It was during one of our many conversations about travel destinations where the idea for this trip to Vietnam was born. Although we are not going until March 2015, we thought you might like a little taster to get the Vietnamese ball rolling.
The stars of this Vietnamese Roll are:
Chris Dobson
A virgin Vietnameser and travel addict with a fear of Bali belly. Just tagging along with a personal mission to find Paper Street in Hanoi for more, much needed stationery purchases. This is definitely a case of The Master (shopper) and her apprentices.
Marie Duplex
Second time Vietnamese visitor. Loves a daily massage and is on the search for Shoe Street in Hanoi and will need to purchase a second suitcase if it is found. We may need to go to Suitcase Street for this purchase.
Jenny Brown
Also a second time rounder. Loves a rooftop pool and is looking forward to eating local cuisine and learning all the shopping tips and tricks from The Master.
Shelley Brown
Vietnamese Returnee and fluent linguistic iTranslate interpreter. Looking forward to enhancing her knowledge of basic common phrases and eating as many rice paper rolls as possible.
Because of the well known phenomenon known as "Runny Bum", commonly found by westerners in the Orient, this "Poo Prevention and Relief Package" was prepared by Marie and given to her travel companions as Christmas gifts.
We thank you in anticipation!
Other than the odd bread roll from the local Vietnamese bakery, Chris has never….. and I mean, ever eaten Vietnamese food, so as we were all (sans Jenny) in Geraldton for New Year, we decided that we had better introduce Chris to a few Vietnamese dishes.
So we headed to a new local restaurant which had only been open for a few weeks. The sign out the front advertised their fare as "Vietnamese" in big letters and then in smaller letters underneath "International Food".
As we sat and perused the menu, we were both confused and disappointed as we realised that the "Asian Section" was in fact one of the smallest parts of the menu.
There was garlic bread, burritos, American BBQ ribs, Greek salad, Indian curry and Indonesian mi goreng…….in fact, the only Vietnamese dishes we could find were Vietnamese rice paper rolls and Vietnamese fried rice - and that's it!
After much deliberation we ordered:
* rice paper rolls - over done spring rolls filled with sweet potato
* calamari (which was very tasty)
* chicken curry - which was like the chef had taken the top off a chicken and vegetable pie and emptied the contents onto a bed of rice and popped a papadum on top.
* mi goreng - which was a can of spaghetti in tomato sauce mixed in with peanut butter.
* garlic prawns in a creamy sauce which was actually quite nice.
(The name of the restaurant has been removed to protect all involved)
So, even though we went to a Vietnamese restaurant, run by Vietnamese people and ordered from a Vietnamese menu, Chris still hasn't tasted any Vietnamese food….. but she may still experience a case of the runny bums.
Thank goodness for the relief pack!
