Vietnam - The Food

Now that we have officially been back from vacation for over one month it is time to finally post some stuff and stop complaining about jet lag. Yah 19 days on break traveling through southern Viet Nam, what a time! There were 15 of us in all, Ben's immediate family including myself (6), aunt Melissa and uncle Mike who live in Italy (2) and aunt Tach, uncle Hung and cousins [Tien 1, Tien 2, Thien 3, Yen, and Crazy] from Vietnam (7). Here we are minus the italians.
I was a little nervous about the trip especially in regards to eating and going to the bathroom. Luckily, I am not a picky eater but there are some things I just can't eat. Like what if someone served us intestines or chicken heads and it was super rude to refuse, what would I do?? But no worries because the food was great and I pretty much liked everything I tried.

THE BEST STUFF - Fruits, Veggies and Coffee

Fresh, fresh, fresh that sums it up. One hundred bucks to anyone who can name all the fruits in the market picture, I'll give you two freebies, there are apples and 2 kinds of oranges.










Another awesome thing about the fruit was it traveled by basket everywhere. One morning we were sitting drinking coffee and the oranges just walked right up to us. How cool. The availability of super fresh produce made coming back to Maine's horrible winter fruit and vegetable selection a real downer.

I'm a big coffee drinker and feared the Vietnamese would handle coffee like Mexico where they grow some great coffee but export it for cash and serve their people instant crap. Not in Vietnam, their coffee is prepared individually with sweetened condensed milk and then poured over ice. It is almost dessert in a cup and I have tried tirelessly to replicate it at home but it just ain't happening!




Weirdest Meal - BREAKFAST

Honestly you never know what you might get for breakfast. Many days we had sandwiches, which is a little odd but works. Also we had alot of dough bally things like donuts and steamed dough with eggs inside. Everything was good, just very different.

Ben's parents rented a van and we traveled from Saigon up the coast towards the city of Hue. Then the breakfast fare really started to get weird. Ever had slimy rice pancakes rolls covered with hunks of pork loaf, dried onions and cilantro for breakfast? I don't think so but you are missing out because it rocks (minus the onion burps).

How about fish soup on the beach with chopsticks. Probably haven't done that either but that was also a grand breakfast and what a view. Can't get that at McDonalds.

We ate alot of soup and it was almost always a safe bet as long as you don't mind tentacles. I got squid in my breakfast soup a few times. Not the worst thing I could imagine but just doesn't fit breakfast quite like eggs or waffles.

Regardless breakfast was always adventurous, fun and enjoyable. We could learn something from Viet Nam, like how to pass leftovers for breakfast.

COOL STUFF

SPRING ROLL BUFFET. One of my favorite meals was at a roll your own spring roll joint. The help staff knew we were helpless and spent most of the evening rolling for us. Cousin Yen was appalled that we spent $5 a person on dinner(typically a meal was $1 - $1.50 per person), but we usually ate at native only restaurants with Vietnamese prices, not the American tourist prices at the spring roll store.

FAA- SOUP whatever you wanna call it, you can find it anywhere and it was always good. We tried to make this at home too, not quite the same but we are getting better.(And here are those italians)

ROLES REVERSED In Viet Nam guys do most of the cooking and the women handle the money. Hmm I think that is a wonderful idea. Here is Tien 2 chopping veggies for din-din.

FISH PARTS. Most fish is served whole in Viet Nam and the skin and fins are the favorite parts. I ate the meat and left the crunching to the eldest cousin Tien 1, he loves fins. Chew those things good my friend, we don't want you to rip a hole in your throat.

STREET FOOD We found a sweet potato stand in Da Nang that was sooo awesome we ate dinner there one night. MMM sweet potatoes. Yen, Chu Hung and Zee Tach dug it too!

and then there was the SCARY FOOD


Caution the clear noodle faa may have some body parts in it. Ben got a pig's foot and mine had a chunk of the spinal column. But no worries Xuyen's chopsticks flew in and collected the pieces before we hardly saw them. Tien 1 politely requested our refused pig parts and ploop they were in his bowl. I surprised even me and heartily ate without thinking much about the whole ordeal, until Tien 1 put the whole foot in his mouth, that kind of got to me. Man that crazy guy has an iron stomach.

Eels and rabbits anyone? Mmmmmm I am not hungry anymore.

Careful what you wish for. Pew ordered a hamburger and well..... they got the bun part right. The meat was headcheese with little bone slivers, yummy!! Serves you right for spending the whole trip looking for american food.
And the SCARIEST of the SCARY. You know what this is!