Breakfast on the Mekong

The Mekong Delta is a thoroughfare of life.  Everything happens on its canals.  People use it as their playground, dishwasher, shower, food source and commercial highway.  I chose to go to the fourth largest city of Vietnam, Can Tho, with a population of 330,000.  This city is at the heart of the Mekong, and is a great place to see the "goings-on" on the canals, especially the morning markets.  I awoke at 5:30am to see life on the Mekong.  Some travelers may wonder when they awake at 10:30am or later why so many people are relaxing.  The answer is they have been awake since 4:45 or earlier trying to finish their day before the punishing sun crisps their skin.  To see the market in full swing you need to be up this early.  With a Café su da (Iced coffee with condensed milk) in my stomach and nothing else we set out on our seven hour boat ride with a wonderful woman who carved fruit and made bamboo bracelets for us during our time with her.  After an hour of traveling and seeing the massive long boats moving everything from gravel to tree trunks we arrived at the market.   

This market is entirely done on boats.  Some boats advertise their wares by putting the actual item on a large antenna so that other boats can see it from afar.  I was expecting a larger market but this was only about 40 boats.  However, it was a lively scene.  The boats temporarily moor themselves together and haggle over prices.  This scene plays out every day and all of these vendors need food to keep them going.  So did I.  In my broken Vietnamese I told our wonderful female boat driver (all are woman who do these types of trips) that I was hungry and needed food.   

We spotted a woman with many things for sale.  Sometimes you must trust in others and expect the best.  I asked for something with noodles (Bun).  As I watched the woman concoct my Bun I knew that I was in for a treat.  Like every great Vietnamese meal it involved fresh herbs, meat and pork skin.  Layers were as so: on the bottom were mung beans, two kinds of mint, and cilantro.  Then layered on top were some fresh noodles.  Next, thinly sliced pigskin which when cut so small takes away all the chewiness and just adds another texture.  It was rounded out with pickled daikon, carrot and peanuts.   She asked me if I wanted something that looked like grilled chicken on a stick and I of course had to say yes.  I am not sure what the grilled chunks were but with Nước mắm all over it I did not care.  The ambiance of your meal is so much a part of how you enjoy it; to be eating some incredible food in the morning Mekong sun was bliss.

The Noodle Factory

After the market we made our way to a noodle factory.  All of those fresh spring rolls that we know so well in the States and which are served with a bit of hoisin sauce--all start here.  I have wanted to see this kind of operation for so long.   After visiting the factory I have much more respect for those rice papers.  I counted at least ten people working hard to make just one of these rice sheets.  The process starts by soaking the rice overnight so that it has fully absorbed the water.  Then it is blended and let to soak again.  When it is the consistency of thin batter they take it to my favorite room.   

This room must have been double the already scorching temperatures outside and here these wonderful women were standing over these large steaming vats.  This contraption is fueled by rice husks, which produce an awful lot of heat.  A piece of cloth is placed over a steaming vat and made taut.  This creates a cooking surface that steams the rice mixture in less than a minute.  The rice sheets are then place on mats and brought out into that furnace-like heat to dry.  It is a deceptively simple process that takes many hands to complete.  The ironic thing is that the kind of rice they are using is not some Vietnamese brand but Cargill’s super rice.