My husband and I took our honeymoon in Cambodia and Vietnam. We wanted some place warm, inexpensive, and near the water. These countries have all of those requirements even though we knew little about the countries before we went. This is what we learned during our three week trip.
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Coconuts are everywhere in Vietnam. |
- Finding Local Eateries -
Our
first morning in Cambodia we decided to find where the locals eat, you
know, for the full on food experience. We wandered down some busy
streets which lead us to some side streets and eventually we came across
a place where many locals were sitting out on the sidewalk under tarps and umbrellas
and there was a little stand of some kind of food. No one spoke English,
so we figured we found exactly what we were looking for.
We pointed to
something on the cart that looked like rice and
eggs. The guy motioned
for us to take a seat and brought us our food. Meanwhile his wife was
collecting money from customers and cleaning off tables and his
two-year-old son was wandering around the area naked from the waste down
as if this was a normal day in front of us house. The food was
delicious, flavorful rice and eggs, maybe chicken too, with a slight
hint of curry. I was happy to find out that most food here seemed to be
not on the spicy side. I guess you go to Thailand for that. When it came
time to we pay it came to less than $2 including a drink.
|
Wandering the streets looking for a local place to eat |
|
Found a place where no one speaks English, but the food was delicious |
We
didn't have the same luck with all local eateries. In Vietnam we were
riding a motor bike to the beach and looking for a lunch spot. Most
places we saw that looked like eating establishments seemed to be
feeding their whole family so no one came to serve us (we actually
started to wonder if it was a private home we just sat down in). Other
places had someone sleeping in a hammock and it looked like it would
take an hour to get food served. We finally settled on a place that
looked fairly well established, at least for the not so touristy area we
were in. They had a cart of pre-made food that we pointed to what we
wanted. The lady said it was chicken, but I have my
doubts. It seemed like it might have been the neck of a goat or possibly
alligator or even dog. It didn't matter, it was flavored with curry and
served with rice, we just had to pick around the vertebra shaped bones
to get to the meat. They also brought out something that looked like
dirty water, we were skeptical, but soon realized it was green tea and
that the Vietnamese serve it with every meal. Later that night neither
of us felt well. I don't know if it was the mystery meat or the dishes
that were washed without soap and in cold tap water from the hose but
whatever the case, it made us both sick.
-Shopping at the Local Markets-
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Vietnam and Cambodia have daily food markets where you can buy fresh produce, meat, and fish |
One of my favorite things to do was go to the market to buy food.
They had everything there starting at 6am. I could buy
any kind of fruit or vegetable, meat or eggs. Bananas were everywhere,
tangerines, coconuts, dragon fruit, and lots of other things I've never
seen before. I did venture out of my comfort zone a few times. I bought
something that looks like an apple, but softer, like a banana. We asked a
girl at the hostel how to eat it. She showed us how to squash it
between your fingers to soften it and then squeeze it til it bursts open
a hole, then you suck the juice out through the hole. The taste seemed
similar to a plumb although it took a bit to get used to the slimy
texture. The hardest thing to find was bread. In one city, Dalat, we had to go to a bakery, as nowhere else sold bread of any
kind. In the seaside town of Mui Ne I found one lady at the market that
sold freshly made bread every day. You had to get there fairly early
though because she'd sell out. We bought eggs a few times, but steered
clear of the meat and fish. I couldn't bring myself to buy a chicken
that had been sitting out in 90degree heat for who knows how long with
flies landing all over it. I imagine the pig leg and the chicken breast
what were being cut up had been butchered the same morning and is
probably more fresh than what we have in America, but they don't have
much in the way of refrigeration or safe food handling practices, so we
decided to stick to less risky food sources. Finding yogurt was a
challenge but not impossible. You had to find a little food store, they
don't really have grocery stores, but they do have little shops that
sell your basic convenience foods like ramen noodles, nuts, and chips.
If you looked around long enough you could find one of these shops that
had little yogurt cups in a refrigerator (most stores don't have refrigerators). I had no idea what the label
said in Vietnamese, so I picked one that looked like it could possibly
be a vanilla flower. The lady told me it was "plain" flavor, but I think
it was lost in translation, because it sure tasted like vanilla.
|
My food of choice from the daily market. The yogurt is not at the market and took more of a search to find |
|
We opted to not buy the meat and fish from the ladies at the market |
-Slow Service-
The
service in SE Asia is very slow when it comes to food and coffee. I
don't think they are being lazy, I think they are just making everything
from scratch. Shawn ordered coffee every day while we were there.
Instead of your typical American coffee shop where they have it ready to
pour into your cup the minute you swipe your credit card, they instead take
your order, go back in the kitchen, and you don't see them for the next
20 minutes.
|
Waiting for our food |
|
Still waiting for our food |
We wondered the first few times if they even understood our
order. We finally understood why one day when they brought the drip cup
out to us and you watch it drip one drop at a time for 20 minutes until
your cup is full. The food all comes out in it's own time. We would each
order our meals at the same time and then wait and wait and wait and
wonder if they forgot about us. Then one meal would be brought out to
us, the other still being prepared in the back. No place we went to was
ever busy. I think they just had one cook in the back who would prepare
one meal at a time and the server would want to bring it to us while it
was still fresh.
-Inexpensive Meals-
Most meals in Cambodia
and Vietnam are less than $5. Most days Shawn and I spent $10
combined for food. There are some exceptions for cheap food. Packaged
juice cost about the same as in America. But fresh squeezed juice does
not hold the high premium as we have in the States. A quart of OJ at the
store would cost close to $2, while a fresh squeezed juice on the
street would cut $0.75. They advertise everywhere for "Fruit Shakes".
These are so fresh and so refreshing on a hot tropical day I had one
whenever I got the chance.
|
This meal was in the city, so was more pricey than most places, but still cost us less than $5 US. Green tea is served with every meal. |
|
We spent Thanksgiving eating pho, the traditional Vietnamese rice noodle soup |
-Conclusion-
There are some things I
got tired of, and some things I will miss. The food seemed to fill me up
at the end of each meal, but two hours later I felt hungry again. If we
stopped every two hours to eat, and at the pace that the bring us our
food, I don't think we would have had time to do anything else but look
for the next restaurant.
Things I'll Miss:
- Fresh "Fruit Shakes" on every corner
- Cucumbers served with every meal (including breakfast)
- Fresh cut pineapple ready to eat
- $2 meals
Things I Won't Miss:
- Everything tasting like coconut
- Feeling hungry all the time
- Not knowing if my water contains raw sewage
|
Strawberry and Pineapple juice |
|
Fruit shake |
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One place we stayed had an outdoor kitchen we used to cook breakfast |
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Fresh fruit at every meal |
|
Happy honeymooners |
www.mooseyproductions.com
OMG! ..now Vietnam is in my prosperity tree for 2017!! Thank you for sharing!!!!!!!!! This my definition of a good trip : great people, great pics and great stories to be shared ! XOXO, ADRY
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