Elephant Ear Fish - Monday, May 26

Dish of the day: Deep-fried Elephant Ear Fish

Where it’s found: All over the Mekong River Delta Region

Breaking it down: A whole, gutted elephant ear fish (fried); Vietnamese coriander, mint, thai basil, chilis, cucumber, rice noodles, rice wrapper paper, nuoc cham fish sauce, lime

Our trip to the Mekong Delta on Monday and Tuesday was a delicious adventure.  It’s hard to choose what dish to choose for today, but don’t worry, the other dishes deserve a post soon and will also go down in “dish a day” history ;)

The trip to the Delta (where we stopped to visit a large Buddhist pagoda/temple ) took 2 hours.  Here we got to see the largest statue of Buddha in all of Asia and we also got to witness a gathering of monks who sat for their lunch and said chants.  Before moving on, Patrick and I bought ourselves traditional conical bamboo hats! Next we continued on to Can Tho, Vietnam’s fourth largest city, where we boarded a small boat to float along the river, hopping amongst the different islands.  The islands were named after animals and mythological creations, such as Unicorn Island and Turtle Island.  

We stopped at several islands, each with a different activity for us to try! One stop was at a bee and honey farm, where we taste-tested healthy honey, honey snacks, royal jelly and bee pollen with jasmine tea (see this post!) Another stop involved learning how coconut candy is made, tasting it, eating coconut and red bean ice-cream and even going on a short (also unexpected and slightly odd) horse-and-buggy ride around a village.  Another delicious island trip involved us sitting in the jungle-like village at tables and being served tea alongside huge platters of fruit while we relaxed, watching traditional Vietnamese music performances by local women and children. At another stop, we also got to hold a large cobra and snap shots of ourselves with it! Not to mention, we got to try snake wine (this one was much better and a higher quality than the first one I tried!)  Lastly, we got to ride in small boats with Vietnamese rowers, paddling through the jungle, down the river among the bamboo and towering greenery.  It was so serene and I wish I could have paddled on forever, exploring. Sure, it was carefully laid out and thus, touristy in this sense, but it was definitely an interesting day – a mix of culture, amazing foods, good people, relaxing and learning about the Mekong Delta.

Lunch in the Mekong Delta on the first day of our trip brought us to yet another island.  We ate in an airy pagoda over a pond filled with floating lotus pads and flowers.  After lunch, we walked around the small island amongst the bamboo and palm trees, walked across a sketchy bamboo stick bridge over a pond (very carefully to keep balance, might I add), watched as people fed hungry alligators and then lounged in the shade of the small pagodas, watching the river as boats lazily pulled up to the island. They even had hammocks you could “rent out” to take a nap in, but if we used those, I don’t think we would have been able to get up!

My dish of the day, Elephant Ear Fish is very common in the Mekong Delta region and in fact, it was actually served upright on a stand, just like in the photo.  Diners share it, picking around at the moist fish flesh with their chopsticks.  They dip it in nuoc cham fish sauce and eat it with greens and herbs, such as Vietnamese coriander, mint and thai basil as well as cucumber, rice noodles and rice paper, which you can use to roll up the fish and veggies.