Strange foods that I have eaten.

 

Well,  my ambitions to keep a true log of all the delicious and amazing foods that I have sampled in SE Asia have come to naught. So, to at least throw all you interested foodies out there the proverbial bone, I will now share, not all the great food, but instead the much shorter list of really strange foods I have tried in my travels thus far.  Try not to judge me too harshly...

Thailand
Deep-fried Giant Water Bugs with chili sauce - the Chiang Mai night market. Crunchy and delicious! Each one was about 4 inches long by 2 inches wide.

Laos
Grilled river weed - Nam Tha National Park, from the Nam Ha River.  Basically green algae but smoky, chewy and quite tasty.
Chicken feet grilled on a skewer. Local festival in Huay Xai.  Chewy, tough, and nasty. Full of bones and cartilage. Never again.

Vietnam 

BBQ water buffalo balls on a skewer with mint. Excellent!
Pig intestine soup. Actually sweet and soft, despite intestine usually being really tough other times I've had it.
Chicken liver soup. Meh.
Green unripe mango with spicy salt and pepper. Sour and hot and sweet. Yum.
Fetal duck egg. A truly beloved culinary treat here in VN and China. Basically a duck egg that is ideally about 5 days away from hatching. Served boiled in the egg (you crack it out like a hard-boiled egg) with pickled ginger and coarse salt and pepper. Mine was actually not so bad as long as I didn't look at it. However, my friend loves these things, eating about 2 per day, and got 1 that  was a little too  "ripe" and he had to spit out a tiny beak and feathers. Ugh. Won't be taking any more chances on these little guys.

And.....drum roll please...the moment that you have all been dreading....
DOG. Yes, I went for it here in the city of Hue one night while I was couchsurfing with two Vietnamese university students. Cooked in and eaten in a greasy spicy sauce over a charcoal brazier that is set directly on the table. In big unidentifiable chunks with baguette to dip in the sauce, rice noodles on side, plus basil, mint and other greens to chew along with it.  Really greasy, tough and full of gristle. Pretty disgusting but a worthwhile experience I suppose. This dish is eaten mainly by drunk men late at night, kinda the equivalent of post-drinking Pita Pit or pizza in the U.S. I was complimented by my Viet friends for being the only westerner they met that was willing to try it.  I was doing okay until I got to the ribs, the tiny little ribs. A single tear rolled down my cheek as I thought of my first dog. (Not really...?) I was also offered "little tiger" (aka house cat) which I politely declined. Gotta save something for Cambodia!

So for some quick redemption of Vietnam in order to leave you with a pleasant taste in your mouth, here are the good things about the food here (mostly relics of French colonialism). The following are almost entirely absent from Thailand, if not prohibitively expensive.
Ca Phe Sura Nong - Dark,  strong coffee made by a single-cup slow-drip method referred to as "lazy coffee" b/c it takes so long to drip. Served with a layer of sweetened, condensed milk on the bottom. Often iced.
Baguettes!
Cheese! - extremely rare in Asia.
Wine!
Chocolate!