23 June 2001
23 June 2001
What's
New?MissionsThis week we are adding information about Cameroon to our Mission page in preparation for the November Mission Conference to be held in Rome right after the meeting of scj major superiors.
Sorry about that...
This week's edition of the news is being written in the back seat of a car on the way to Corinth, Mississippi traveling with Fr. General and Fr. Jim Cunniffe during the general's pastoral visit to the United States Province. For the past two weeks Fr. General and I have been 'flying' around the States visiting scjs in Illinois, Wisconsin, Florida, Texas, Mississippi, and South Dakota. I apologize for the mix-up in dates on last week's news page. However, if you have ever seen the film "If This Is Tuesday It Must Be Belgium", you'll have a feeling for the mental state of your editor.
NB The general will end his visit to the US by attending the election assembly for a new provincial administration (June 25-29,2001). He will then fly back to Rome for a couple of days before heading to South Brazil to begin his pastoral visit which will last almost until the end of August.
What's
Happening?British-Irish ProvinceAt the start of the ongoing formation program at Malpas, a Prayer for the Journey of Reconciliation was published on their website (http://www.malpas2000.freeserve.co.uk/)
Italy
Mr. Filippo Cardillo, a member of the Dehonian family in Italy sent along an article on a recent Dehonian pilgrimage to Loreto where Fr. Dehon received his inspiration to found his religious community.
When we were celebrating the Jubilee Year, Father Fausto Colecchia SCJ proposed to organize a pilgrimage to Loreto, in an effort to return to our "Dehonian spiritual spring". We have seriously realized it and it was wonderful how we have met together this year in Loreto.
United States
Thi Pham, a student at the SCJ Formation House in San Antonio, Texas, and preparing to enter the SCJ Novitiate at Chicago in August was featured in an article by Bonnie Walker on cooking in the San Antonio Express-News.
Hung Phong Oriental Market
243 Remount Drive
On a Friday morning, I met Thi Pham, 26, at the Hung Phong Oriental Market. Pham is a Vietnamese-American and Holmes High School graduate enrolled at the Priests of the Sacred Heart seminary.
Pham grew up in a family with many sisters, meaning he didn't get much chance to cook when he was younger. Now, though, he has developed those skills cooking for fellow seminarians. They love his spring rolls and pork rolls, he says. "But, I put a little American twist on my cooking," he admits.
He might dilute the fish sauce, for example. And, though his Vietnamese cooking is authentic, his specialty, he claims, is Italian cream cake and mango ice cream.
Pham showed us around the market, pointing out the array of herbs and vegetables, water spinach, watercress and perfect mangos ù duck eggs, aisles jammed with a mind-boggling array of sauces, and fresh seafood, including crabs and crawfish.
We had met on a Friday morning for good reason.
Every Thursday, store co-owner Tuong Thai heads to Houston with a truck, loads it up with fresh shipments of seafood, greens, fruit and other fresh foods and heads back to San Antonio to stock the market.
That's why Friday mornings are the busiest part of the week for Tuong and his brother, Patrick, who are Vietnamese. The Thais opened Hung Phong at another location in 1981. They've been at the current store for the past seven years or so.
Demand expanded the store, which is probably San Antonio's largest Asian market, says Patrick Thai. The diversity of foods is impressive.
"We started with Vietnamese and Chinese food, but now it's grown to include others, like Lao, Korean, Japanese and Filipino," Patrick Thai says.
Just as rice is the most important food to Asian cuisines, it is also the most important product sold at Hung Phong. Along one long wall, laid in rows on pallets, are bags and bags of rice, 12 to 15 varieties. Each nationality wants its own type and familiar brands.
"The main thing we try to do is keep the rice at a good price, we'll sell it even lower than they do in Houston," says Thai. And for the customers, that's a good reason to keep shopping in San Antonio.
bwalker1@express-news.netBy Bonnie Walker
Express-News Staff Writer
05/30/2001NB Spring Rolls (Cha Gio), was one of the recipes of Thi's featured in the newspaper article.