As customary on Easter Monday we are invited to lunch with our Vietnamese relatives. The meal takes place at ‘the officina’ or the factory where the hosts live and work. There’s plenty of space although it’s a bit different to have a feast among screws and sheet iron, metal shaving and machinery. Odder still when at two minutes to two the siren for change of shift goes off leaving you feeling that we all should get up and swap places like a turn at musical chairs.
Anyway, after being asked in Vietnamese and broken Italian to dish out the pickles and help lay the table (all actions that must be carried out according to a particular ritual on pain of death apparently) and performing these actions after a while of toying with the words and trying to figure out what wanted going where we all sat down to eat the grilled meat in sandwiches called Banh Mi.
The home made pickles (very smelly by the way) that go in these sandwiches:
And my all-time favourite spring rolls:
And another crepe/dumpling concoction filled with prawn and dressed with some spring onion and lemon flavoured olive oil:
The puddings were extraordinary as usual. Two fruit salads with ice jelly (the black one is apparently made from the stem of a plant that is very good for you) and one that I would find practically impossible to describe! Extra linking to anyone that manages to tell me the full list of ingredients!
We had taken Ezzie with us so he could have a run in the garden while we ate. Unfortunately, egged on by the host’s fluffy mongrel (one of those dead vicious butter-wouldn’t-melt sort of fluff balls), he destroyed said dog’s outdoor bed with vigorous shaking and chewing. Mother in law insists it can be fixed, but aunty says we owe her 54 euro so all in all this was an eventful end to the Easter hols.
worldnosh 