These are a few of our favorite things...
Surprisingly to us, the food in the south has been very different from that of the north. It really shouldn't shock us - that's probably just our own myopic view of things getting in the way. After all, Vietnam is as long as Italy and we have no problem comprehending regional differences in cuisine there...so we learned there are the same types of regional differences here.
Tuesday night we ate at a food stall in one of the major outdoor markets in HCMC. We searched out the one that was most crowded with locals - and figured the food would be both safe and delicious (well, and cheap) there. We made good assumptions all around. First of all, bottles of Heineken went for 75 cents each. That alone is good in my book. But the rest of the meal was delicious too. Michelle ordered Beef on Roof Tile - which I thought was just a really metaphoric name for the dish until they brought out a metal hibachi with wood charcoal, placed a clay roof tile on top and instructed us how to cook the slices of raw beef on the tile. Turns out, they name food items quite literally here. It tasted delicious. I had BBQ pork skewers with rice vermicelli. We've concluded that grilled meat pretty much tastes good in any cuisine. And, did you remember that the Heinekens were 75 cents each...? All told, a tasty dinner for two with beer for $5 USD.
Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon we continued our quest to sample as much ice cream as possible while in country. Both were good, but the Weds afternoon sampling was on the top floor of the tallest building in Vietnam - and the view was incredible. HCMC really sprawls...it was city as far as the eye could see. And the ice cream was pretty good too, albeit expensive. However, what can you expect when you have a bird's-eye view of the metropolis from 33 stories up? You know, for a Communist country they sure do understand market pricing theory!!
So, how many ways can one ingest rice? That's the true riddle of Vietnam. Rice is used in so many ways - steamed rice, rice paper, rice noodles (of all widths - thick & thin), rice pancakes, fried rice...we were informed that rice is Vietnam's #1 agricultural crop - and we believe it after all the ways we see it used. Only Thailand exports more rice worldwide than Vietnam. Okay , I'll stop now - when I conceived of a blog for this trip, I never would have bet money that I'd wax about rice for an entire paragraph :-)
Tuesday night we ate at a food stall in one of the major outdoor markets in HCMC. We searched out the one that was most crowded with locals - and figured the food would be both safe and delicious (well, and cheap) there. We made good assumptions all around. First of all, bottles of Heineken went for 75 cents each. That alone is good in my book. But the rest of the meal was delicious too. Michelle ordered Beef on Roof Tile - which I thought was just a really metaphoric name for the dish until they brought out a metal hibachi with wood charcoal, placed a clay roof tile on top and instructed us how to cook the slices of raw beef on the tile. Turns out, they name food items quite literally here. It tasted delicious. I had BBQ pork skewers with rice vermicelli. We've concluded that grilled meat pretty much tastes good in any cuisine. And, did you remember that the Heinekens were 75 cents each...? All told, a tasty dinner for two with beer for $5 USD.
Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon we continued our quest to sample as much ice cream as possible while in country. Both were good, but the Weds afternoon sampling was on the top floor of the tallest building in Vietnam - and the view was incredible. HCMC really sprawls...it was city as far as the eye could see. And the ice cream was pretty good too, albeit expensive. However, what can you expect when you have a bird's-eye view of the metropolis from 33 stories up? You know, for a Communist country they sure do understand market pricing theory!!
So, how many ways can one ingest rice? That's the true riddle of Vietnam. Rice is used in so many ways - steamed rice, rice paper, rice noodles (of all widths - thick & thin), rice pancakes, fried rice...we were informed that rice is Vietnam's #1 agricultural crop - and we believe it after all the ways we see it used. Only Thailand exports more rice worldwide than Vietnam. Okay , I'll stop now - when I conceived of a blog for this trip, I never would have bet money that I'd wax about rice for an entire paragraph :-)
posted by ToddV at
10:22 PM
