This is the time of year for lists….. and more lists. First there's the Christmas shopping list, then the post Xmas return list, followed by that all too inevitable New Years resolution list, and so forth. I often get asked to do lists, stuff like Pho restaurants, eating itineraries for visitors (which I love to do BTW – it's just that I'm kinda slow on the email thing), and other stuff. Recently, Dennis asked me if I was going to do an updated 10 photos post, and I thought about it, but after a bit of pondering I gave up. You see, we average somewhere around 300 or so posts a year, and picking a few photos out of those…… well you see what I mean, right? And yet, because it is the time of the year for lists, I just felt I needed to do one. And so I pulled out an often requested list, of our most memorable meals, not in any order, and kinda off the top of my head. Now note that that is "our" list, which is, the Missus and I, which automatically excludes places like……
Urasawa, which was a ginourmous three part post……
And even though we've had some very memorable dishes like the Roasted Whole Sparrows from Highway 4 in Hanoi……
Which was really delicious….. or even sannakji (live octopus), which I thought was less so….
Or even Prahok, a fermented Cambodian fish paste, made more interesting by the sour little crunchy things….
Which turned out to be little red tree ants. The list is memorable meals, not memorable dishes….. hey, that could be another list!
And there were those stories, like the young lady in Siem Reap named Akin, who came to work in the city at the age of 9!
Akin, an orphan who never knew her parents nor siblings, felt the need to comfort us when we were so touched and distressed by her story by sharing with us her philosophy on life: "no worries, no worries, I'm Happy-Happy every day!"
And since it's meals, not drink, I need to exclude the Chicha de Jora from a dirt-floored roadside shack in Calca.
Frothy, yeasty, and light, it's a wonderful beverage. There's just one thing you need to understand about Chicha de Jora, to quote: "In order to start the fermentation process, the maize is moistened in the maker's mouth…..the digestive enzymes in saliva helps to break down the starches and start the fermentation process. In fact, it is thought that the modern name for this drink is based on the Spanish word "chichal", which means to spit".
I'd also need to exclude the best "hootch" I've ever had, Snake Ruou (rice wine):
From Quoc Phuong Ecological Farm in Le Mat, outside of Hanoi:
We've found that there's no way to get to know the folks than by trying out some of the local "beverages":
After all, if it comes out of a rusty old barrel, through a bamboo tube, it's gotta be good, right?
Hmmmm….. another list! I'll stop now, and leave this list for later. But I'm wondering, how many of you have been reading for the last four years or so. And if you have…. first I'd like to thank you so much for reading! Second, are there any posts which stand out in your mind…. or perhaps you'd like to take a stab at what you think were our most memorable meals?
Thanks for reading!