Progressing through all the various courses, we are seated at another Saigon restaurant, a farewell repast for 'K' and Brother-in-law Ayk's departure for Tokyo tonight.
Chopped-up small roasted piglet, mainly thick brown skin with white fat and visible body parts. Spicey eel, salty but good. Boil-your-own white squid-rubber, fish and water cress in a tamarind liquid; great for blocked sinuses. ("We never stay long in the city because of the pollution" admits Isabelle's step-mother.)
Suddenly there is uproar diametrically opposite! 'F' and 'K' are out of their seats and on their feet with loud exclamation. Apparently a large cockroach is enjoying it's High Tea beneath the table. "Everybody's got to eat" comments Brother-in-law Ayk, with a drole shrug of the shoulders, still seated.
Concerned staff are quickly in attendance, chief among them the young woman in denim mini-skirt whose main responsibility seems to be making sure the ice in one's beer is topped up. Wielding one of the vacated plastic seats the unsuspecting diner is unceremoniously crushed, mid-mouthful, under a chair leg.
Although we did at one time have a couple of plates of roasted Cicadas, close cousins no doubt, the Cockroach is remarkably one of the few things not to have featured on any menu to date; menus that are so extensive as to require a book binding.
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3 comments:
Tamarind! Great for unblocking sinuses, but not a bad 'un for also blocking out the tsate of piglet skin and fat and rubber squid. Crikey!
One of our fave restaurants in delhi recently had a bit of a cockroach explosion, and we had the lil' bastards all over the floor, table and yes, our plates. But it was fortunately a one-off event, and Donkey's happy to report that he's still going back for more.
A slice of toast and marmalade would be my first meal on landing back in Glenscree/USA, wherever.
toast hasn't really caught on in se asia as the breakfast of choice so far
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