Vietnam!

First I have to apologize because I have not been keeping up with this blog.  And I have no excuse.  I am from this moment pledging to be much better about regularly posting.

So as some of you know, if we are Facebook friends, I visited Vietnam in February (because I blew up your news-feed for a week with pictures of me eating food).  Now I will continue to blow up your news feed with much delayed blog posts about Vietnam. This will be followed with regular updates about my travels.  Because a paragraph or so ago I promised to post more regularly.

I had a lot of feelings about this trip, and part of me treated it as a "homecoming" of sorts.  As you may recall, I taught in China for two years, and while I do not regret my decision to leave China, there are many things I miss about my previous home-away-from-home.  I knew Vietnam was not China, but geographically, its the closest I'd been to China since leaving in 2013, and I had a lot of hopes that (particularly food-wise) I'd be able to satisfy some of the cravings and nostalgia I'd had since leaving China.

Vietnam was not like China, it was it's own thing.  However, it did not disappoint in any way, including culinarily.  And I am going to begin the first of several posts about Vietnam by talking about all the things I ate. Because priorities.

Now, I have always advocated that when you are traveling, especially for a short period, that you not over-indulge (if not out-and-out avoid) street food.  Because you never know when that delicious street food is going to wreak havoc on your digestive system.  But I ignored pretty much all of that on this trip and my digestion was largely fine--or at least not prohibitively terrible.  Lesson: Street food at your own risk.

I risked it.  And I'd do it again!

Throughout our trip, we found several vendors selling a variety of different types of food--from sweet, to savory, and everything in between.   And I indulged in as many of them as humanly possible.

All of this was delightful.  But my favorite by far was the lady on the far right, who was making a rice-paper-dried-shrimp-and-spices/veggies taco.  And oh my goodness it was so good I kept going back!

So you cannot go to Vietnam without trying Pho (pronounced sort of like Fuh).  Not only is it like the national dish of Vietnam, but I don't think you can actually avoid it as it is literally everywhere.  Not that you would want to avoid it, because its freaking delicious.  And I am not a huge soup fan, which is sort of what Pho is; its steaming hot broth, with a slightly fishy flavor that is jam packed with meat (usually beef), vegetables, and lots of noodles.  You may order Pho a variety of different ways in range of different spice levels.

We had our first experience of Pho in Vietnam in Hanoi on our second night in Vietnam.  We were recommended to go to a very well known place, but when we found it (we think we found it anyway) we were somewhat intimidated by the complete lack of a picture or English menu (I am very good with picture menus, but also disappointed in myself for not taking a risk and trying to figure it out sans English/Picture menu).  So we walked a ways until we found another restaurant--it also did not have pictures but it did have a menu that I could read, so we ordered our Pho at the counter and then had a seat with our Coke and patiently awaited our beef noodle soup--which did not take long.

Phoooooooooooooooooooonomenal

This second day in Hanoi also included the moment all my dreams came true.  Now, American fast-food brands have largely made their way across the globe (yay globalization!) but some have yet to make it to the small island nation of Bahrain.  And one of those things is Dunkin Donuts.  Dunkin has, however,  made it to Vietnam (I saw it during the ride from the airport, in which I just pointed at the Dunkin sign and screamed and Jaime promised we could find it)  We found it.  And we found in again three days later in Ho Chi Minh City.

We all need to follow our bliss....some of us have a really basic bliss. 

As teachers, we are limited to our vacation time, so we wound up visiting Vietnam during the Tet New Year...which every single travel blog recommended that we did not do.  Because things would be closed. And while I think we probably paid more for some tours, there were still tour companies who were willing to provide services during this time.  And it was great because no one else was there--we had a whole junk boat to our selves (more on that soon).  However, there is a lot of internal travel as people travel out of the big cities to get back to their home towns to celebrate this typically family-oriented holiday.  Ho Chi Minh City was very crowded and noticed this in particular when we went to a few restaurants after a day of sight-seeing.   We would enter a restaurant, peruse the menu, finally decide on what to order...only to be told that the things we wanted were sold-out.  This literally happened three different times.   We figured out that we just needed to be a few blocks away from the center of the city and then this stopped happening.  So again, don't hesitate to travel to Vietnam during the Tet Holidays.  During this search for food, we did take the opportunity to try several of the sandwiches available as part of the street food, but alas I have not pictures of it. Which is a shame, because it was so good.  (You can find pictures and info of Bahn Mi here)

We were not totally disappointed in the lack of river crap meat.  But still. (Also, if I had to write a whole menu in another language it would be filled with many, many, many hilarious typos). 

Now the hotels we stayed at provided breakfast...and most of the tours we went on provided lunch, so we dinner was where we were able to search for our own Vietnamese culinary experience.  On one such jaunt I had my moment of reconnecting with my time in China.  One of my favorite dishes in China was a simple vegetable dish that consisted of mushrooms and bok choy.  I ordered this and pretty much ate the whole thing (despite it being served family style).  I cannot stress to you how much I love this vegetable .

Our hotels did not disappoint meal wise either; they offered a lot of different types of breakfasts, including a pork dumpling featuring my very favorite vegetable.  But more importantly this is where I fell in love with Vietnamese coffee.  Which is made in this super cute (cute because its so little!) little cup in which the superfine grounds are placed.  The cup has a strainer inside, then the bottom of the cup is also a strainer and it sits in a little dish that also has a strainer in it.  This little dish is placed above your mug and the the strained coffee slowly drips into the mug.   The coffee it creates is very strong, kinda chocolaty, delightful brew.

Bok choy on the far left, bok choy dumplings in the center.  And the real star of this show is the mini coffee creator to the far right.  It's so good. 

Vietnam provided some of the most culinary satisfying moments I have had since 2013, including the opportunity to drink my body weight in milk tea.

I began with my most personally satisfying part of this trip; the food.  It was, however, by no means he only satisfying part of my trip.  I will be posting several posts over the next week or so that highlights different aspects of my trip to this lovely country.  I hope this post was as satisfying for you as eating this food was for me...and if it convinces you to visit Vietnam, I only hope that you also indulge in eating all of this wonderful food---and even more that I did not get a chance to try.

P.S. Vietnam also has Coconut Oreos...which are ammaaaaazing and I have not been able to find anywhere else.