Delectable Delicacies
and maybe something scary...

Hoi An, Vietnam
Friday October 10, 2003

On the way to Hoi An we stopped at the cave at Marble Mountain. We'd pretty much had about enough of over-lit caves, and it looked like our singular opportunity to snack, so we did. Kath took this lovely photo whilst we were in the middle of enjoying our 'meal' of steamed vegetable and fried rice.

   
Later that evening we managed to hook up with some new friends we met on the DMZ tour at a nice restaurant they'd been to previously called the Mermaid. The food was fantastic, though a bit steep for our 'on-the-road' budget.... Dinner for 4 was just under 200,000vnd or just about $13 USD. Still, not bad for tuna grilled in banana leaf, spring rolls, vegetable curry, beef wrapped in 'lot' leaf (right front corner of the shot), beverages, rice, etc.... It was a very nice treat.

       
Finally, in Hoi An, we have managed to hook up with some food that we find flavorful and of quality worth actually enjoying. The Pho in Hue was slimy rice soup, closer to porridge (zhou) than the noodle soups that we're used to in the states. Pho in Hanoi was generally pretty nasty, though that one encounter with the Duck Pho was fantastic. The problem is getting back to the same spot when people that set up on the sidewalks never seem to return to the scene of the crime. The food in Hoi An seems to be an exception. These shots are of a meal that we had at the market in Hoi An. We had three of the wonderful sandwiches with Pate, meat slices, cucumber, green onion, lettuce, and a hot pepper sauce, the little chicken/pork/whatever sausage wrapped in banana leaf, and a sweet, glutinous rice dessert that we picked up with our fried bananas. Everything was absolutely FANTASTIC, and the entire meal was 10,000vnd, or about $0.67 USD.

Any meal in Vietnam is perfectly topped off by a delicious cup of fresh Mia Da. They feed fresh sugar cane through a roller-press and squeeze all the juice out of it. As the cane gets thinner, they fold it and feed it back through the press, adding lime or orange to give it just a bit of a tart flavor with the sweet. The juice is then poured over crushed ice into either a large glass or a small plastic bag with straw (the SE Asian version of a to-go cup). Very refreshing, and deliciously fresh and sweet.

Nothing scary yet, but I'll be sure to keep my eyes open for the bowls full of toasted grubs or the BBQ dog carcass in the markets.... Stay tuned.

Nha Trang, Vietnam
Monday October 13, 2003

Last night we picked up a couple of delicious sandwiches again, really pretty much the same as we had in Hoi An, but I thought the homework wrapping was such a beautiful touch, I had to include this shot...

Nha Trang is a fairly heavy duty backpacker town, meaning all kinds of tours, bars, pubs, cheap hotels, western food, high prices and drunks. At one of the beach front cafés ("café" in Vietnam basically means a restaurant with a menu in English that knows how to fry potatoes) we found that they were making Pizza in a wood fired oven. Sure enough, here it is. This shot is for my dear friends at the Woodstone Corporation, makers of the worlds absolute finest wood fired ovens. This is entertainingly rudimentary....

   
(Is "foot in shot" anything like "foot in mouth"?... sorry for the amateur composition)

Whilst sitting on the beach, we were fairly constantly assaulted by meandering purveyors of junk. This vendor, however, was not peddling the usual gambit of postcards, crappy artwork, Juicy Fruit, or empty hats: this vendor caught my eye, and I ended up feasting on some of the freshest, finest seafood I've ever had. I had a lobster, two crabs, two sea scallops, and a small conch type sea snail. I was blown away by how delicious it all tasted, and unfortunately I had to share with Kathy and Spaz just a bit. We were given a small dish with salt (ALL the salt here is fresh sea salt: wonderful) and pepper into which 3 fresh limes were squeezed. I requested a small red chili to add to the mix, and dipping sauce was had. So much tangier and tastier than garlic butter, and it really let the flavor shine through. All for $4.

Washing down the seafood, salt and chili with a fresh squeezed limeade, better known as "lemon juice with sugar and ice." I've never managed to figure out why all lemons are lemons and limes are lemons, too. There is no distinction made in the translation. I could probably ask for yellow lemons vs. green lemons, but green lemons seem much more common, and I'm sure yellow lemons are a premium...

Tuesday October 14, 2003

After the boat trip and the resultant discussion with the booking office, Kath and I were walking the streets back to the hotel feeling a bit like Vietnam was not such a good place, dodging street vendors, and discussing our exit route from Nha Trang and the country. We were then interrupted by a distracting and wonderful sight: bananas wrapped in sticky rice, folded in a banana leaf and grilled over open coals. Kath wanted to try one so we checked in and asked the price (2000vnd). There was a local there who spoke English, and explained the different ingredients to us. The banana and rice, as just described, was cut up warm into a bowl and then a very loose coconut milk with tapioca bits was poured hot into the bowl. The whole mixture was then topped with chopped toasted peanuts. We decided to try a bowl, and sat down with our new acquaintance, Phu, to eat. It was delicious, warm, gooey, sweet, toasty, fruity and crunchy. As Phu put it, "No find in restaurant." Certainly not one of the local 'Cafés'.

Where had this little bit of wonderful come from?  How was that, in our darkest moment of despising Vietnam, our fellow tourists, the enterprises that cater to tourists, the people on the streets, and indeed feeling like why is it all SO unfair, that we now had a wonderful dessert at a fair price with a person on the street that wanted nothing from us other than to help us enjoy something he liked and maybe speak a bit of English.  And the sugar buzz didn't hurt the moment either.  With warmth in our bellies and our hearts we continued our return trip to our hotel.

Along the way we saw a jelly, fruit, bean dessert thing stand, and Kath had been wondering what these weirdo jelly and bean drink dessert thingies with ice were. They put a very organized assortment of gloppy, slimy, gelatinous and crunchy things into a glass, topped it with crushed ice and a scoop of green ice cream on the top. Some bits were cubes, some were literally beans, and there were a couple different stringy kinds. And the colors... bright, contrasting reds and greens coexisted with the white of the ice and the pastel lime green of the ice cream, and little white threads of coconut worked their way through the body of the drink, each color having a different and distinct flavor. Some of it was quite tasty and fresh, other pieces were surprisingly foul. The black chunks of jelly were kind of like licorice, but really particularly disgusting. The kids however, were absolutely a dream, and this was a very magical experience for us following the trials of the day.

We spent about 30+ minutes hanging out with the children and 4 of the sisters (from a family of 10 kids) that ran the place. The kids were fun, cute, playful and eagerly photogenic. I'm confused by the actual desire the people here have to be photographed. Not only does it fly in the face of my personal opinions on the subject, but it's also entirely contrary to my experience in Lao. Anyway, the kids were sweet, relaxing and kind. And their mother and Aunts were also very sweet, kind and generous. We talked as best we could, one Aunt spoke pretty good English, one had a phrase book.

When we attempted to pay, we were politely denied. This generosity is unparalleled with and unexpected from the entirety of my other experience in Vietnam. Providence smiled upon us, and showed us truly friendly where we'd thought only distrust, kindness where others had been only rude, and generosity where we were wary of greed. It was a wonderful moment and a brilliant lesson.

The mother of the children, and the youngest of the sisters. The ones in the yellow and red are hers, ages 6 and 4.  The boy's name I believe is Chao (pronounced GEe-ow with a hard 'G'), but the little girl's name is actually 'Kathy'. I don't believe it was a mistake we met this family and enjoyed their company. Testament to the power of food.... And 'Amen' to peace.

Barbequed sparrow anyone? There were these stands everywhere, but they just weren't tempting enough to voluntarily try.

  
As best I can figure out, the noodles are called "Lokcha" and the fried gooey rice things with onions in them are not. Actually, I was afraid that the noodles in the Lokcha were actually grubs the first few times we saw them, but then curiosity got the better of us and we explored far enough to learn that they weren't really scary at all.  This was all quite tasty....

Siem Reap, Cambodia
Saturday November 1, 2003

At West Baray in Siem Reap we took some time to have a bit of a picnic of foods we picked up from the market stalls. We had BBQ'd chicken and some fish, tried some coconut sweets filled with palm sugar, and I got to try my hand at crushing sugar cane juice.

Monday November 3, 2003

At a small market in town we tried some of the local foods. The dried shrimp all fried together were quite tasty...

     
An incredible dinner of fresh deer meat seasoned and grilled. The meat came off about a 30kg deer's hind leg. So soft and tasty. Also BBQ fish and assorted veggies.

Some meat left out to dry in the sun while a tractor pulls trash in the background. Standard, no-refrigeration preservation.

This is the kitchen where all the food is prepared over open wood fires.

De-chaffing rice for cooking, toasting lemongrass and garlic, and some prepared fish.

Van was a great cook, and we had some very delicious meals. Generally, we aren't the biggest fan of Lao food, so it was really nice to get some good food.

Yummy seafood and all kinds of great things. Spit roast piglet, birds nest, shark fin....

Back on Khao San road...

Particularly delicious... not that I'd know.

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