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Oh My God
Joined: 31 Jan 2010
Posts: 273
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 Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2011 1:41 am Post subject: |
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| The Mad Hatter wrote: |
| But for all intents - most local food is in places which are less than sanitary . Its not an exaggeration to say unsanitary conditions here when most expats get diarrhea from salads or food about once a season. |
As a good VN freind once told me, "When you first got here you were afraid of the food but now - the food is afraid of you!"
Yeah, when I first got here - I got diarrhea a couple of times but not once since then and that's 6 years now. Most expats that I know, pretty much tell the same story - our bodies adapt. |
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Oh My God
Joined: 31 Jan 2010
Posts: 273
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| Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2011 2:16 am Post subject: |
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| The Mad Hatter wrote: |
Theres two kinds of food here: boiled of fried. This is not biased language to describe this place's food as boiled. the national dish - Pho and the many other kinds of soups and noodles are just that. This is normal breakfast, lunch and dinner food here. IE: bland. You come here get ready to sip and slurp noodles. Im not saying live like a monk but you have to keep your head down and in your dish , The fare tends to splash and fall off your spoon and chopsticks. Spoons here are made of cheap tin, and often can cut your lip.
I guess there is no reason to have to clarify technical minutia about whether a place is a quan or a street stall. Im just saying lets clarify for people what they will have available when they come here. A storefront made of concrete with hard stone or polished floors. Thats the most common type of eatery. The front is open to the air the whole store front is open like a garage door size, Then there are irregular rickety metal tables and blue plastic chairs to sit on which extend onto the sidewalk. There arent gutters here. The sidewalk is often oily dusty and blends into the street. In general there is a sooty, black patina over everything.
Often the boiling soup kettle is outside. If you want a nicer one with ac - sure but you pay more.
Torn tissues thrown on the ground, bones at your feet. You might see someone eating out of a trash can near you, who is hungry. I see this about once a month. |
Not true, food is grilled, sauted, baked,.... boiled and fried is the most popular.
Pho is hardly bland unless you only view it as noodle soup. Lau is the most popular, which amounts to a boiling pot form which you choose from an array of meats and vegetables to cook yourself and combine in a variety of ways over noodles. Noodles also come in an array of different types.
Yeah, concrete is THE most common kind of structure for everything here. The VN can be quite creative in the thousands of ways they mold it and they like bright colors seperate but mixed together much like the mexicans that I know.
To the VN, being outdoors is preferable and almost all the restaurants are open to the "so-called" fresh air. To me, this is part of the romance and beauty of these places. With the over-population of the area, it's not surprising that you can only see the ugly while I see the lovely.
People eating out of trash isn't that unusual, there's poor and homeless people in every society.
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