I'm proud of the balance we struck with street food.

Our visit in 2008 was essentially organized around eating on the street, preferably sitting on the little red stool that we waxed poetically about at length. The best street vendors are specialists, usually serving one dish until they run out. Given the fact that Louise is mostly vegetarian and Elliot is a little pickier, I didn’t expect us to do too much street food eating, but I was pretty determined not to eat pizza, burgers and french fries for every meal, or to limit our eating entirely to super polished restaurants. I knew that eating Vietnamese food wasn’t going to be a huge issue from a palate perspective - we’ve been eating this flavor profile at home and at Me Noi’s house since they were born. But you never really know how kids will react until you’re in the moment. 

I’m super proud of them - they tried so many things in so many different kinds of places - from high-end, Michelin rated spots to shacks on the beach. Both kids learned how to ask for so many things, and I’m excited to keep tacking on new vocab. Of course, we occasionally would get pizza and burgers and french fries, which was great, even if the ketchup was the wrong shade of red. 

Eating bun cha ca, a local Da Nang speciality, recommended to us by our friend Hang in Hue. 

Shopping in the market with our cooking class teacher in Hoi An

Street food might be closer to the real source, but cooking everything yourself is even better!

And finally getting to a "bia hoi" spot - fresh keg beer and every kind of meat you can imagine.

An ode to rau muong xao - sauteed morning glory - one of the greatest veggies ever. We had it with every meal. 

It was neither red, nor a stool, but it was on the street and was a legit delicious bowl of pho.