Our Best Meal So Far

We thought we couldn't top our Father's Day Buffet last night. We thought it could not be done. We spent two hours in heaven last night, at an all-you-can-eat buffet at the top of a mall in Ho Chi Minh City. The stations were: create your own pasta, pizza, tempura, sushi, shelled fishes (four types of snails or mussels), hot-pot (raw items to be cooked at a boiling pot of water at your table- including meats, fishes and vegetables), seafood (stir fry shrimp, seafood gratin, fish in cream sauce), soup (chicken beef or veggie), spring rolls, hot foods (all meats imaginable, rice, noodles, veggies), salad bar, dessert bar, ice cream truck, crepes.

I left FULL. We had tried to make it a competition, but it wasn't really a fair one because Monica can NOT keep up with the power-stomachs that Eli and I trained for buffets. Buffets are all about strategy, no novice could compete with old time buffet pros. It's all about snacking while you walk from station to station, starting out small, working your way up, not wasting stomach space on something you don't love. Puhleeeeeeese, don't mess with me.

Anyway, we thought it was the best meal possible. For food and for experience, there was no other way we would have been able to sample Vietnamese food so freely. But then.. today happened.

Walking around Ho Chi Minh City looking for a place to eat pho, we stumbled across a low hanging awning covering 60 or so loud, beer drinking men. We just stopped and watched them for a while until Eli suggested we join them.

He was SO right. Being the only westerners, and one of very few women, the three of us got STARED DOWN as we walked to an empty table in the back. But these weren't stares of anger; veryone in the place wanted us to be there so badly. Within about thirty seconds of being seated, three beer glasses were put in front of us and the table of men next to us raised their glasses to us. This would become a theme throughout our lunch- we were toasted about every 3 minutes from all surrounding tables. So many times in fact, that I often had to interrupt a bite to take a swig of beer. I wonder how many half chewed pieces of mushroom I swallowed trying to keep up... I also think my thumb is sore from all the thumbs-up I had to reciprocate.

We didn't know what to order so I took a stroll around other tables to see if there was anything in common. As I walked by tables, everyone wanted me to have what they were having. Coaxed into one table, I was hand fed a piece of beef and some french fries from a man's chopsticks. And when I liked it, they couldn't have been happier. Afterwards, they watched me order and I felt a lot of pressure to order their beef, but I didn't. It was good though, I promise!

They loved us.

We finally decided: the stupid vegetarians ordering fried rice and tofu, while I got mushroom prawns. Then, as the menu was being taken from me, I noticed an eggplant dish and quickly added that to my list too, becuase, come on, it's eggplant.

The shrimp was so good. The huge black mushrooms were fresh and covered in garlic, and the shrimp blended so well into the whole dish. I've eaten shrimp once or twice a day since entering Vietnam, but these were the best yet.

My eggplant though... ahh, clear winner. Freshly grilled, the egglpant was cut in cubes as opposed to the thin American slices I'm used to. This changed everything- making the dish about the EGGPLANT and not about the sauce. I tried it first plain, but it tasted just like grilled eggplant. Way better with the sweet sauce they gave me on the side. Not that I wouldn't have eaten it plain, obviously I would have loved it. It's just better with sauce.

Eli and I love eggplant. LOVE. Compete in loving it, even. So when Eli first tried the eggplant without the sauce and didn't love it, I accused him of not being a true eggplant lover. A true eggplant lover would love their eggplant, even if it's naked. He was MAD. All day he's been trying to tell me all the reasons he loves eggplant, how he loves eggplant prepared, how often he eats it. Yeah, yeah, sure, sure. I'm just saying that I ate most of the dish and I like it plain too.

Finally- it's important to mention the beer. Saigon beer, named for the city herself. It was spicy! And also.. salty? It made my tongue tingle. But both Eli and Monica agreed, it was salty. I really liked it though.

The whole lunch was a trip. Being cheered for eating, being applauded for just being there. And the whole place didn't even have a name, I don't think. It was just a hole in the wall for the locals. But we found it, and therefore, we won.

Struggles in Vietnam

First, we were only wary of hygeine. Not just because South East Asia has the "travelers diarrhea" reputation preceding it. In Vietnam, food is more than just street food. It's cooked on the street, eaten on the steet, everything on the street. We literally had to walk in between a person and his table just to walk on the sidewalk. Talk about no privacy. When someone is preparing your food right next to a smogging motorcycle and a stray cat and a pile of dirty dishes, I'm not really inclined to feel comfortable eating there.

Second problem: vegetarianism. I'm adamemtly not picky about food on principle, but seeing raw brains and raw octopus sort of sent me reeling. We made an unspoken "only vegetarian" rule for all sketchy street stalls, but we didn't know that this rule would be impossible to uphold. You can NOT eat vegetarian in Vietnam. You just can't. The snack food has pieces of dried pork on top. When we pull out the guide book at fancy, real, with-doors, restaurants to show the waitress "no meat or fish", she actually DID NOT understand and had NOTHING to offer us.

Third problem: No one in this country speaks english.

But, on the upside- Vietnam is my favorite place to eat so far. The food, whatever comes out, is always so good. I've mastered chopsticks, and am no longer shy to ask for help when I can only stare dumbfounded at what's in front of me. And the French influence! Mmm Mmm Good. Baguettes and croissants and all the desserts I could ask for. The smells wafting out of street side bakeries do their best to cover up the fumes and motorcycle exhaust...

Laos

I don't have good pictures or much to say about Lao food. There isn't much to say, actually, because there isn't actually "Lao" food. Most people make a variation of Thai treats in their homes, as its much cheaper that way. So when you go to a Lao restaurant, you mostly get Thai food with more garlic. Or pizza. I ate a lot of pizza on baguettes; French influence, I guess.

Cooking Class in Chang Mai

Internet here in Laos is not the most condusive to food blogging. However, a quick look at a day-long cooking class we took in Chang Mai to learn Thai food...

First: our instructer, Gay-ray, takes us to the market to explain all our necessary ingredients. I know now the difference between types of lime (smooth for garnish, bumpy for curry), cocunut milk and cream (milk has water too, cream is first squeeze), crushed and fresh ginger, etc, etc... Also, if you have a bug bite, rub some yellow tamaric on the itch and it shall soon disappear... old Thai remedy!

Look how small the eggplants are in Thailand. As Gay-Ray says, "Thai people, very small. Thai vegetables very small. Small but big flavor!"
A billion different types of rice...

And then, our welcome snack to prepare us for the day. Wrapped in a leaf (I forget which kind) is a mixture of: chili pepper, onion, ginger, dried prawns, peanuts, baked coconut and sweet fish sauce. All in one bite or it's not worth it. It was SO good. Apparently, the King serves this when officials come to Thailand for a visit. It has the perfect mix of crunchy, salty, sweet , fresh... everything.



We were to cook 7 courses. I was SO full by the end. Here's how we started: with the classic pad thai. Basically, just frying noodles with garlic, veggies, fish sauce, oyster sauce, chicken. It only takes about 2 minutes for the whole process in the wok and it's so easy. Definitely a must try at home.
Next was spring rolls. We made the inside filling by basically making pad thai all over again, and then wrapping it in the dough and frying it in a mound of oil. Also so easy! Get ready to eat this at my dinner parties in the future.
Our last appetizer was papaya salad. Shredded papaya, tomato, chili pepper, green beans, carrots.. all mashed together with lime, garlic, and other flavors. So good!


Look what I did!



Now on to the big stuff. Making curry is an ORDEAL. First you have to choose which kind (Eli and I chose Massaman because we like peanuts), then the right ratio of ingredients, then mash it all together like you've never been angrier until you get the perfect paste consistency!
Green curry paste, red curry, massaman and panang. Mine is the best, clearly (top left). It definitely smelled the best because of the peanuts.
And voila! Add a little coconut cream and fry and there you have it. But what's crazy is that Eli and used the same paste, but ours came out so different. I used more paste, boiled it for longer for a thicker consistency, and added more fish sauce. Mine was better. Eli thinks his was better. But mine tasted so peanuty, which is what I wanted. So I guess we both win.

Mine
Eli's.

And then we finished with sticky rice mango, a 6 hour process that we only helped make 20 minutes of. I walked out STUFFED. Literally could not imagine eating ever again. I had a cheeseburger 4 hours later.

Side note...

Something I will never eat:

Thai Street Food

Frying fish in a cart

Some egg concoction

choices...

Fish smells. A lot.

Preparing breakfast for the monks at a temple

On the river at the floating market

More fish!

First Thai Days

I got to Thailand three days ago. I LOVE Thai food, I really do, and could not have been more excited to try the authentic stuff. And I was sure that the Thais would not let me down, and that the exchange rate being in my favor would allow for a lot of sampling.

Before I get into specifics, I want to give the bottom line. Thai food in America is NOT Thai food in Thailand. Sure, all the names are the same, but my tongue knows not to judge a book by its cover. Thai food here is, upsettingly, blander and greasier. It may be because I'm not adventurous enough. It REALLY might be because I'm eating cheapy. But I'm upset. I wanted to be reeling in peanuts when I tried pad thai, I wanted to be on fire with their curry. Instead, I just sort of have an upset stomach and a lot of bloating.

It all started out excitingly. Thai air gave us four courses (FOUR!) of Thai food, the best of which was this:

Pad thai shrimp on the airplane! How lucky could we be? The novelty of it all even prompted this momentous experience:

Monica breaking Kashrut for the first time!

It was good. So I was expecting to be wowed when I actually landed and could have the fresh stuff...

Right next to my hostel is this:

80 cent pad thai on the street! I thought I couldn't be luckier. Rows and rows of pad thai until 3 AM for all the drunk backpackers to enjoy. But this is where I learned that grease does not always equal good. I wanted peanuts, I wanted mounds of egg, I wanted all the flavors to explode in natural-habitat-excellence. All the components I wanted were there, but it was just... greasy noodles. Street food. I should have known.

But here's where it got good: THE FRUIT. Fruit in this country blows my mind. So far I've eaten pineapple and watermelon off a street cart. Sticking my toothpick into a freshly cut slice, I was wowed by the sweetness, the juicyness, the purity of the fruit here. I guess that's what happens when you skip all the shipping and packaging of American fruits.

At the Kanchanburi floating market, this woman MADE me buy her fruit. She literally took a piece and STUFFED it in my mouth as I walked by and then had a bag ready for me to buy. I didn't regret it though.

The fruit vendor who made us buy from her.

The Rambutan and the Mangosteen are incredible. Hard to pry open, the white fruit inside both are worth the work.

Rambutan and Mangosteen

Mangosteen innards: This fruit WON. The insides are juicy and sweet. Like, an orange, the fruit is easily sectioned and is almost like popping candy.

Rambutan innards: Also good, but no comparison to the mangosteen. Kind of chewy instead of juicy, and its pit is just a hurdle. Worth it though, for a good snapshot with the scary peel.

Today was an eating adventure. I learned that Thais don't really differentiate between breakfast and other meals. At nine AM, we stumbled on this grungy stall and tried our luck:

After much consideration, we ordered:

Shrimp omelet

Veggies in oyster sauce

Pineapple fried rice

Monica and Eli ranked the dishes: 1. omelet, 2. rice, 3. veggies. I ranked them: 1. veggies, 2. rice, 3. veggies. I never like veggies best... I think my body was trying to tell me something. Too much fried pad thai! But my justification is that the omelet was pure grease, I couldn't even taste the egg and the plate was a pool of oil when we finished. Still great though, grease always is.

Put next to our food was a big bottle of ketchup and a soup of jalepeno peppers. Eli tried the spicy sauce and proceeded to immerse himself in rice. Too spicy. But the ketchup was great. It's not really ketchup, more of a sweet/spicy red sauce, and we basically covered everything in it.

I have a traveling challenge, which is that my companions are both vegetarian. Hence ordering PINEAPPLE fried rice, of all things. But, lo and behold, the Thais shined upon me and put chicken in everything. So: They tried.

Vegetarians suck!
Eli got a big piece of fat in his chicken. He spit it out. It was a bad first shot. But he promised me he would try again soon. (When it was worth it.)

Despite the hour for this kind of food, and despite the meat, and despite the grease, we finished.

... and done!