Random Thoughts P 3
10-19-2018
Today's Topic: Perspective. I think there are times in life when it's just best to not overthink things. Traveling on the back of a motorbike during rush hour might be one of those times. Watching someone wash dishes with a garden hose, at curbside, at the restaurant where you ate the night before might be another time. If you overthink things, you might not continue to eat meals with friends and colleagues who serve you that second helping of sticky rice, or place that third round of shrimp and noodles into your bowl, using the business end of their chopsticks. You also don't want to overthink questions like: "Does wiping off the business end of this pair of wooden chopsticks I've just chosen out of a can full of chopsticks, or this metal flat-bottom spoon, with a paper napkin chosen from a pile sitting in a wicker basket on the same table really sanitize them?" or "Is this taxi driver really going to pull a u-turn in the middle of this jam-packed street at rush hour without even stopping?" or "Do those rats I just saw scurry by inside the florescent light above my dinner table run around this restaurant at night?" or "Did this barber use that razor blade on his last customer?" or "Is it really safe for me to be stepping into moving traffic in order to cross from this side of the street to that side of the street?" of "Is this neighborhood alleyway that I take to my door really that safe to walk in at night, just because there is a military installation on one side of it?" or "Is this "packed on this date" sticker on this package of chicken, in the local market, really the day they packaged it? or did they just put a new sticker on yesterday's unsold package?" If you spend any significant time in a new culture, you're going to have to let go of a few things. Overthinking might be one.
Latest culinary delights: Last Sunday night, I had the shear gastronomical delight of eating baked pigeon and jellied jellyfish! Wowser!!! What a GREAT treat folks! If you haven't had the opportunity to try either, I'd highly recommend them if you come to Hà Nội, Việt Nam! As a side note: I will never look at pigeons in the park the same way again; and, I thought jelly fish killed you? but apparently you can eat certain jellyfish...who'd-ah-thunk? Oh, and today at a work lunch, we celebrated National Women's Day (which is actually tomorrow 10-20-2018) by us boys giving the ladies flowers and a-puttin' on the feast! We served them cold boiled chicken, two kinds of sticky rice, pork-something (think: pork bologna and you'll be close, but be sure to add in some bones - see previous post), the obligatory seasonal fruits (currently oranges, apples), bread (cut by scissors), cucumbers, and hot tea. True to form, the entire chicken was served (and eaten, I might add). I mean, the ENTIRE chicken, including the feet (which the ladies almost came to blows over who would eat them) and the heads. I watched one of my male colleagues eat the cheek meat AND...the eyes. I didn't know the eyes in a chicken were so big! Dang! I also made an observation: I can vouch, it's abslutely true. Chickens do not have lips. Bon Appétit
PHOTOS (P.1)