Forever

Forever in our hearts

Daytripping: Ninh Hoa

It seems we weren't the only ones expecting some R&R during our visit. When asked if we wanted to go to the beach for the day, we were like meh. But the minute we saw our cousins' faces fade we realized they were looking forward to a day at the beach. They were home from the big city and wanted some reprive from the heat also. So we packed a lunch off we went.Unlike our beach excursion this time last year to the same locals beach, it was packed with local Vietnamese on vacation with their families. We quickly grabbed a covered area and settled in for a beautifully breezy day at the beach!A serious contender, especially this day, for best beach in the world we've been to with clean white sand, bath-water-temperature ocean swimming with no need for sandles (the sand is that soft) where the water is so clear we could see all the way to our painted toes!

Of course this is Vietnam so snacks are a plenty and readily available, including a drumstick ice cream cone that cost the same as two cans of beer and fresh pressed sugarcane juice served in a plastic bag with a straw tied to the top for sipping.We swam, got sunburnt, snacked and napped under the palm trees. Paradise.

It was a lovely day at the beach and nice way to start the new year.

Happy Year of the Tiger

The morning following Tet usually means the beginning of week, sometimes month long celebration. Going from one house to the next, snacking, chatting, catching up, gambling, and handing out red envelopes filled with money.

Traditionally young children will offer a greeting to older family members in exchange for a lucky red envelope filled with money. Vietnamese believe the more money you spend/give out will come back to you ten fold in the New Year so the more kids the better!It was strange to be on the handing out money end of this tradition, we're usually the young ones, but this year we found ourselves shoving crisp new bills into small red envelopes and offering them up to our families.

In all honesty, we already felt like the lucky ones this year.

Whimper, Not a Roar

Tet New Year celebrations sentimentally brings up memories of loud fire crackers, lots of people, gambling, laughing, and of course eating. We thought that Tet in Vietnam would be just that - loud, full of family, and food. Well....

Years ago a ban was placed on fireworks and it is highly illegal to light firecrackers or fireworks. However, the government does do a fireworks display, just not every year and this year in my grandmother's village there was a large fireworks display. And we're thinking that was where everyone was. Whereas, we were at the local temple.Before arriving to temple we psyched ourselves out about the crowds, the noise, the chaos, children running everywhere and the incense! But Tet turned out to be much less stressful than we imagined with only about a dozen people total at time, including the 7 of us.

It was much different and low key than we expected, but we were ok with that. At exactly midnight the female monk, who heads the local temple, gathered in the lower temple and began her prepared chant for New Years.What we're used to back home is during the Monk's chanting people are either in deep meditative state intently chanting or walking around and stopping at the offering table or getting a New Year's forcast for the upcoming year. When we first arrived shortly before midnight we each made a prayer at the alter table and then simply wandered the beautiful grounds in relative calm and peace.The peaceful atmosphere was only pierced by either someone "ooohhhing" and "aaahhhhhing" at the fireworks in the distance or the sound of the large bell rung in between chanting.It may not have the festive way in which we are accustomed to celebrating Tet, but it was memorable and festive in its own way.

Home Cooked Meals

With Tet New Year's Eve near not many businesses were open, but honestly we didn't even notice. For one, everything is literally only a scooter ride away. Batteries? Bam! Scooter ride away. Superglue? Bam! Scooter ride away. Beer? Bam! Scooter ride away. Baguettes? Bam! Scooter ride away....you get the picture. It was as if you asked for something and go brush your hair and bam! There it was.

Meals were very simple, fresh, eaten together and at a leisurely pace. It was wonderfully relaxing.After not being able to find something good to eat in the market for breakfast, the next morning we decided on a simple breakfast of crispy pork and threaded rice noodles.Served at room temperature, the crispy skin pork was salty and fatty, matching well with chewy, light & cool noodles. So simple and refreshing.Just grab a bowl and pile up the fixing, creating your perfect bite each time.And of course we were spoiled with a dinner of Nem Nuong Ninh Hoa, a specialty cured and grilled pork. With all the fixings for personalized rolls.We were even treated to leftovers from our Nem Nuong Ninh Hoa meal a couple of days later. Just grilled up, complete with char marks to add fatty smokey flavor.Shrimp used for the rolls were wrapped in rice paper with a bunch of chives and deep fried. Along with these tasty bites, our aunt made a delicious stewed pork, carmalized in sweet soy sauce and served with a hard boiled duck egg that was creamier than any chicken egg we've ever had. And to lighten the meal up - spare rib soup with carrots and potatoes. Seriously good. And again, so simple and memorable with unbelievable tender pork in a tangy broth studded with perfectly cooked carrots and potatoes which have soaked up just enough of the tangy broth, but still have a starchy bite to them.So far the meals we have eaten have been comfort home cooking dishes and not much special foods made/eaten during Tet. That's until New Year's Eve Day we were treated to sticky rice rolled in a banana leaf filled with rice, salty pork and yellow beans. Our favorite way to eat them is fried, so the rice melts together, like the cheese on a grilled cheese sandwich, but the rice on the outside remains crispy holding everything together.The starchy rice with just a little bit of salty pork and creamy sweet yellow bean goes excellently with sour crunchy pickled items.We were warned not to fill up on the sticky rice because New Year's Day (Tet) would mean a vegetarian meals with more vegetarian sticky rice. Other vegetarian dishes during our down-to-earth celebration included fermented tofu with soy sauce and lemon grass. Mainly for refresher between bites and added texture.There was a stir fried green beans, mushrooms, and tofu dish. The vegetables and tofu was light and refreshing and had enough bite to them, but tasted oily and of each other's subtle favor from the stir frying.And a vegetarian soup with broccoli, carrots, and clear rice noodles that had just enough spice to it to add an extra kick to the crunchy vegetables.And to add a little filler due to the lack of meat, our little cousins quickly fried up some battered cauliflower with a little tumeric in the coating to add another interesting flavor the dish.And because there never is a truly vegetarian meal when there are guests, a Vietnamese style cold cut plate was provided. A pressed pork patty topped with sauteed tomatoes and onions and garnished with cilantro and various herbs.And of course cold vegetables or greens, used mainly to cleanse your palette and prepare your mouth for another salty, bitter, sweet, spicy, sour, crunchy, soft, chewy bite.This visit we did have one meal that was fairly unique and new to us - fresh seafood steamed right on the beach. Including the creepy looking mantas shrimp, which are rarely served in the US.And steamed snails, a national obsession in Vietnam due to the sweet, tender, sea tasting morsels that makes the amount of effort needed to pry the meat from the shell questionable if its worth it.That is until someone has meticulously done it for you and stir fried it in green onions, garlic and chilis. Done this way the tender salty snail meat mixed well and added texture to the pungent onions, garlic and chilis. We greedily topped our wonderfully cooked chao (porridge) with the snail mixture for a seriously dynamite dish. The salty and pungent flavors, coupled with the soft cooked green onions and steamed snail meat added extra kick to the thick rice porridge that was heavy in black pepper and fresh ginger. Our bellies never had it so good.