2008 Blogs

Discovering banh uot

05/25/2009

I had such a lovely Sunday, spending time with a good friend, visiting the Stone Cathedral, and going for "coffee" with the students pictured here.  Let me start with the last event first.  Becky, to the right as you look at this picture, arrived at my dorm with a motorbike and drove me a very short distance to the student cafe.  Talk about service with a smile!  Over tea, soft drinks, and coffee, we discussed our life dreams, living in the dormitory, exams, and travel.  I am going to miss these sweet, intelligent, caring, ambitious, fun-loving and generous women (and one man, but he was taking the picture).  May all their dreams come true.

Earlier in the day my good friend L. took me to see the Stone Cathedral, built in a French gothic style during the late 1920s and finished around 1933.  Since a service had begun,  we quietly stepped to the right and took a seat so I could admire the beautiful stained glass windows.  Much to my surprise, the Cathedral reminded me of the North Salem Lutheran Church near Upper Sandusky, Ohio.   As I sat thinking about the similarities, my friend whispered something to me.  "What," I asked, before realizing that she was telling me to notice all the men sitting on our side of the church and all the women on the other side.  Hmm, what to do?  It seemed like a good time to make an unobtrusive exit, which we did.

 

The Cathedral is located near the train station and also near the large and flourishing bookstore where we stopped next.  Our timing was perfect since it had started to rain, so we made our way to the book cafe for coffee and cake.  Nothing like eating dessert first!

 

As we talked, my friend realized that I had never eaten banh uot, so our next stop was a little restaurant specializing in this Vietnamese dish!   The woman pictured here spread a ladle of cooked rice noodles on a cloth stretched tight over a kettle of boiling water, covered it for a minute or two, then smoothed the surface.  After scoring the large rice pancake into pieces, she lifted each one from the cloth to a dish, sprinkled on a few scallions and some finely diced shrimp, and served us four plates at a time.  Using chopsticks, you fold the pancake into a dumpling, dip it in fish sauce, and enjoy.  It's even better when you squeeze a little lemon juice into the fish sauce.  There also was a small side of sliced pork on the table, and the requisite green tea.  Yummy.  My friend and I ate 8 plates of banh uot each!  And all this after cake!