Bizarre Foods: Vietnam edition
07-08-2010, 01:28 AM
#1
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Thread Starter
Bizarre Foods: Vietnam edition
If you could eat anything in the world, what would it be? I ponder that question every time I watched Bizarre Foods or No Reservation. The shows are like road maps to my destination. Even before I knew the show existed, I have always wondered what everything tasted like.
As a kid living in Saigon, Vietnam, I was very passionate about food. My mom always tell people that even before the day had started, I would have a plan on what to eat that day. It was a great life. I had money in the morning from mom then I was off to hunt for my food stands.
Things all changed when we moved to the US when I was 8. The hunt died down but as I got older and have money of my own, I made a goal to eat everything at least once. Now I am back and hungry for more.
Day 3:
Lunch:
The hunt for a lizard.
We set off to find a jungle lizard for lunch.
At the first market, all we found were some turtles and eels
so on toward to a smaller market across the river.
No luck in the 2nd market. We headed to the 3rd which is in the city of Lagi. It had the biggest market in the area which upped our chances.
What we found:
Sadly it wasn't our day. We headed home for lunch.
Something caught my eyes in the top left bowl.
Tail anyone?
My grandma in law made this little dish. Give you a hint. It's the opposite of cat.
Dinner:
Since our little search for the jungle lizard went badly,my brother and uncle in law decided to take luck into their on hands. They went hunting for birds and lizards in the jungle. Sadly they thought I was taking a nap and went without me. This is what they came back with.
Cooked by my grandma:
The lizards in onions.
This is the birds that they shoot down.
Day 4:
It was 5 in the morning when my brother in law asked if I wanted to take a swim. Why not? So we got on his scooter and made our way to the beach.
The water was nice and warm. All the shops were still closed so we went back home to a noodle place.
If you ever had this before, it is 654 times better here. Thirsty after? Just cross the river.
"The coffee shop is on the river bank next to the falling water" my brother said.
Nothing's like fresh orange juice with a view.
Farmed raised lizard?
My mother in law saw that I like lizard so much that she ordered us some. She was going to grilled it whole, however we had to go pick them up.
Lets take a walk:
The house is literately 5 house away from ours. We had to walk across the road and into this dirt path.
As soon as we got onto the dirt, we saw kids surrounding what we thought was a man selling ice-cream.
We knew we were wrong when we got closer.
We headed on into the house and looked out the windows.
But it was the wrong time to catch them. They were all in their nest because there was no sun. We were told to come back another time when it's sunny.
Lunch:
Nothing too special here. Just small crabs with vegetables, fried fish, vegetable soup and cha.
More to come......
As a kid living in Saigon, Vietnam, I was very passionate about food. My mom always tell people that even before the day had started, I would have a plan on what to eat that day. It was a great life. I had money in the morning from mom then I was off to hunt for my food stands.
Things all changed when we moved to the US when I was 8. The hunt died down but as I got older and have money of my own, I made a goal to eat everything at least once. Now I am back and hungry for more.
Day 3:
Lunch:
The hunt for a lizard.
We set off to find a jungle lizard for lunch.
At the first market, all we found were some turtles and eels
so on toward to a smaller market across the river.
No luck in the 2nd market. We headed to the 3rd which is in the city of Lagi. It had the biggest market in the area which upped our chances.
What we found:
Sadly it wasn't our day. We headed home for lunch.
Something caught my eyes in the top left bowl.
Tail anyone?
My grandma in law made this little dish. Give you a hint. It's the opposite of cat.
Dinner:
Since our little search for the jungle lizard went badly,my brother and uncle in law decided to take luck into their on hands. They went hunting for birds and lizards in the jungle. Sadly they thought I was taking a nap and went without me. This is what they came back with.
Cooked by my grandma:
The lizards in onions.
This is the birds that they shoot down.
Day 4:
It was 5 in the morning when my brother in law asked if I wanted to take a swim. Why not? So we got on his scooter and made our way to the beach.
The water was nice and warm. All the shops were still closed so we went back home to a noodle place.
If you ever had this before, it is 654 times better here. Thirsty after? Just cross the river.
"The coffee shop is on the river bank next to the falling water" my brother said.
Nothing's like fresh orange juice with a view.
Farmed raised lizard?
My mother in law saw that I like lizard so much that she ordered us some. She was going to grilled it whole, however we had to go pick them up.
Lets take a walk:
The house is literately 5 house away from ours. We had to walk across the road and into this dirt path.
As soon as we got onto the dirt, we saw kids surrounding what we thought was a man selling ice-cream.
We knew we were wrong when we got closer.
We headed on into the house and looked out the windows.
But it was the wrong time to catch them. They were all in their nest because there was no sun. We were told to come back another time when it's sunny.
Lunch:
Nothing too special here. Just small crabs with vegetables, fried fish, vegetable soup and cha.
More to come......
07-08-2010, 01:32 AM
#2
Registered User
Thread Starter
Before dinner, we had a special delivery.
They were from the farm house earlier. We picked them up and put them in a big tub for tomorrow.
It was time for dinner:
There was fried pork with salads, fried potatoes, pork stew, grilled fish and vegetable soup. The fish bone caught in my throat made me didn't like the fish as much.
Dinner was good but it was time for fun. I went over to my uncle's house and we headed down the street and looked for something in the trees.
What's that on the branch?
"Shine the light higher."
Booom...
"There's another one."
Booom....
Lets put them all 20+ of them into the bag.
Happy with our hunt, we walked home.
DAY 5:
Breakfast.
Everyone was busy with work in the morning so we walked for breakfast. We had to take a shortcut off the main road. It was the same way where the lizard farm was. On the way I spotted something black and thought it was a dog at first.
It ran into the house before I could get a closer picture. It was a pig by the way.. We walked across the main street to have some bun bo hue.
It was spicy. A drink is called for. We took a different route back coming across food stands.
Day & Night coffee.
Strawberry smoothies.
Brunch:
We had some crabs and coconuts.
Lunch:
This meat been marinating for hours.
Lets fire up the grill.
I went outside to shoot some butterflies while the food is being cooked.
Done at last.
The birds we caught last night. Ate it bone and all. Taste like chickens.
They were from the farm house earlier. We picked them up and put them in a big tub for tomorrow.
It was time for dinner:
There was fried pork with salads, fried potatoes, pork stew, grilled fish and vegetable soup. The fish bone caught in my throat made me didn't like the fish as much.
Dinner was good but it was time for fun. I went over to my uncle's house and we headed down the street and looked for something in the trees.
What's that on the branch?
"Shine the light higher."
Booom...
"There's another one."
Booom....
Lets put them all 20+ of them into the bag.
Happy with our hunt, we walked home.
DAY 5:
Breakfast.
Everyone was busy with work in the morning so we walked for breakfast. We had to take a shortcut off the main road. It was the same way where the lizard farm was. On the way I spotted something black and thought it was a dog at first.
It ran into the house before I could get a closer picture. It was a pig by the way.
. We walked across the main street to have some bun bo hue.It was spicy. A drink is called for. We took a different route back coming across food stands.
Day & Night coffee.
Strawberry smoothies.
Brunch:
We had some crabs and coconuts.
Lunch:
This meat been marinating for hours.
Lets fire up the grill.
I went outside to shoot some butterflies while the food is being cooked.
Done at last.
The birds we caught last night. Ate it bone and all. Taste like chickens.
07-08-2010, 01:32 AM
#3
Registered User
Thread Starter
Dinner:
This is one of those dinners I been waiting for. We all hoped onto an SUV taxi and it arrived here.
We walked in and asked for the special.
He bought it out in a bag.
He got out a scissor and started doing his thing.
Two shot glasses were bought out. I didn't know that I came up after I drunk them. I thought my uncle ordered 1 snake but it was 2. Both hearts and green liquid were in the shot glass.
BOGO FTW.
Then the foods was bought out.
First we have a salad.
Then the skunk stew but not the smelly ones.
Last was snake porridge.
We ate it up.
We rode out for a late night snack.
Arrived.
Feeling relaxed for the night. We went home.
Day 6:
Breakfast was down the street.
Bun thit nuong. Noodles with grilled pork.
Banh uot.
Bun rieu.
I had all three.
After breakfast it was time to pack for our week trip. We bought along a couple of fruits.
DAY 10
Dinner:
I just got back from my trip to Nha Trang and Da Nang and another special dish is being prepared for dinner. My aunt said that my uncle bought it. It was shot in the neck and bought home in a bag. She said it's not from this area and it lives in deep forest. She thinks it's "con ho" which translates to tiger but it was black. I got home too late to see the thing whole; it's all meat and bones now. I'll try to get more info from my uncle and exactly what it is.
I found out it was a wild cat. The meat tastes like beef stew but the skin is like pig's skin.
DAY 11:
I just got back from visiting my aunt, her husband owns a fishing boat that we'll take a trip on Sunday. Anyone thinking sushi? He just got back from a month long fishing trip and there was a few sea snakes that was in the freezer but my aunt was too busy working and forgot to save one for me. The other fishermen ended up taken them. Sea snakes are more expensive than the snake I had.
But that's not the highlight of today. It's when my aunt said her neighbor have a monkey as a pet. We walked over and it was right in front of the house. It was about 2 feet from toe to head. I however didn't bring my camera. I'm too tired from the trip and from taken pics of the church ceremony yesterday.
BTW- The monkey isn't for sale.
My aunt bought over 2 fish and a squid from the fishing trip in the morning. I thought the fish were like regular fishes so I didn't look at them. My mom just took them out and I never seen them before. They're called "ca mu' ." In english it's called "Serranidae" I think.
Lunch we had fried fish with tomato sauce, quail eggs with spare ribs, squid with watercress and deep fried squid with garlic.
This is one of those dinners I been waiting for. We all hoped onto an SUV taxi and it arrived here.
We walked in and asked for the special.
He bought it out in a bag.
He got out a scissor and started doing his thing.
Two shot glasses were bought out. I didn't know that I came up after I drunk them. I thought my uncle ordered 1 snake but it was 2. Both hearts and green liquid were in the shot glass.
BOGO FTW.
Then the foods was bought out.
First we have a salad.
Then the skunk stew but not the smelly ones.
Last was snake porridge.
We ate it up.
We rode out for a late night snack.
Arrived.
Feeling relaxed for the night. We went home.
Day 6:
Breakfast was down the street.
Bun thit nuong. Noodles with grilled pork.
Banh uot.
Bun rieu.
I had all three.
After breakfast it was time to pack for our week trip. We bought along a couple of fruits.
DAY 10
Dinner:
I just got back from my trip to Nha Trang and Da Nang and another special dish is being prepared for dinner. My aunt said that my uncle bought it. It was shot in the neck and bought home in a bag. She said it's not from this area and it lives in deep forest. She thinks it's "con ho" which translates to tiger but it was black. I got home too late to see the thing whole; it's all meat and bones now. I'll try to get more info from my uncle and exactly what it is.
I found out it was a wild cat. The meat tastes like beef stew but the skin is like pig's skin.
DAY 11:
I just got back from visiting my aunt, her husband owns a fishing boat that we'll take a trip on Sunday. Anyone thinking sushi? He just got back from a month long fishing trip and there was a few sea snakes that was in the freezer but my aunt was too busy working and forgot to save one for me. The other fishermen ended up taken them. Sea snakes are more expensive than the snake I had.
But that's not the highlight of today. It's when my aunt said her neighbor have a monkey as a pet. We walked over and it was right in front of the house. It was about 2 feet from toe to head. I however didn't bring my camera. I'm too tired from the trip and from taken pics of the church ceremony yesterday.
BTW- The monkey isn't for sale.
My aunt bought over 2 fish and a squid from the fishing trip in the morning. I thought the fish were like regular fishes so I didn't look at them. My mom just took them out and I never seen them before. They're called "ca mu' ." In english it's called "Serranidae" I think.
Lunch we had fried fish with tomato sauce, quail eggs with spare ribs, squid with watercress and deep fried squid with garlic.
07-08-2010, 01:33 AM
#4
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Thread Starter
After that full meal. I rested in my room and catch up with Top Gear. I heard some commotion outside. I went outside. It was my aunt from earlier. She was at the market and saw this and thought of me. How sweet. It's smaller than the other one at her neighbor's. Now we have a new pet. He'll get along with all the chickens, roosters, dogs and cows around here.
BTW if you have a monkey as a pet. It loves pears and Rambutan.
Dinner we had the "lau" with the red fish from earlier.
DAY 11:
We stopped to visit my dad's uncle. He was making "banh trang."
For dinner we had two dishes. The first is a clam called "so cu." It is cleaned half shell. Stuffed with pig's fat, green onions and peanuts. They're grilled on an open fire.
We started putting an egg in it for the second round.
Our second dish is very similar to spring rolls. It's call "cha lui." It's made out of pork and fried to crispy. The dipping sauce is out of this world. But I have no idea what's in it. I don't think we have this dish in the states.
DAY 12:
At about 6PM, my uncle came over and asked if we wanted some honey? "Sure" I said. My brother and I got one his scooter. After a short ride, he stopped at a dirt path.
Where's the store?
Up there.
He climbed up the tree and chopped the branch down.
Timmmbeerrr.
Pulled the branch down and lighted up a fire.
My brother ran off with the honey.
It tastes so good.
Here is our catch. No lavas however.
How sweet can this gets?
Even my monkey got a mouth full.
Dinner:
We went over to my uncle's house for dinner.
We had lemon chicken.
Ginger chicken.
And chicken porridge.
My bowl my the most special.
And I had a little something to washed it all down.
And of course the chickens are free ranged.
More to come.....
BTW if you have a monkey as a pet. It loves pears and Rambutan.
Dinner we had the "lau" with the red fish from earlier.
DAY 11:
We stopped to visit my dad's uncle. He was making "banh trang."
For dinner we had two dishes. The first is a clam called "so cu." It is cleaned half shell. Stuffed with pig's fat, green onions and peanuts. They're grilled on an open fire.
We started putting an egg in it for the second round.
Our second dish is very similar to spring rolls. It's call "cha lui." It's made out of pork and fried to crispy. The dipping sauce is out of this world. But I have no idea what's in it. I don't think we have this dish in the states.
DAY 12:
At about 6PM, my uncle came over and asked if we wanted some honey? "Sure" I said. My brother and I got one his scooter. After a short ride, he stopped at a dirt path.
Where's the store?
Up there.
He climbed up the tree and chopped the branch down.
Timmmbeerrr.
Pulled the branch down and lighted up a fire.
My brother ran off with the honey.
It tastes so good.
Here is our catch. No lavas however.
How sweet can this gets?
Even my monkey got a mouth full.
Dinner:
We went over to my uncle's house for dinner.
We had lemon chicken.
Ginger chicken.
And chicken porridge.
My bowl my the most special.
And I had a little something to washed it all down.
And of course the chickens are free ranged.
More to come.....
07-08-2010, 01:33 AM
#5
Registered User
Thread Starter
DAY 13:
For breakfast. My brother and I stopped by the shop that we went to earlier. But this time we ordered something a little different. Noodles and pork chops.
We stopped by the coffee shop near the water for a drink.
These are the interior shots not facing the water.
It also have a restaurant for weddings.
I sat back down and saw a fisherman.
Time to enjoy my drink; a cool sweet lemon iced tea with "tac" and "xi muoi."
DAY 16:
We visited the clothing market. It gets a little cozy going into the main building.
For lunch, we had mushroom and pork, purple potato soup, beef with vegetables, pig's ears and a tail.
DAY 17:
Today was our family trip to the natural hot springs. They had 12 animal year in front, hot spring swimming pools for kids and adults, mud bath and a place to boil eggs. It was also raining so it was beautiful.
DAY 18:
Dinner was simply evil porridge. We called it "ga` ac'" translates to "evil chicken." It has all white feathers but the skins and bones are black. We had a few of these in the back yard.
Fried chicken
Fried small crabs
DAY 19:
"Com tam'" for breakfast with a big bowl of soup.
Of course it's time for coffee. This coffee shop was quite cozy with 2 floors.
I had iced yogurt.
We went home and found someone in our house. She was selling hot tofu and rice ball wine. Rice ball wine is another one of my favorite snack.
This lunch only comes 6 months to once a year. It was a rare treat indeed. Let me try to describe it. It was basically pig's breasts but not from any kind of pig. It was from a pig that just had babies and were developing milk. It is rare because these mother pigs are kept to feed the babies so they don't usually get butchered.
It is first boiled in water. You can see the water turns white. That is the milk that comes out.
After it's boiled, it's cut into strips. We also had a uterus from another pig on the left.
It was time for the grill.
My uncle bought over a long blood sausage.
It was time to eat.
For breakfast. My brother and I stopped by the shop that we went to earlier. But this time we ordered something a little different. Noodles and pork chops.
We stopped by the coffee shop near the water for a drink.
These are the interior shots not facing the water.
It also have a restaurant for weddings.
I sat back down and saw a fisherman.
Time to enjoy my drink; a cool sweet lemon iced tea with "tac" and "xi muoi."
DAY 16:
We visited the clothing market. It gets a little cozy going into the main building.
For lunch, we had mushroom and pork, purple potato soup, beef with vegetables, pig's ears and a tail.
DAY 17:
Today was our family trip to the natural hot springs. They had 12 animal year in front, hot spring swimming pools for kids and adults, mud bath and a place to boil eggs. It was also raining so it was beautiful.
DAY 18:
Dinner was simply evil porridge. We called it "ga` ac'" translates to "evil chicken." It has all white feathers but the skins and bones are black. We had a few of these in the back yard.
Fried chicken
Fried small crabs
DAY 19:
"Com tam'" for breakfast with a big bowl of soup.
Of course it's time for coffee. This coffee shop was quite cozy with 2 floors.
I had iced yogurt.
We went home and found someone in our house. She was selling hot tofu and rice ball wine. Rice ball wine is another one of my favorite snack.
This lunch only comes 6 months to once a year. It was a rare treat indeed. Let me try to describe it. It was basically pig's breasts but not from any kind of pig. It was from a pig that just had babies and were developing milk. It is rare because these mother pigs are kept to feed the babies so they don't usually get butchered.
It is first boiled in water. You can see the water turns white. That is the milk that comes out.
After it's boiled, it's cut into strips. We also had a uterus from another pig on the left.
It was time for the grill.
My uncle bought over a long blood sausage.
It was time to eat.
07-08-2010, 01:34 AM
#6
Registered User
Thread Starter
Durian and jack fruit for the after taste.
DAY 23:
Today was the last full day in Saigon but it was the best. Breakfast took me back where I was 3 years ago. I had "com tam'" at this place often but now it seems to be missing something. It was not the best com tam' that I had anymore. It was quite the same as the others but slightly better. I think it's the food telling me that the time have changed.
Coffee was on the 2nd floor of this building.
As I was sitting there, I notice something out on the streets.
I walked down to the first floor to make sure it was really one of my favorite food.
Crossed this ocean of scooters.
Here it is.
One please!!
It was time for lunch. We had asked the hotel to recommend us something good for lunch. We got the address and took a taxi there and asked to look around. No pictures of the live animals were allowed but there were snakes, wild birds, lizards, and other things that I had before or deemed not special enough
. However, there were two animals that I thought would meet my demands. First there was the bat. The second was the Pangolin, but it was way too big and expensive. One bat please . The bat was taken to our table live. It was brownest with a hit of redness on the head. It squealed quite a bit. The waiter had a knife and quickly drained its blood into a vodka bottle and took it into the kitchen. He came out a bit later with this.
We also had some goat, fries and vegetables to go with our bat.
Dinner was very special. We went to "Lang Nuong."
The first dish was immature quail eggs. Balut but with quail eggs. It was quite good.
Next was roasted baby pig. There were barely any fat. It was just meat and crunchy skin. One of the best I had.
Then seafood rice.
It was time to unwrapped what I brought. But first I like to give a special thanks to my friend in Vietnam for delivering this to me. I searched for all of Saigon for a restaurant that has this but was unsuccessful. He used to live in Saigon but moved out back home to Cu Chi which is an hour away. He took a couple of hours off from work and drove to my hotel and back. Thanks Sang!!!
The unwrapping. No need for explaining what it is.
It's my turn.
My wife was put to work for the next dish. Grilled wild boar and rabbit.
Seafood soup with fish's intestine was next.
Field rat anyone?
Did you notice that I brought two boxes in the bag? Well, I saved the best for last.
The unboxing.
After dinner we went to a new coffee shop. It was called simply "windows cafe."
07-08-2010, 06:24 AM
#7
Registered User
Thread Starter
DAY 24:
Our last morning in Saigon was spend with my aunt. We went to a close by Hue restaurant.
Banh Bot Loc, Banh Nam and Banh Beo.
Cha Gio- eggrolls.
Bun Bo Hue
We said goodbyes and spend the next 4 hours going home. At home, I knew my uncle was saving something for us. He had kept them alive in our house for the past 3 days and can't wait for us to get home. We got home around 4PM and I immediately went with my brother to prepped for dinner. We brought a bag along.
We went to the same place as last time but with 3 snakes this time. One of which was big; double the sized of the one last time.
Does he look familiar? The big one goes first.
One head and tail. Two more to go.
The whole body moved out of the tub.
The second one.
And the third.
Opppss...
All the bodies goes into the tub.
And all the heads and tails goes together. They're still moving!
Heart goes together also.
The cleaning.
Heads and tails to go please. They're saved for wine.
We went back home and got dressed for dinner. My uncle brought over his new truck he bought last week. All the kids and women got to ride in it.
The first dish was "ran sa ot."
"Gio ran"
"Ran nuong"
I had everything. Everything was good but the grilled was the best. I ate it to the bones.
"Chao ran"
"chim"
Our last morning in Saigon was spend with my aunt. We went to a close by Hue restaurant.
Banh Bot Loc, Banh Nam and Banh Beo.
Cha Gio- eggrolls.
Bun Bo Hue
We said goodbyes and spend the next 4 hours going home. At home, I knew my uncle was saving something for us. He had kept them alive in our house for the past 3 days and can't wait for us to get home. We got home around 4PM and I immediately went with my brother to prepped for dinner. We brought a bag along.
We went to the same place as last time but with 3 snakes this time. One of which was big; double the sized of the one last time.
Does he look familiar? The big one goes first.
One head and tail. Two more to go.
The whole body moved out of the tub.
The second one.
And the third.
Opppss...
All the bodies goes into the tub.
And all the heads and tails goes together. They're still moving!
Heart goes together also.
The cleaning.
Heads and tails to go please. They're saved for wine.
We went back home and got dressed for dinner. My uncle brought over his new truck he bought last week. All the kids and women got to ride in it.
The first dish was "ran sa ot."
"Gio ran"
"Ran nuong"
I had everything. Everything was good but the grilled was the best. I ate it to the bones.
"Chao ran"
"chim"
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07-08-2010, 06:49 AM
#8
Registered User
Thread Starter
"Heo rung curry"
We brought some of yesterday's back.
Time to eat.
DAY 25:
Nothing much happened today except that we went to see an Anaconda. It was caught a couple of weeks ago in the rice paddy field. It's pretty big and old. It has a lot of ticks on its face. We tried to get it off with a stick but it hurt-ed.
DAY 26:
I finally notice that some of the fruits I ate came from our house. I went exploring...
Found out that we had pigs in the backyard.
It was time to prep for lunch. My aunt had brought this over a little bit earlier. It was about 6lbs worth of wild lizards she bought from the market. They all go into a big tub and one by one gets prep.
Two hours later and this is what we ended up with.
It's lunch time.
First course is lizard omelet.
Second course is saute lizard with pork's skin.
Third is grilled lizard.
DAY 27:
Lunch:
Cow's heart and flowers.
A little bit of everything; heart, liver, ear and tongue.
We went to the beach after lunch.
Dinner was "ngau pin" and oysters.
Every part of it.
And a tail.
Desert was something you can't get mostly anywhere; "che buoi"- Citrus maxima desert. It's made from the skin of that fruit.
DAY 28:
Dinner was made today by my wife. It was "vit nau chao"- duck with sticky tofu.
"Be thui"- calf from a restaurant.
And a pig for desert.
DAY 29:
It was after lunch when my dad rushed in. He received a call from his friend in the market for something I been looking for. We rushed over and hope it was still there but we were a bit too late to buy the whole thing. It was already butchered into meat and almost everything was gone. The sea turtle was about 30lbs but now there was only about 10lbs left. We made off with about 4 lbs of the good meat.
It was ready for eating. Kinda of like sweet and sour turtle.
Bread crumbs fried turtle.
Flour friend turtle.
And the best of all was the grilled turtle.
It was a strangest kind of meat I eaten. The white part could of easily been a fish but the dark part is pretty much like beef. It wasn't a crossed between a fish and cow but two separate different meat connected at a border into one.
DAY 30:
Lunch was slow. It was bigger than everyone's hand and the shelf was even bigger. We actually went to the market searching for gifts but saw my aunt and she took us to get lunch.
We brought some of yesterday's back.
Time to eat.
DAY 25:
Nothing much happened today except that we went to see an Anaconda. It was caught a couple of weeks ago in the rice paddy field. It's pretty big and old. It has a lot of ticks on its face. We tried to get it off with a stick but it hurt-ed.
DAY 26:
I finally notice that some of the fruits I ate came from our house. I went exploring...
Found out that we had pigs in the backyard.
It was time to prep for lunch. My aunt had brought this over a little bit earlier. It was about 6lbs worth of wild lizards she bought from the market. They all go into a big tub and one by one gets prep.
Two hours later and this is what we ended up with.
It's lunch time.
First course is lizard omelet.
Second course is saute lizard with pork's skin.
Third is grilled lizard.
DAY 27:
Lunch:
Cow's heart and flowers.
A little bit of everything; heart, liver, ear and tongue.
We went to the beach after lunch.
Dinner was "ngau pin" and oysters.
Every part of it.
And a tail.
Desert was something you can't get mostly anywhere; "che buoi"- Citrus maxima desert. It's made from the skin of that fruit.
DAY 28:
Dinner was made today by my wife. It was "vit nau chao"- duck with sticky tofu.
"Be thui"- calf from a restaurant.
And a pig for desert.
DAY 29:
It was after lunch when my dad rushed in. He received a call from his friend in the market for something I been looking for. We rushed over and hope it was still there but we were a bit too late to buy the whole thing. It was already butchered into meat and almost everything was gone. The sea turtle was about 30lbs but now there was only about 10lbs left. We made off with about 4 lbs of the good meat.
It was ready for eating. Kinda of like sweet and sour turtle.
Bread crumbs fried turtle.
Flour friend turtle.
And the best of all was the grilled turtle.
It was a strangest kind of meat I eaten. The white part could of easily been a fish but the dark part is pretty much like beef. It wasn't a crossed between a fish and cow but two separate different meat connected at a border into one.
DAY 30:
Lunch was slow. It was bigger than everyone's hand and the shelf was even bigger. We actually went to the market searching for gifts but saw my aunt and she took us to get lunch.
