Have I ever mentioned that I lived in Vietnam? Yeah, six months spent at the Viet Duc Industrial College in Sông Công, Thai Nguyen province back in 2004.
My time was spent teaching at the college and a bank up the road. I also spent a lot of time listening to my Irish flat mate crying. It was one of the most fantastic times of my life, there’s just something about hearing an Irishman quietly sobbing for his ‘mammy’ that really does it for me.
Other than providing high class education and drinking rice wine with the bank manager I also ate a lot of Vietnamese food.
As a result, I’m the actual number one food blogger in the midlands when it comes to quantity of fish sauce consumed – hopefully something which will finally be recognised at an award ceremony soon. I fucking love fish sauce.
With this in mind, the sign ‘fish sauce is not for everyone’ adorning the wall of Eat Vietnam in Stirchley made me feel like this was a safe space, so I immediately jumped on the table and loudly informed the staff and other diners that I had actually once lived in Vietnam, I then shouted my order towards the kitchen and sat back down.
“The seats here are slightly more comfortable than the little plastic stools you get at street-side food places in Vietnam!!” I declared to my long suffering wife.
“You’re a tosser,” she replied.”
“Cút đi, woman!”
Food
Duck breast and fennel salad with plum sauce. Lovely.
Steamed scallops with ginger and black bean dressing. OK – just because I prefer them fried with a bit of colour on them.
Aubergine with honey miso glaze. Excellent.
Crispy pork belly. Delicious.
Tamarind chicken wings. Insert another word for delicious here.
So, if you’re incapable of doing the arithmetic yourself – we thoroughly enjoyed it.
Why not do what we did on this particular Friday evening? Start at Attic Brewery for a couple of beers, Eat Vietnam for your food then head to Couch and drink everything on their menu – thank me later.
Cảm ơn.
Foodie Boys 