In the five days I spent in Hanoi and Halong Bay, I did not see a single fat Vietnamese. Our tour guide in Halong Bay was a little plump but by and large, the Vietnamese were slim bordering on the skinny. A lot of this has to do with their diet which is made up of salads, fish for the most part with meat such as pork and beef taking a smaller proportion and rice as the basic staple in either noodle or its natural form.
(Photo is courtesy of Taking5 and all rights are reserved.)
I delighted in the salads which were clean in their taste often with liberal amounts of basil and coriander leaves. I noticed also a free hand with spring onions often and garlic. Sometimes tropical fruit was used as in the green papaya salad and peanuts delicately sprinkled on top but never enough to come anywhere near overwhelming the dish. Vinegar seemed to be the main sauce used with a touch sometimes of fiery little chilli padis and fish or shrimp sauce. One of my favourite dipping sauces turned up in Cha Ca La Vong, that mother of all grilled fish restaurants as a pungent shrimp sauce, slighly pink in colour. However sadly this sauce never quite made its appearance at any of the other restaurants I was at. It reminded me of a non-salty version of chin cha lok (that odiferous shrimp condiment famous in Malacca in Malaysia).
Perhaps, as a largely agricultural nation, their food is fresher, with the farmers having walked miles into town each morning with their produce neatly arranged in two baskets hanging off a bamboo pole and Hanoi filled with little side streets of markets. Whatever it is, the clear, spare frame of the Vietnamese ladies riding with ramrod straight backs in their ao dais on their scooters are a testament to a diet of freshly prepared salads.
No comments:
Post a Comment