Background
When I went to Vietnam, the only thing I knew about the modern country was the food — I loved the food. When I became an editor at Word Vietnam, food became my job.
I’d already had a job on the beverage side of the spectrum. I was a bartender from 2009–2011 at Square 1682, a Kimpton Hotel-connected bar that won USA Today’s 10best Readers’ Choice Award for “Best Hotel Bar” in the country shortly after I left. By that time, I was already opening up a “pirate bar” in Ho Chi Minh City.
In my full-time writing life, I still eat and drink. Occasionally, I even get paid to do so.