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
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.
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
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.
