Food we've eaten

When one travels to the other side of the world, a lot changes... land, culture, language, facial characteristics & food! My idea of a vacation is going new places and eating new things - this is definitely both! But for a boy who has spent his entire life in the good old MidWest of USA, seafood is usually a new, and most of the time, enjoyable change. Below are some pics of the very interesting foods we've eaten.

(1) kayla and i [eric] just got back from a 2 day trip to Ha Long Bay. Awesome experience. WE took a group tour of this world famous bay. (more pics of the trip to come in following blogs) We slept of a boat and just ate what they served us. This is what was served to last night's dinner... and we ate it.



(2) I didn't touch this one... but kayla, after the first bite, ended up eating the WHOLE PLATE = squid... actually a type of squid = cuddlefish!


(3) this is Josiah, the Gainer's seven year old son. Gainers are the other Holt family who are here in VN with us... what a blessing to have another family of kindred spirits with us in a foriegn land. This is a common dish in VN... broth with rice noodles and some meat and herbs.



(4) Nate and Greg Gainer... I ordered a "hot pot" for dinner, not knowing it was a dish you share with the whole table. I'm glad we did, because it had stuff I like (shrimp and fish), but things I wasn't so sure about: clams and squid. Nate digs in - he and kayla will try and eventually eat about anything.





(5) Its a blast to not only eat different foods (sometimes you don't ask you just eat), but also in different ways - CHOP STICKS! After a week, I'm getting pretty good. So much so that kayla and i thought it would be a good idea to buy a set of 10 chopsticks and take them back to USA and have the entire family use them for dinner once a week. So ehtan and ellyn, we're coming home with chopsticks... beware:)




(6) Evan... who needs biter biscuits (a special "teething" food for small children when their teeth are coming in) when you have baquettes!


(7) This is a picture from the day we went into downtown Hanoi and were pretty overwhelmed by the markets, people, smells, etc... it was like Asian Overload for us... so we saw Highlanders Coffee (similar to Starbucks) and made a mad dash for it--- it was a piece of heaven @ a very stressful lunch time:) Kayla is sucking down a fruit smoothie and i'm downing a baquette sandwich.



(8) This was one of our first meals in VN... PHO 24 is a chain of restaruants throughout SE Asia... and serve PHO - a traditional VN meal. Kim choose to use a fork... kayla thought chopsticks were the way to go... when in VN, eat like the VN:)