From Otago Daily Times
Sometimes you just need to make things happen. Earlier in the year, Monique and I found ourselves on the couch watching Luke Nguyen travel around Vietnam, his country of birth.
Pulled pork banh mi. Photo by Fiona Andersen/Otago Daily Times
It looked amazing and the food so fresh, simple and delicious.
Three months later, we closed the restaurant for two weeks and with the children in tow, we hit Vietnam, or rather, Vietnam hit us!
Little can prepare you for the chaos of Ho Chi Minh City: the people, scooters, few to no road rules and the 35degC heat.
But from the very first day it soon became apparent that the Vietnamese like to eat and we were in food heaven.
Open-air markets with fresh fruit, veges and greens.
Unrefrigerated stands of fresh fish, meat and offal, yet barely a fly to be seen!
Food stands, hawkers and small neighbourhood restaurants abounded.
The decor was virtually nonexistent, the amenities basic but the atmosphere intoxicating.
The children, possibly mesmerised by the selection of live toads, sea snails and all manner of unidentified goodies on offer, scoffed down frogs-leg kebabs without missing a beat.
Nine-year-old Noa became a bit of a pho addict and without fail breakfast began with a bowl of steaming noodles and highly flavoured broth.
With its French heritage, Vietnamese pastries were also hard to resist.
A beachside hawker took the prize with a small pastry cone filled with an apple-like custard for only 20c a pop. I managed to stop myself at four.
Fresh mangoes, intensely flavoured watermelon and other exotic fruit were all sold right on the beach. Local beer was delivered fresh daily for 30c a glass and I had the freshest squid I have ever eaten in my life!
All this combined with sunsets, water buffalo, crispy rice pancakes, copious amounts of cafe sua da (iced milk coffee) and a visit to the Banh Mi Queen restaurant in Hoi An have left us all with a headful of memories and a newfound respect for this remarkable country and its people.
If even only for a little while, what a way to live!
CLICK HERE FOR THE RECIPES!!!!!
