The Vietnamese eat rice in so many different forms, it truly is amazing: fried rice, steamed rice, rice noodles, rice vermicelli, rice paper, fried rice flour, sticky rice, rice cakes, rice soup, rice pancakes, rice doughnuts… I’ve even found a place that makes young rice ice-cream!

Consequently, they cook rice in different ways. One method consists of spreading rice that’s already been cooked on a newspaper and let it dry outside on a roof or on the ground, under the sunlight.

Drying rice on the roofs.

How do they use it afterwards? I don’t know, and I prefer not to!

Next to my window...birds!

The Vietnamese are very fond of iced coffee or iced milk, and they need a lot of ice to quench everyone’s thirst including the tourists’. Thus, every early morning on Bui Vien street, a few people cut huge ice pillars into small chunks to supply all the little shops and street vendors.

Ice choppers on the street.

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STREET STYLE

Les Vietnamiens mangent du riz sous tellement de formes, c’en est vraiment incroyable: riz poêlé, riz vapeur, nouilles de riz, vermicelles de riz, frittes de farine de riz, riz gluant, soupe de riz, pancakes de riz, beignets de riz… Je connais même un endroit où on fait de la glace au jeune riz.

Par conséquent, le riz se cuisine de multiples façons. Une méthode consiste à parsemer du riz cuit sur une feuille de papier journal, posée sur le toit ou à même le sol, pour le laisser sécher au soleil.

Qu’en font-ils ensuite? Je ne sais pas, et je préfère ne pas savoir!

Les Vietnamiens sont aussi très friands de café glacé et de lait glacé, ce qui nécessite beaucoup de glaçons pour étancher leur soif, en plus de celle des touristes. Ainsi, tous les matins au chant du coq dans la rue Bui Vien, on casse de grosses colonnes de glace en morçeaux pour achalander les petits commerçants et les marchands ambulants.

It’s difficult to order a meal that doesn’t include rice (in Vietnamese, it’s called “com”). It’s widely debated how many varieties there actually are out there – the numbers range from 4,000-120,000 different types. This staple has been cultivated in Asia for over 10,000 years, and there’s no sign of stopping any time soon! And that thought makes me so, so happy.

First, there’s phở, which is Vietnam’s most popular dish, eaten at least once a day by the majority of locals (usually for breakfast). It’s made from rice noodles and meat (beef is standard) and the customer gets to add basil, lime, bean spouts and chilis as they see fit. Man, do I love this soup!

And then there’s everything else in between. There are rice stands everywhere, where you point to your choice of meat or seafood and they load it on top of steamed veggies and rice. The Vietnamese also make awesome spring rolls, where the ingredients inside are rolled in a paper made of – you guessed it! – rice! We recently found a lunch buffet that specializes in these little gems:

I suppose I’ll have to find some extra room in the backpack when the time comes to leave. There will certainly be a serious withdrawal period, but luckily I love a food that’s is found pretty much anywhere.

Episode 3 begins to explore just how we felt every day living in poverty. We could tell ourselves each day, “yeah, I’m poor, but I’m poor in Japan!” but saying it didn’t take away the mental and physical exhaustion. It didn’t inspire us to put in another all-nighter, and it didn’t give Christmas back to those that missed their families.

Maybe that sounds like a lot of privileged whining. I’m ok saying that, because the depression we felt around being poor wouldn’t have been so strong if we hadn’t had nice lives to look back on. Matts, Brians, and Robs in alternate dimensions, were laughing with their cousins, ordering a pizza, or playing with their cat. They were happy and healthy, and best of all, not hungry all the time. While so many would envy our lives abroad, keep in mind just how tremendous these comforts really are, and also just how much it sucks to live a monotonous life of white rice and eggs.