“Alex Can I have Asia for $1000?” “Rubber mallet, Black & Decker Headlamp, Open Flames and Lionel Richie”

Alex: What is the difference between a foot massage in China compared to one in Vietnam!

Here in Vung Tau, Vietnam a 60 minute foot massage is only 1000 dong ($5).   We weren’t sure to expect the first time we had one and there were definite surprises, but it was a blissful experience.  We sat in padded chairs with green tea served to us as we felt the warm ocean breezes and listened to the street sounds of Vietnam.  The massage started with a warm foot bath followed by an acupressure/ massage on our feet and calves.   Following our foot massage our arms, neck and head were attended to before we were guided to the massage tables for a back rub.   Yes- they include a back rub with the foot rub!  The massage therapists jumped up on to the tables and straddled our backs before starting the massage, once we were over that surprise it was a very relaxing way to spend an hour.

Fast forward two weeks later to Shanghai during a rainy and cold week and I decide to venture out for a Chinese foot rub.   There is a building across from our hotel that is advertising foot and back massages and looks “legit” so I decide to give it a try.     No one speaks English but I am shown a menu which shows  that a one hour foot massage costs 100 Yuan ($16).   I am introduced to my therapist, Ping, and escorted to a dimly lit private room with an overstuffed chair, a stool and an antique looking Chinese basket next to a foot basin.  I sink into the plush chair for a very soothing warm soak in a wooden foot basin and a neck rub as a “Best of Lionel Richie” soundtrack plays in the background.   I find myself humming to “Stuck on You” as the massage therapist then sits in front of me on a stool, places  my feet on his lap reaches into the basket and pulls out a Black and Decker head lamp.   OK, so the room was dim but really do you need a head lamp to see my feet?   In the glow of the headlamp  I flinch as I watch him unroll a leather packet filled with what looks like straight edge razors .  He doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak Chinese but he motions for me to calm down.    Ten minutes later the bottom or my feet are as smooth as a baby bottom and I am glad he had the head lamp so he could see what he was doing,

I am relaxed; happily sipping tea and listening to Lionel sing “Hello” when he reaches into the basket again and pulls out a pair of small rubber tipped mallets.   At this point I trust him but still nervous as in my head I play out the scene of “Misery” where Kathy Bates takes a hammer to James Caan’s ankles.   With a rubber mallet in each hand he gently hits my feet and calve muscles and I have to say it actually feels good and I relax and close my eyes again.  


After the “mallet treatment” he continues to massage my feet and then I hear him reach into the basket again and I flinch in anticipation.   I am determined to relax and keep my eyes closed, because what else could happen at this point.   I hear a spray, the “wooosh “ of flame and my eyes pop open in time to watch him take a small glass consumed by a flame and stick it right on the bottom of my feet.   I feel heat but the flame is extinguished immediately which creates suction in the cup that he glides up and down the bottom feet.   I later learn this is called cupping therapy and is like the inverse of massage as the pressure from the suction draws the muscles upward.   He repeated this a dozen times and that was the end of my first (but hopefully not last) Chinese foot massage.

Both massages were an experience I will never forget and any time I hear Lionel Richie playing it will always bring back memories of Shanghai, Bing, headlamps, razors, flames and rubber tipped mallets

Cheers to Good Travel and new experiences wherever you are

The Vietnam Food Scene: Where Chicken Testicles and Field mice are on the Same Menu

 It's impossible to properly describe the amazing food that is available in Vietnam, but the intense colors, exotic ingredients and fresh flavors fit the country and its people.   Start with the vibrant lettuce greens, mint & basil that accompany almost every meal to the freshness of the seafood where the fish you choose for dinner was pulled out of the ocean just hours before; quite often by the owner of the restaurant.  We have found several favorite local foods but we are determined to taste as many things as possible.   To meet this goal have made a pact that with every meal we have one "safe" item along with at least one item that is not found on the typical restaurant menus back in the US.    Now if we were trying many of these exotic items in cities such as Hong Kong, NYC, Singapore, or London we would have second thoughts because I am sure we would be charged an exorbitant fee for the same entrees that we can try here for about $3-7 USD.    If we don’t like it we are only out the cost of a big mac, but had an experience to remember (or want to forget).

 

We quite often accidentally stumble on a favorite dish by accident such as Kho Quet which was translated as fish sauce on a menu.  We pointed to that item assuming it would be the standard fish sauce we use all the time.  For those of you not familiar with fish sauce it is a favorite condiment made of fermented fish and sea salt and is used all over Asia.   It's used both when cooking or simply as a dip for food and vegetables, and can be found at almost every grocery store in the US.   When the Kho Quet was brought to our table sizzling in a crock pot we discovered it is fish sauce on a whole other level.   It is a traditional Vietnamese peasant sauce that has recently found resurgence in some of the more upscale restaurants in Vietnam.  Made with caramelized bacon or pork belly along with garlic and reduced fish sauce it is a flavorful sticky sauce that is commonly served with steamed vegetables but is wonderful on almost everything. 

 

Cha Chim or Butterfish has become another favorite of ours simply sprinkled with chili salt and grilled over charcoal.   You peel back the skin to a firm white flesh that is so rich you would swear the entire fish had been poached in butter.  Just a squeeze of lime and a dash of flavored salt is all that is needed for this simple but decadent meal.  We demolish the fish bite by bite with our chop sticks, except for a few scraps saved for the restaurant kitten that weaves in and out of our feet..

      

 

One of my personal favorites is Banh Khot, which is a rice pancakes that originated here in Vung Tau but is now served all over southern Vietnam.  Banh Khot is considered "street food" but it is a little more involved so it's not served from the street carts but open air stalls where it's the only thing on the menu.    The crispy small rice pancakes are cooked in a round pan over a fire and traditionally topped with pork or shrimp.  You are served a dish of the sizzling hot cakes with fish sauce, chili paste, garlic and plate full of sweet and bitter greens.  Traditionally the  rice cake is wrapped in the lettuce and basil and  dipped into fish sauce which was flavored with chili and garlic; but I noticed everyone had their own technique.   It's an everyday meal the locals take for granted but it's a spicy, crunchy, hot, fresh, taste explosion in your mouth.  

       

 

Foods we have tried:

• Sautéed Morning Glories (vine not flowers)
• Horse Cartilage
• Pigeon
• Whelk (giant sea snail)
• Bullfrog
• Fresh water goby (fried whole with tiny barracudaesq teeth)
• Baramundi

  

Just a few possible food options to try next:

• Field mice embalmed with garlic
• Soft Shelled Turtle
• Birds Nest
• Sea Snake
• Eels
• Sea Cucumber
• Chicken Feet Gruel
• Sturgeon

 

Food we need several cocktails in us before trying:

• Goat Penis
• Chicken Testicles
• Slime Fish

 

Dô (Cheers in Vietnamese) and here is to Good Travel where ever you go!






Greg and the fried Goby