Food, glorious food

Talking incessantly about food is in my genes. Frankly, I am amazed that I have been in Vietnam for three whole months and have managed to refrain from creating a post solely about the food here. Well I shall refrain no more! So I present to you a taste (hah!) of the food and beverages in Soc Trang – all of which were consumed by Dan and I in the past 24 hours...

Breakfast - sticky rice with chicken and pickled vegetables. Iced tea and an iced coffee made with condensed milk

Lunch - grilled pork with rice, salad and a sweet chilli sauce

Dinner - squid with 3(!) types of onion and some sort of eggplant

Dinner - bbq chilli prawns

Vietnamese rum - made with rice

Vietnamese white wine, made in Dalat - 47,000VND/bottle (about $3.50) - note the attractive wine glass!

A moment of reflection

It was the 9th of April last Friday, which isn’t really all that exciting but it does mean that I have been in Vietnam for just over 3 months! At our pre-departure briefing one of the organisers told us that if we can survive the first 3 months, we’ll be able to survive the full duration of our volunteer placement. So I’ve passed that milestone, though not with flying colours, there have been times of homesickness and frustration, but I reckon I’ll be able to survive the rest of the year (I hope...).

Survive maybe, but there are still a few things about Vietnam/Soc Trang that I am not used to, some of which I will probably never get used to. They are:
- Cold showers...brrrr!
- The crazy traffic. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to see honking your horn as an expression of right-of-way!
- Vietnamese chocolate and white wine. It is edible/drinkable, but nowhere near as good as a block of Whittakers or Green & Black Organic chocolate or a good Australian or New Zealand sauv blanc.
- Brushing my teeth with bottled water. I always forget and use the tap water, you’d think the terrible taste would be a permanent reminder...
- Public spitting. Need I say more?

So that I don’t sound too much like a negative Nelly (I don’t know who this Nelly is, or why she is so negative, but having a name like Nelly can’t be helping), here are some of the lovely things about this place:
- The people. They are generally very friendly and are always ready to give you a big smile. The little kids in particular are very cute and will run up to you to say “hello, hello!”
- The food (apart from the chocolate that is). Food is very cheap here and there are some awesome dishes at the restaurants. Fried squid, prawns, seafood hotpots, fresh spring rolls, fresh baguettes, beef noodle soup, tropical fruit....I could go on and on.
- The scenery. There are some really beautiful places here, outside of the town and city centres that is. When we have a weekend in Soc Trang we often go out exploring the countryside on motorbike. We’ve ridden past countless rice paddies, water buffalo dragging ploughs through the fields, fruit and vegetable plots, coconut plantations, wooden boats cruising the canals and so many unexpected temples.
- Travelling. Since I arrived in Vietnam, we have been to a lot of different towns in the Mekong Delta, we’ve explored HCMC, we’ve been to Cambodia and, next week, we are off to Singapore then Malaysia. We are also planning on exploring the rest of Vietnam (i.e. everywhere outside the Mekong Delta) and maybe more of South East Asia once our volunteer assignment is over. I’m not used to being able to visit a different country so easily and cheaply but we may as well make the most of it while we are here!

1999

Prior to last week it was all busy, working, busy. So it is only fitting that last week was party, party, party! To say that there was a lot of alcohol drunk last week would be a bit of an understatement, actually there was an awful lot of beer drunk! Why? Because it was a party week! On Tuesday Kiem Lam held their annual staff meeting, this finished at 11am. As soon as it was over we were off to Hung Restaurant for lunch and rounds of beers. Seeing as it was only 11am, and because there are some advantages to being female, I was able to wuss out of this heavy drinking session. Instead I joined in the rounds of nam-moui nam-moui and tram-by-tram with my glass of seven-up. Dan wasn’t so lucky, by 1pm it was all over and we had to head home so Dan could sleep off all the beer he had drunk! Then Thursday rolled around and it was off to Restaurant 36 at 5pm for Dominic’s (the project’s German intern) farewell. Again, an awful amount of beer was drunk! But not only beer, two of the German project workers from Bac Lieu province were very evil (in my opinion!) and bought a pot of rice wine made by ethnic minority groups up near Dalat. The rice wine smelled terrible – much like dirty, sweaty, old feet – and the taste was not much better! Everyone had to take turns to drink the rice wine through long, thin bamboo straws. As soon as the pot was nearing empty it was topped up with beer – this did not do much to improve the taste! After 5 and a half hours at the restaurant it was time to head home. Needless to say, Friday was not the most productive day. And so on to Saturday and another dinner at 36. This was not really a party, more one of the last chances for Dominic to eat at 36. We had bbq prawns, chilli squid and fresh crab. And lots of beer. Dan and Dominic had a grand plan of finishing off a crate of beer between them at 36 – they did this and more on Saturday night (though me and the waitresses did help). Then we went to Restaurant Bung Huu, one of the few places in Soc Trang that stays open after 10pm. There we had raw beef with lime and some kind of very small bird, possibly a pigeon or a sparrow. And more beer. We finally made it home at about 1pm – this is the latest I have stayed out in Soc Trang, and also probably the latest I have stayed out anywhere for quite a while! So now party week is over and it’s back to work for two weeks. Then Dan and I are off to Singapore and Malaysia – I think we need a holiday from all this working and beer drinking!

Drinking rice wine

mmm...doesn't that look tasty!