Feast Your Eyes

By far one of the most enjoyable aspects of my two months in Vietnam has been the food, it can both push you limits of comfort and expand your awareness of possibility.

I've been anything but cautious about where and what I ate, but I'm pleased to say I only got rocked by food poisoning once.   

I didn't always have camera to capture all the strange and scrumptious things I ingested but here's a taste...
  

Springrolls are synonymous with Vietnamese cuisine and come with an array of fillings, fried...  

...or fresh

It's common to get a pan and burner accompanied by plates stacked with raw meat and veggies to cook at the table 

Grilled Horse 

A spiritual food of much power...which I didn't try

Intestines (source unknown) cooked with turmeric and greens

Grilled squab--a lot of work for a little meat, but tasty

Developing eggs from within the chicken--novel but not recommended

Typical sidewalk cafe--sitting with your knees by your ears on the low plastic stools that are notorious for collapsing 

Breakfast: pork chop, fish cake, pickled veggies, fresh cucumber, vegetable broth, rice and of course coffee...all for about $2 dollars a head  

Floating seafood restaurant--pick your delight from the offerings in the baskets and pay by the kilo: shrimp, crabs, clams, oysters, scallops, snails and fish

Choose a fish, they net it, whack it on the ground in front of you and then prepare it to your liking 

Mantis shrimp fried in butter and garlic

I picked these guys out of the live-well five minutes prior--doesn't get much fresher

At $3 dollars a kilo you can gorge yourself on clams for next to nothing

Scallops

Thanks to the lingering influence of French colonization baguettes like this are everywhere

At all hours of the day little street carts like this whip out egg sandwiches to order: egg, grated carrot and cucumber, cilantro, soy sauce and pate if you please, in a baguette for about $0.50 cents    

At the other end of the spectrum--mango seafood salad in a bit more posh venue

Pomelo salad with shrimp  

With all the rice paddies escargot is a common dish, though I far prefer the smaller ocean snails 

Beef Five Ways

What can I say, I'm American--with an egg and bacon this more than scratched the itch

Perceptions of Beauty

Unlike Western cultures that generally prize a bronze complexion as a symbol of vitality or leisure time spent outdoors, the Vietnamese, particularly women, loathe the kiss of the sun. Like many other aspects of Vietnamese culture this was inherited from the Chinese who value fair skin as a symbol of status--an indication that you don't have to do manual labor exposed to the elements. 

On a sunny day in Vietnam you'll see Western tourist on the beach or pool-side spending the precious hours of their vacations baking to a lobster red hue, while the Vietnamese women cover all but their eyes for a short motorbike ride to the corner store.

Humans are funny creatures 

          

Typical attire for a female laborer despite the 90+ degree humid heat

Market Time: Vietnam

I love markets--in SE Asian countries they are the heart of the communities and one of the first places I head when I arrive in a new town. I came found the most interesting offerings yet in Vietnam, animal lovers and those easily made queasy be forewarned . 

Highlands veg offering

I'm still baffled how this works--it's the norm to have a bunch of stands in a row all selling EXACTLY the same thing  

Passion Fruit

They love candied fruit

Typical dry-goods section 

Fish, snails, crabs and clams

Despite the complete lack of refrigeration at open air markets you'll find fish from the ocean hundreds of kilometers inland  

The Vietnamese are masterful catnapers  

Quail Eggs

No ones could tell me what the treatment was on these eggs 

Free-Range Chickens

Medicinal Black Chicken

Offal good

 Dog paw anyone?

Congealed blood--this stuff once showed up in my pho from a street cart, it actually not bad if you don't think about it.  

And probably the weirdest thing I came across--a cow's utter, yum!

     

Organized Chaos

To the Western mind that finds comfort in categorical separation and well defined rules, the roads of Vietnam are an overwhelming free for all--the concept of lanes to divide types or directions of traffic, and in many places stop lights or signs to choreography the flow, simply don't exist. Motorbikes drive on the sidewalks and up the wrong side of the road, weaving through traffic and charting paths through intersections wherever they physically fit. Bicycles causally ride in the thick of multi-lane traffic and pedestrians ford as they please. What appears as chaos at a glace actually has structure, thought the principles it organizes by are quite different than roads in the West. There is a hierarchy for yielding based on size and maneuverability with buses, trucks and cars at the top, then motorbikes, bicycles on down to pedestrians. The larger vehicles, which are a vast minority, are basically free to driver anywhere on the road's surface and everyone else works around them. Horns are key to the functioning of this pecking-order, they're the means of communication, and many buses and trucks have multiple horns with different tones, each carrying a different meaning. 

Rush Hour, Saigon 

With the lack of well defined rules there seems to be far less personal entitlement among drivers, everyone is honking and cutting everyone else off but I'm yet to really experience road rage. With the inherent level of chaos drivers are forced to go slower but they spend very little time sitting still which translates to greater fuel economy, less emissions and I would think, on average, shorter ride times to desired destination compared to stop and go driving.

Typical Intersection, Saigon

Many motorbikes don't have rear-view mirrors, the driver's focus is on forward motion and reacting to what lies ahead--those behind react to those in front of them and it all seems to work as the herd moves forward. Instead of checking for space when changing lanes or merging motorbike drivers just make the move and the drivers behind adjust accordingly. 

Hanoi Streets

A move like this is totally acceptable in the middle of five lanes of traffic

Bicycles comfortably ride mid-road--an interesting contrast to America where many people don't feel safe riding in well defined bike lanes.  

Vietnam is a motorbike culture 

Non-linear, organic organizing

Crossing the road as a pedestrian in Vietnam is rush, though admittedly a bit nerve-wracking at first. If you stand on the curb waiting for a gap you'll be there all day, you have to just go for it. Wading out into the flow the key is keeping constant forward motion so the motorbikes can pace you and go around--you have to trust them, they won't hit you unless you freeze up or act erratically. Cars on the other hand don't have the same capability for lateral motion, especially in a heavy flow of motor bikes--if your on foot it's your obligation to pause and let them pass. You have to watch out for cab drivers that get their jollies taking close passes at outwardly uncomfortable tourist mid-stream. I watched a blind man saunter up to edge of a road, raise his cane above his head and proceed across five lanes thick traffic without a hitch. After a couple weeks in the country the dance becomes second nature.