For starters VND means Vietnamese Dong and it is the currency in Vietnam. For currency conversion 25,000 VND is roughly $1 and it seems to stay around that level for some reason.
250K VND is is about $10 and while that might seem perfectly normal in the west, it is actually quite pricey here. I rarely spend this much on something to eat and when I do, I expect it to be very good, very huge, or both.
The other day a friend recommended a Sardinian restaurant that was on one of the only quiet streets we have here and I hadn't had Italian in a while and as far as I know I have never had food from Sardinia, so I figured I would try it out.
I suppose I am being a bit deceptive when I say 250k was the price of the dish but this is because I added a starter to it as well since I was dining out with a friend. The main is above and I chose the Malloreddus campidanese which are meaningless words to me but I like ragu and I like sausage. What can go wrong?
We split this thing as well but it was so terrible that I didn't even bother to take a picture of it. Imagine if you will a deconstructed ham sandwich with mayo. That was basically what it was. I'm afraid that I still don't know what veal tastes like but I have to presume that it is not meant to taste like 7-11 ham, and that is what this tasted like. It was simply trash and it didn't give me a lot of hope for the main, which arrived later.
I think maybe I need to get a new phone because there is no good reason why this picture would be blurry. It doesn't really matter because this specialized Sardinian specialty was so tasteless that I had to ask for salt and pepper. I have heard that this is insulting to the chef but IMO the chef at this place needs to be insulted. I've had cans of Chef Boy Ardee that had more flavor than this. I'm a relatively big guy but I didn't finish it. It wasn't because I was full, it was because it was straight up tasteless. I felt like I was eating regular noodles with a splash of sauce on it. I don't "kick up a fuss" at places so I endured it, had a glass of wine (which was nicely priced! good work crap Italian restaurant!) paid my bill and then me and the lady I was with went to an Irish pub and had way too many beers for a Sunday evening.
The next day it came time to eat and I tried out an unknown Vietnamese rice shop for delivery and the grilled pork with rice and vegetables was 40k, it got up to 50k after the delivery fee.
Again, I had no idea what to expect but herein lies the point I am trying to make here.
This very basic looking dish just smelled like it was full of flavor and this was accentuated by the soup and the sauce that came along with it. I just poured them all together and made a sort of soup/rice/pork thing in the non-biodegradable-box-that-i-am-not-thrilled-people-still-use.
and it was absolutely fantastic. I needed no salt, it lacked not for flavor, and I was actually full after I ate it all... for 1/5 the price of the meal I had the night before.
I suppose it should be rather obvious that the foreign food in Vietnam or really in most places in the world is going to be lacking but from what I gathered from being in that place that I am not going to name and shame, is that even if they did have access to better ingredients that they wouldn't be able to throw together a good meal. They are probably throwaway chefs from Italy that couldn't make it in their own country and that is why they are doing it here now. That might be a little mean, but honestly, it was some of the worst food I have had in a long time. It is extremely rare for me to leave food behind but I actually ate more of the Italian than I actually wanted.
The rice/pork thing was fantastic and I ended up saving it on my app so that I can easily order it again in the future and the kicker here is that it costs $2.
Sometimes I forget how fortunate I am to live in a place like I do. The local food is outstanding and I suppose the amount of competition keeps these little rice shops very honest because just like the Italian restaurant would be in Italy, they must be better than the others or they will go out of business.
If you do find yourself in Vietnam or really anywhere in South East Asia I highly suggest you get out of your comfort zone and try a bunch of the local dishes even if you don't know what they are.
To be fair to the Italian restaurant, none of the other Italian restaurants that I have been to have been particularly good either.
