Traveling in Vietnam

 I have arrived in Vietnam and was quite surprised as to the cuisine.  As I have traveled with Robert Carmack and Morrison Polkinghorne, the Globetrotting Gourmets before, I should have known that everything would be super .   I was well over an hour late arriving in Da Nang, but there they were awaiting me at the airport.  Dinner was scheduled around the corner from our 4 star hotel where we were entertained with  music and dancing. Course after course arrived of the central Vietnam cuisine and a wonderful birthday cake for Michael Pearce one of our group.  The cake was on a hat box stand complete with an orchid floral arrangement..  The next morning I was greeted with a wonderful sunrise out of my window overlooking the harbor.  We spent the morning at the Cham Museum which contains artifacts from the 5^th century ruins that we will be visiting later this week.    Afterwards as we walked to lunch at the Waterfront Restaurant, we were greeted with cold coconuts to sip the refreshing coconut water. We had a 6 course lunch by our wonderful host, an expat from Sweden, who was “trying out” his Vietnam cuisine on us. We had grilled beef in lot leaf with a peanut sauce, grilled chicken on a bed of fresh banana flowers, pork in a clay pot with coconut juice, crispy calamari with a delightful dipping sauce of salt and pepper with lime juice, (try this, it is prefect with fried food). We had stir fried water spinach and then a wonderful assortment of regional fruits. After we rolled out of the restaurant we journeyed to Hoi An to the south where we were for 3 nights to celebrate the full moon and the moon cake festival.

 The first evening we had dinner at Mango. This is a delightful restaurant with all women chefs cooking with the owner, Duc Tran who is originally from Saigon, but was educated at TEXAS  A & M, in  environmental studies!!  He came to this city about 10 years ago and decided to open this wonderful restaurant.  We had so many courses - some with fresh tuna, squid, snapper, duck  all served with great sauces  containing  passion fruit/mango, mild peppers, tomato and local  fresh herbs. (we did not like the mint that tastes like fish!!! ) 

The next day we walked thru the market and to the town well. The water from this well is used to make the local special noodles.  Morrison tried to bring up a bucket and dropped the village bucket and rope into the well!! Guess there will be no more noodles for this village!!  Then we went to the Rose and learned to make rice flour dumplings.  Afterwards we went to the Japanese bridge which is really the home of several generations of great artists especially in hand embroidering.

 The next day we spent the morning until into the afternoon cooking at individual stations with the chef from the Morning Glory cooking school.  Come to Pirates Point and you can taste some of the wonderful dishes we learned. 

That evening we had dinner with Duc at a beach restaurant, with a wonderful view of the full moon over the ocean.   This time with a French chef who served his pate as a beginning course but the rest came right out of the sea.!!   The next morning we checked out of our hotel and went to the Cham ruins. These were damaged by the bombings during the Vietnam war. Afterwards, we rode the longest cable car to the top of the mountain to spend the night at a French hotel.   Great view!  We had a vodka tasting of the locally made vodkas, but……being I am not a vodka drinker they did not need my opinion!!!  Once again we were served numerous courses including wild boar, which was somewhat tough.

 We are eating greens, having ice in our drinks, as our tour guides are very careful in picking places that they trust, no jelly belly with our group!!!!  Actually, our group is very small, only 4  persons with Robert and Morrison and a local guide and driver.   This is the way to go!  We all travel together in a 7 passenger van, stopping when we see something we desire to investigate with no fuss and enough space for all of our luggage!! Which is getting heavier at each stop!!! To be continued. Cheers, Gladys