right: rice paper wrap with beef or pork, and you can add a variety of herbs and even starfruit!
Close to lunch time, we met up with Tien again and had lunch at her home then went out to some markets close to her home to pick up some last minute items - such as instant coffee, some coconut flavored rice paper for toasting and other things. As Tien lives in HCM's "Chinatown" many of the shop owners can speak cantonese.
left to right: myself, Phuong (Tien's family friend), Tien's mom, my mom, Tien
My mom also rode on the motorbike for the first time!
In the market, there were different sections and levels. We went to a market that sold only fabric, as Tien's mom used to be a seamstress, and now she just makes clothes for Tien - lucky girl always has new clothes to wear!
Then we went to a market that sold dried goods and snacks, and we bought some of the coconut rice paper to bring back to HK. This was a crispy snack that we had during the Mekong Delta trip.
We returned back to Tien's house for a light meal before departing for the airport. Her mom made beef ball and beef tendon noodle soup, YUMMMMMM! The soup was so clear and sweet and beefy.... hehehe.... look at how clear the soup is!
Cam on Di Di for all the wonderful food and warm hospitality!
(Tien, can I call your mom that? Di di? that means aunt right?)
The traffic on the way to the airport.... this was during rush hour, so there were motorbikes everywhere!
Once we returned to HK, I tried to make the toasted rice paper.... and they turned out crispy, but not as crispy as the ones we had in the Mekong Delta. But I gave some to my aunts and they all enjoyed it. The only thing is that after a couple of hours, they became soft and chewy.... hahaha.... I guess the humidity in Hong Kong is just too much for even the crispy rice paper to withstand.....
Oh and here's what happened to my arms when we were in Nha Trang.... for some reason on the last night there just before we were leaving for the train station, I discovered some
bumps on my arms. At first I thought they were mosquito bites, but the weird thing is that I didn't see any mosquitoes or any other insects in our hotel room.... and then after the whole night on the train, the my whole left and right arm had these marks..... we think it might have been an allergic reaction to the seafood we had.... because Tien also had a few spots, not as bad as me, on her arms, and then Thuy told me that she also got some too later on. It took me almost 4 days before the redness subsided and it stopped itching...
I don't want to leave you with such a bad photo.... so let me put some more photos from my trip.... :) Hope you can go and visit Vietnam one day as well.... and I know I'll definitely be back to see Tien and her family and to experience more of their cuisine and the wonderful cities and scenery of Vietnam.
1 comment:
It surely was an 'exotic' country to visit. Wish I could have gone with you guys!! Thank you for scripted your wondering traveling (and cooking) tips photographically, haha!
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