What am I eating!!!

This is my breakfast when I eat in my Hotel room. I have a coffee, dripped as you can see, and use sweetened condensed milk. It is wonderful. I can find grapes and dragonfruit which I recognize, but then I have this other fruit which is delicious but I don't have an English name for. All this is shared with a wonderful yogurt. So other than unknown fruits, my breakfast hasn't changed much.


I have also been dined royally this past week. This was my week to go to all the 8 districts of Ninh Binh, talk to teachers, principals, and Bureau of Education chiefs. At lunch time, the district I was in would take us all out for lunch at the best restaurant in the town. Wow!!

Tuesday I was in Kim Son district. The speciality there is some liquor much like vodka or snaups. It is served in tiny glasses and one is expected to drink it in one go. 100% as they say. It took a little non-verbal communication and smiles to convince them that this was not going to happen with me. My male counterparts here keep up with them, but I won't be doing that. The meal was incredible. There was pork, chicken, shrimp(4 inches long) and of course rice.

Wednesday I was in Yen Mo district and again was offered beer and vodka. They accepted by sipping instead of 100%. More chicken, pork, shrimp, something we rolled in leaves with spices. I was offered a spoon, so you can see my chopstick ability needs improving. I was also asked if I liked Vietnamese food because I was so large yet ate so little. People here put food in your bowl. I appreciate that for the most part, saves me embarrassment dropping food.

Thursday we were in Nho Quan district, land of the goat meat. Wow was it good. I think that's all we had, but it was served in many different ways. Again one of them was to use leaves and wrap the meat up in it. Here we were served bread instead of rice. First time that has happened to me. The bread is great here, thank you France!!

Friday, my last supper, I mean lunch, was in Hoa Lu district. This was with the local school principal and the teachers I interviewed. More low key, but the food was again excellent. Again goat meat, and some kind of appetizer that looked like red jelly with peanuts on top, and mystery stuff inside. I ate half of it, and thought I was doing a good thing. Women don't drink beer or vodka with their meal, like the other lunches that had more men.

So far I have not learned how to cook any of this, but I will work on it.