Vietnam – In Far Away Lands

Some of the food here is a bit weird, tasty but not what we’d do in the west.

I have a room in a house that’s far from any tourist centres sort of a well to do middle class area, there’s some nice houses and lots and lots of front room type eating places (it’s a stretch to call them restaurants) dotted around the neighborhood, then there’s a main road with more dedicated food places, a few stalls and yes things I would call a restaurant.

Many of the houses here are 3 story and the ground floor has large shutter doors so the space can be used for seating for a coffee shop, a small eating place and at night the place to park their car. On the main street there are dedicated food places with a similar set up and a couple of cafe / restaurants, there’s lots of stalls that sell filled baguettes, smoothies and noodles.

Vietnam has a few national dishes, some shops specialize in rice or noodles or one particular dish some do a variety some do all. Rice and a meat, different types of noodles soups, and a couple of thing I haven’t seen before.

This is my new favorite, Banh beo, nem lui. The yellow thing is 2 thin crispy omelettes with bean sprouts and a prawn in between, then there’s some sort of pork meat wrapped around a lemon grass stalk, rice paper wrappers, salad which includes a very bitter green thing and some dipping sauce. It’s a self assembly deal with chop sticks (my skills have increased exponentially since arriving). While sitting eating I saw a rat run across the floor, a cockroach around the table legs and grandma wrapping the raw meat around the lemongrass stalks in what looked like a basic living room sitting area while watching the TV! Safe food can be made in a dirty kitchen – difficult but possible! Food was freshly cooked and only cost £1.30 and filling.

Then we have the noodle soup, some is totally self assembly some get half assembled but you always get salad, the salad your supposed to put into the soup and eat hot – now that’s weird.

Breakfast is variety of eggs here with beef (bo ne) the french baguette influence remains.

There’s the classic use of western brands and names on their local shops.

Unusual products in the shops. White fungus drink – yummy. Weasel Coffee! the weasel eats the best coffee beans, poop out the fermented beans which are washed (i hope) roasted ground and brewed up into coffee – It’s quite nice. But I wonder if it can be called vegetarian?

Just about everywhere you will see the washer woman squatting over bowls of soupy looking suds washing the utensils which after rinsing will be dried in the sun.

Another favourite is My Quang and this is from a place that’s the nearest thing to a local chain restaurant, from what i can gather there’s 7 branches and they even have a web site.

I sat down looked over the menu, practiced my best pronunciation and for the beef but the girl pointed to one thing as if to say that’s all we have now & that’s what i ordered. (when in Rome!) As you can see the a big rice cracker salad and a bowl of mixed beef shrimp chicken & noodles, hmmm very nice. I broke the cracker nibbled some with salad and one if the kind waiters came over and showed me I was doing it wrong and I should or everything in the bowl of noodles and eat from there. No problem (when in Rome!) Hihi (Vietnamese way of writing ha ha or lol)

The last time I saw a whole pig roasting on the pavement it had head and teeth still intact.