Spires and painted wrought ironwork, oh my! This is one of those times I was so excited that I really wish I could have shared the experience with someone else. It's as if the Disney princesses got together to design a cathedral. This is the painted lady of churches. Everyone passing by was looking at me like I was strange for paying attention to the giant pink church. Sigh. Anyway, the food was good.
Bánh xèo is a pancake that varies by region in Vietnam and I think there are closely related variants in Thailand and Cambodia too. The batter is made with coconut milk and the classic contains shrimp, sliced pork belly, mung beans, onions and bean sprouts. Side note: often, shrimp are eaten with the shells on. This is sometimes unpleasant, but for the most part hardly noticeable because there's enough texture in the rest of the dish, especially this one. You break off a piece and wrap it with basil in lettuce or mustard greens and dip the roll in fish sauce. Good stuff! I also ordered a bowl of noodles because the first time I had bánh xèo the pancake was much smaller, but either my whole order didn't get through or the waiter knew better and was kind because the noodles never came, I wasn't charged for them, and I was so full from the pancake that I was really grateful.
Eavesdropping!: After I had been eating for a while, an American man and a Vietnamese woman sat next to me and they had the weirdest rapport. I couldn't figure out what their relationship was. At first, I was thinking she was his guide because they didn't act warmly toward each other, but then he started asking her personal questions, like he knew intimacies about her immediate family, but she wouldn't answer, saying, "I don't know" or "I don't want to talk about it" and he KEPT pressing her. "Huh? Huh?" in loud, nasal american tones, prodding her whenever she didn't want to answer. It was so annoying I immediately changed my mind about engaging them for some mealtime conversation. She was obviously uninterested in him and I began wondering if she was some sort of arranged bride who quietly suffered his awful existence for whatever reason. It was entertaining in a painful way.
Serendipity can be delightful in a foreign land. There is no getting loss and wasting time when we were walking in Rome. Everywhere you turn there is history to be discovered right on that spot. Literally layer upon layers of civilizations built on top of each other.
ReplyDeleteWe walked past this Cathedral but didn’t have time to go inside. It looks like gingerbread, very Disney /princessy. We admired the architecture from across the street. It was too daunting to try to cross the street given the continuous stream of motor bikes. Wait a minute, this is the intersection where we “hitched a ride” behind a tourist group with a local guide waving his flag.
It is also here that Laurence taught us how to cross a street in Vietnam. Step off the curb into the traffic when there is a break immediately in front of you (because it will never clear), walk towards the other side in a measured steady pace, never run. The traffic will avoid you; the drivers can anticipate where you are going. You will experience the parting of the Red Sea.
Tell us about the inside when you have a chance to see it.
Bruce, what is the name of the Thai pancake you introduced us to in Lexington?
ReplyDeleteThere seems to be recurrent food themes: American Chinese Egg Fu Yung? and the Cantonese Dan Gog (my attempt on transliteration) I grew up with?
Mom, that was a Korean pancake and more similar to okonomiyaki than this.
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