Ngày Rằm

Yesterday was Ngày Rằm, the 15th day of the lunar month, which also means it’s the night of the full moon. It’s a day when many Buddhist Vietnamese go the Pagoda, and also for some a day to abstain from eating meat. The Hindu Mariamman Temple, just near our house, is always very busy on Ngày Rằm. We went down there to take in the atmosphere. It was too much of a crush to enter, so we just stood around the front for a while, looking in the narrow door at the swarms of people in the foggy cloud of incense.  Outside a number of colourful stalls were set up selling coconuts, candles, incense, bracelets of jasmine flowers and other shiny votives. Across the road from the temple, a temporary food stall sold only vegetarian dishes for the evening, while the usually very popular Hu Tieu (pork noodle soup) restaurant was closed.

It is intriguing that this originally Hindu Temple now seems to be a harmonious meeting of the two religions. Although the deities inside are Hindu, apparently many Vietnamese come to worship and be blessed with its “miraculous powers.”

After this, we walked through the park to go to a restaurant specialising in a crab flavoured rice porridge, served with duck embryos – Chao Cua dong hoi vit lon. A Vietnamese friend introduced this dish to me recently. On that occasion, a pot arrived at the table and I had a look inside to see a lumpy soup with some withered brown blobs. It was weird to fish one of these little creatures out of my bowl with my chopsticks, and contemplate its consumption. Though upon eating, I was kind of underwhelmed. If I’m going to put tiny feathers, spindly bones and little beaks in my mouth, I think there needs to be an amazing flavour upside. But it didn’t really taste like much at all. Apparently they are nutrient rich, which would make sense. Maybe I should give these 'half hatched eggs' another try at one of the many street stalls where they serve them more simply, just boiled and still in the shell, to be eaten with various condiments. Maybe.

Anyway, I had enjoyed the Crab rice porridge (Chao Cua) part of this meal, a cleansing flavour with a pleasant green leafed vegetable that I’m yet to identify, so we ordered the dish but asked them to hold the baby ducks.