HANOI, VIETNAM – For most of the three-and-a-half weeks we’ve been in Hanoi it’s been around 70 degrees during the day (except for a brief cold spell, and a few days that were near 80) — a far cry from the chilly weather we experienced just before we left the Pacific Northwest.
Skipping winter from now on was one of my main desires when we were looking for a place to stay for a while. That and easy access to a market where we could buy fresh food.
So far we’re winning on both counts.
I’ve just spent the last half hour or so carving a delicious morning fruit salad out of a variety of fresh fruit purchased at our local wet market. I’ll get to the “carving” part in just a minute.
Let’s start with the raw materials.
First, there’s mango. Yum! Before we left Seattle, I kept telling Melanie how much I was looking forward to having fresh mango – maybe even every day! If you’ve ever had a fresh ripe mango, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Not one of those “picked green and shipped halfway across the world” mangoes from the grocery store, but a real, fresh, “picked ripe this morning” mango.
Next, papaya. Another favorite fruit that was just too expensive most of the time in Seattle – usually $1.99 PER POUND, or more – and rarely ripe. The one we bought yesterday at the wet market cost only about 65 cents and was perfectly ripe (and it was big enough for two or more fruit salads). (NOTE: The fruit salad shown above has no papaya. We ate that one before I could take a photo. The pictured salad is from a different day and includes dragon fruit instead of papaya).
And, of course, there are bananas. Back home, my morning routine included coffee and a banana – first thing. Even before I logged onto the Internet to check on my online “empire.” I see no reason to change that now that we’re in Vietnam. And, again, there are plenty of ripe bananas available all over the place.
Finally, we had a grapefruit, gifted to us by our landlady. Here’s where we get to the “carving” I mentioned earlier. Using a serrated knife, I first had to hack my way through the fruit’s leathery, shriveled skin. Then I struggled with the half-inch-thick pithy white inner skin before I could even see the fruit segments protected inside.
After all that battle – a good 15 minutes – I expected the fruit to be juicy and delicious. But it turned out to be just sort of “meh” – not very juicy and not very sweet, but still a nice consistency with that typical slightly bitter grapefruit flavor (and it was huge, about the size of a half-inflated soccer ball – I added only a few of the oversized segments to our fruit salad).
The only thing missing was a pineapple, but there wouldn’t have been enough room in the bowl for one more thing. The combined ingredients – one mango, half of a papaya, two small bananas and three grapefruit segments – filled the largest bowl we have in our apartment.
Looks like we’re gonna need a bigger bowl…