Shake your tail feathers

Despite the utter lack of lesson planning that took place this weekend, I was able to make up for it today. Two lesson plans down, two more to go. I'd say I'm in better shape than I've been most weeks thus far.

The only real thing of note that took place today was my dinner with Trang, her son, and her sister. They took me out for cháo gỏi vịt, or porridge and duck salad. The porridge is made in duck broth. I'd had another porridge in Hanoi that was much thicker. Tonight's was almost more like rice soup. Both were good, just different. The duck salad was duck on a bed of banana flowers, onions, and other things. The salad part was really good; the duck was ok. I think one thing that interferes with my enjoyment of many meats here is that they are almost always attached to the bone, and it's not just a femur or a wing. It's vertebrae and ribs and who knows what all kind of bones that even an anatomy buff like me has a hard time figuring out once they've been cut into bite-size (but still bone-bearing) pieces of meat. In short, I have to work hard for every piece of meat, and usually it is significantly smaller than the frankensteinian thing that I start with. Trang's sister offered me the duck's tail in a giggly way -- I think she could barely even bring herself to say what it was, but it was pretty evident -- and told me that many people prefer this part. Why is it that the parts Americans are most likely to be afraid of tend to be the most highly prized morsels here? Surprisingly, it was indeed the best part. I told them about a time when it was a national scandal that a chicken head had been found in chicken McNuggets and they thought it was hi-larious. In addition to all of this, we had sticky rice with congealed duck and chicken blood (I'm sorrry, I know that saying 'congealed' just makes this sound even less appetizing). It was neither objectionable nor remarkable.

Duck salad. Literally half of a duck cut into strips with kitchen scissors.

Rice porridge in duck broth

Sticky rice with duck and chicken blood

Trang had to leave early to take her son home, so I stayed to chat with her sister (whose name I unfortunately do not remember/know how to spell). While we talked we had a coconut jello made inside the coconut. Despite my fears regarding the clash between the fact that coconut is Ben Tre's specialty and the fact that I hate(d) coconut, I have yet to confront a form of coconut here that I find unpleasant. The nicest part of our chat was when I came to the realization that the fact that I am living in a place with no pre-existing friendships means that I see everyone I spend any time with as a (potential) new friend. It makes me put in the effort to get to know new people, and I like that.