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‘Omnivore’s Dilemma’ does’t begin to describe it…

by · March 4th, 2008
Personal Story, Vegetarian

Dog. Cat. Porcupine. Deer.

The ‘Lonely Planet’ Guidebook describes the Vietnamese people as “fiercly omnivorous,” and I couldn’t think of a more apt description. We are not uploading photos so I can’t illustrate this post properly but today we took numerous photos of a skinned pig’s head, pig’s feet, live goats tied to a back of a motorbike, same with live chickens in a mesh cage, pigs tied in tortuous ways, the list goes on.

Greetings from Vietnam, the most unkosher place on the planet (kosher-keepers, never, ever come here, unless you plan on packing a month’s supply of canned tuna). My recent thoughts of beginning to eat meat again all flew out the window today, and even my husband, who pretty much eats everything, was beginning to have second thoughts today.

We are traveling in Vietnam for a month. We only got here three days ago, and already we have been seduced by the food; the freshness of it, the sight of it in the market, the overabundance of vegetables so fresh, you can tell they were just picked before market. I loved seeing one vendor thread some kind of cord through the core of a cabbage; one man walked away carrying three in one hand, dangling by said cord. But then there are the dead animals. So many cuts of meat you can’t recognize. And a bowl of blood. Yes, seriously.

Yesterday we passed a slew of restaurants, that had dead carcasses hanging from hooks, one after the other. Each restaurant had its own dead animals, usually a chicken, deer, duck, etc. What can I say but ‘ewwwwww.’

I thought I might be tempted to eat meat here, but so far, no go. The Vietnamese don’t understand what vegetarian means. Today our guide told me a banana leaf had sticky rice and green beans wrapped inside it, so I bought one. But when I started eating it, he acknowledged there was also a bit of pork. “Just a little, no big deal,” he said, or something like it. I ate around it, and realized when one comes to a country like this, this is what you must deal with. I didn’t care that it was unkosher, I cared it was meat at all. And that it very well could have been the meat I had seen that morning.

Perhaps the weirdest thing was when our guide bought a live chicken. He carried it by its feet, tied up tightly, and walked back to the van. He then got a plastic bag to put it in, cutting out a small whole for the head. We spent another six hours at least about and around, and I knew that chicken was in the back of the van the entire day. Several times, my husband and I wondered how the chicken was doing, whether it knew it would die at the end of the day.

I guess the point of this post is — (besides just rambling all of these new impressions that come along with travel to amazing places) is this: there is something admirable in how the Vietnamese see their food in all of its states, and eat it anyway. The animals are treated well when they’re alive, but once their fate is sealed, that’s it. They get carted away while still alive in a bag, or on the back of a motorbike.

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6 Responses to “‘Omnivore’s Dilemma’ does’t begin to describe it…”

  1. Leah Koenig Says:
    March 4th, 2008 at 5:04 pm

    Wow Alix, thanks for describing the sites you’re seeing – can’t wait to see the photos you upload after your trip! Perhaps the safest bet for your month in Vietnam would be to eat a raw diet – you can’t sneak pork into fresh fruits and vegetables! Have an amazing time :)

  2. Jamie Says:
    March 5th, 2008 at 12:54 am

    Who cares if it’s unkosher, it’s unethical. See this video: http://meat.org

  3. Harry Says:
    March 5th, 2008 at 8:43 am

    I ate plenty of meat while visiting Vietnam a couple of years ago (though we avoided poultry due to the avian flu scare at the time). It was far fresher than any meat I eat here in Israel. The Vietnamese go to the market several times a day for shopping, vegetables are sold the same day they are picked and chickens the same day they are plucked.

    Vietnam has plenty of fresh fish, so if you want to avoid meat that is an option.

    Most tourists are afraid to eat at the street vendors. I ate nearly every meal sitting on a little plastic stool (and spent about 50 cents on each one) and didn’t get sick once.

    And they don’t eat dog that much. It is eaten traditionally at the end of the lunar month and in the north. Most Vietnamese prefer dogs as pets, not as food. And even if a restaurant is serving it, it is usually the specialty of the house, you probably won’t find it on a menu anywhere. Helps to learn how to say it in Vietnamese just in case.

    I have never heard of any modern Vietnamese eating cat. In fact, I think it might be illegal these days.

    Enjoy the trip! Our month in Vietnam was the best month of our lives!

  4. barney Says:
    March 11th, 2008 at 5:55 pm

    contrary to what you believe, vegetarian way is quite popular among vietnamese, especially buddhists. you just didn’t use the right terms to make them understand. if you tell them that you “an chay”. they will gladly magically make you veggie dishes in seconds.

  5. Kerr Says:
    March 12th, 2008 at 12:52 pm

    Thanks, barney! That’s really helpful. Is there anywhere we can find out the pronunciation of “an chay”? Tonal languages are very hard for English speakers. So far, this is the best help I can find: http://wikitravel.org/en/Vietnamese_phrasebook

  6. Josh Says:
    March 17th, 2008 at 1:34 pm

    Dear Alix,

    I’m sorry I am only now seeing your Vietnam posts but hope this comment will be helpful. All Buddhist Vietnamese are familiar with the concept of eating vegetarian in the context of monks, nuns and temples. (Actually, temple food is vegan, not vegetarian, as eggs and dairy products are also proscribed.) But at the same time, contrary to what Barney has written, very few Buddhist Vietnamese eat that way at home, so divorced from the temple context, it’s not surprising that people don’t know what to make of you. If you can convey that you want to eat “temple food”, that will be understood immediately. Barney is correct that if you say you want to “an chay”, you also will be understand immediately. I suggest that you copy out the following sentence and SHOW it to people from whom you are buying or receiving food:

    Thua ban, toi xin ban giup toi nhan duoc do an chay thoi vi toi la nguoi an chay truong. Toi xin ban thong cam. Cam on ban nhieu.

    Even without diacritical marks, any Vietnamese person, even Catholics who have no vegetarian tradition, will understand it. It means (in friendly but respectful language for which the speaker and the person spoken to can be of either gender): “I would be very grateful if you would help me obtain vegetarian food, as I eat vegetarian food exclusively. Thank you very much for your understanding.”

    I want to add that I was very disappointed to read in your previous posts of your decision to resume meat-eating on an occasional basis. While you may have found sufficient self-justification in your thought process, from my perspective you utterly failed to articulate any reason for doing so that is valid on an ethical basis, and what you wrote amounted to pretty transparent rationalization. I hope your Vietnam experience prompts you to reconsider. I have travelled in Vietnam and can identify with your reaction to the animal abuse that occurs there on a routine basis, but I also know that there is no such thing as commercially available “humane meat” anywhere. The temptation to self-deception and rationalization is very strong in all of us (and I include myself in that).

    By the way, Harry is correct that cats are eaten only very rarely, but unfortunately is wrong when he says that dog is eaten infrequently by Vietnamese. That’s certainly true in the US; in Vietnam, though, dogs are actually eaten frequently, but only by men when they get together to drink alcohol. Dog meat is never eaten by women, and rarely served in establishments frequented by both sexes (prostitutes excepted). It is known by various euphemisms so it is easy to be unaware of how ubiquitous it is in drinking establishments and lots of hole-in-the-wall restaurants if you don’t know Vietnamese well or don’t visit such places.) Nobody says “thit cho” (“dog meat”), but if you look carefully in working class neighborhoods, you’ll see lots of places that feature “thit cay”, which is doesn’t mean anything precise but is a universally understood euphemism for dog meat.

    By the way, have you seen the documentary “The Journey of Vaan Nguyen”, about a Vietnamese family resettled in Israel and their conflicted Vietnamese-Israeli identity? (I can’t resist adding that I’m an American who speaks fluent Vietnamese and Hebrew–I lived in Israel for three years and went to graduate school there–and pride myself on being one of what I suspect is a very few native English speakers who can watch it without subtitles!) I hope you enjoy the rest of your stay in Vietnam and that you will have an opportunity to visit the Meking Delta region, where I think Vietnamese people are the most friendly of any region. I wish you well.

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