Since my classes are winding down and I’m not working as many hours, I’ve ventured out a bit more lately, always taking my camera. Today I wandered over in the direction of a place I’d eaten at yesterday. The food was good and I figured it was a safe bet for another good meal. It’s what Mike and I have decided to call a ‘Rice ‘n’ Point’ restaurant. You start off with a huge bowl of rice and point at anything else you want – sort of buffet style.  We’re going to open a franchise……
It was a little after the lunch hour rush, which I thought would be a good thing……think again….. It’s sort of hard to explain, but the front of the restaurant is very long and there are many entrances. I walked into what I thought had been the same entrance I’d walked through yesterday and…..began thinking I’d walked into someone’s house…… Oh…..oops….sorry….. There were a few people sitting at a table and I apologized and started to leave. They all called to me and, arms stretched out, palms facing down, they made their gesture of ‘welcome, come in….come sit down.’ I love the way they do it – it’s sort of a scooping motion with their hands (like you’re digging in the sand to make a sand castle!) as if to say ‘come here.’ Anyway, I figured it would be rude to turn around and walk away…..and it did look at least sort of like a restaurant. Indeed, it turned out to be one….that was closed after the lunch rush hour. So, I sat down at the table with them, rather embarrassed. They asked what I wanted and I pulled out my trusty (well, not quite so trusty) Viet-Anh dictionary. Rice is a given, so I opened my dictionary to the word ‘vegetarian’ (not trusting my pronunciation) and hoped for the best. I didn’t really care what they served as long as it was vegetable matter, really. They graciously got started on the meal and brought out a sort of appetizer plate of tomatoes and cucumbers drizzled with, of all things, mayonnaise. It was delish, actually. Then, the pièce de résistance……a big ol’ plate of fatty bacon bits……yessiree, a vegetarian delight!!  Dang, I gotta learn this language!
Well, as I’ve already said in this blog, I decided before coming here to eat meat again after all these years for just such an occasion as this. So, of course I ate some of the bacon and soon feigned fullness! Actually, it wasn’t bad tasting, but it was almost all fat!
Anyway, I stayed for a while and did my best to communicate in my limited Vietnamese and there was a woman there who had limited English, so it was a good time. The beer helped, too!  Here’s a couple of pictures of the proprietors…..one’s a better pic of him and one’s a better pic of her, so I thought I’d include both…..

….a couple of wonderful, kind people here in Viet Nam…..once again….

…..happy, too!