So far we have been eating bread (banh my) and Nutella (woohoo!) for breakfast. The French have left their mark here as baguettes are widely available in the mornings. However, since Hanoi we have not been able to find any more Nutella anywhere (boo) so not sure what I will have on my bread then. Lunch and dinner is then either 'Pho' (noodles) or 'Com' (rice) - usually from a roadside stall sat on nursery plastic stools or chairs if it is luxury. One thing is for sure about Vietnamese food - their meat is pretty rough here. All the chicken I have had has been mainly skin and fat, the beef chewy, the pork hard. Now, I tend to avoid the meat altogether. In one restaurant, we ordered chicken and actually got a whole chicken, and I mean everything, including the feet and it's whole head, which we took great joy in dissecting!
Since Hanoi and struggling to read Vietnamese menus, I came up with the brilliant idea of taking photos of the rare Vietnamese/English menus in the touristy parts. Then, when in a tiny village when only sign language will do, it is easy to just show the restaurateur what we want in Vietnamese from my camera. Learn some Vietnamese words by looking at my picture below!
I have also made a habit of taking a picture of food that I really like but don't know what is in Vietnamese. This worked perfectly today when we stopped for lunch and saw the lady had eggs there, but we wanted them hard boiled. How on earth anyone would be able to communicate that across, I don't know but once we showed her the picture on my camera of a hard boiled egg (due to the whole baby chick incident), she knew exactly what we meant and happily boiled them for us!
The Vietnamese language is tonal and so very hard for anyone to understand us when we try to speak it. I try my best to listen to how the local people say it and repeat it in exactly the same way, but it still isn't right. I went out to get some bread the other morning. Knowing exactly how to pronounce it, but knowing I would not be understood, I also wrote it down on a bit of paper as a last resort, hoping I wouldn't have to show it. Bread - 'Banh my' is pronounced 'bang me', which in itself is hilarious and I can't help but stifle laughter when I ask for it. So, there I am asking for a shop keeper to 'bang me' and she doesn't understand what I am saying, so reluctantly I pull out the paper and show her. "Ohhhh, bang me!?" and scurries off to get some, saying it in exactly the way I just said it!
A rather strange experience in an actual restaurant came this evening. Seemed quite posh with proper grown up tables and chairs and waiters - lots of them. We had 5, all tripping over themselves to serve us, and then stand there and stare at us, then interfere when we were putting the wrong thing in the wrong sauce. Just what you want when you're trying to eat. All we ordered was rice and seabass x2 and this is what we got...
and more came out after this! Wondering how much it will cost, we were gobsmacked when the bill came to £3.90! Crazy.
Georgie I know I speak for all your friends back home at TW in saying you are missed and how in awe we are of what you are doing and achieving. Take care CK x
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