A little elaboration...

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If you read the kids’ postings about the two banquets we attended on Sunday, you might be a little curious! Let me back up a little bit. Sunday was “Second Tet” and so our friend, Ngan, was having a banquet with her family and they invited us to attend. The original plan was to go to a lakeside restaurant that served traditional Vietnamese food - and included crocodile on the menu! That plan didn’t work out because it was raining a little bit and this was an outside restaurant. Turns out that Plan B involved driving to a restaurant on the outskirts of Hanoi to sample another local delicacy: snake. The restaurant itself was quite beautiful - intricate wood carvings, large open-air spaces…and four giant cobras preserved in glass jars in the entry way! Lunch consisted of snake soup (kind of like chicken velvet soup from Chinese restaurants back home, with one new ingredient added!), stir fried vegetables with snake, snake meatballs, etc. I think you get the picture. Jessie was a little unnerved by it (understandably) so she stuck to bread and cucumbers for a while, until they brought out some pork and rice. Josh just dove right into the experience. Jed was a little hesitant at first - he kept looking under the table for the first half hour or so - but ultimately shrugged his shoulders and gave it a try. We all liked the stir fry quite a bit. Bill was the only one brave enough to try the fried snake skin they brought out at the end of the meal - and he only tried one piece. Most importantly, we had a wonderful time getting to know Ngan’s family. It was a special treat to get to meet her grandparents, who are very important to her. This was quite the authentic local experience, that’s for sure! Dinner was a little more our speed and held at a very, very nice restaurant called the Emperor Restaurant. This evening banquet was a special dinner for a half dozen families from Hanoi who have sent their kids to Bates, where Bill works. Ngan was the first student, and we met her when we were in Hanoi to adopt Jessie nine years ago. The dinner was wonderful - one of the best we have ever had - and featured about eight courses of appetizers and main dishes, each one absolutely delicious. There were fresh spring rolls and fried spring rolls, soups, beef dishes and crab dishes and chicken with lemongrass. Dessert was a sort of fruit soup with the longan berry. Really, truly one of the best meals I have ever had! The Bates families were very happy to meet us, and we enjoyed meeting them. Bill, of course, had Bates presents for everyone. The families, in turn, had presents for us including a beautiful painting of Old Hanoi and a special ao dai for Jessie (a traditional Vietnamese dress). It was quite a special day for all of us.

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