Six
months after our first trip to Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, my mouth salivates
with the memories. I am a food lover. While
I find it difficult to remember peoples’ names, dates, and book titles, I can
distinctly recall the settings and tastes of delicious meals.
Hanoi
was our first stop in Vietnam. Dodging our way through motorbike traffic and
weaving among the fascinating sidewalk vendors, we found the culinary goal I’d
had my stomach set on: Banh Cuon! A
slight, older woman (mother, grandmother?) spreads the crepe batter atop a
large round drum on the sidewalk outside of the tiny eatery.
The
result is impossibly thin and we watch amazed as she expertly transfers it onto
a plate. Topped with flavorful ground pork, herbs, thin and crunchy fried
shallots along side of a bright dipping sauce it is the perfect bite. So ethereal that we have to order another
round!
Food
is everywhere! Bowls of Pho in every
direction and I’m in heaven.
In
Luang Prabang, Laos, we discover sticky rice that we roll into little balls and
dip into colorful sauces. Fried seaweed and salty chewy buffalo jerky are the
Laotian snack foods that we wash down with cold BeerLao. The night food market
in the center of town is chock full of vendors cooking sausages, grilling
skewers of meat and fish, assembling noodle bowls and baking sweet coconut
cakes which we eat while warm and delicate.
We
arrive in Saigon, to the cacophony of motorbikes revving and beeping along the
boulevards. Our guide takes us to the sprawling wholesale market. We make our
way through bin after bin of colorful spices, dried fruits, mushrooms, noodles,
strange petrified sea creatures and cooking utensils. Our appetites are primed
for my culinary goal in Saigon: the crab
restaurant! Our cab driver weaves
through the congested streets and deposits us in front of an alley shaped restaurant
with few tables. We are lucky to grab one. Crab is plentiful in tasty vermicelli
bowls and piled crispy and sweet on platters with dipping sauce. I’m in crab heaven!
In
lovely, lantern lit Hoi An, we learn to make and eat rose dumplings – light and
luscious. Bowls of tiny clams with garlic, lemongrass and fresh herbs remind me
that simple and fresh ingredients make the best food memories. We eat banana
crepes fresh off the griddle from a sidewalk vendor and happen upon the most
delicious iced coffee I have ever drunk. Make that the most delicious coffee,
period. Sweetened with condensed milk, it’s a symphony of bitter, sugary, icy
and rich perfection on a hot, late morning.
The
people, history, and scenery from the remarkable itinerary arranged by Haivenu
Tours are captured in the hundreds of photographs we can rifle through in
pleasant reverie. But the memories of the flavors remain only in my mind and
mouth as I savor them again and again.
Ms. Melorie Noble