Fruit, Pho, Coffee Fixes and the Far Under-Priced Fare

I've not spent much time yet telling yall about the Saigon cuisine. Basically, the main menu is as follows.

Breakfast: pho or bun noodles, your choice of adding in beef, chicken, crab and shrimp, mint leaves, and a variety of vegetables. Don't forget the essential morning pick-me-up coffee; need that buzz for the day, of course. (bowl of bun cua tom bo pictured to the right) ~25,000 dong/$1.56 USD

Lunch: pho, nui or bun noodles, occasionally rice or rice paper wraps with a heck of a variety of meat: pork, beef, chicken, fish. Maybe drink Xa Xi Chuong Duong, the Vietnamese Coca-Cola that tastes like sweet root beer. ~35,000 dong/$2.18 USD














Afternoon Coffee Break--heaven forbid your caffeine levels sink ~20,000 dong/$1.25

Dinner: familiar bowl of noodles and rice, meats anywhere from beef and chicken staples to squid and the tasty greenish plant stuff. We finish up, discuss how delicious it all was, and then suggest an after-dinner coffee. This is not sometimes, this is not occasionally, this is not frequently, this is inevitable. ~40,000 dong/$2.50 + coffee ~20,000 dong/$1.25

I frequently feel far too full of pho, but I consistently crave the cloying coffee concoctions.

Everyone drinks their condensed milk with a bit of coffee, as you can see to your right. Ca phe sua da, or ice coffee with milk is served in the silvery contraption in which coffee drips at varying speeds from the top to unite with the ocean of honey and sweet condensed milk. I haven't had any bitter or stale Vietnamese coffee to date, and believe you me, I'm supporting the Vietnamese coffee economy significantly.

Eating with chopsticks, once the ability is mastered, doesn't hinder intake as much as you'd think it would. Especially helpful are the techniques of lifting the bowl to chin-level and tilting one's face to the meal. You can call it shoveling if you'd like, but it's like using the wrong end of the shovel. We're all rapidly becoming experts, even though certain waitresses still kindly and wordlessly place a fork and spoon by our bowls on occasion.

Cautioned ad nauseam by doctors and families and every health department imaginable to beware the chicken/duck (avian flu), the local water and local ice (plethora of bacteria), fish (Lord knows), too much MSG, etc., we've obeyed pretty much none of the rules. The program director informed us our stomachs would be going through a number of "changes," none of which I really want to elaborate on here or anywhere, for that matter.

In any case, it's delicious. Quite a change from the fried chicken/casseroles/breads/hamburgers of home. I'm still excited to try everything (I'm sure dog/eel/snake are to come) and to eat with chopsticks.

Pray for my constitution, eh? :)


Important Tidbit: Fruit in Vietnam is as it should be everywhere: ubiquitous, fresh, cheap, abundant, eaten at any time of the day, and always colorful, whether inside or out or both. <--Freak strawberries? Porcu-pears? Snozzberries? In Vietnamese, they are called "chom chom". Below is a photo of a cut-up dragonfruit--deceptively delicious looking, but rather less than flavorful. Kind of like munching on someone's lawn.












Possibly one of the most exciting things was to try Vietnamese delivery. Here you have a standard dish of chicken something-or-another. The delivery man will bring these heavy-duty plastic trays and metal silverware to whatever location and then return within a reasonable amount of time to pick up the trays!!! WOW!!! They take them back, disinfect (I hope) and wash them, then use them again.

In the States we get our styrofoam or cardboard containers and throw it away upon finishing (or leave it to develop a powerful aroma in the kitchen). There must be a TREMENDOUS amount of trash that could be saved if we used these plastic containers! I'm sure the delivery folks use up more gas to make the second trip to the place, but still...if they chose to only deliver to public locations...maybe this could work...

Next project for me: Susie's Save-the-Environment While Snacking Delivery Service