Don't drink the Kool-aid

All of my family members and long-time friends know by now that I absolutely adore pickles. The saltier, more sour, and spicier they are, the more delicious, and the more of them I'll want to eat in one sitting!

Of course, pickles are hard to come by in Vietnam - at least the good whole-sour ones straight from the jar in the deli are hard to find! - so I don't often get to satisfy this life-long craving of mine. However, one thing that hits the spot in the salty, sour, spicy department is nuoc cham, Vietnam's gift to pickle-pusses like myself.

Nuoc cham is, in my opinion, the perfect combination of flavors. Made from rice vinegar, fish sauce, lime juice, sugar-water, garlic, and chili, it might as well be considered "Vietnamese pickle juice."

Luckily for me, it is served alongside of my favorite Vietnamese dish, banh muot (the topic of many previous blog posts) as a dipping sauce, and even more luckily for me, it seems to be totally socially acceptable to drink the excess at the end of the meal. My friend Melissa, a fellow Fulbrighter and nuoc cham-lover like myself, and I have discussed how this practice would go over in the States. If you were served a flavorful savory dipping sauce alongside of your meal (salad dressing, au jus, or aioli, for example), you would be a total disgrace to yourself and to your dining companion if you were to lift the little bowl to your lips and sip from it at the end of your meal.

Here in Ha Tinh, everyone seems to do it after they finish eating, which is just dandy for me, because it really does taste like drinking pickle juice straight out of a jar!

I've made it a goal to eat banh muot every morning this week leading up to my departure so I can saturate my taste buds (and arteries) in anticipation of absolute withdrawal from my favorite breakfast food. I know they say not to drink the Kool-aid, but here in Vietnam, no one has said anything about not drinking the nuoc cham, so I have a lot of savory, pickley goodness in my immediate future!