Lately I’ve been drinking milk tea (trà sữa trân châu) almost daily because I have no strong appetite for anything else. I partly blame Khau, one of the Bich Duyen staff members, for my new reliance on the sugary sweet drink.
It began when I introduced her to the Thai tea from Con Voi Bac restaurant. She had never tasted Thai milk tea before and didn’t like it very much at all on her first try. She told me that trà sữa trân châu was much better and much cheaper than the Thai tea, so I let her buy me a cup.
I didn’t know whether I would end up with a bootleg version of the bubble tea that I came to love in Houston’s Chinatown or if I would get the real deal. I should have remembered the bubble tea that I purchased in Ha Noi three years back and how delicious it was. The tra sua tran chau that Khau bought for me was no exception
So now I’m stuck with a terrible appetite for actual food and an addiction to Vietnamese coffee, Thai tea, and tra sua tran chau. I don’t even feel like eating pizza or Thai food these days but they end up the default meals when I’m not in the mood for Vietnamese food.
Unfortunately, although I’ve been eating my fair share of really delicious home-cooked Vietnamese food lately, I have had to essentially force myself to eat it. When I was in Houston I used to eat Vietnamese food at least twice a week, and even though I am in Vietnam, I probably haven’t increased my intake of the cuisine by that much.
I really should ditch the pizza, Thai food, and western menus sooner than later. Although, a part of me wants to indulge myself as much as possible because next week I will be moving to Can Tho. There I won’t have the food temptations of the big city surrounding me, so I’ll have no choice but to eat Vietnamese food every day. But I promise that you’ll hear no complaints from me about that.
