Up-sells on the table

Eating a meal abroad can be an experience all on it's own. In Vietnam it is like no other! And one of the more peculiar things about the Vietnamese dining experience is what I'm calling the “up-sell on the table”. Like all lessons you learn in life, you will learn this first hand – by accidentally up-selling yourself before you even know you did it. Customarily, after you are seated and order, the server will come and nicely place a plate with two very fancy wet naps on the table. Talk about customer service! You can either wash up before or after your meal, and can't we all agree, a fancy wet nap is always better than dry 1-ply napkin. The only catch? You have to pay. It's relatively inexpensive but still, you have to pay, and you don't realize this til it is on your bill. So now we know and sometimes we use these and sometimes we don't.

But the thing is, it doesn't just stop with the fancy wet nap! There are more up-sells to be had! And often they are random and seem at least a little strange! Common up-sell baskets and plates frequently include peanuts, other nuts, or bags of seeds. We've seen gum a couple of times and most recently, 2 green plantains.  Wouldn't I just order plantains if I wanted plantains?  The bill is usually calculated table-side when you ask for it and part includes tallying the up-sell inventory. And it's not just a basket that always sits on the table – it's brought to all customers when they arrive.  I had never experienced this before anywhere else.  Have you?  [Sarah B-C – have you thought about incorporating this into your work? Maybe you could sell your delicious baked goods on the side!]

That's really just a bonus in the whole “I'm trying to just order a meal, but oh wait, I forgot I am in Vietnam” daily struggle. Menus are often in Vietnamese and English. Here in Nha Trang they are in Vietnamese, Russian, and English. But many times (and especially early on), there were no menus or Vietnamese-only menus which made ordering a hilarious and unsuccessful act of charades. We are now able to identify Vietnamese words on a menu but ordering sometimes includes pointing, mimicking, and to my huge satisfaction, me clucking like a chicken (I can't help but think that I am on an episode of Arrested Development every time).

Yesterday we ordered pho and got 2 iced coffees instead :) That's not really unexpected for us. We often have no idea what is happening, but are pretty good with just going with it anyways. Just be open-minded to iced coffee being the substitute for a big delicious bowl of noodle soup and you won't have a problem. Speaking of pho, I am keeping a soup count! In Vietnam, soup is commonly eaten for breakfast in addition to other times. In the 11 days we've been here, I've eaten soup 13 times :)  Pho 9 times and other soups 4 times. Really, there is no such thing as too much noodle soup!

Chicken pho for breakfast and a fresh French baguette!

Beer-drinking is also notable here. For example if you and your mates are drinking a lot of beer, they will just come and place the crate of beer bottles at the foot of your table next to a 5-gallon bucket of ice-water to keep them cold [JK – I see this working well for you]. Next, in case your beer wasn't cold enough, a brick of ice (yes brick, not cubes) is placed in your glass. The wait staff or beer girl circulates around with a bucket of ice and tongs. When your ice starts to shrivel up it's snatched up out of your glass and replaced with a bigger brick. The fact that the same tongs go into all glasses here and that the shriveled ice and the big ice all share the same bucket here is not an issue and things (many things) are just done differently.

Over all, the food is absolutely incredible and the crazy nuances of Vietnamese culture makes the experience as a whole all the better. If you ever wanted to be a vegetarian but thought you couldn't do it, come to Vietnam! The vegetarian dishes are as delicious as they are endless. If you want to get adventurous with your meat and seafood selections come here (frog legs are hardly exotic when the seafood selection includes water snakes, rays, turtles, and species I've never even seen after 50 dives under the sea)!  Lastly, a tip from the Vietnamese kitchen: quadruple the amount of garlic you are cooking with, then double it, then add one more clove just in case. There is no such thing as too much garlic!

Our first experience with Vietnamese coffee.  "That was the longest wait for the smallest amount of coffee ever," said Brandt.  Note - pouring the water from the bowl into the coffee cup to increase the amount of coffee is very incorrect and will result in lots of laughs from the locals.  Note 2  - coffee always comes with free tea. Always

Mo' pho!!  Adding lots of sprouts, mint, basil, and lime is the way we go!

World's biggest rice cake

Forget hot coffee here, iced is the way to go!  Paired with a tasty bakery treat!

Family dinner at our guesthouse in Da Lat.  One of the best meals we've had so far!  Shared places and family-style dining is very common here.