Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Although it was hard to get up for work today, at least I looked forward to the walk through the park, people-watching as everyone did their morning runs, exercises, tai chi and badminton competitions.  After work, I swung by Mach’s Gym to try it out. You can pay per day or per month. It’s 70,000VND (about $3.50) for one visit, so I gave it a shot. I haven’t been to the gym to work on my strength and weight-training since I left Canada, so I thought it was about time that I go! I do so much walking here, but I really need to pay attention to building muscle weight.  It was comfortable and just big enough.  It had all the types of strength machines I wanted, unlike another smaller gym I checked out close by.  I even met the owner/manager, Mach himself! He gave me some pointers as well.  I even met a Vietnamese student who is possibly interested in getting English speaking lessons from me. Productive day? Ah, yes! 

Lunch was some leftover pasta (bolognaise style) and lots of watermelon for dessert! We also went up to our rooftop and tanned for a bit, getting some reading in. The sun was pretty intense. Unfortunately, I don’t work tonight, so I’m lesson planning and blogging. And unfortunately X2, someone in the house completely mowed down half our tub of ice-cream we bought!! Definitely buying smaller tubs in the future so we can keep them in our own mini freezer!

My dish of the day comes from a street vendor set up a mere 2 minutes walk from my house.  This is called “chân gà”, meaning chicken wings.  It was one long piece that they grilled and cut into 3 pieces (see above). Back home, we’re usually used to seeing it already in pieces and usually the end bit isn’t included in the dish because there isn’t much meat on it and it’s more crunchy.  Next time I’d order more chicken because 1 was not enough – it’s too tasty not to have more!

 It was served with: pickled carrots and radishes, lots of thai basil, cucumbers (not shown), some chili, a pepper-salt and lime juice dipping sauce and toothpicks for eating it.  

They also had grilled “chân gà nướng” as well (chicken’s feet), but I’m not adventurous enough to try that yet. My goal is to try it before I leave though!