered) which came in large 26oz or so bottles just like in Japan. My chicken was slow in arriving so I had a second one. Really had a buzz on by the time I finished the second one so I finally read the label. It was 15% alcohol not the assumed 5%--no wonder I had a buzz. And, no wonder the fried chicken was slow. The chicken had been de-feathered, beheaded and was feet-less and the innards had been removed. However, it was then put into the deep fryer "whole" and it took a long time to cook. Oh well, I had ordered "chicken in a basket" and that is what I got "one whole chicken in a basket."
Was in Taiwan after Vietnam and there we had--appropriately enough only "Taiwan Beer" on the local market. That was the brand name! Japan had also occupied Taiwan from 1895 through 1945 but the Taiwanese didn't learn how to make a decent beer. It may have been the formaldehyde, but I avoided it rather studiously. Fortunately I could get Japanese sake at the US Embassy's liquor shop so I survived OK.
Have been back in Japan since April 1974--some 46 years now. I have almost only Kirin whenever available and at home. But over the years have gone from buying in cases of 26oz bottles, to buying it in cases of 18oz bottles to buying it in cases of 12oz bottles and, when at home, limiting myself to just one bottle a night. Then, upon the advice of a doctor who told me that I should avoid alcohol altogether if possible I quit almost completely some five plus years ago. Can't say that I really miss it. [That's a lie, I do miss it at times.] The only time I have any beer anymore is about every 5 or 6 weeks when I go to my "knee pain" doctor. After seeing him around noon, I go to a nearby place which serves good hamburgers and has Kirkland (San Hose local) beer and ale. I'll get a small bottle of either ale or beer and toast a good American friend who has passed away. The reason for the toast (other than knowing him for some 50+ years, both in Japan and in Taiwan) is that when I would visit him from the 1980s on (when he retired as a GS, moved to Marin County north of the Golden Gate) whenever I would go though San Francisco I would go see him and the first thing we did when we met was to go to a local brewery/restaurant and have hamburgers and the local beer. God, I miss him, the hamburgers and the beer!
Apologies for all the rambling.
Stay safe, Jim W

From: Rick Fredericksen

Dated: June 15, 2020

Subject: Have you had one or two or three?

Marc, Huda Beer is Hue beer. I drank it two years ago at the DMZ Bar.
Rick Fredericksen

From: Brian Wickham

Dated: June 14, 2020

Subject: Have you had one or two or three?

Ba mui = thirty, Ba = three
Hai mui dong = twenty dong

From: Steve Sevits

Dated: June 14, 2020

Subject: Have you had one or two or three?

Boi mi boi (bow me bow) chemical beer. As I recall Tuesday @ 2:30 PM was a good vintage! This was almost a substitute for real beer.
Somewhere I think I've got a ball cap with this logo on it.
Steve

From: Bobbie Keith

Dated: June 14, 2020

Subject: Have you had one or two or three?

Never did acquire a test for it -- "Ba Muoi Ba" -- but was fun when at one the reunions I attended -- someone had imported a case of it from Viet Nam -- for us to enjoy - mot hai ba dzo

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From: Steve Sevits

Dated: June 16, 2020

Subject: Have you had one or two or three?

As for beer from the East, my favorite is Asahi (Japanese) which is available in the local oriental grocery store. If you haven't tried it, it should be put on your short list. Asahi used to publish beautiful calendars.
Steve

From: Bobbie Keith

Dated: June 16, 2020

Subject: Have you had one or two or three?

I like the happy Buddha - I have accrued quite a collection - starting from my years as an Army brat in Japan.

Biere La Rue [Courtesy of Marc Yablonka]

From: Marc Yablonka

Dated: June 16, 2020

Subject: Have you had one or two or three?

Rick, Jim, et al,
Have attached are a couple of snapshots of Hue Beer and Biere La Rue. Have accrued a pretty good collection of beer bottles from Southeast Asia over the years, inclusive of Beer Lao (known as Biere Lao in Laos) and Angkor Beer from Cambodia.

From: Ken Kalish

Dated: June 15, 2020

Subject: Have you had one or two or three?

Mark:
Biere La Rue, Tiger Beer, was some horrid stuff. Never knew what kind of biological specimen might be found in there. Usually bugs, but occasionally a small mammal. One inevitable reward was the “green apple quick step.” On the river it was one of our newbie initiation rituals, along the line of “Now where’s that Eskimo woman I gotta kill?”
Ken

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From: Steve Sevits

Dated: June 16, 2020

Subject: Have you had one or two or three?

Thanks to all the discussion I went looking for my "33" hat which will be pictured in the next day or two, after it dries out from a well needed washing.
Thanks for dredging up an old memory.
Steve

From: Dick Ellis

Dated: June 14, 2020

Subject: Have you had one or two or three?

If you walked down the street with that cap on it would be the same as wearing a Vietnam Veteran hat! ??

From: Paul Kasper

Dated: June 16, 2020

Subject: Have you had one or two or three?

I gave mine to Texas Tech.

From: Marc Yablonka

Dated: June 17, 2020

Subject: Have you had one or two or three?

Had a 33 Beer tee-shirt that I brought home from Saigon in 1995. Wore it till there were more holes in it than tee-shirt, Steve! lol.
Marc Phillip Yablonka

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