fishing & feeding

 fishing, foodie stuff, gap year, us  No Responses »
Nov 292014
 

KI2 003we rose yesterday to a stunning king island spring day, after a leisurely sleep in, and decided that it was the perfect day to head out on the boat for a fish. we hooked up with a couple of andrew & di’s neighbours, dave and tim, and rendevoued at the boat ramp. we launched and set off for christmas and new years island which lay just off the coast from the blake house.

the plan was for the boys, andrew, tim & dave to go diving while i took the girls and kai to the beach on christmas island – as keen as i am to get in the water and kill things, the water temp in bass strait is below my threshold!

we found a sheltered cove and had a fat old time, the girls sunbathed on the beach while kai and i scrambled over the rocks exploring the coastline, like two rock monkeys. well one rock monkey and one slightly overweight old man.

meanwhile the hunters were hard at work collecting abalone and crayfish, all of the catch was very kindly donated to our household so i shall be doing a big seafood cookup over the weekend.

after getting back in and cleaning up we got ready to head out for a highlight of the king island social calendar, the Sustainable Agricultural Fund’s Annual Christmas hoe down at the old reekara school, it seemed most of king island’s population turned out for the 2 spit roasted pigs, chargrilled lambs, and wallaby haunchs as well as about 10m of salads laid out on tables.

we got to meet a lot of the very friendly and welcoming locals and kai had a ball running round all night with the local kids. the pork was perfect, and the lamb and wallaby cooked on the Argentinean grill was as good as I have ever had.

the Argentinean grill was interesting because as you will see in the photos, they have a very low level charcoal layer under the meat, but the main cooking is done by the fire on top of the grill, this means there are no flare ups of fire from dripping fat as the meat cooks.

 

RIN

 foodie stuff, gap year, us  2 Responses »
Nov 262014
 

rin 019

when we first arrived in hobart a bit over a week ago, i noticed a little japanese restaurant, RIN, on harrington st while i was walking around. i asked mahni and geoff whether it was any good and they highly recommended it.

so we set down last night as the last available chance for a meal out before our departure for king island, and headed down to RIN for a feed.

i have to say it was one of the best japanese restaurants i have been to, the food was fresh, the flavours fantastic, the service friendly and the setting perfect. my only disappointment was that they used the little individual packets of wasabi – which was all the more odd for being so out of kilter with everything else about the food and presentation. i did have a mr grumpy whinge to them so if you find yourselves in hobart looking for a great japanese meal, RIN should be where you head and maybe they will have real wasabi!

mahni had bought a couple of very good bottles of sake back from japan with her recently and as expected they proved to be the perfect accompaniment to the food.

the absolute highlight for me was the tasmanian scallop sashimi – just to die for!

eleven

 foodie stuff, gap year, us  3 Responses »
Nov 242014
 

eleven

look at those cheesy grins! yes folks, thats is the happy day, eleven years ago, on the 24th November that we got married, in our breezeway, after nightshift!

what can i say? well for one thing its amazing how much that shirt has shrunk in 11 years, doesnt even fit me anymore.

something else i can say is how incredibly happy and rewarding those 11 years have been, spent with that beautiful woman in the picture. its been a wonderful journey, so much shared – our deep and abiding love for nhulunbuy and the people of north east arnhem land, our passion for fishing and boating, our love of fine food and good wine with close friends and family, our amazing travels over the globe and now our gap year adventure.

the amazing thing is just how easy it has been, and how right it has always felt, we are both blessed to have found such happiness in each other.

thanks sal, for an incredible 11 years.

of course an anniversary is an excellent excuse for a meal out, so we headed off to a little mediterranean restaurant in north hobart called Anatolia and shared a very decent meal over a chilled bottle of local sav blanc.

 Posted by at 8:15 pm



parrtay!

 foodie stuff, gap year, us  1 Response »
Nov 242014
 

3tas 1so this party was an amazing feat of organisation and planning, i am not sure that geoff and mahni would have taken it on if they realised just what an enormous amount of work it was going to entail!

the outcome was just amazing though, geoff managed to secure a recently closed restaurant in downtown hobart to host the party so all the facilities required were avsailable, the invitations went out and about 70 of mahni’s close friends and family gathered from all over the country to celebrate her life and birthday.

geoff arranged friends from his work at the migrant resource center, so we had the most amazing sri lankan cuisine which was the perfect choice for such a night.

there was also a 3 piece jazz band and geoff and jessie did a couple of songs as well.

it was just a perfect night and i am sure its a party none of will forget in a long time!

 

tassie

 foodie stuff, gap year, us  1 Response »
Nov 222014
 

1tas 6no, thats not tassie! thats sunny cairns, on monday morning this week we headed off on our gap year with a flight down to tassie, cairns being the first stop. we had about 4 hours there and just lazed around in the qantas club eating and drinking! we then flew down to sydney and spent the night in sydney before heading off to hobart on tuesday morning.

Sal’s mum, mahni was celebrating her 70th this week so that was reason enough to start our trip off in tassie, geoff & mahni’s house is sitting up on the hill overlooking the bay in west hobart and i am certainly burning a few calories climbing up and down the steep hills around town! we have been pretty furiously drinking and eating since arriving so the exercise is definitely required. we kicked off with a comfort food meal of lamb shanks and mashed spuds the first night and then on thursday night went out with a few friends to a spanish tapas bar.

friday night was a party for mahni at home with about 14 of us, some of them friends that couldnt come to the big party planned for saturday night so this was the pre party! mahni cooked a yummy scallop pasta dish, geoff followed up with a second course of smoked duck thai salad and I finished with eye fillets on a bed of mashed, spiced kumera and topped with grilled field mushrooms and a side of asparagus. for some reason i forgot to take any photos of the spread so you will just have to use your imagination!

 

shiz gettin real

 fishing, foodie stuff, gap year, us  3 Responses »
Nov 132014
 

nov 19

so d-day approaches apace, 4 days and we are off on our gap year. we are slowly working thru the to-do list prior to departure, the fact that we are coming back makes it a series of tasks without pressure, what we dont get done, we dont get done!

the fact that we are effectively spending the first month doing a rellie-run lessens the anticipation, excitement and nervousness, I think if we were taking off straight to a new country it would be both more exciting and intimidating.

the photo above for me portrays what I know we will miss, sitting out on our back verandah, with my dear wife, shirtless (me, not her), sipping a cheeky sauv blanc and demolishing a whole crispy skin golden snapper, with Thai tamarind and chilli sauce on rice. we caught the fish on our boat, its a sweaty build up night with the dark, dusk sky filled with grey, stormy clouds. this is our life – and i know i shall miss it.

its been a pretty foody november, got off to a rollicking start when i was going thru one of the freezers and found a lovely pork belly, i marinated it in a bourbon marinade and then dry rubbed it with 17 secret spices and herbs. it was onto the weber smokey mountain cooker then for a few hours slow roasting. i had a tray of spuds in the lower rack and they gently roasted in the drizzle of piggy fat, i dont know that it would have got the tick from the heart foundation, but hey its ok occasionally isnt it?!

melbourne cup was next cab off the rank, the gurls were off for a big knees up at the walkabout, but i took the opportunity to do a warm smoked chicken salad with poached eggs and hollandaise sauce for brunch, you cant really go wrong with anything that involves a properly made hollandaise!

sal had a poor day at the races, she spends days before the big race studing form guides, tea leaves and tarot cards and nearly always comes home drunk and cashed up. at least she still came home drunk!

i sort of get the feeling i should have split this post in 2! anyway, we are on the home straight now! we managed to get a day in fishing with dave, in between preparations at home, we went out on dave’s boat and while it was less than perfect conditions, we had a great day, caught a couple of little mackies, a huge queenfish and a big barracouta. we had lunch at SE Bremmer island and enjoyed a swim in the balmy build up waters! the mackeral got thrown on the char grill with lashings of olive oil and salt with grilled limes.

kade had his birthday last saturday and spent the day cooking a piggy on a spit, its a bloody big job, especially with a hand cranked spit, and sitting around a fire pit in the build up is a bit like cooking in a sauna, but the end result was magnificent and we all had a rollicking good time.

somewhere in there we had a few spots of rain one afternoon, kai stood out the back shivering and if you look closely you can see the rain drops on the concrete, it was the first hint of the wet, with no rain since july.

kai also won a principal’s award for  being a “thoughtful, friendly and helpful student, best wishes on your world wide adventure”

earlier this week i found a big eye fillet in the freezer so i whacked it into slabs and chucked it on the char grill, dead animal singed on coal cant be beaten, it is the best argument against vegetarians and other food deviants.

that should round out the pics and the last update before we depart on monday, irregular updates will cover our meandering around the globe so stay tuned – please subscribe at the top of the right hand frame, that way you will get an email everytime i post an update!

 

 

nike’s back

 foodie stuff, us  1 Response »
Oct 252014
 

[vimeo clip_id=”110001805″ width=”1000″ height=””]

did my last tour to bawaka with lirrwi last week, it was great to be there as usual and there was the added bonus of nike’s return, he has been absent the last month or so.

not sure if he was off looking for a girlfriend or moved into a different creek system – his usual creek had dried right out with the end of the dry season.

i cooked up a big fish curry for the punters and yolngu family, it all got eaten so it must have been ok!

sunset was as spectacular as ever.

now its full steam ahead getting ready for the gap year!

 Posted by at 8:53 pm



gary and tims adventure

 fishing, foodie stuff, us  1 Response »
Jun 012014
 

gary 008

the last couple of weeks we have had gary and his son tim, staying with us. gary is an old mate of my brother, simon’s and they have been threatening to come for a fishing trip for about 10 years, simon is always too busy and finally gary got sick of waiting and rang me and told me he was coming and as simon was once again unavailable he decieded to bring his son tim.

i guess simon does have the excuse this year that he and his family are just about to head off to canada for a month, but he missed out on a pretty damn fine adventure!

we have struggled with the weather a bit, its been very windy for virtually their whole visit, with typical dry season south easterlies of  15-20kts every day, but we have made the most of it. their first day here i took them to my seekrit spot to try for some land based barra and we got a few nice fish, the photo above is tim’s first barra so that got things off to a good start.

gary 009

the next couple of days we worked hard for little reward, bashing across the bay so we could fish the creeks, we got a couple of fish and a feed of mudcrab, so it wasnt a total loss. the little croc having a snooze on the sandback was about 20m from where i jumped out of the boat to push us across a shallow spot trying to get into the giddys river at low tide. i had a good look in the water before jumping in, but forgot to look on the bank! luckily he was having a nanna nap in the cool conditions!

the second week we headed out on the hama pearl ii for a 3 day charter in buckingham bay, the plan was to target barra, but we had left our run a bit late in the year, the cool water and lack of run off meant there were not many barra around and the ones that we caught were mainly rats. the trip was saved by a couple of days of fishing the reefs off the front of kurella creek where we were anchored. we caught a heap of goldies and quite a few big jewfish.

on the last day kai and i climbed to the top of the hill on the bank of the kurella river and took some pics of the hama pearl anchored in the river, finally thanks to brad and kim for an amazing charter, we had our stomachs stretched with a constant stream of fantastic food, from full cooked breakfasts everyday, yummy cakes and biscuits, filling lunches, plates of nibblies to have with cold beers at the end of a long days fishing, magnificent dinners and filling desserts! the boat was always spotlessly clean, nothing too much trouble for our hosts, cool beds in the air con cabin and hot showers!

if anyone is considering a charter in arnhem land you cant go past ss charters, http://www.sscharters.com.au

all in all its been a great couple of weeks, many fine memories for all involved and we are already making plans for another trip when the weather is more conducive to bagging the elusive barra!

every day

 foodie stuff, us  1 Response »
May 112014
 

….is mum’s day, but today is the day we celebrate, treat and treasure them.

mum 006

i helped kai cook sal a mum’s day breakfast in bed, her favourite of eggs benedict, with smoked salmon today.

mum 007

last night i cooked some golden snapper fillets from a fish that sal had caught in her win in the women’s fishing comp, i did them crispy skin style with a bed of kumera mash and a tomato and cream reduction sauce.

earlier in the week we had a lovely lunch of roquette salad with croutons, prosciutto, poached egg and vinno cotta dressing. we also fired up the chargrill with a couple of scruptious porterhouse steaks which carved up like slicing through butter.

 

i also had a very interesting night earlier in the week when i went for drink with lirrwi tourism, with whom i will be working after june. they had various ‘talent’ in town for a shoot for tourism NT, and also had chef sean corkery visiting to help with menu planning for tours. sean is head chef at cafe sopra in sydney and a young man who is extremely passionate about his cooking, travel and life in general.

we had a great night talking about food and travel and hopefully when he comes up next we can find time to get out on the boat for some fishing and whip up a few culinary storms together!

leftovers

 foodie stuff, us  No Responses »
May 052014
 

leftovers

we were lucky enough in the NT to have our 3rd long weekend in a row – so easter, anzac day and now may day, so another sleep in and late breakfast!

yesterday we had putty & sarah over for brunch, (i only mention this because putty gets sulky if i dont mention him regularly in my blog), and i had some leftovers from the prep so i knocked up a quick and dirty salad breakfast for sal & i.

the leftover sour dough i chopped roughly into croutons and fried up, the leftover  prosciutto i grilled and chopped up and then i tossed a salad together with fresh roquette, spanish onion, baby tomotoes and fresh basil from the garden. 

a sploosh of vino cotto fro dressing and a poached egg perched atop and breakfast was complete.

(sorry sarah, i think this was better than yesterdays brunch!)

macgyvered

 fishing, foodie stuff, us  1 Response »
Apr 112014
 

april 002so today was a perfect, windless, wet season day, so we loaded the tinny up and headed out for a fish, the plan was to head up to last chance shoal to troll for a few macks and then on to cape wilberforce for some bottom bouncing on some bommies up there, finishing up with lunch on the beach at elizabeth bay.

the best laid plans of mice & men etc…..we got up to last chance shoal and almost straight away hooked up a fish, i told kai to pull it in and so he started pulling the trolling line in, it came really easy as if it were a very small fish, but when it got to the boat I realised it was a big mack and it was very green – it saw the boat and me swing down to gaff it and it went mental, as it took off vertically out of the water at the back of the boat it tore the hydraulic line out of the ram for the steering on the motor!

i spent the best part of an hour trying to repair it, but had no luck so I had to macgyver a hand steering setup with the gaff, an old boat hook, a roll of duct tape and some cord line! anyway it got us home so alls well that ends well!

dinner was kai’s mackerel turned into thai fish cakes, mango salsa and mountain rice.

 

food for thought

 foodie stuff, us  1 Response »
Apr 062014
 

april 016 (1)well Putty gets a mention for a second week in a row! Putty, Sarah and Kasey joined us for dinner, following my successful fishing trip earlier in the week, we had a cook up on thursday night and i did the mangrove jack & golden snapper thai style – so whole crispy skin, wok fried with tamarind chilli sauce. its always been one of my favourite thai dishes but one i have never actually cooked myself. I was very happy with the result, its easy to prep and the sauce is very simple.

the other dish was one inspired by our slow boat trip down the mekong delta in vietnam, a banana blossom salad with coconut poached chicken, i had managed to pick up a banana blossom at the parap markets when we were in Darwin last weekend, so it was just a matter of poaching some organic chook breasts and making a nice spicy dressing, another dish that is simple to prepare and tastes great – as well as being something a bit different!

april 015 (1)the boys had a fun night together, no doubt involving lots of minecraft and skylanders! our dinner had a bit much spice for their palates so they enjoyed chicken wraps instead.

april 001

 

 Posted by at 5:33 pm  Tagged with:



friends

 coffee, fishing, foodie stuff, us  4 Responses »
Mar 172014
 

brian 015friends are special, its a self evident truth, but we were reminded of it this week past when old friends Brian & Penny visited nhulunbuy. they left about quite a few years ago, but we have remained in touch over the years and caught up a couple of times.

brian & penny stayed with our mutual friend dave, but the days started at rick’s bar and grill for coffee and ended here for dinner and copious amounts of alcohol! we once again enjoyed sharing our table with others with a fine appreciation for food, meals included char grilled steak with grilled vegetables and french fries, freshly caught fish in panko breadcumbs, thai fish cakes, mango salsa and wild mountain rice, fish amok (cambodian curry), and potato and mackerel bake.

brian, dave and i worked on several EBAs together and i grew to admire his intellect, humour and humanity – and a week of fishing, drinking, eating and talking crap only confirmed what a great mate he is. it was also good to spend more time than we usually find for each other, with dave – we live 100m from each other and dont spend as much time as we should hanging out.

its so important to maintain relationships across time and space, beyond family its all we have and one of the main things that defines us.

as with all really good friends, we may not stay in contact, or even catch up all that often these days, but when we do it just picks up from where we left off.

we got plenty of fishing in too, brian got some nice barra out of the bay  and we had a great days mackeral fishing out on dave’s boat.

anyway, time to let the images do the talking!

 

 Posted by at 6:08 pm



salad

 foodie stuff, us  No Responses »
Feb 242014
 

salad 014i have been struggling to make good roti since returning from our holiday, its getting there, but not blog photo quality yet!

so my first post holiday post is the salad we had in the bus stop food hall in butterworth after catching the ferry across from georgetown, its the simplest salad in the world, fresh pineapple, red onion, salted cucumber and chilli. generously salt the cucumber after slicing and then mix the ingredients. I added a sploosh of fish sauce and a splatter of castor sugar to finish the seasoning.

I used a mild chilli so i could add plenty of colour, its the perfect accompaniment to a spicy meal, we had it with beef curry, dahl and roti on mountain rice.

click on nhawi in the header to see new home page.

 

 Posted by at 7:01 pm  Tagged with:



homeward bound

 coffee, foodie stuff, holiday 2014, us  2 Responses »
Feb 072014
 

holv7 (10)

our last night in saigon, alex and minh came over on their motorbikes and picked sal and i up and we took off over to the other side of the river and a seafood restaurant that had been closed for tet festival up until last night.

it was a great final meal on a trip of great meals, we let minh order, and the rest of the night there was just a constant stream of plates of various shellfish – which was obviously the specialty of the restaurant. they were mostly cooked over charcoal and had a variety of sauces and marinades, we also had chargrilled corn with onions and salted eggs and plenty of greens.

a steady flow of beer helped wash it all down before we mounted our steeds and tore off back into the city where we went up to the 23rd floor of a non-descript looking office building – but at the top is the Shri Restaurant & Bar. we had a coffee while looking out over saigon at night, then it was back to the hotel for a goodbye beer and our last nights sleep before flying to singapore tomorrow and then on to darwin and home.

here are a couple more photos i hadnt put up yet, i am sitting at the airport as we wait for our flight to singapore and feeling a little sad about leaving this beautiful city, but confident we will be back again – for a longer stay and more exploration of the rest of vietnam.

I am sure one thing this trip has settled for both sal & I are that there are plenty of places we would be happy to spend 6 months a year as a base, malaysia has several possibilities and we have previously considered bali, now vietnam is definitely on the list.

dad used to come up to saigon every year and spend a few months here, i can understand now how he fell in love with the place and people.

it also completes a small ambition of mine, dad and i had travelled to so many countries together and vietnam was I believe, the only one i hadnt been to.

 

 Posted by at 11:25 am



reflections

 coffee, foodie stuff, holiday 2014, us  2 Responses »
Feb 062014
 

holv6 (6)

thats the view from the steps of the thuc cafe, where i have just enjoyed an espresso on the way home from breakfast, its typical of the heart of this vibrant place, wide footpaths, tree lined streets, small parks, with all the buzz of an international city.

the longer we spend here, the more convinced we are to come back and live here for an extended time – like 6 months, it was always our loose plan to spend our retirement living somewhere overseas for 6 months and somewhere in australia for the other 6 months – saigon is the first place in our recent travels where I am really certain I wish to come back to and spend time actually living here.

breakfast today was at the i.d. Cafe, the first time we visited we sat downstairs where they have their coffee machine and a couple of little tables, and enjoyed an espresso, it wasnt until I asked where the toilet was and they directed me upstairs, that we discovered they have a large upstairs space with a small restaurant, funky decorations and a view out over the local streets.

so today sal & I went back for a leisurely breakfast, sal had an omelette with baguette and i had char grilled pork with vermicelli noodles, bean sprouts, peanuts, thai basil, coriander and a typical vietnamese dressing. with a couple of short macchiatos the bill came to about $12 – which is not cheap in saigon but it was yummy and is at least half what a similar meal in a trendy cafe would cost in sydney.

 

com tam 390

 foodie stuff, holiday 2014, us  2 Responses »
Feb 042014
 

i read about this little stall in an alley on a website devoted to saigon streetfood, its rumoured to have the best gà nướng or BBQ chook with broken rice. we taxied out there tonite to give it a shot, its not easy to find and a fair way from our hotel. the couple that run it have a few little tables lining the alley and a big char grill at one end to bbq the chook and pork on.

its a pretty crazy scene, they are absolutely flat out and as the food is cooked at one end of the alley and plated up to be served at the other end, the staff are sprinting from one end of the alley to the other, balancing plates of gà nướng and the couple of other dishes they cook here – all the time dodging the motorbikes that are still using the narrow, table lined alley!

the food lived up to its reputation, succulent and tender chook bbq’d in a scrumptious marinade, on a bed of ‘broken’ rice, a few pickles, some tomato and cucumber slices and a side dish of fresh chilli sauce. all for about $1.75 each!

they also do a side dish called cha, a steamed loaf of ground pork, mushroom, crab and other “secret” ingredients, but the language barrier meant we ended up missing out this time!

the taxis cost $10 to get us there and back – so about double the price of dinner for 3! if we were staying longer I would definitely get a motor bike for running round like this. Still compared to just about anywhere else, $15 all up for a meal for 3 and transport is still pretty damn cheap!

bánh mì

 coffee, foodie stuff, holiday 2014, us  No Responses »
Feb 042014
 

holv3 (14)

Bánh mì is the perfect fast food and/or hangover cure in Saigon. walk any street in Saigon and you’re likely to find at least one street food vendor smearing a small baguette with pâté, dropping in some cold cuts, pickled vegetables and fresh coriander squirting in some soy sauce (and adding a few chili peppers) … then wrapping it in a small sheet of paper and snapping a rubber band around the assembly. Off you go with a great hangover cure, midday or midnight sandwich snack.

Luckily you can usually find a street cart selling bánh mì right next to a cafe serving a great coffee so you could probably live on a diet of bánh mì and coffee indefinitely!

sal and i had a bánh mì and coffee to try to dispel the foggy head and lethargy that undoubtably had plenty to do with the excesses of last night, sal headed home but i decided to wander down town to the restaurant where we dined last night to pick up the jumper i had left there due to my early onset dementia.

as i was strolling along the shady boulevards of saigon i was assailed by a number of dodgy looking old men on motorbikes, slowing down so they could offer me ‘special massage with nice girl’, i suspect what they were offering was neither special nor a massage – and probably not a nice girl either!

it did occour to me they were missing their mark, had they offered me “special bánh mì or phở” – I probably would have taken them up on their kind offer and jumped on the back of their honda.

instead i gently declined their offer of “special massage” and continued my meanderings through the shady streets.

saigon

 foodie stuff, holiday 2014, us  No Responses »
Feb 042014
 

holv3

the longer we spend in this city the more I enjoy it, certainly somewhere I want to come back and live for a few months, its got a lovely feel to it, very friendly, and as i said earlier, the wide boulevards, lots of big trees, wide footpaths and very clean streets make it stand out.

kai and banyans

yesterday we caught up with Alex Vu, our mutual friend, peter phipps is an old garma festival mate of mine and he hooked us up with alex when we told peter we were coming to saigon.

alex came over to our apartment and invited us back to his house to see a traditional vietnamese family home, he offered to take kai over on his motorbike while sal and i caught a taxi – as you can imagine kai took to that idea like a rat up a drainpipe!

holv3 (2)

we spent a very enjoyable afternoon at alex’s house enjoying his hospitality, his parents and the rest of the family are away up north for the tet holiday so he was home alone, the house is 4 stories high, on a small footprint. after a tour of the house we settled down to beers, rice wine and lots of nibblies!

holv3 (3)

we walked home after a couple of hours with alex with a plan to catch up for dinner with another of his friends later on, that gave us time for a nanna nap and sober up before heading out on the town!

alex and his friend minh arrived and we headed out to the bbq garden restaurant for a slap up meal, we started off with a 3 litre ‘jug’ of beer which seemed like the perfect solution to a problem we didnt even know about!

the table has a bbq in the middle of the table and you simply order dishes off the menu and then cook them on the plate, we had goat, beef in betel leaf, prawns, squid, vegies and probably more i have forgotten!

we then came back up near our apartment where there are lots of little japanese bars and enjoyed a bottle of warm sake, tuna sashimi and sushi, alex and minh then took us to the havana club to finish the night off – well sort of, after that we did end up back at the apartment having a few beers and a wide ranging, intellectual, articulate and erudite drunken rave!

All in all a wonderful night, with great company, yummy food and a big hangover on the way!

 

slow boat to saigon day 2

 foodie stuff, holiday 2014, us  1 Response »
Feb 022014
 

we awoke a bit doughy this morning after a bottle of vietnamese red and too many beers playing poker last night! we did have a very comfortable sleep on board the good ship Le Conchinchine 3, and the crepes, fresh fruit and strong black coffee got us going pretty quickly. It was a lovely calm misty morning on the mekong river and we headed off in a smaller boat to explore the floating markets of Cai Be as well as visiting villagers using traditional methods to make rice paper for spring rolls and puffed rice for cereals and munchy treats. I have added a couple of short videos to show these traditional skills and you can watch them below.

we also visited a beautiful traditional wooden vietnamese house that is nearly 200 years old and operates as a home stay now. we enjoyed a fruit platter and pot of tea in the gardens after wandering through the house and admiring not just the construction but the beautiful antique furniture,

both the rice paper and puffed rice are made using a fire made from the rice husks, we saw the same fuel used in the brick kilns, and the ash after the husks are burnt is used as fertiliser so there is very little wasted in the production chain of rice!

the rice paper sheets are made with a form of rice milk that you can see in the tub beside the woman, the puffed rice is mixed with river sand in a large wok – the sand has become black from the burning husks and is continuously reused.

so it was goodbye to Le Conchinchine 3 and her wonderful crew, and our guide Kiet, and off in our car to Ho Chi Minh City, we arrived early in the afternoon and have settled into our apartment in down town Saigon, on first appearances its a beautiful city, wide boulevards, unusally wide and flat footpaths for this part of the world and lots of trees and old buildings.

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we ducked out for our first meal – a bowl of Pho, luckily we found a little street food stall that was open – as much of Saigon is closed for the Tet holiday, and for the princley sum of about $4 we had a bowl of Pho each and Kai had a plate of chicken and rice. I think we are going to enjoy our few days here!

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