Day of adventurous eats!

Grilled...meat.

Boiled...meat.

Soup...of meat.

I won't comment on what type of meat this was exactly. My family likens it to pork. Y'all can speculate however you'd like. And I won't confirm nor deny that I tasted said meat, haha. I'll just say that my aunt made a separate dish of mi xào (fried noodles) for me to eat.

A few hours after dinner with my family, my uncle invited me to have dinner with his side of the family, who happened to live down the neighborhood from where we lived. His sister's son is heading off for a year and a half for the army, so they had a huge dinner at their grandmother's house. I was still so full from... mì xào that I couldn't bear to eat any more of the food they had there. So, I saved my stomach for the copious amounts of 333 bia they were enjoying with dinner. That and this:

Cocunut wine!

I must say, that was some delicious coconut! I left my camera at home, so that's some random google photo of how the drink is served. I think one of the uncles was saying that this was about 55 proof , so that's about 27% alcohol only. I was asking them how this liquor was made and they told me that a hole is drilled into the coconut. Then, most of the juice is drained out. After that, they put in some enzyme (? - I looked it up and this site said a type of enamel and sticky rice is inserted) and a month to two months later, the ingredients mix around and become coconut wine! It tasted exactly as you would imagine - alcoholic coconut juice. A few sips out of a communal cup and 3 bias later, I'm a happy buzz. 

Never imagined I'd be ready to fall asleep before 10 p.m., but here goes. Chào các bạn!

Cheers, 

tm