Guess what I ate!

This past weekend was filled with a lot of fun with some of the members from the church. On Saturday I had the opportunity to go out with Thang and the bishop of my branch. We went down to the old quarter to eat dog meat. Now I know that a lot of foreigners are like "I will never eat dog meat!" In America dogs are sweet pets and not food. I understand that completely with having my own dog at home. But it was an experience I had to have to experience the culture in Vietnam! I feel like I really need to accept everything the culture has to offer while I’m here. We drove up to the restaurant and there in a case was a dog all grilled up. It was black and just sitting there. I couldn't make myself look at it, it looked very different from the chickens or pigs outside in the streets. I ate so many new foods today...very adventurous! I had dog cooked two ways steamed and grilled. The steamed looked just like chicken and tasted just okay. I really liked the grilled meat the best even though it was a little bit chewy. They taught me that you can eat it by rapping the meat in a leaf to make it taste better.

The Vietnamese eat the meat with the fat attached to the meat which is something that I'm not used to at all. Because it's so fatty they eat pieces of ginger, leaves, and this other type of vegetable to keep yourself from getting full. And you can eat more food!

They gave me one food that was pieces of dog meat, peanuts, and it was rapped like sushi in the stomach lining. I'm writing this and can't believe that I ate that - haha - but I did! It really didn't taste bad. The one thing about dog is that you eat this meat with a special sauce that has shrimp in it. It has a very strong smell to it and is purple. You can’t have this meat without having that sauce especially for dog meat.

I feel like eating dog meat is just like eating a chicken. People have chickens as pets yet we still eat them. I learned so much about the culture and the food that I wish I could remember it all. They both told me so much I just want to record and take as many photos as possible.

Later that night I went out again with a few young adults and the bishop family. He has the cutest little four year old and a wonderful wife! We walked around in the rain down to the night market in the old quarters. It was fun to learn from the people who live here about their insights and places they go. They showed me where people sell and eat many different snails...this will be this week’s adventure! I was shown what eel and little baby ducks that are just cooked are like; I have a picture below. We then ate ligament...seriously I don't know what came over me to try all these new foods! Honestly it was pretty good and is one of my favorites so far. Ligament is very chewy and is served with a type of jerky, noodle, and peanuts.