My Reunification Saturday

Today is a holiday here in Vietnam.  "Reunification Day" celebrates the day the South Vietnamese surrendered to the North, two years after the US withdrew from Saigon, reuniting the country for the first time since the mid 20th Century.  I understand that there will be fireworks this evening here in Hanoi, assuming one can see them through the haze.

Speaking of which, travelling to Ho Chi Minh City was like my own version of the Wizard of Oz.  I left gray and gloomy Hanoi (aka "Kansas") yesterday morning.  Landing in Saigon three hours later I felt like Dorothy stepping out into Munchkin Land for the first time!  Sun!  Blue Sky!  Color! 

Ironically, just when I had hoped to take in all the sun I could during my short stay in HCMC, I checked into my room downtown at the Bong Sen Hotel, flung open the curtains expecting to take in as much of the sunshine as I could, only to find this:

Seriously, could there be a more depressing hotel room view anywhere on the planet?!  I don't think even sunlight at high noon could find it's way to the bottom of the chasm outside my window.  Hopefully Air Mekong didn't pay a premium for my "Pipe and Bucket View" suite.

Anyway, I was greeted by a spectacular morning in Saigon as I headed back to the airport before flying back to Kans, er, Hanoi.  Fortunately, my friend Chi and I had made plans to have lunch together today, so that more than compensated for the ever-present haze which greeted me on arrival at Noi Bai Airport here.

Since "Bun Bo Nam Bo" appeared to be closing early for the holiday today, Chi and I stopped next door to "Mai Anh" for another Vietnamese eating adventure.  I've walked passed the Mai Anh many times enroute to other restaurants (and the Tree Man) down the street.  At streetside, there's always an employee or two grilling meat on a makeshift barbeque and it's always smelled pretty tempting, but the place looks pretty iffy. 

She's grilling pork between two flat screens on a Not-a-George Forman Grill

 A big crowd is always encouraging...even if they're all on foot high stools!

My exceptional hostest and star of my blog, Chi!

Chi reassured me that they served up great food, so we took our kiddie stools and sat down.

We sat there for a few minutes when I finally asked if someone was going to take our order and she said, "no, they only serve one thing."  So two orders of "Bun Cha", coming up!

"Bun Cha" is somewhat like pho in that it's essentially a broth of some kind with green papaya, along with rice noodles you add in as you go.  It contains two kinds of pork; one, something like a spiced pork ball, the other, tenderized pork belly strips.  You can also add mint, lettuce and bean sprouts.

And, yes, "Yum!"  Man, it's my new favorite Vietnamese dish.  It's really outstanding.  And Chi said there's an even better Bun Cha joint downtown.  So we'll be adding that to the list of eateries we'll be sampling over the next couple of months.