Baking In Vietnam

I'd be happy to be able to turn out baguettes like those, though. I thought they were up with the French ones for taste - although it's a long while since I was in Europe, so I'm going on distant memory there.

And yes, if you're interested in Vietnam, go sooner rather than later. It's already taken off as a travel destination, and going by the construction in progress - especially of big swish hotels along the choice coastal areas - it's going to hit critical mass in the next few years. When that happens, the prices will doubtless rocket in the main tourist areas. At the moment, it's still an outstanding bargain.

We planned our trip to start after the NY celebrations, which are called Tet in Vietnam. Good point about the tiger, though - we saw a few such cakes in various bakeries, and you're probably right on the button about the Year of the Tiger.

I'm with you on Vietnamese food. The freshness of the ingredients is guaranteed in Vietnam, and as you say, they use fresh veges and herbs in abundance. To be honest, though, the quality of the food did not meet my expectations, generally speaking. I was anticipating something quite special, but most of the time the food wasn't as good as that available in Vietnamese restaurants in Australia (which I don't rate particularly highly - again, that's a generalisation).

My usual travel strategy of seeking out the best of the local food by asking staff in hotels and other locals for their recommendations did not work in Vietnam. People who work in the hospitality industry have so little time and spare money that they rarely eat out - the exploitation of staff by hotel owners is appalling, but that's another story that I'll be including in a series of blog posts on my experience in Vietnam, so won't elaborate further here.

The rest of the population speak so little English that getting eating recommendations is next to impossible without an interpreter. And in my opinion, guide books like Lonely Planet and the Rough Guide are worse than useless for restaurant recommendations. Basically, it's a matter of luck and persistence getting on to great regional food in Vietnam.

Of course, there's always pho, which is pretty good most of the time, and the point-and-pay option at street stalls - we picked up some nice snacks by pointing without necessarily knowing exactly what we were eating.

I suppose my expectations might have been unrealistic. I saw Rick Stein's Far East Odyssey a few months before we went, and the food he showed in Vietnam looked tremendous. Ditto Luke Nguyen's two series on northern and southern Vietnamese cuisine respectively. Then again, it's clearly a major advantage to have researchers pave the way for you, and in the case of Luke Nguyen to speak Vietnamese and have family to call on. I suspect the average traveller finds it as difficult as we did to penetrate the surface of Vietnam. Fascinating and frustrating in roughly equal measure...

So you were posted there as a soldier during the war? Have you considered returning for a look at the country today? I cannot imagine how it must have been for you, but I did see a lot of guys there of veteran age, and on quite a few occasions they were sharing a beer with Vietnamese guys of the same vintage. I fancied they were revisiting the past, perhaps even drinking with people who they'd fought with or against.

I had some issues to work through to do with the war, but as someone who had faced the prospect of conscription and joined the protest marches that eventually forced a change of government. Fortunately, Australia withdrew from Vietnam a year before I was due to have my name in the ballot for the next wave of conscripts. Nevertheless, Vietnam was an intrinsic part of my youth for various reasons, and the arrival of the boat people after the Americans left and the Viet Cong took Saigon changed the face of Australia quite radically. Like many, my perception is that the Vietnamese are amongst our best immigrants.

I can't possible do justice to this topic here, so won't go on. Suffice it to say a visit to the Cu Chi tunnels and War Museum in Saigon had quite an effect on me, and not quite in the way I might have expected. I will cover this in a coming series of posts on my blog. Will put up a link here when it's online, for anyone who might be interested.

Your friend is to be envied. I would love access to the communities in the way he has, but of course that's something that could only come over time. I don't doubt for a moment the capacity of the minority peoples, as they term them in Vietnam, to throw together an amazing meal despite living in primitive conditions. The whole country labours daily to bring fresh food to the tables. I've never encountered anything like it.

The kindness of the people is fabled, but to be honest, my findings did not coincide with the popular perception. We met some lovely folk, and came up against some rudeness and hostility. I'd have to say it was yet another instance of exploding a stereotype through exposure to the reality. But I have this niggling sense that the place was inpenetrable, and that whatever I now know about Vietnam as a result of my travelling is miniscule compared with what there is to know. That's the same anywhere with travelling. It's illusory to think that you can 'know' a country by travelling through it, as anyone who has set down roots in a country through which they previously travelled will know. But in Vietnam, this is especially so, I found.

Cheers
Ross

I did actually consult quite a few food blogs before leaving for Vietnam, but don't have a lot of faith in the recommendations of westerners compared with local knowledge - especially those writing travel blogs. I wrongly assumed my tried-and-true strategy of asking the locals would work as well in Vietnam as elsewhere in SE Asia, but I didn't figure on the almost total absence of English amongst the greater population, or the hotel staff not being familiar with local eateries.

Anyway, I've learnt my lesson. Before I go next time - and there will be a next time, because my sense is that I only scratched the surface this time - I will learn some basic Vietnamese, and check out blogs like the one you've linked to. AND take some notes instead of just reading through. Thanks for alerting me to that one. It gives me a lot more confidence that the blogger is actually living in Hanoi - which will be our kick-off point next visit. We only got as far north as Hue this time.

Cheers
Ross

The climate in Vietnam varies greatly from north to south, and there are also seasonal influences that are greater the further north you go. It was relatively cool in Hue, for example, and rained on the last two days we were there. We heard reports from other travellers that Hanoi was cold enough to require jumpers (sweaters) day and night. And up in the highland area of Dalat, we were wearing polar fleeces at night - the locals were rugged up the whole time! So, no problem with the baguettes in these areas. The humidity was only moderate.

Saigon and the Mekong Delta are another story. Pretty hot and muggy in these areas, but I mostly had the rice flour baguettes there, and only for breakfast. They were OK, with the crusts still crisp - just not very tasty compared with the all-wheat ones that proliferate further north.

Nha Trang was quite warm and humid, as was Hoi An, but again, the baguettes I had in both places were for breakfast, not long after they came out of the oven. They were very nice, including the crusts. I'm not sure how they would have fared as the day progressed, though. The basket of baguettes in the last picture looked magnificent, but that pic was taken around 6am.

Sorry I can't precisely answer your question.

Cheers
R