On today's lunch menu:
- Assorted Vermin: Wild Rat & Musk-Cat
- Fighting Cock Hot Pot
- Heart of Pig Steamed Green Tea
- Pigeon Hot Pot
- Assorted Snakes
- Baked Goat's Dumsticks
- Smoked Pork's Legs
- Steamed Pork's Legs (2 varieties)
- Pork's Legs with Salt & Pepper
- Stir Fried Heart of Pig with Mushroom
- Heart of Pig Steamed Mugwort
Last week, one of our colleagues graciously invited us to dinner at his house with his family. His wife is an incredible cook and we had a ton of WONDERFUL dishes. Towards the end, one more dish arrived with a few less familiar ingredients - or rather, they were familiar, just not things we're used to eating, including a few claws and feet. We were comletely stuffed, so Kelly & I convinced our host we would share a bowl. Kelly moves to serve us, looks at me, smiles sweetly, and pours all the noodles and broth into her bowl, leaving me with the 'parts is parts.' She was a vegetarian for 12 years, so I'll give her a freebie for this one, but I can't wait until Paul, her boyfriend, joins us in a few weeks to take over the gracious disposal role...
Over the past few days, we've seen cows and pigs being transported on the backs of motos - refrigeration is less common so meat is much more fresh. Last week we were interviewing farmers in a rural town and halfway during lunch of pork, mustard greens, and rice, I heard a huge, "Soooooo-eeeeeeeeeee!!!!!" squeal/scream from the back of the restaurant. Kelly & I made eye contact and struggled to appear calm and normal as the pig - clearly destined for someone else's dinner - was being slaughtered in the back. No one else even heard it...
Last night we travelled from Hanoi to Thanh Hoa City - about a 4 hour car ride. We stopped at dinnertime at our first Vietnamese truck stop for what was surprisingly amazing food - Ky ordered mounds of vegetables & tofu and we were starving. Even the cats and dogs weaving between our feet under the table weren't enough to distract us - until there was what sounded like a dog fight outside. After dinner, as we got in the car, I looked up and saw the truck of dogs being transported... dog - thit cay - is sometimes eaten for good luck, especially in the north. These pups were in transit to a grim destination.
Although a lot of what we've seen is more harsh and raw than we're used to, the Vietnamese do eat or use the entire animal, so there's no waste. And we are, after all, here to help IDE improve people's quality of life by animal husbandry - pro-bono consultants on the Porker Project.
Goodnight,
Julls
then something kind of flies in and lands on the ground in front of Kelly. I don't think she fully sees it at first, because she steps over it - and then, as it starts flapping its 
wings between her feet, she runs forward and says, 'Is that a bat???' I can see it, laying stunned on the ground in the chasm that now lies between me and Kelly & Nhan. There is no way I am stepping over it, so Nhan is proposing we turn around when it starts flapping its wings and flying towards me. The last thing I see before I close my eyes is this fury, winged creature flying directly towards my face. Somewhere, neurons should be firing telling me to keep my mouth closed, but instead I scream when I feel it hit my hands. I turn around to try to get away, but it's still with me as I hear Nhan yell, "Light! Off light!" I turn my head lamp off as I see it hit the ground again, and now we're in the pitch dark, and Kelly has to cross back over it so we can get out of the cave. Nhan now tells us there are many more bats in the cave and asks if we want to go on or turn around, but Kelly and I are hightailing it out of there before he can even finish his sentence. That's enough VC for one day for these two girls... so we head down the leech path instead.