My 50th Post! 50 dishes and 50 days! Today, we're celebrating with one of my new fav dishes from 'Nam!
Since neither Patrick nor I had to teach until late afternoon/evening, we went to Dam Sen water park for the day! It was way better than I expected – full of fun water slides, a wave pool, a wandering/lazy river (actually not so lazy – it had a strong current that swept us along!), a small pool with jets and even another pool with a zipline over it! It was my first zipline experience. It wasn’t huge, but it was really fun to ride it and then be dropped into the pool, dramatically plunging down into the water. Some people were even able to do back-flips as they dove down. They even had a “foreigner sunbathing area” for non-vietnamese! Although odd and slightly xenophobic, we decided to check it out – it was actually quite nice and quiet, away from the throngs of screaming children :p They had private lockers and showers as well as some English magazines available. Not too bad! I was so surprised – I ran into 2 people I know - a student of mine in the wave pool and then a new Welsh friend by the patio, drinking beer. 7 weeks into Vietnam and I’m already running into people I know around the city :0
Since neither Patrick nor I had to teach until late afternoon/evening, we went to Dam Sen water park for the day! It was way better than I expected – full of fun water slides, a wave pool, a wandering/lazy river (actually not so lazy – it had a strong current that swept us along!), a small pool with jets and even another pool with a zipline over it! It was my first zipline experience. It wasn’t huge, but it was really fun to ride it and then be dropped into the pool, dramatically plunging down into the water. Some people were even able to do back-flips as they dove down. They even had a “foreigner sunbathing area” for non-vietnamese! Although odd and slightly xenophobic, we decided to check it out – it was actually quite nice and quiet, away from the throngs of screaming children :p They had private lockers and showers as well as some English magazines available. Not too bad! I was so surprised – I ran into 2 people I know - a student of mine in the wave pool and then a new Welsh friend by the patio, drinking beer. 7 weeks into Vietnam and I’m already running into people I know around the city :0
After getting back home, I taught a private lesson to a
Japanese woman and used the TV show, Friends!
There were definitely some nostalgic moments as I used the opening scenes of
season 1, episode 1 to teach her some new expressions and casual/everyday slang
and vocabulary! From there, I went to
work at my language school and then grabbed dinner across the street from my
house on the way back, pulled in by my curiosity and opting to try a new
Vietnamese dish…!
My dish of the day is: Bánh
Xèo (pronounced “bun seo”). It hails
from southern Vietnam, which is known for using more vegetables in its cooking.
Essentially, it’s a Vietnamese-style crepe made from egg (like a really thin
omelette) and it’s stuffed with a mixture of delicious ingredients (see
captions below!) It’s served with a chili-oil dipping sauce (with shredded
carrot in it) and a huge plate of lettuce leaves for wrapping, as well as
assorted herbs (especially basil, a type of mild mint and some unknown herbs
that I have yet to identify!) Lettuce
wraps on a whole new level! This is
definitely one of my new favourite Vietnamese dishes!
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| The ladies let me watch as the cooked - one pan with the pork and shrimp mixture and the other used for frying up the egg-like crepe with the fillings on top! |
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| The various ingredients for the filling: bean sprouts, onions, carrots, mushrooms, green peas, ground beef and chili-oil (not shown: the pork and shrimp mixture) |
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| The hugebanh xeo is served! On the side, the lettuce leaves, herbs and the chili-oil and carrot sauce. |
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| The lettuce wrap, ready for chowing down! |
In my amateur research search of this dish, I discovered that central Vietnam does this dish slightly
differently: Check out the blog, The Hungry Asian
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