Tôi không thích an Mam Tom

nom nom nom

My Vietnamese isn't good enough to ever really be sure what I'm eating, so some of the time I just take what I'm given. Sometimes it turns out to be amazing garlicky morning glory; sometimes a bowl of chicken skin; once a deep-fried egg. But I do know that Đau is tofu, so when I see it on a sign, I go for it. I love tofu.

At lunchtime yesterday, and again today, I saw "Bún Đau" on the sign. Some smiling, nodding, and pointing later, I was given a plate of tofu, some noodles all stuck together and cut into chunks (this is the bún part). So far so good.

looking innocent

But Bún Đau is accompanied by the most disgusting food known to man. "Mam Tom" is fermented shrimp sauce; they give you a bowl of it, and you have to mix it all up with your chopsticks, and dip the tofu/noodle chunks in. I really want to like it, but it's horrible. Salty and stinky and fishy, grey and frothy. It'd be fine if I could leave it and just eat my tofu, but all the Vietnamese ladies eating around me are so fucking friendly and encouraging. They show me how to do it, and then watch to make sure I'm doing it right and enjoying it, and pile my plate up with more food if I manage to get through the first bit. So I have to keep dipping my lovely tofu into the stinky shit sauce. I was really hungover today and I felt like I was going to puke. I turned up at my Vietnamese lesson sweaty and pale and she was all like "Ohhhh, is very hot? Em nong?!"

And the salad they serve with it is the most rubbish salad ever, I swear it's a big plate of nettles. No more Bún Đau for me. I'm not sure why I ate it two days in a row anyway.


Luckily there are many good things to eat instead. Last night I went to a vegetarian restaurant with my new 'friend' (yeahhh) and ate all the delicious vegetables. And behold the beautiful dragon fruit I just ate for my tea:


I think figs may have a contender for the long-held "bestest fruit" position.

Ohhh and amazing coffee here, with condensed milk, so good. I drank loads and then stayed up until 5am reading Anna Karenina.


I have been doing other things than eating. The other things are mainly drinking and riding motorbikes.

I taught my first class of the really little kiddies yesterday, aged four to six. They are ridiculously cute, I want all of them for my own - including the one that cried every time I tried to get him to answer a question, and the one that kept happily puking over the kids next to him. It didn't even bother him, it was inspiring.

Today I bought some pajama bottoms (as I am sharing a bed with my roommate and so have had to relinquish my nakie sleep-style) but I overlooked the fact that my shins are bigger than those of a Vietnamese woman. I have fashioned the pajama bottoms into a roll-up style at top and bottom and now it looks a bit like I've pooed myself.

This is our lovely little balcony where I'm sitting at the moment, being blasted by the fan:

This is unrelated:
Yoga Bear