In search of a REAL cappuccino

image: sridgway

Off the plane first thing on my list of must have/do's was a REAL cappuccino.

Vietnamese coffee has quite a unique flavour. Typically it's drunk black and very strong, often sweetened with condensed milk, sometimes drunk over ice. It's not bad, and has a kind of nutty, chocolatey taste.

A few places sell 'western style' coffee (at inflated prices) but order a cappuccino at your peril! We had one in Hue that was half filled with something cold and frothy that most definitely was NOT milk.

The answer? When in Rome......
... or drink beer - it's great and very cheap ;)

image: robynejay

Oh, and my other must have/do's?
- a glass of cold water out of a tap
- a toilet seat that wasn't wet
- olives and salami and cheese
- a tender lamb roast
- luxuriating in a comfortable bed with crisp cotton sheets

.... and that was all on the first day back!

Culinary delights

A meal without vegetables is
like a funeral without a horn (Vietnamese saying)

The food in Vietnam has been absolutely fantastic. For around $3-$5 you can get a main course with meat; spring rolls are about $2. Vegies are purchased fresh from the market and rarely refrigerated before eating. Beef, chicken, duck, pork are the main meat fare.

You might like to try out the Red Bridge Fresh Spring Rolls for yourself...

RICE PAPER:
Soak a cup of white rice overnight. Wash 3 times and drain.
Mix 1 cup of the rice with 2 cups fresh water and a pinch of salt.
Blend together for 7 mins and allow to sit for one hour.
3/4 fill a large pot/saucepan with water and cover top with white cotton (lawn), securing it with elastic. Cut a vent at one side around 2cm x 4 cm to allow steam to escape.
Bring water to boil.
Using a soup ladle pour a spoonful onto the lawn and gently spread the batter to form a circle.
Cover with a lid and steam for 1 min.
Using a flat bamboo stick, slide under the centre and lift the paper from the lawn.
Flip over onto a board/plate (sticky side up). Separate with lettuce or bamboo leaf
(these keep a few hours or can be dried in the sun)



SHRIMP MIX:
100g peeled shrimps (prawns or other meat, or tofu)
2 pinches salt and sugar
10 medium lettuce leaves (asian)
1/2 cup grated carrot
1/2 cup grated green papaya (or green mango, bean sprouts, cucumber etc)
2 tsp white vinegar
1 tblsp finely chopped white onion
1 tsp vegetable oil
chopped fresh herbs - vietnamese basil, mint, coriander

WOK MIX - Pour vegetable oil into wokon medium heat; add onions and fry 30 secs. Add shrimp and one pinch of salt and sugar. Cook 1 minute more.
SALAD MIX - Mix remaining ingredients in a bowl (vegies, vingar, salt and sugar)

Place some vegetable and herb mix onto a sheet of rice paper.
Then place some wok mix on top.
Roll up tucking in edges as you go.
Slice into segments and serve with sauce of your choice.

Red Bridge Cooking

A highlight of our trip and an absolute MUST if you are visiting Hoi An, is the half day Red Bridge Cooking School.

At $20/head its not cheap by Vietnamese standards but worth every cent.

We attended a morning class that began at 8am with a REAL cappucino (see future post on coffee) at Hai Cafe in town. The cafe is run by an Oz expat, the food is superb (we went back at night for a meal), there a few reasonably priced Australian wines on menu, and it supports the World Wildlife Fund's efforts locally.

With an English speaking guide we wandered through the local market, learning a bit about local produce before boarding a boat for a 30 min trip down river to the Red Bridge Restaurant.

The head chef led us through a number of dishes, first demonstrating and then letting us at it. It was a lot of fun and not as tricky as expected. We even learned how to make our own rice paper for fresh spring rolls.

image: robynejay

The class was followed by lunch (and a bottle of SA white at our expense) by the river- a chance to see and taste the dishes at their finest - before boating back to Hoi An.

Rice bowl

image: sridgway

We drove out to the ancient ruins of My Son today through hectares of golden rice. The harvest is on. Teams of harvesters worked plots in the fields, scything, stooking and threshing the grain by hand. Front courtyards were displays of colour as the rice, alongside chilis, maize and beans, was laid out to dry in the sunshine.

Globally soaring food prices aligned to international economic conditions are taking their toll even here in the world's 3rd largest rice exporter. Rising prices might be good news for farmers but consumers are suffering. A cafe owner told us today that the price of rice has doubled in recent months.

Rumours are of rice shortages but it appears that a far greater impact is rice hoarding. Vietnam and Thailand it seems have in fact had record rise crops in the past year.

According to U.S. Agriculture Dept. what's driving the price of rice so high are widespread worries about food inflation in many rice-growing nations. "In poorer nations, a large share of people's earnings is spent on food, and big price increases in other kinds of food are harming consumers," Childs says. So to protect their supplies of rice—a staple food in much of the world—several countries have imposed export bans or sharp limits. That has led to a sharp reduction of rice available for trade in the global market. In 2007, India and Vietnam, two of the world's biggest rice exporters, reduced their rice shipments. Since then, Cambodia, Egypt, and Brazil have all halted rice exports. (Business Week)

The outlook appears grim, especially for nations that are net importers of the grain and that have large rice-consuming populations, like the Philippines.

Meanwhile here in Vietnam where labourers earn 50,000 VND (~ $3) a day there were government announcements via jeep mounted loud hailers today informing the locals of subsidies and strategies to stop the price rises. It was an interesting but necessary medium in a country where the hardest hit are unlikely to access the news in any other format.

image: robynejay

Gems on Van Mieu

En route to the Temple of Literature today we came across two little gems on Pho Van Mieu which are well worth a visit if youŕe heading this way.

First @ number 43 was Craft Link, a not-for-profit organisation that sells ethnic weaving and craft at fair trade prices, and apparently also funds community development activities for the artists. The collection wasn´t huge but the quality good and prices very reasonable, and it was such a relief to browse freely without avid sellers breathing down our necks. My treasured purchase was a gorgeous red silk Khmer weaving ($20).

Just a few doors down @ 59 we stopped for lunch and a fantastic cappuccino at KOTO (Know One, Teach One), a vocational training hospitality school for disadvantaged kids here in Hanoi. There are clearly strong links to the program from Oz and it appears that its a potential destination for Australian Volunteers Abroad. Theyŕe clearly doing really well, now making a profit and expanding to other countries. Food, service, setting and prices were all superb! Our VET system in Australia could learn a thing or two....

image: robynejay

Cracked pepper sir?

image: robynejay