Last Week, Neni took me to the big city, Chur, to buy food at the Asian store. Thankfully I kept my expectations in check. It was the size of my living room in Huntington Beach and was mostly Thai food. I did find my favorite ramen noodles at Fr.0.95 each (it’s about $6 a box of 50 in OC), spring roll wrappers for Fr. 4. Looks like I might have to ask favors from some of my OC friends to send me care packages:) Like a good Vietnamese cook, I’ve used up almost half of my fish sauce in 7 weeks:) and oyster sauce as well.

Foods I miss:
1. fresh tofu still warm from the store. The kids and I love frying them and eating plain or stir fried.

2. Fresh crabs steamed and dipped in salt and lemon juice. I miss fresh seafood altogether especially my favorite protein-shrimp. Shrimp cocktail, shrimp soup, baked shrimp, fried shrimp, shrimp wonton, shrimp sausages (nem nuong), salt and pepper shrimp (bubba and I would have been great friends)…

3. Bún (vermicelli noodles) in all it’s form: salads, soup, Bún Riêu, bun Cha Ha Noi. I found Bun here but they taste different.

4. The variety of fresh herbs like cilantro, Thai basil, mint, and all the ones I don’t even know the names of. We did find bean sprouts and ginger. And lemon grass at the Asian store.

5. My parent’s Pho.I made pho once. It was ehhh good enough. Nothing like mama’s good cooking. I brought over some packaged seasoning from the states. The instructions reflect how Vietnamese people cook: the recipe serves 20 people. And you can’t break the spice package either.

Foods we’ve enjoyed here:
1. Grapes cut from the vine and washed by the morning rain. Lukas can’t have enough of grapes.
2. Garden fresh foods. When I need it, I just run to the garden to get broccoli, celery, chives, beans, salad, onions, cabbage, Brussel sprouts, basil. Yum yum. They are very flavorful. We even have blackberries and raspberries. The veggies in the US tastes water down while the ones here– you can taste what it’s supposed to taste like. Sometimes more bitter than I’d like it to be (cabbage), sometimes more fiber-ish (celery), and dirt-y (salad), but all good.
3. Fresh milk unpasteurized from the neighbors farm (ok, so this isn’t for me seeing as I’m lactose intolerant and a public health professional, but all the boys love it. Thomas grew up on it.)
4. Ice cream. The variety! Vienetta ice cream desserts, coup Denmark (vanilla ice cream with hot chocolate-the real chocolate), all kinds of ice cream on a stick.
5. Chocolate. Of course. There’s nothing like Swiss chocolate.