Amber and I really enjoy watching Anthony Bourdain's TV show "No Reservations". In his show he travels and tries to get to know a culture mostly through its food. I have read almost all of his books and I admire his mantra of eating locally and trying to be a traveller and not a tourist. I guess I look up to him.
In his show, he undoubtedly seems to be in a random restaurant that is not listed in any guidebook and he enjoys an amazing meal with locals who are friendly and inviting. In Rach Gia, waitng for our bus to Can Tho, I felt like I had an Anthony Bourdain moment. Amber and I walked away from the bus station and picked a local restaurant that had the most locals in it. We got to our table and next to us a group of 5 men nodded hello to us and we said hello back to them. We waited to be served, but no one came, so we went to the where the food was prepared and just started pointing at different foods that looked good. Amber got tofu, mystery meat, and vegetables and I got a pork-like meat with the skin still on. They brought over our dishes with rice and "fix-ins" and we ate heartily.
One great leap of faith was trying the iced tea that locals drinks at all the meals. Because of stomach bugs we got in Thailand, we had been a little skittish on adventurous eating and drinking. If ice is made with local tap water, then you are going to get just as sick as drinking the water from the tap. But we decided to give the iced tea a try and we were rewarded because it was DELICIOUS. Best part, they kept refilling our glasses! Throughout Vietnam afterward we seeked out the tea with every meal - super cheap and super tasty!
During our meal, one man from the group next to us, motioned to me that he was toasting us before drinking a shot of liquor. I said thank you and went back to eating. Then, I was called to and the gentleman motioned for me to drink a shot. Now at this point, I DID have reservations. The stupid guidebooks warn of never taking drinks from strangers because you could be drugged and then robbed. I decided to shut that paranoid part of my brain up and said Okay, I'll do one. Down the hatch it went, much to the delight of our new friends at the other table. I still have no idea what kind of liquor it was. At this point I realized that our comrades were on their second bottle of the liquour. We kept eating and then a bowl of soup was brought to our table that was filled with green veggies. Then another new friend from the tipsy table brought us some roasted peanuts to share - they actually tasted great in our rice. A new drinker showed up and he offered me another shot. I of course didn't want to be rude and I didn't want these Vietnamese to think that Americans can't drink. So down the hatch it went. Then, the guy who offered us peanuts gave us some of their fish dish to share. And sure enough, another shot of the mystery liquor came my way and down the hatch it went. Though we didn't speak each other's language, drinking liquor together at 11 am in the morning bonded two foreign cultures together.
We unfortunately had a bus to catch so we concluded our meal and I shook hands all around. I went to pay the bill and it came to roughly $1.50. Not bad for the food, bottomless teas, and a friendly atmosphere. It was upon leaving I remarked to Amber that I felt like Anthony Bourdain, but at least we didn't have a camera crew following us around.
-Tom