Whilst very different dishes I've grouped these together as they were the same meal and from the same stall.
Name: Chao Xuong
Time of Day: Breakfast. I think the stall stays there through till the evening though.Location: Thai Phien - a couple of blocks north of the main tourist area
Cost: 15,000 dong (c.50p)The Rest: Rice porridge is common all over South East Asia and China. In China it can be a very bland affair, frequently cooked just in water. I've read of some folk going without salt in it too. I can, and do eat it like that, but tend to load it full of other stuff (spring onion, ginger, pepper, chili etc.) to get away from the blandness.
Here it Vietnam though the rice porridge is full of flavour. I picked up a cook book over here and looking at the recipes they're all cooked in stock - normally from made from simmered meat that gets served with it - and this really shows through in the taste. To add to the meatiness of the stock chili is another must have addition leaving each mouthful loaded with taste. This particular chao was a pork chao (xuong means bone but it is a bone from a pig), floating in the vat of porridge were many big bony chops, looking like they'd been cut from the shoulder blade. Each portion got one so you could scrape and chew at the bone, removing the not insubstantial amount of melt in the mouth meat.Name: Long Tron
Time of Day: Breakfast
Location: as above
Cost: 15,000 dong (c.50p)
The Rest: This was pretty challenging stuff for first thing in the morning. The racks of offal were what had drawn me to this stall and when I ordered my aforementioned chao I was expecting to get rice porridge full of pipes and what have you. It was only after I'd been served my pork bone chao that I saw others order a salad covered in the offal and so I had to add a second course to my breakfast.
Said salad was the standard over here shredded green papaya and carrot. Said offal consisted of liver, small and large intestine, stomach and tongue - all still warm and very juicy, fresh from a simmering. They were all lined up on top, a perfect photo op, but then a helpful Vietnamese girl next to me decided to show me I had to toss the salad - to coat in the fish sauce, lime and chili dressing - before I'd had a chance to get my camera out. A typically kind gesture by the non-tourist industry working Vietnamese (the tourist industry Vietnamese can be a nightmare) albeit it misguided in this instance. At least I got a little story out of it.
The meal was very tasty but it did have some interesting texture. Normally I'm not the biggest fan of boiled pig liver, finding it leathery and strong tasting, but here it was juicy and soft. The stomach and tongue both with a meaty bite - pleasant experiences. The boiled intestines were a tad on the chewy side though, like little rubbery bands with that familiar intestine taste, although the chili dressing did do well to cover it up. All in all definitely worth a go if you want something different though and I'd be more than happy to eat it again.
Since eating this meal I got talking to a girl in a tailors shop about the various names of the offal in the dish. We spoke of tongue, liver, kidney and intestines then she started going on about a type of intestine that only female pigs have, not that I know of any different digestive system arrangement between the two sexes. Her English wasn't perfect though and I'm wondering if it was a female only tube, the uterus maybe as I know folk eat that out here. That would certainly be a first.
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