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Three banh canh noodle joints outpace Saigonese peers

admin — Mon, 21 Dec 2020 13:40:53 +0000

Three banh canh eateries in Saigon are creating a splash among hundreds of ordinary noodle shops in the city thanks to their cut-above style, service, and ingredients.

Resembling the Japanese udon noodle, banh canh, literally translated as “cake soup”, is either made with pure rice flour or rice flour mixed with tapioca, giving it a thick appearance and chewy texture. Typical topping options include pork, chicken, and seafood.

“Giant” crab banh canh in District 5

A pot of banh canh at Ba Ba comes with a ladle so customers can split the soup into smaller bowls for individual servings. Photo by VnExpress/Cao Ly.

Ba Ba (Madam Ba) eatery in Alley 84 on Nguyen Bieu Street in District 5 is known for serving their crab noodle soup banh canh in large ceramic cooking pots suitable for two to three people.

Aside from the big serving, the banh canh at Ba Ba lures patrons with its viscous orange broth enriched with crab meat, pork bones, and dried shrimp. Cashew oil and tapioca starch are added to achieve the color and viscosity.

Toppings consist of two to three slices of shrimp and fish cake, quail eggs, blood pudding, and pig skin. A portion costs VND92,000 ($4). The eatery opens from 9 a.m. until 8 p.m.

Phu Yen garlic chive banh canh in District 10

Customers can request to have less chives in their bowl. Photo by VnExpress/Cao Ly.

A specialty of central Phu Yen Province, a bowl of banh canh covered in garlic chives at 111 Cao Thang Street in District 10 might turn some away because of its strong smell. However, garlic chives are tactfully used here to dilute the fishy flavor of the soup.

In central Vietnam cuisine, the broth for soups is usually made with seafood for a sweeter taste than regular pork bone varieties. Simple yet delicious, toppings include thick cut noodles, fish cakes, a piece of mackerel accompanied by a sweet and sour sauce on the side.

A bowl costs VND40,000 ($1.7) and VND50,000 with mackerel. The eatery also serves other Phu Yen delicacies like chicken rice, basil chicken hotpot, and tuna salad. The restaurant opens from 7 a.m. until 9.30 p.m.

“Two bowl” banh canh in District 1

A portion includes a bowl containing the noodle soup and another with the meat, giving the eatery its “two bowl” nickname. Photo by VnExpress/Cao Ly.

Every noon, the eatery at 10 Pho Duc Chinh Street in District 1 teems with customers. Even though the sign only advertises squid porridge, the joint attracts customers for its delicious rendition of banh canh.

Each serving features two bowls, one containing the soup and noodles, the other, meat. A lime, pepper, and salt dip is served on the side. Here, the soup is topped with a chicken drumstick, wing, or pig’s trotters.

Recipe for making porridge is also used for the soup and sweetened with shreds of dried octopus, pork bones, and dried shrimp.

The eatery opens from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m. Aside from porridge and banh canh, it also offers Vietnamese macaroni (nui), wonton, and side dishes like century egg and boiled chicken feet.

The price for a bowl ranges from VND50,000 to VND55,000, depending on additional extras.

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Pagoda crowns Saigon apartment building

admin — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 15:09:01 +0000

A 50-year-old pagoda built atop a residential building in Saigon’s District 5 attracts a daily stream of visitors.

Tu Duc Pagoda (painted yellow) is located on the fourth floor of Hung Vuong apartment building. The pagoda was built in 1970, around the same time the building was established.

In front of Tu Duc Pagoda stands a large censer and altar facing the buildings opposite.

Monk Thich Chan Khai, in charge of the pagoda, said: “My master originally planned to build a pagoda in Phu Lam area (District 6). But the owner of this complex, a follower of Buddhism, gifted us this entire fourth floor instead.”

The pagoda’s interior equals the size of 10 apartments, covering an area of about 700 square meters. All pillars, ceilings and floors have been kept intact as per initial design.

Unlike other pagodas, there are no ancestral house, monk’s house, or bell tower.

There are about 10 Buddha statues placed in the great hall. Behind the altar lies a small room where the abbot can rest. Apart from the abbot and manager, Tu Duc Pagoda does not have any other monks.

A lord in the pagoda, believed to protect Buddhism and Buddhism followers.

The pagoda bell is located in the center of the great hall.

The remaining space is taken up by a statue of Cundi, a goddess with 18 arms placed on a lotus flower. Next to the statue is an office and behind a space dedicated to worshipping monks that have made a great contribution to Tu Duc Pagoda.

Because of the limited space, the pagoda does not feature many detailed designs, with only a few lotus shapes on the gate.

Right next to the great hall is a kitchen and storeroom for jars of ash.

The pagoda holds about 2,000 jars of ash, carefully arranged on the four meter high shelves and cleaned daily.

The pagoda garden includes many types of ornamental plants. Besides, there is a statue of Guanyin, a Buddhist bodhisattva associated with compassion, and a small tower containing the remains of the monk who founded the pagoda.

An arial view of the apartment building.

Worshippers visit the pagoda on most days, especially during full moon and big Buddhist celebrations.

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Hanoians, Saigonese want more done to improve air quality

admin — Sun, 20 Oct 2019 08:27:37 +0000

Smog permeates the air near the West Lake in Hanoi, September 30, 2019. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy.

Most Hanoians and Saigonese are dissatisfied with the air quality in their cities and feel additional measures are needed to improve it.

A survey on residents’ perception of air pollution in Hanoi and Saigon, done by the Center for Media and Development Initiative (MDI), found 66.4 percent of respondents in Hanoi and 58 percent in Saigon were “dissatisfied” with the current air quality in the two cities.

Just one 1 percent in Hanoi and 2.8 percent in Saigon said they were “satisfied” with local air quality.

Most of the respondents, 76.8 percent in Hanoi and 64.2 in Saigon, said additional measures were necessary to deal with air pollution.

The survey, which questioned over 1,000 residents of both cities from May 14 to August 27, found most respondents, 77 percent in Hanoi and 67.2 percent in Saigon, believe that air quality is poorer today than it was three years ago. They felt traffic, burning of trash and industrial processes were the main causes of worsening air pollution.

49.2 percent of respondents in Hanoi and 50.4 percent in Saigon said the government needs to put in more effort to combat air pollution. The top three solutions identified by the residents were: better emission control, enactment of a clean air act, and higher taxes on activities that pollute the air.

“Air pollution remains controversial as the air pollution measurement systems in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have not been completed. It is clear in this report, however, that people feel the negative impacts of air pollution,” said Tran Le Thuy, cofounder and director of MDI.

Drastic air pollution control measures should be taken and people should be given a clear and accurate understanding of the levels and sources of air pollution in the two cities, she added.

A recent government report said the PM2.5 particulate level in Hanoi reached a five-year high last month, with officials urging residents to limit outdoor activities. PM2.5 particles, described as superfine particles, are discharged by vehicles, industrial and natural sources like dust and can easily pass through lung tissue and be absorbed into the bloodstream, causing adverse health effects.

Air quality in the capital city was consistently ranked “unhealthy” by air monitoring apps in September and October.

Officials said the low quality of air in Hanoi was caused by construction, a growing number of cars and motorcycles and heavy industry emissions, including steel works, cement factories and coal-fired plants.

Meanwhile, authorities in HCMC admitted at a meeting earlier this month that exhaust from 10 million vehicles, smoke from 1,000 large factories and dust from numerous construction sites are worsening the city’s air pollution.

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Saigon wants all retail outlets free of plastic bags

admin — Mon, 07 Oct 2019 10:30:10 +0000

Green onions are wrapped in banana leaves at a supermarket in HCMC, instead of plastic bags as what has been done in most retail outlets in recent years. Photo by VnExpress/Nghe Nguyen.

All supermarkets, shopping malls, convenience stories and bookstores in Saigon are to replace plastic bags with environmentally friendly options by 2020.

City authorities said the move follows up on a campaign to fight against plastic waste launched in June by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

Phuc called for action to achieve zero disposable plastic use in urban shops, markets and supermarkets by 2021 and extend it nationwide by 2025.

Several supermarkets in the city, which is now home to 13 million people including migrants, have already taken first steps to cut plastic by wrapping several of their products with banana leaves.

All supermarkets in the city sell reusable bags of different sizes with signboards asking customers to switch to using them.

Starting May, leading supermarket chain Saigon Co.op has stopped selling plastic straws at all of its stores and replaced them with those made with paper, rice, stainless steel, glass and other environment-friendly materials.

The HCMC administration had previously asked government employees to limit the use of bottled water, plastic bags and straws in the workplace.

It directed that government offices and agencies in the city, not to use bottled water starting August 1, including for conferences, and switch to bottles of more than 20 liters that are easier to reuse. Starting 2020, the municipal Department of Finance will not allocate funds to government agencies for buying disposable plastic products.

So far, several schools in the city have announced plans to stop using single-use water bottles and plastic straws at meetings, conferences and other events; while some public hospitals have started using recycled paper bags to pack medicines for their patients.

Bui Trong Hieu, chairman of the HCMC Urban Environment Company Limited, said earlier this year that of the 8,700 tons of trash discarded in the city daily, plastic accounts for 1,800 tons but a mere 200 tons, or 11 percent, is collected for recycling.

The recent environmentally-friendly moves by different sectors come in the wake of reports that Vietnamese produce a staggering amount of plastic waste: around 2,500 tons a day.

Vietnam has the dubious distinction of being ranked the fourth biggest polluter of oceans in the world by U.S. based non-profit environmental organization Ocean Conservancy.

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Saigon real estate firm scammed over $107 million from customers: police

admin — Sat, 21 Sep 2019 07:52:16 +0000

Police surround the headquarters of Alibaba real estate firm in Ho Chi Minh City’s Thu Duc District, September 20, 2019. Photo by VnExpress/Quoc Thang.

A Saigon property firm is suspected of swindling VND2.5 trillion ($107 million) from 6,700 people, tricking them into investing in ghost projects.

Investigators say that documents seized from the office of real estate firm Alibaba on Friday show 6,700 customers lost their money after investing in 40 projects.

Police have summoned Huynh Thi Ngoc Nhu, the firm’s deputy CEO in charge of external affairs and staff training, for clarifying the information they have collected.

The latest move is part of an expanding investigation into the “fraudulent appropriation of assets” by Alibaba.

Alibaba president Nguyen Thai Luyen, 34, and director Nguyen Thai Linh, 30, his younger brother, were arrested on Wednesday after hundreds of police officers and at least eight military vehicles surrounded the company’s headquarters in HCMC’s Thu Duc District.

Luyen is said to have masterminded the plans executed by Linh and his accomplices in founding Alibaba and its subsidiaries to have people invest in non-existent projects in certain southern provinces.

These projects were neither approved by authorities nor did they go through any legal process, police said.

Among them are eight plots of agricultural land covering over 70 hectares (173 acres) in Phu My Town of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, a neighbor of HCMC, and 29 property projects with total floor area of 80 hectares in Long Thanh, Nhon Trach and Xuan Loc Districts of Dong Nai Province, which also borders the city.

Agricultural land in Phu My Town, Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, that Alibaba used to deceive its customers, telling them it was the site of a major development project. Photo by VnExpress/Quoc Thang.

Following the news of the arrests, hundreds of residents have visited the office of the city’s economic crime police in District 10, saying they were customers of Alibaba.

They brought contracts, documents of land right use transferring and related papers that they had signed with the company, expressing their worries and confusion.

In June, two employees of Alibaba were arrested for damaging properties and disrupting public order when they protested and threw bricks at bulldozers sent by authorities in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau to reclaim land plots from illegal real estate projects.

Alibaba claims to possess a charter capital of VND5.6 trillion ($241 million) and to employing over 2,500 employees working on 48 projects.

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More Vietnam-Jakarta direct flights will boost bilateral tourism: Indonesia

admin — Sat, 21 Sep 2019 07:15:37 +0000

Airbus A321 of Vietnam Airlines prepares to land at Tan Son Nhat Airport in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by Shutterstock/Andy Tran.

The Indonesian government is encouraging more direct flights connecting Vietnam’s major cities with its capital Jakarta to strengthen connectivity.

Ibnu Hadi, Indonesian ambassador to Vietnam, said strengthening connectivity would be an ‘important factor’ in increasing the number of visitors from Vietnam to Indonesia and vice versa.

Indonesian news agency Antara quoted him as saying Indonesia was encouraging the opening of more direct air routes connecting Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s two biggest metropolises, with Jakarta.

In addition, there should be charter flights from Jakarta and Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city, to the central coastal city of Da Nang, he said.

Indonesia has been one of the destinations benefiting as increasing numbers of the rising middle class in Vietnam travel abroad for holidays.

The number of Vietnamese tourists to Indonesia last year reached 75,682, while 87,941 Indonesian tourists visited Vietnam, according to the Vietnam National Administration. Last year, 8.6 million Vietnamese people traveled abroad, up 15 percent from a year ago.

In the first seven months of this year, Indonesia, home to Bali, one of the most famous island destinations in Southeast Asia, received 53,000 visitors from Vietnam, up 18 percent year-on-year, Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism data shows. For 2019, Indonesia has set a target of 20 million foreign tourist arrivals, compared to 15.81 million in 2018.

In order to reach the target of welcoming 123,000 Vietnamese tourists set by the Indonesian tourism ministry, the country’s embassy in Hanoi has launched various activities, including participation in the International East-West Economic Corridor Trade and Tourism Fair and the Tourism and Investment Fair 2019 in Da Nang, as well as the “Bali and Beyond” tourism promotion in Ho Chi Minh City.

Vietnam Airlines, the national flag carrier, has announced the launch of a direct flight from Ho Chi Minh City to the resort island of Bali from October 27 onwards. Low-cost carrier Vietjet Air had launched a direct Saigon-Bali route since last April.

A recent report by Agoda, the world’s leading online accommodation reservations provider, said growing affluence has spurred Vietnamese holiday-goers to spend more on foreign jaunts, and Southeast Asia nations were heavily favored destinations.

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Saigon apartment prices balloon in last 5 years

admin — Mon, 16 Sep 2019 09:10:53 +0000

Aerial view of Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by Shutterstock/Tiep.Nguyen.

Apartment prices in HCMC have risen by more 50 percent across all segments since 2015, real estate firm DKRA said.

In 2015 the average price of a high-end apartment was VND40 million ($1,720) per square meter. It had risen to VND61 million ($2,630) by August, and would continue to increase in the coming months, the firm said.

The average price of a mid-range apartment rose from VND21 million ($900) to VND32 million ($1,380) between 2015 and August 2019, a 52.4 percent increase. But the gain has been slow this year.

In the affordable segment, prices have increased from VND16 million ($690) to VND24 million ($1,030), a 50 percent rise. In the last 12 months they have risen by 9 percent.

Prices are expected to keep rising due to a short supply since projects are taking a lot of time to complete legal procedures even as demand remains strong given the high net migration to the city, DKRA said.

According to real estate firm Savills, total supply, which includes unsold units and newly built units in the city in the last quarter of 2018, fell 44 percent year-on-year.

This number fell by a further 34 percent in the first quarter of 2019 to just over 12,000 apartments, which represents a 57 percent drop compared to the first quarter of 2018. One of the problems the city market faces is the legal difficulty in selling apartments, Le Hoang Chau, chairman of HCMC Real Estate Association, said.

Many projects are stuck at various levels from applying for approval from local authorities and getting permission to begin construction to getting permission to begin selling.

According to the city Department of Statistics, Saigon’s base population at the end of 2018 was 8.85 million people.

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Where to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival like a local in Hanoi and Saigon

admin — Wed, 11 Sep 2019 10:05:32 +0000

There are only two days to go for the Mid-Autumn Festival. Have you made plans for the full moon night yet?

For Vietnamese, the Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on September 13 this year, is the second most important festival after the Lunar New Year.

It is celebrated in East and Southeast Asia countries like China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

The festival is an occasion for a children’s night out and family reunions. Children enjoy art performances like singing, plays and lion dances, light up the night with colorful lanterns and enjoy mooncakes.

While the Chinese perform the dragon dance during this festival, the Vietnamese have their unique unicorn dance and lion dance, which symbolize luck, wealth and prosperity.

Hanoi

Thang Long Imperial Citadel

“Festive Drums of Autumn Moon” featuring images of drums of all shapes, sizes and colors arranged and displayed to remind visitors of the festive ambiance of the Vietnamese countryside will be held until Friday at the citadel to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Children can try their hand at making mooncakes, papier mâché masks, kites, statuettes and sketches, matching pictures, and kneading dough figurines. They can also play various games.

The Old Quarter

Authorities have banned vehicles from certain streets in Hanoi’s Old Quarter until September 13 for the festival celebrations.

They are not allowed to enter Hang Luoc, Hang Ruoi and Hang Chai streets and sections of Hang Ma and Hang Khoai streets from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Hang Ma Street is busy during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Photo acquired by VnExpress.

At the Kim Ngan Temple in Hang Bac Street, artisans will make and teach audiences how to make traditional toys including star lanterns, paper kites and terracotta figurines from September 6 to 13.

The Hanoi Ancient House at 87 Ma May Street will exhibit a photo collection of the Mid-Autumn festival of old Hanoi in the 20th century.

At the Cultural Exchange Center at 50 Dao Duy Tu Street, visitors will be taught traditional crafts like mask and bamboo light drawing, postcard making and painting on paper made from the bark of trees.

Lanterns illuminate Phung Hung Street in downtown Hanoi. Photo by VnExpress/ Duc Nguyen.

The Phung Hung fresco street has been attracting youths who come to take selfies among the hundreds of illuminated lanterns lined up there, which turn it into a miniature version of Shifen old town in Taiwan.

On the evening of September 13 the pedestrians-only zone around Hoan Kiem Lake will see several traditional and contemporary activities to celebrate the festival.

Saigon

Phu Binh lantern-making village

This is one of the few villages in the city that still make glass paper lanterns for the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Situated in a small alley off Lac Long Quan Street in District 11, the lantern-making village was formed in the mid-1950s when artisans from the renowned craft village of Bac Co in Nam Dinh Province migrated to Saigon and brought their lantern-making skills. It has survived for more than half a century.

A woman living inside a small alley off Lac Long Quan Street in District 11 prepares for paper lanterns to sell to customers. Photo by VnExpress/Thanh Nguyen.

When the festival nears, dozens of families in this village are busy completing the last orders from the market.

Take a stroll around and see the red of the paper lanterns filling up the place and the bustling atmosphere as family members gather at a corner in front of their houses, decorating lanterns in various shapes and colors.

The lantern corner in Chinatown

Stretching along Luong Nhu Hoc and Nguyen An streets, this is the largest lantern market in Ho Chi Minh City during the Mid-Autumn festival, with almost every house and sidewalk turning into lantern shops.

The market, which was established in the 1960s, is well known for its artisans who make traditional lanterns from scarlet glass paper, considered as a special cultural trait of the Chinese community.

Residents shop for lanterns on Luong Nhu Hoc Street, known as the busiest lantern market in HCMC, in the lead up to the Mid-Autumn Festival. Photo acquired by VnExpress.

Take a walk alongside a bewildering range of lanterns in various sizes, shapes and colors, and treat yourself to specialty foods made by the local Chinese.

Nguyen Hue pedestrian street

There will be a lantern parade and art performances on this busy street, and it will be very crowded.

Nguyen Hue, which runs up to the Saigon River, has been receiving thousands of visitors every day since its center strip became a pedestrians-only zone in 2015. It gets particularly crowded during weekends and holidays.

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Explore five cafés on Saigon’s walking street

admin — Wed, 11 Sep 2019 04:37:20 +0000

Get a good coffee before starting to watch people down below on Nguyen Hue, one of the city’s busiest streets for pedestrians.

Photo courtesy of Thinker & Dreamer Coffee.

Thinker & Dreamer

The minimalist style of this café, with black and white being the main colors, makes it a favorite for many. Despite its modest room, Thinker & Dreamer does not feel crammed. A seat on the balcony looking down on the walking street could be an enjoyable experience.

Photo courtesy of Thinker & Dreamer Coffee.

There is a wide range of items in the menu and an average price of VND50,000 ($2.2) per drink.

Photo courtesy of Boo Coffee.

Boo Coffee

Situated in the top floor of a renovated old apartment building at No. 42, the café offers a bird’s-eye view of downtown Saigon. The décor is spruce.

Photo by VnExpress/Di Vy.

Besides the regular drinks, Boo Coffee also serves a variety of milk teas. One of them, intriguingly named grilled milk tea, is highly recommended. It comprises of black sugar and marshmallow grilled directly with fire right before it is served, creating a novel flavor. This particular drink comes in two versions that cost VND49,000 ($2) and VND59,000 ($2.5).

Photo courtesy of Haan – Drink & Eatery.

Haan – Drink & Eatery

The café, which opened not long ago, is much larger than most coffee shops in the apartment building at No. 42. It is divided into two areas, an outdoors and an air-conditioned room.

Photo courtesy of Haan – Drink & Eatery.

It has various drinks and food. If you have a sweet tooth, give the soufflé with Italian ice cream a go.

Photo by VnExpress/Di Vy.

The Letter

The café replicates the coziness one would feel in the ancient town of Hoi An in central Vietnam with its yellow theme and traditional furniture and pictures on the wall depicting a time in the past. It has three separate spaces, each decorated with pottery, ornamental pots and fresh flowers.

Photo by VnExpress/Di Vy.

Drinks start at VND40,000 ($1.7).

Photo courtesy of L’amant Café.

L’amant Café

The café, situated near the intersection of Nguyen Hue and Ton Duc Thang streets, has a mix of modern architecture and old-fashioned floor patterns. It is usually crowded during weekends.

Photo courtesy of L’amant Café.

The highlight of L’amant Café is its coffee menu. Its coffee beans are said to come from the Central Highlands, Vietnam’s coffee hub, and contain no preservatives. With every sip, you feel a slightly bitter taste on the tip of your tongue followed by sweetness.

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At Saigon zoo, animals and humans are family

admin — Sun, 08 Sep 2019 08:01:42 +0000

Over 40 employees of the Saigon Zoo and Botanical Garden have forged close bonds with more than 1,000 animals they take care of every day.

“My job is to clean the cages and take care of the eating and sleeping of tigers, leopards, bears, lions and hyenas. I see them every day so we get along well now,” said Tran Ngoc Luan, 58, as he pets a hyena.

The Saigon Zoo was built in 1864, opened to the public a year later and now has over 125 animal species.

Luan is up at 6:30 a.m. daily to clean up the cages and prepare water for carnivores.

“The job is tough but fun. The important thing is to have passion and love for animals,” said Luan, who has worked for the zoo since 2007.

Luan divides buffalo meat into portions for two Indochinese tigers. Each tiger gets to eat five kilograms of meat a day divided into two meals: one in the afternoon and the other at night.

Luan introduces a white tiger that has been raised by the zoo staff since it was young and its mother did not have enough milk.

“Now it’s big and weighs about 200 kilograms. Every time we pass by, it jumps up to greet us. It’s cute,” he said.

The white tiger gets a health check when it was two-month-old, in this picture taken in 2015.

“It’s hard to raise young animals, especially young tigers as they need constant care, including giving them milk, massages, letting them sun-bathe and giving them regular health checks,” said Nguyen Pham Minh Phuong (R), head of the team taking care of carnivores.

When a tiger is three months old, it is allowed to mingle with its fellows from the same species.

Huynh Le Ngoc Diem, a technician who has worked in the park for a decade, holds a rescued red-shanked douc.

“Anyone raising a douc would know that it’s ten times harder than raising a human child, as they are picky eaters and their digestive system works differently from other species’. It requires you to be meticulous and patient,” she said.

Since 2016, the park has received six rescued doucs.

Diem trains a young douc to eat flowers and leaves.

An eight-month-old douc still relys on unsweetened milk as it’s not familiar with herbal food yet.

“Every day, a young douc is fed four times, three hours apart. Too much or too little milk would make them sick. That’s why the amount of milk must be carefully calculated,” Diem said.

Tran Van Tam, a member of the bird team, feeds birds in the zoo at 8:30 a.m. every day.

“This is an Oriental darter. It is smart. Whenever it sees me moving towards the bird island, it is the first one to jump on the ladder to get food,” he said.

Tam is also in charge of putting fruits and vegetables on trees for a family of white-cheeked gibbons.

As soon as food goes up a tree, a female gibbon, part of a family of three, takes a banana from the basket.

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