Food Fun

I knew that everything would be fairly inexpensive here, but yesterday, I spent the least amount of Vietnamese Dong (VND) in a single transaction yet. I bought a single tomato for only 1,000 VND, which converts to about 5 cents! I then bought two blocks of tofu for 3,000 VND! Neither Traci or I could get over the value of my lycopene and protein-filled 20-cent purchases.

Ellen (the girl from Wisconsin) e-mailed me yesterday asking if I wanted to go rock climbing with her in the evening since we had talked over the weekend about going sometime. After Traci and I walked around District 3 in the pouring rain trying to find the climbing gym, we were disappointed when we finally arrived at our destination. We discovered that it actually is a sports facility with two outdoor climbing walls. Since it was raining, I notified Ellen about the lack of roof and walls at the "climbing gym," and we decided to reschedule the climbing and go to dinner instead. She suggested a nice, tapas restaurant in District 1. It was the first place I had been that actually serves wine by the glass and not just by the bottle. It must have been because it was actually a Spanish restaurant rather than a Vietnamese one. The three of us shared grilled vegetables and goat cheese, grilled mushrooms with some spices, a bruschetta-type bread, and a Spanish omelette (picture). It was all absolutely delectable, and the glass of red wine was a perfect last touch. We ended up staying at the restaurant for a couple hours just talking about Ellen's school in Vietnam, the American education system as a whole, her travels in South America that I couldn't stop asking questions about, and more.

On the way home from the orphanage today, I bought a pomelo, which is like a grapefruit only with a green outside and a pale inside. Since Vietnamese people like everything spicy, the guy put in a little packet of some sort of seasoning in between the rind and the fruit after he peeled it for me. It was a lot more challenging to eat than I expected, so I only made it through half before putting the rest in the fridge for another time.

I am enjoying a lot of the food here: fresh fruits and vegetables, sweet breads, frozen yogurt, and other things that I don't even know the names of. What I miss the most, however, is a good bowl of cereal, a full salad with dressing (they don't have dressing with salads here), and wheat bread (everything is white). So, when you eat any of these things, enjoy them even more for me :)