You’re the Cream in my Coffee…In Fact, Make it a Coffee with Milk and Ice

In the previous blog entry, you were introduced to the people who made my visit to Vietnam a memorable one. However, the shared moments with these individuals often involved conversations and discussions over meals. Food and drink were the common denominators in the majority of my shared experiences whether it be at a coffee shop, in the school cafeteria, at a roadside eatery or a formal restaurant. In this blog entry, I would like to share with you the various types of Vietnamese food and drink that I had the pleasure to experience.

At every (or I should say most) meals, I made an effort to take pictures of my meal before I dug in, as I am doing in the photo below.

I wish I could tell you that I also knew the names of each of these food items and dishes. I am sorry to disappoint you but I don’t. It was not for the lack of inquiring about their names – I did. Every time I sat down to eat, my hosts, regardless of who dined with me and for the meal that sat before us, always took the time to teach me the words of the food/dishes on the table and I would, in turn, promptly recite them. But I wasn’t sure of the proper spelling and I didn’t want to incorrectly identify food items so I will include pictures of these dishes and labels/names where I can but will not try to identify the items unless I am definitely sure. If readers can identify one or more of the food items or dishes presented in the entry and would be so inclined, I would like to invite them to provide the correct spelling and pronunciation in the comment section to make this blog entry a truly educational one. I created a slideshow video of all of the various types of Vietnamese cuisine that I enjoyed during my three week visit and so, with my plate in hand, let’s dig in.

Testing (well, actually Tasting) the Waters

When I first found out that I would be traveling to Vietnam, there were many questions swirling around in my head like where do I begin with the visa process, how much Vietnamese currency would I need for my expenses, what clothes should I pack, how many cameras/flash drives should I take with me, and do I have the proper electric adapters. Some of these things were placed on the back burner and yet others consumed my attention. But probably the questions that ranked highest on the list was about food – what would I be eating and how would it taste. After all, I doubted that there would not be a Whataburger or Pizza Hut where I could make routine stops to grab a bite. So, I wanted to try a Vietnamese dish before I left. Now there are quite a few restaurants featuring Vietnamese cuisine but my opportunity would come on a summer visit to my hometown, San Angelo, a city in West Texas. My wife, daughter and I were in a hotel room for a couple of days and on one afternoon, discussed where to get lunch. Knowing that I had wanted to eat a Vietnamese meal before I departed for Vietnam, my daughter suggested a sandwich shop, Which Wich, located very close to the hotel. She told me about a Vietnamese sandwich which she had tried before at the sandwich shop called, Bahn Mi, sandwich with pulled pork on a baguette. I looked it up online and I was sold.

A Banh Mi is what it would be for lunch. We walked to the Which Wich shop and I placed my order. 

About 10 minutes later, I received my order and returned back to the hotel room. 

It was really good! The Bahn Mi sandwich was now one of my favorites. I couldn’t wait to try a Bahn Mi sandwich in Vietnam which wouldn’t be that long. On our way to my first roadtrip to Sa Dec on September 29, 2018, we had gotten started rather early and did not have time to stop for a sit down breakfast. The driver pulled over on the side of the road by a food kiosk which offered…you guessed it…Bahn Mi sandwiches.

What a great way to start the day!

My First Meal in Vietnam

The flight to Vietnam, as I detailed in an earlier blog, was a long one that involved many hours either on an airplane or in an airport terminal. Meals typically consisted of fast food meals in the terminal or inflight meals. On my flight to Ho Chi Minh City, I was tired, so tired in fact that I slept rather than ate. The flight got into Ho Chi Minh City very late on Saturday, September 22 and by the time I passed through passport control, customs, retrieved my luggage (of course, my luggage was one of the very last pieces of luggage to make its way around the baggage carousel), made it to the hotel, checked in and made it to my room, it was approximately 1:30 am. I was hungry but again, it was 1:30 am. Thankfully, the hotel would have breakfast starting at 7:00 am so it was off to bed. Morning came incredibly fast and now I was really hungry. I could not wait to get down to the lobby and the hotel restaurant where they had a breakfast buffet. As I made my way around the various dishes, I piled up my plate and found a seat.

So, what exactly is on the plate? You’re in luck as I took a picture of most of the labels in front of the serving trays. On the plate is: fried Vietnamese penne with seafood, fried fish paste with lemongrass flavor, sautéed fillet fish with capsicum sauce, seafood spring rolls, fried rice, steamed rice, and custard on the side. It was all very good and in fact was followed by a second plate. It was just what I needed!

Newest Iron Chef?...Ehhh, maybe not!

            As I described in the previous blog entry, I was invited to spend one morning with the family of my sponsor, Ngocchau Nguyen, which began with breakfast at a local eatery and ended with an afternoon at her home for lunch with the family. It was a great way to truly appreciate the Vietnamese culture, particularly the food, by taking part in an authentic, home-cooked meal. As we entered the house and got comfortable, Ms. Chau took me on a tour of the house, which of course included the kitchen.

She pointed out that one of the items being prepared for lunch was spring rolls and asked if I would like to make one. “Yes,” I said, “but I am not sure how.” She then proceeded to show me how to make one, giving me a chance to photograph the major steps in the process, starting in the upper left hand corner with the placement of the ingredients in the roll wrapper and ending in the lower left hand corner with the final product. 

It was now my turn to make a spring roll. So, how did I do? Well, take a look and judge for yourself!

After my success of making a spring roll, I left the job of making the rest of the spring rolls to the professionals in the kitchen. This is what the final dish looked like, an important part of an incredible lunch spread. 

Best Way to Start the Day!

I will be the first to admit it. I am a coffee drinker. My morning does not officially begin until I have had a cup of coffee. So, naturally, when I got to Vietnam and first sat down for breakfast, the first word out of my mouth was coffee. When asked if I would like milk with my coffee, I replied, “Yes, please.”  Several minutes later, this is what was placed before me.

A metal container is positioned on a metal plate that in turn is balanced on a glass. Already inside the glass is the milk (condensed milk). Inside the metal container is Vietnamese coffee and hot water which was poured and allowed to settle prior to bringing it to me.

It takes about 5 minutes for the water to seep from the coffee and through small holes at the bottom of the container as well as equally small holes through the portion of the metal plate.

Once it has allowed to filter through the container and the plate, the coffee creates a layer above the milk. 

The coffee and milk are stirred together with the mixture then poured into the glass of ice.

This is it…my favorite drink while I was in Vietnam. I almost always ordered milk coffee with ice at breakfast and sometimes in the evening after dinner. It was no secret that Vietnamese milk coffee was my favorite so it should come as no surprise that, at my going away celebration on Wednesday, October 10, I was presented a “Coffee Kit” with two bags of Vietnamese coffee as one of my gifts. Of course, once I got home, I was ready to try it out.

Since it is hard to see inside the mug, here is another view of my first attempt at Vietnamese coffee.

Other ways to Quench my Thirst

            I know that this blog entry is primarily about food but, let’s face it, we all get thirsty as well and drinks play an important part of cuisine. In fact, in the previous section of this entry, I devoted space to talk about coffee. Through the course of my time in Vietnam, I had the opportunity to take part of several types of drinks such as water, fruit juices, and tea (iced and hot). But there were two drinks that I wanted to mention in this section. The first drink is Boba (Bubble) Milk Tea. Although there are specialty shops in the U.S. that sell Boba Milk Tea, I had never had the chance to enjoy this beverage until I was in Vietnam. When I drank my first Milk Tea, you could not help but notice the “bubbles” at the bottom of the drink. These bubbles are chewy balls made out of tapioca.

            On one afternoon on October 10, I was talking with Ms. Truc as I was on my way to my room when we stopped by the Can Tin for a drink. She suggested a milk tea, which I agreed sounded good. As the milk tea was being made, I took photos of each step in the process, displayed in the collage below. The drink begins with the three ingredients shown in the top left of the collage and combined individually into a cup as noted along the far left hand side. The milk is poured into the cup as a final step, resulting in my Boba Milk Tea.

As I was discussing the drink with Ms. Truc, she was telling me that each milk tea has the tapioca balls and two clear gummy bears, shown above as the transparent ingredient. I scooped one of the gummy bears from the bottom of the drink and took a close-up photo of the gummy bear.

            I also wanted to mention another drink that I had a chance to enjoy during my time in Vietnam. It was during my first full week in Vietnam on September 25 when Mr. Linh invited me to go out for an evening coffee. I readily agreed as I always enjoyed having a chance to speak with Mr. Linh and continue to learn about Vietnamese culture. So, we arrived at the coffee house, got seated and a waitress came to take our order. Mr. Linh had placed our order and several minutes later, the waitress arrived with the drink shown in the photo below.

My first thought was…A green smoothie? Maybe it’s a lime smoothie. Wait, a lime smoothie? I couldn’t think of what other green food could be the source of the smoothie. There is no way this could be a...a…a…broccoli smoothie? Could it? Oh well, I am willing to try almost anything so I picked it up and I took a sip. It wasn’t that bad! I took another sip and yet another. I wasn’t sure what I was drinking but it actually tasted pretty good. About half way into my drink, Mr. Linh asked me what I thought of the drink. I responded, “Not bad. I like it.” He then proceeded to tell me that I was drinking a Vietnamese Avocado Shake (in Vietnamese, it is called Sinh To Bo). Avocado? I would have never guessed the green color was due to avocados. Frankly, I prefer my avocados in guacamole but this was definitely a unique taste and a more unique experience!

My Last Meal in Vietnam, My First Meal in Texas

In keeping with the theme of this blog entry, I thought I would wrap up my discussion with two important meals – my last meal in Vietnam and my first meal upon my return to Texas. I will be describing my last day in Vietnam in more detail in the next blog entry but suffice it to say, I did have a special meal to wrap up my visit to Vietnam. The majority of my last day (Friday, October 12) was spent in Ho Chi Minh City, as I prepared to depart Vietnam for my trip back home. I spent the majority of the day at a College Education Fair in Ho Chi Minh City with students and teachers from the high school. As the day winded down and the students and teachers loaded the bus for their return trip back to Cao Lanh and the high school, I was to spend the night in Ho Chi Minh City. A teacher from Nguyen Quang Dieu Gifted High School, Bui Huu Nhan, who had accompanied everyone to Ho Chi Minh City was going to remain there for a couple of days at his house. He was from Ho Chi Minh City. So we left in a taxi from the Fair to first drop me off by my hotel and then about an hour or so later, he would return on his motorbike to pick me up and take me to dinner. We went to a restaurant called Dau Homemade, which interestingly enough, specialized in dishes from Northern Vietnam. 

I enjoyed the food very much as well as getting a chance to speak to Mr. Bui. It was a great way to wrap up my visit in Vietnam. 

            The next day, I got up rather early to make it to the airport for an 8:10 am flight to Tokyo to begin my trip home. My mind was focused on getting checked in for the flight, making sure my baggage was tagged properly, that I got through security, and finally that I located my gate of departure. All of these tasks went smoothly and I found myself at the correct gate waiting for the boarding call. As I sat there, my mind became focused on something else that was equally as important – what my first meal would be upon my return to Texas. This was a question that weighed heavily on my mind and became too much for me to decide on my own. So I reached out for assistance…on Facebook.

I asked my Facebook friends to help me make this critical decision and answer the question – Where should I eat my first meal – Whataburger or Dairy Queen? I did not take a poll but the upshot of the request for assistance turned out to be unhelpful. My Facebook friends responded with Both. Ugh, what was I to do?

It was a long ‒ no make that, very long ‒ flight and as I made it home and got unpacked, it was early evening, around dinnertime. And yes, I was very hungry. After hours of uncertainty and indecision, I just got in the car and drove to…Dairy Queen.

Yep, my first meal upon my return to Texas was Dairy Queen. (I apologize for my messy desk and probably should have cleaned up but, again I was hungry.) So, you are probably wondering what factored in my decision to go to Dairy Queen. Was it truly spontaneous? It’s funny you should ask that question because, as we all arrived in Ho Chi Minh City for the Education Fair, we went to a local shopping mall to eat lunch, shop, and browse. As I made my way up an escalator at the mall, this caught my eye and had to take a photo.

This was just a random occurrence and did not factor into my decision to eat at Dairy Queen. Or did it?

Coming Up Next: Traveling to a new place and especially a new country is only as exciting as having a way to get around town. There were many ways to get from Point A to Point B in Vietnam just like there are in Texas with one exception…one major exception. 

Disclaimer: The blog, "Dr. H's Fulbright Experience", is not an official site of the Fulbright Program or the U.S. Department of State. The views expressed in this blog are entirely those of George Hademenos and do not represent the views of the Fulbright Program, the U.S. Department of State, or any of its partner organizations.