Food for Thought

It should come as no surprise to anyone that Darren and I like to eat.  I mean, our blog title and our blog address both reference food.  We've had numerous conversations with friends and fellow travelers about how we think it's only right that people eat their way through the countries they visit.  "Half the experience of a country is in its food".  We're not the only people who think this, but somehow I feel like we do WAY more eating than other people.  Especially in small towns like this.  

Mui Ne is one of those small beach town destinations.  One of those places that locals come to for a weekend getaway.  In places like this, there's not a lot to do.  We did a hike up the "Fairy Spring" and today we went sliding down the sand dunes; but otherwise, when we're not sitting by the pool soaking up sun or playing dominoes, we're planning on where to eat our next meal.  Breakfast is always the same once we find somewhere we like, but we sometimes plan 2-3 days worth of meals at a time.

Mui Ne has everything.  There seems to be a large Russian/Czech population so that's something different to choose from.  There's an excellent selection of "international"/western food and local Vietnemese food, and the best part of a beach town are the beach side fresh seafood barbecues... I'm drooling just thinking about it all.

Darren and I are particularly fond of Indian food, and you can seriously get that stuff (in varying degrees) anywhere.  We were on a slow boat for 2 days in Laos and when we stopped in a tiny river town called Pak Beng, there were Indian restaurants everywhere.  So of course, we had no problem finding a fantastic Indian restaurant here in Mui Ne.

I'm pretty sure that anyone watching us eat tonight would think we hadn't eaten in weeks.  The waitresses were actually watching us in utter amazement.  We've noticed over the last couple days that when food is placed in front of us, we destroy it.  We eat like a couple ravenous dogs, but when the food is as good as the food at Ganesh, we can't help but turn into animals.  I think Darren once timed us, and it took us 5 minutes to polish off several plates of food.  Tonight was probably a record.  Darren was even eating the left over sauce from our butter chicken by the spoon-fulls.  No naan, no rice, nothing.  Just spoon-fulls of creamy, buttery deliciousness.  If the waitress hadn't come to clear our plates I don't doubt Darren would've licked the whole platter clean.  We astonished even ourselves tonight.

(Not a word of a lie: I just realised I have a little butter chicken sauce stuck under one of my nails, and yes, I did wash my hands.)

So here I sit, with a wonderful little quote I heard on "Friends" stuck in my head:  "A moment on the lips, forever on the hips."  I guess it's a good thing Darren and I eat so fast that sometimes the food doesn't even touch our lips!  (Yes, we've put on some weight.)