Dinner

Since I will be leaving in a month and because all their daughters were home, I invited a local family to a farewell/thank you dinner.  We ate at a restaurant overlooking Xuan Huong lake (which happens to be completely drained for construction purposes).  The way Vietnamese dinners work is everything is shared, you start with several different types of fruits, meats, and vegetables, and you end with some type of soup or stew.  I have eaten several interesting meats, which I won't eat in America, and on this night I ate two new ones.  I ate fried frog legs and grilled wild boar.  The frog legs were actually very similar to chicken wings and tasted really good.  They were fried in butter and garlic and tasted mostly of those two things.  The wild boar was just delicious, as with most things here it was flavorful and spicy.  Other opening dishes included grilled squid, stir fried spinach, and crispy pork.  We ended the night with a stew of spicy coconut and curry base with beef, shrimp, and fish balls freshly added when ready to serve.  We had a few Saigon beers and a few laughs, and I'll miss this about Vietnam.