Young urbanites, allow me to ask you something before you continue reading this article.What do you like to do the most while you are traveling?
A. Scout for Michelin stars restaurants
B. Hunt breath taking photos
C. Visit hip historical places and museums
D. Shop till you drop
E. Promote Indonesia
If your answer is E, never mind reading this article till the end..You know the best, already! But if you never thought that traveling could be so profound enough to inspire yourself and others, keep reading it. I will take your tongue tasting the genuine flavors of Vietnam, a country where motorcycles are street kings and Ca Phe Sua Da* is their Teh Botol!
I suffer a lot knowing that there are not many positive images of Indonesia coming from random friends whom I met during my travel experiences around the globe. Earthquakes, volcanoes, and terrorists in Indonesia are three main issues that were aroused during our talks. So sad, no? I swear by the name of Rendang Padang**, my country is DOPE! I want to tell as many people as I can about this, so I took a leap of faith when I decided to travel with friends to Vietnam, not only to conduct a food pilgrimage, but also to introduce the beautiful Indonesia to local residents of Hanoi. I asked my local friend about this idea, and she was really excited.
So here we were..Summer time, 70 km away from Hanoi, in a suburb neighborhood. A small alley with convoluted electricity cables hanging 50 cm just above your head, dusty road, and stray dogs welcoming us. I saw a beautiful fence made from beige bricks resemble like bee hives pattern, and fortunately, we will be having lunch there. The house resembles a traditional house with teakwood pillars, beautiful carving, and intricate ornaments. Awesome!
Our local host is a warm hearted couple. He used to be one of respectable general during Vietnam War and his wife is a beautiful school teacher who cooked the most authentic northern Vietnam cuisines for all of us. I never seen or ate those foods before, even though it was my third time visiting Vietnam. I guess, home-made cooking is simply the best of all. With attendance from several members of Hanoi Kids Tour, we sat on the floor covered by old newspaper, somehow I wonder why they didn’t use banana leaves like we always use in Indonesia, but well..different culture defines how we sit on the floor, right?
Foods were served starting from appetizers, main course, and desserts. Simple, yet provocative!
For appetizer, there was Banh Duc, a rice cake with peanut, served with sugar cane sauce. Rice is soaked in water for 2-3 days, it was dried well, then milled to become powder. A small amount of lime water was poured into rice powder to make it gristly and sticky. The texture was kind of crisp chewy but not sticky, with a sweet after taste. Then, we had Nom Bo Kho, a mixed salad of chopped carrot, green papaya with a perfect concoction of lime juice, fish sauce, palm sugar, garlic, lemongrass and chili.
