Culinary Delights in Ho Chi Minh City

This morning started off with the groups separating. Alyssa, Paul, and Kelsi went to meet our SoMedco contact, while Hank, Tiffany and I stayed with Tiffany's family. Alyssa, Paul, and Kelsi had the privilege of attending a 2-3 hour church service. The rest of us were able to experience what Tiffany calls "the leisurely Vietnamese morning." This does not, however, include sleeping in. Instead, we headed to a back alley restaurant where we were served the traditional Pho (pronounced "fur"), a vegetable and meat soup. Afterwards, we headed to a different locale and had some Vietnamese coffee. This cafe overlooked one of the cleanest bodies of water we have seen yet (it was a pond). What makes Vietnames coffee unique? Well, it is similar to espresso, but it is brewed at your table in individual servings. Hot water is poured into this small metal contraption that holds the grounds and sits on top of your cup. The coffee slowly percolates over 5-10 minutes and is then ready to be enjoyed either black or with "milk." I deem it "milk" because it is actually sweetened condensed milk. I took it with milk, which is apparently just for women, but I don't really care because it was absolutely amazing.

We finally all linked back up for lunch...another amazing example of the excellent cuisine here in Vietnam. We made our own spring rolls with pork, beef, and an array of vegetables, most of which were unrecognizable to us. There were multiple sauces to dip them in and one in particular I just have to mention. As I took my first bite with this one sauce, Tiffany gave me the strangest look and then asked me if I liked it. I thought it was alright, but then she would not tell me what it was made out of. With that reaction from Tiffany, I could no longer sample that sauce. It wasn't until after the meal that she revealed the ingredient: fish puree...and by that she meant the entire fish, not just the meat we are all used to. Now that I think of the flavor, that is exactly what it tasted like.

We did do something besides eat today: we went to the Cuchi Tunnels. These are the tunnels that the Viet Cong used during the Vietnam War (or the American War, as it is referred to here in Vietnam). It was a very impressive, three tiered system of tunnels...a total of 250 kilometers. We were able to crawl through 60 meters of tunnel...and that was more than enough. We also learned how the tunnels were organized, ventilated, and even how they hid the smoke from the kitchen areas by diffusing it over 10 meters or so, making it appear like fog. Near the end of the tour we had the option to go to the shooting range and shoot real M16s and AK-47s. None of us took advantage of this opportunity, but we watched a few of our newfound Australian friends partake.

After the Cuchi Tunnels we headed back to experience the highlight of the day: eating balut. For those who don't know, balut is a hard boiled duck egg...with a twist. There is a duck embryo inside. We had heard about balut since the Philippines, but didn't get the opportunity to feast until today. I say feast because Tiffany's family apparently didn't understand that we only wanted to sample balut. They brought us 30 eggs!!

Just to completely horrify everyone, I will try and explain how balut is eaten.

Each egg comes with a small blue mark, which is where you strike the egg with a small spoon to pop the top off. Once the top is off, you sip the fluid (amniotic fluid?) out of the shell like a shot. You then attack it piece by piece. First eat the yolk, which is very similar to a regular chicken egg yolk. After one bite of yolk, Kelsi dropped out. After the yolk, you move on to the duck itself. It is absolutely crucial at this juncture not to look at what you are eating: the duck embryo looks exactly like what you think...eyes, beak, feathers. It is best to add a little salt and pepper and quickly chew the whole thing. There's another piece of yolk to be devoured and then the final piece is a cartilagenous little fin-like structure. Once you've spent 3 minutes pulverizing that with your teeth you can swallow and you are done.

At least I was done. I knew going in that I was only going to have one balut and then never do it again (ever). However, Paul had silently downed three in the corner while we were struggling with our first (he had eaten balut before) and Alyssa, Hank, and Tiffany each went on to down 1 or 2 more. Needless to say, many pictures and videos were taken of this epic event. I apologize to anyone who was disgusted by my detailed description of the process.

To cap off our day of culinary delights we headed to the edge of town to Tiffany's favorite seafood restaurant. We feasted on small clams, a few different types of snails, quail eggs, and an exquisite fish soup. Most of us had not eaten shellfish of this type before, but we were lucky to have the waitresses watching to rescue us while we were failing to eat correctly. I had one perched right by my side for almost the entire meal. I guess they just assume that the sweaty, pastey white American is going to fail. I felt like a toddler struggling to eat this wonderful food and felt especially foolish when the waitress quickly popped the shell to a clam that I had been fiddling with for a couple minutes.

We ended our night at a frozen yogurt bar. Even Hank (the vegan) had some fro-yo for the first time in approximately a decade...he's just so polite. All in all, it was a great day and I believe all of our GI systems (especially Hank's) were introduced to some new substances.