Despite my taxi drivers best efforts, I’d successfully found one of the many Vietnamese eateries workers unwind in following a hard days toil.
Secluded upstairs in a relativity nondescript shop-house on Dinh Tien Hoang Street in District 1, Green restaurant (in Vietnamese: Quan Xanh) the eatery can be easily missed if someone isn't directing you in.It looks like any other shop house in HCM, other than the aroma of freshly cooked delicacies wafting from its entrance, and a huge Tiger beer sign over the door.
Beds and chairs are festooned in back room throughout the ground floor, giving no indication of the bustle and gastronomic delights that wait on the second floor balcony.
I was set to meet an Australian from Singapore, one of our intrepid cricket team soundly thrashed, but not embarrassed, by the Saigon Australian Cricket Club (SACC) a couple of days prior.
He, Dr Shane Ryan, had been joined by three others, two men and a woman, all four veterinary surgeons (Vets). The three Vietnamese Vets Doctors’ Son, Van and Khoa, were all based in or around HCM.
As I arrived the Vets were already stuck into the food. A rich Oxtail strew was sat on the table. Spicy and pungent filled with great chucks of oxtail, coated with layers of gelatinous fat and set amongst a bed of chilli’s and green stringy, but tasty, vegetables.
The meat was tender, the fat chewy and the chilli hot… just the way I like it.
Next was a chicken curry. Mild and fragrant the curry sauce was infused with lemongrass and was thick with coconut milk. I helped myself to a couple of bowls, the guys laughing at my enthusiasm for the dish.
Finally what the vets described at fish spring rolls was served. These were pieces of fish with were to be dipped in a sweet chilli sauce. Moorish it was left to Shane and I to polish most of them off as by this time our party was starting to flag.
It was some time between the Oxtail and the curry that the conversation of frozen greyhound semen arose. Dr Khoa was looking to raise greyhound puppies in Vietnam. In the region, only China and Vietnam have greyhound race tracks so a project has been initiated to breed the offspring of Australian racers.
Dr Khoa was wrestling with how to improve the greyhound stock in Vietnam, which, he himself admitted was “rather poor.” Importing frozen semen appeared to be the answer, and that exactly what they are doing!
Horse racing is currently the favoured pastime for sports enthusiasts in Vietnam that want a punt at the track, despite the horses being little more that the size of Shetland ponies.
Dr Son is the chief vet at HCM zoo and botanical gardens, based just down the road at 2 Nguyen Binh Khiem, almost in the centre of the city.
The amiable doctor had learnt his very passable English at school. He was also said to be conversant in French, Russian and German, somewhat reflective of the influences that have colonised Vietnamese society in the last 100 years or so.
Throughout the night, especially as more drinks were consumed, he surprised us with various idioms in English, French and Russian.
“The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain,” he articulated at one point.
Drinking is central to these events. The clinking of glasses created an almost melodic tone around the restaurant, together with the Vietnamese toast of “Yo!”
This is done on a regular basis; in fact it seemed to speed up as the evening went on.
By the time we left many red faced and raucous Vietnamese still remained, all appearing to be set for the night. It was only Monday; many still had at least four days work ahead of them.
As Oscar Wilde famously once uttered, “work is the curse of the drinking classes.”
Cheers,
Blocka
