Mission complete: weasel poo!
Well after waxing lyrical about weasel poo coffee we tried some!
We were in Dalat, in the south-east inland mountain area of Nam, on a day trip to the countryside…
Food
Snails de la mer!
Snails!
I often find myself thinking of the humble garden snail and French people when I think of snails that you eat…
Down here in Mui Ne on the south-east coast of Vietnam they are quite the delicacy and are rather delicious!
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Bahn Cuon and Canh Chua Ca oh my!
So we’re in Hoi An… And about to leave which is a shame as it’s a fantastic place!
In case you were wondering not everything we eat here is for a challenge, we’ve had some amazingly normal tasty dishes since arriving.
2 in particular that were on the list were astoundingly great!
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List of interesting food in Vietnam
Blogging on the go…
Easy to do in Vietnam since free wi-fi is everywhere, but hard to do when you’re constantly moving from place to place trying to see and do everything…
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Street pho
Pho sure!
Mmm… Beefy broth, rice noodles, spices, herbs and tender beef…
Beef Pho (Pho Bo)
I’ve entered a pho-coma
Pho is a delicious… no INSANELY DELICIOUS soup, and can be prepared in many different ways. Most commonly in Melbourne it’s referred to as Pho Bo (Beef), Pho Ga (Chicken) or a vegetarian variety (I don’t bother with vego as the broth is made from beef anyway), and the essential make-up of the dish is generally the same.
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Videos: Weasel Poo Coffee
A couple of interesting videos on Weasel Poo Coffee… courtesy of JourneyWithJason via YouTube
Guide talks about “Weasel Poo” coffee
Though this one makes me sad… they are so cute and can’t have much quality of life… paying sh*tloads for a cup of coffee from a caged animal doesn’t sit too well with me…
Touring small “Weasel Poo” coffee operation
I’ll have to find a “Free range” version…
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Are you allergic?
Milk, egg, peanut, fish, shellfish, wheat, nuts from trees and soya…
Then there are dermatitus, eczema, psoriasis and hayfever… the list goes on!
I certainly don’t recall too many kids on the playground at school when I was little who couldn’t eat pretty much whatever they liked or touch anything they wanted, other than one poor kid who blew up like a blowfish when someone threw some peanuts at him.
Then again he may have been choking on the nut rather than having an anaphylactic fit… the details are vague…
It seems we’re becoming more and more allergic to things that once seemed part of the everyday.
I say we, because I’m including me in this sentence…
Once upon a time I could eat whatever the hell I wanted and put whatever skin creams full of perfumes and pathogens on my skin whenever I liked, until one day when I was about 24 I used some skin cleanser that turned my face into a bubbling lava pit of blisters (yes it was as sexy as it sounds) and I started to “react” to certain creams.
About a year later, I’d gotten on top of the skin issues by using non-fragranced and PH neutral products to wash, moisturise and beautify myself, then I discovered I’m lactose intolerant.
I’d always assumed being gassy and bloated by dairy products was a normal part of consuming them, apparently not.
I now come to a familiar cross-roads in my life prior to going to Vietnam, a malarial risk country.
The question is “to take the antimalarials?”
The chemical structure of DEET
I have been informed (by a travel specialist doc…. FANCY!) I should be ok if I cover myself in DEET laden insect repellant… aside from the fact that I’m pretty much allergic or “react” to most insect repellents, there are many reasons I don’t really want to take the antimalarials…
- They can make you sun-sensitive… CMON I’m already a pasty ranga, I don’t need to be ANY more sun sensitive
- They cause yeast infections… ew
- They negate the Pill…
- Nausea and vomiting
…and a whole bunch of other, albeit rare side effects that are pretty gross… I’m talking about Doxycycline by the way, one of the only antimalarials that the pesky mozzies aren’t resistant to yet, and the most commonly used of the bunch.
So tell me? Are there any good sensitive insect repellents out there that DO contain DEET?
Do I put up, shut up and take the malarials?
Gin and Tonics could be the answer! Tonic water contains Quinine – which has anti-malarial properties… so I could just get rip-snortingly drunk each day… the Quinine can fight off the malaria and the alcohol could fight off the stomach bugs (as discussed in “don’t trust a ham sandwich“)…
UPDATE! – Thanks Mum 🙂 Apparently you can get a safe for sensitive skin insect repellant containing “Picaridin” instead of DEET… huzzah! OFF is the only brand I can seem to find in Australia that has it.
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Weasel Poo Coffee???
Yep… you read that right…
Coffee… made out of poo…
Well technically that’s not completely true, it’s halfway there, but I’ll get to that…
My friend has recommended that when in Vietnam I try to look up this delicacy that comes in at a very hefty price (apparently about $50 a cup or up to $600 per pound for the beans). She managed to locate some of the ground beans, but never actually got to try the brew.
So now I have been charged with a mission to find some. According to what I’ve managed to research from internet sites and other blogs, the coffee is delicious and definitely worth trying!
Would you trust this weasel?
Here’s how the strange stuff comes about… The coffee is made out of coffee berries that have been digested by a weasel type creature called an “Asian Palm Civet” who poops out the indigestible coffee beans, which are scooped up, washed and given a light roast then ground into coffee like a normal bean.
“Kopi Luwak” (I prefer “Weasel Poo Coffee”) is apparently very unique in flavour, and whilst inside the civet/weasel, the bitterness is leached away by stomach enzymes which actually starts the bean to germinate in the digestive tract… mmm delicious?
Gross-out factor aside, and provided I can afford some since it’s the most expensive coffee in the world (it’s been around since the 1800’s and is very popular and sought after in many countries), I guess I’d better pop by Dak Lak province when in Nam and visit the weasel farm for a cuppa…
I wonder if it tastes nice with Soy Milk?
The poo... or coffee... 
More fun facts about Weasel Poo Coffee can be found at this handy site… Weasel Poo Coffee
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Eating Chicken Feet: A question of taste…
Yum Cha Lunch
It’s only 32 days till Vietnam…
…and my once eager palette and taste buds have hit a roadblock.
It happened last week when I was out to Yum Cha lunch in Bourke St with my mother… Salivating at the thought of an endless supply of dumplings and Chinese delights mum and I ordered eagerly from every cart that rolled past our table for 4, that even though there were only 2 of us we had somehow managed to fill with steam baskets and plates within the first 10 minutes. Prawn dumplings, shark-fin dumplings, Prawn and vegetable, chinese broccoli, steamed eggplant and prawn rolls, warm tofu custard, crab meat parcels and every single way you can think of to cook, bake or fry a prawn trundled past…
Then… came the chicken feet…
Now, chicken feet are on my list of things to try in Vietnam… and there they were, sitting in their bamboo basket all crispy and golden and part of the “All-you-can-eat” lunch deal right in front of my face… a million thoughts went through my head like “why not? you’re already here anyway!”, “ew, you can’t eat that!” and “can my mum stomach the sight of my gnawing on chook toes?” Finally I settled on a lame excuse that “I wanted to leave room for more dumplings” and politely declined…
Declined an opportunity to test my mettle, and if I’m honest I “chickened out” when put on the spot…
… so the question is, do I risk wigging out and possibly missing out in Vietnam? Or do I drag myself back to yum-cha, order a plate of fried chook feet and get stuck into them claws and all?
Chicken Feet
I also passed on the tripe… but who doesn’t?
Side note: After discussing chicken feet with a few friends who have been game enough to try them, apparently they are delicious… especially with plum sauce, and that if I can’t do the feet that the un-born eggs will be no-chance for me!
The Hungry Ginger 