Phil: Food, Food and More

The last two days have been consumed with eating. Yesterday I was lucky to be invited to an exquisite meal given by Hanoi University of Education (HNUE), where Gail is teaching, for representatives of the University of Missouri and the Vietnam Ministry of Education. The meal began with a delicious light broth with corn kernels and then the dishes just kept coming, including Canton duck, shrimp, sliced beef in a brown sauce, fried rice with smoky pork and shrimp, little round sesame seed doughnuts and fruit . Even though I was warned beforehand that there would be more food than I could eat, it was hard to resist the desire to finish each dish because it was so delicious. I was so stuffed that I didn't eat another thing all day.




Today we were taken to lunch by the president of HNUE and his wife, who is a colleague and friend of Gail's. We had another wonderful multi-course meal, this time all seafood (a light seafood broth with shrimp, then boiled mussels, barbequed sea scallops, large shrimp in coconut milk and wonderful baked tilapia). And at the end I was stuffed once again.




Gail swears that she hasn't been eating like this for the last six weeks. If it continues like this I'll come home at least ten pounds heavier.

Yesterday evening we walked along the streets just outside the campus. They are filled motorcycles, which seem to be the primary form of transport here. There are shops of all kinds open to the sidewalk: motorcycle repair shops, shoe stores, pharmacies, photocopy shops, grocery stores and even a dentist office with the exam chairs visible from the sidewalk. One very popular dish here is pho (sounds like fuh), which is a meat broth (beef, chicken, pork or seafood) delicately flavored with herbs and spices and served with noodles. Naturally there are lots of signs for pho. Gail pointed out one of them:
Pho
to
copy.
The mind starts expecting one thing and then is surprised to find something else. This seems especially true as I'm getting acquainted with Vietnam.