A murderess in the garden

I have a confession.  I have become a mass murderer, plotting genocide, stalking my victims and taking enormous pleasure in killing them.  I have turned from a being a hippy brained idealist, who believed that love was all we needed, that all creatures on this earth need equal rights, and that one should turn the other cheek, to a monster who finds it impossible to forgive and forget, a natural killer who declares that vengeance in mine.  This deterioration in my character is all because I have started seriously keeping a kitchen garden, trying to live more healthily by eating more fresh food and spending more time with nature, trying to  do my bit for the planet by eating less food grown with pesticides and shipped or flown or trucked to my local supermarket from far away.

 

When I started this venture at the start of the year, as many of you know, we bought  a rabbit, called Ralph, that I had fallen in love with for his lovely gentle character, and intended to feed him with weeds, pruning and offcuts from my own vegetable consumption.  I used his droppings and old straw as compost for my new vegetable garden,

 

We also bought six chickens of varying breeds and ages - 2 Wyandottes, a Sussex,

 and three crossbreeds of Leghorn, Australorp and Isa Brown -  

 

 

 

 

 

 

and Bob built a chicken Taj Mahal with a large yard full of weeds for them to live as close to a free range existence as possible.  (From previous experience, we knew that they would destroy our garden completely and take over the house if we let them have access to the whole garden.  Plus, Maisie, our cairn terrier, seems to think that her vocation in life is to kill anything that moves and free range chickens are, in her mind, take away chicken.)  These chickens were to share the weeds and garden trimmings with Ralph, and our kitchen scraps with the compost bins, provide us with eggs and manure and compost for the vegetable garden and they have done that admirably.   

 

 

Next, we cleared the garden of weeds and old plants, pruned existing fruit trees, keeping them as far as possible from the fences to deter possums, and planted a vegetable garden and potted herb garden.  So far, so good.  I thought I had self-sufficiency down easy.

 

The first obstacle was that earwigs invaded the rabbit hutch.  I tried flea powder but that didn't work.  I am still working on a solution for poor Ralph.

 

 Then, local birds noticed I was giving supplementary feeds to the chickens and decided to partake.  The stupid chickens seem to be lacking a territory gene and I can only hope that our Maine Coon cats' occasional strolls round the garden will deter them.

 

 

The second obstacle was the amount of water needed to keep the garden alive and thriving.  It isn't even high summer and yet we have run out of water in the tank twice now and have realised the need to install more water tanks so that our water bill doesn't drive us bankrupt.

 

Then, I discovered that vegetables need a great deal of nourishment - more than my compost and manure could provide.  My neighbour and grandaughter introduced me to the joys of fortnightly doses of Seasol and told me that I should have fed the tomatoes with lime when I planted them.  I also discovered that mulch is no good until the seeds have grown into sizeable plants.

 

Next came the problem of mice devouring seedlings.  We cleaned out the old compost bins and religiously avoided putting the wrong ingredients in the newly empty bins.  We pulled down an old shed, and are removing the old fence which both provided shelter for rodents.  The dogs seem to be doing their bit by barking at them too but aren't much good as killers.  They are much less successful than the local owls at killing them.  Evidence:  the innards of a corpse dropped onto my car from the telephone wire above it.

 

If that wasn't enough, I noticed holes on  the leaves of my finally thriving vegetables.  Turns out that the earwigs and cabbage moth caterpillars have moved into the garden, and they are not being balanced by the good guys: silver-eyes, ladybirds, et al.  After a while, I noticed all I was getting was stalks instead of leaves.  And, with the warming days, the gall wasps have returned to my lovely lemon tree.  This was the point where I turned into a mass murderer.  I still haven't resorted to pesticides, but three times a day at least, I roam the garden searching for earwigs and caterpillars.  Then, I take the wriggling bodies to my chickens who seem deeply suspicious of the earwigs, but adore the fat green caterpillars. I take enormous pleasure in the hunt, the capture and the extermination now.  The gall wasps are dealt with by using sticky tubes to trap them and cutting off affected branches and putting them into the council green bin.

 

As a result of my reign of terror, for the first time, I feel we are ahead of the predators. We are now eating the results of our hard work (as is Maisie - she has worked out that strawberries taste good) and our garden is looking lush.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And best of all, my granbdchildren now have the pleasure of  roaming round my garden foraging for fruit and vegetables and eggs, just like my children did in their paternal grandparents' garden in Sarsfield..  For instance, this week, Miss 3 had a lovely time sampling the raw broad beans, peas, strawberries and raspberries.

 

 

 

We have enjoyed  Asian greens in our stir fries: 

 

 

Bob has discovered that he doesn't mind the the type of  kale we are growing, when I  saute it with tomatoes, parsley, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper.

 

The ruby chard will be  used with fetta and spinach and wrapped and baked in filo pastry.  The rhubarb was used to make icy poles 

 

 

Rhubarb and Yoghurt Icy Poles

 

Materials:

750g chopped rhubarb

3/4 cup castor sugar

1/4 cup water

1 cup yoghurt

 

Method:

Heat rhubarb, water and sugar until rhubarb is cooked.  Cool and mash.

Roughly stir in yoghurt. 

Place in icy pole moulds and freeze.

 

 We have eaten our variegated lettuce, zucchini, spinach and variegated radishes which taste like radishes used to.

 And we have enjoyed our own lovely artichokes.

We have been bottling prunes in port and dried fruit in brandy, but we have also bottled our own cumquats in brandy.

Cumquats in Brandy:

Ingredients:

Cumquats
Sugar- about 125 g sugar to 500g sugar
Brandy

Method:

Collect your cumquats and prick all over with a skewer.
 Place in a sterilised jar.
Pour on sugar and brandy.
Shake to dissolve sugar every dsy

Murder does have its good side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can only fit so much food in before you have to leave Hanoi.

Our last few days in vietnam were sad on many levels, not the least of which was that we would be missing our continual investigation of, and appreciation of, Vietnamese food  and drink. 

 

I have really enjoyed a lot of the fruit combinations used in mocktails, smoothies and iced drinks.  I love the combinations they come up with.  They are colourful, tasty and refreshing.  I must start experimenting with fresh fruit and soda and fresh fruit and yoghurt at home.

 

 

I added another experience to my breakfast list, banh cuon, a sort of rolled rice noodle dough with scallions.  Yummy with a little sauce poured over.

For other meals, we tried  the restaurant at the Museum of Ethnology,  Baguette & Chocolat, which I remembered with  pleasure from a previous trip.  Like the mseum, the restaurant is looking a bit tired, but the food is still good and the staff, who are still being trained by the Hoa Su School,  are still young, enthusiastic and friendly, though in need of some supervision as they were not quite on the ball or keeping an eye on their customers.  We aren't sure they got our order right - one of these was supposed to contain crab and meat and the other pork, but one clearly had prawns and the other, which tasted very good, didn't taste of  crab.  But, we couldn't be bothered to compalin once we started because the waitress was so sweet.

The desserts were good though -  sweetened black rice and yoghurt, and taro, coconut and chocolate  icecream.

 We also revisited the Net Hue restaurant and this time, we had fried rice cake with steamed prawn dumplings (banh ram it nhan tom) which was fantastic

and a grilled pork and peanut dish (bun thit nnoung) which was very tasty

Bob went for his old favourite, the banana based dessert, but I tried a new experience che sen hue (Hue lotus sweet), which I loved.

 

And then, it was all over.  The food on the Vietnam Airlines trip back was so disappointing, like all airline food.  After all the weeks of being catered for and eating well (Vietnamese food is so light and tasty, using so many vegetables), I was not looking forward to cooking again.  Luckily, my gorgeous daughter and son-in-law had thought of that and cooked us dinner -grilled meat and prawn skewers and a light salad, with home made chocolate ice-cream.  Maybe being back isn't so bad!

The importance of being nice. Food adventures in Vietnam.

We have been trying to experiment with new food choices as much as possible and new eating spots,  To my horror, I have just discovered that I am a lot like father in my attitudes to food.  I love a top class, top nosh meal with lots of genuflecting waiters, rarefied atmosphere and even more rarefied culinary fare, but I am also happy to get down and dirty and try peasant food, and worry about what I just ate later.  I have a feeling that Bob would like a little more top nosh, and a little less dirty peasant grub, but since I am in charge of this "tour", the poor thing is having his boundaries stretched to breaking.  Plus, he is finding that his Australian knees and hips are not adapting well to squatting on tiny little stools facing tiny little tables, on footpaths, with the added challenge of sharing the space on the "footpath" with motorbikes, the occasional car and passing pedestrians.  Still, for a boy from country Victoria, he is trying nearly everything and extremely uncomplaining.  I knew I married him for a reason!

One of the reasons I like traveling and eating in Vietnam and encouraging other people to try the country and the food is that people are generally very encouraging, helpful and generous. At the worst, most people just serve the food without fanfare, and other diners just ignore you.  That is fine.  In any country, all I want from others is a bit of tolerance and the good manners to keep any negative  thoughts to themselves.   At the best, the local Vietnamese help us choose, show us how to eat the food and smile.  Somehow, when one shares food with others in a friendly and welcoming way, the food improves in flavour and the diner feels good about themselves, the cook, the waiters and waitresses, the other diners and the country one is in.

One day, we popped into a mid- stream cafe type restaurant opposite the Temple of Literature, on the corner of Nguyen Khuyen and Van mieu and beside the small temple.  Sorry, I can't remember the name.  I had pork, pickled and sautéed vegetables and rice, which I thought was great

 and Bob had pork and fried rice (nem be be), which he said was okay but ordinary

 

 We were serenaded by the most incredible canary, which sang as if it were the nightingale in the fairy story (Bob thought it couldn't possible be real ) and served by the most charming young waiters.  Their smiles just added to our enjoyment of the experiment with food and I would go back there in a second.

Another time, I dragged Bob a little too down-market, even for me when we dropped into Nha Han Bia Hoi lan Chin.  Admittedly, I didn't make him eat tortoise, bull testicle, turtle, snake, frog or whelk, but the peanuts, which had a nice licorice type taste came on a very dirty plastic bowl,  my choice of a stewed fish had lots of herbal twigs and very little fish, the cucumber and spiced salt was boring and the prawns were pretty blah.  The fairly rough clientele were steadily working up to being very drunk on vodka shots but everyone was very accepting of us and the waitresses were very helpful.

 

 

We went back to Countryside Restaurant because the food was good and the staff very welcomingg.  This time we had the recommended dishes of stuffed eggplant and tamarind chicken which were really delicious.

Quite by chance, another time, we came across Net Hue and discovered some scrumptious dishes from Hue and a lovely waiter who really was helpful.  We tried the grilled ground pork with lemon grass (nem lui)

the mustard lettuce rolls with shrimp and pork (cuon diep)

sweet water chestnut pearls with coconut milk (che suong sa hat l'ua) and grilled bananaand cocnut dessert (che chuoi)

At times when we have been too tired to go out, we have  ordered food in the hotel restaurant: sugarcane prawn wrap

 

 beef cooked in bamboo.

 

banana blossom salad 

  

and bun cha

All very good.

We also popped into a new, modern, rather hip cafe, called Wrap and Roll and tried  the green mango salad and

and the nem

 Both dishes were tasty and the staff there were very welcoming and eager to help.  Such a nice place.

We also had a great experience in a place I had been dying to try, Quan Quen Hai San La   The owner was welcoming and very helpful with our choices.  He really bent over backwards.  We could have had an entree of roosters' testes but decided to have  clams in a lemon grass and fresh pineapple broth with two sauces, stir fried morning glory and garlic, and grilled squid.  Yummy and all prepared on the footpath with the most basic equipment.  Fantastic.

 

 

On our trip round the villages to the north of Hanoi ( see my other blog, PatapanArt), we spied a dessert being made using rice flour and a nice local gentlemen offered us a taste .  We were hooked and asked the guide where we could buy it.  She led us to her favourite stall where the young girl cut up some fresh "cake" Che Lam and where we also bought a sweeter, peanuty and crisper sweet for later.  I wonder if you can buy them freshly made in Australia?

 

However, we have had two unpleasant experiences here from locals.   On the same trip round the villages, the tour stopped for us to have lunch at a restaurant by the river.  We had the rather insulting experience of our 2 Vietnamese fellow companions on the tour refusing to share a table with us and our Swiss companion.  It should be said that we had tried to greet them when they got on the bus even though they had kept us all waiting while they cancelled the trip, then changed their minds, then decided to get changed before they could get on the bus.  We did try to interact with them politely during the trip, but they had made it very clear they were not interested in communication or even walking with us.  Anyway, we adopted an air of not appearing to notice the snub, but it is galling to be treated like some lower species.    We ate our dinner on a seperate table with dignity, and interacted with our very nice Swiss companion.

Our second unpleasant experience was worse because it involved a bigger group of people.  On our trip to Bai Dinh Pagoda, we had a large number of Vietnamese on the trip and again, all except one made it very clear that they did not want to greet us, mix with us or eat with us.  The guide on this trip insisted since the dishes had to be shared and some Vietnamese girls who were escorting some Korean tourists were forced to sit with us.  Throughout the meal, they maintained a supercilious, condescending, sneering attitude to us and only grudgingly demonstrated that they spoke excellent English and helped us negotiate the meal because English was the medium they were using to communicate with the Koreans.  Somehow, it was worse and more insulting because they were obviously well educated , well off and very capable of communicating politely.   Unlike the others, the language wasn't the barrier.  They just despised us.  I thought they were badly brought up and incredibly rude, spoiled brats, with no consideration or respect for others, determined to make us feel as uncomfortable as possible, and I longed to slap their bottoms, but being well brought up ourselves, we of course adopted an air of  charming unconcern and smiled blithely through the meal as if we were oblivious to the put downs  (I although, I confess, I reached over rudely to help myself to force them to start passing food).

Our meal at this place was three types of goat meat (goats run all over the area).  I commented towards the end of the meal that the orange goat meat dish seen here was much more tender than the goat meat in Australia.  The ringleader gave a grimace barely concealing her "nasty girl" smirk and informed me that it was goat breast / goat udder, and she never touched it.   Never one to show a weakness, I helped myself to another piece and commented blithely that it did have a slightly oily taste.  Not my first choice in a dish, but I wasn't going to give her the pleasure of seeing me squirm.  It was served with sliced small figs and green banana and a dipping sauce.  We also had tofu in a tomato sauce, rice cakes which looked like solid rice bubbles which you scooped a liquid on to,and a spinach broth which you poured on steamed rice.

I have always taken pleasure in food as a way of making friends and sealing bonds with others, learning about others and teaching them about yourself.  I have traveled to many places in the world and shared food with many cultures.  Most people in the world are nice when you "break bread " with them and Vietnam is no exception.  We have been here for about 2 weeks and these 2 instances are the only bad experiences we have had, but people like these have the potential to destroy so much understanding and affection between our two cultures.  I get very angry in Australia when locals sneer at the food and culture of others.  I get even angrier if they sneer at, belittle or insult  others as individuals.  In Australia, we are ashamed when we hear about "ugly Australian" behaviour because it demeans the rest of Australia.  I am convinced that most Vietnamese would be similarly ashamed and disgusted by these two groups.