Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Spoils

One of the best parts of working at a Vietnamese company is that I get more free food than my expat friends. One of the best parts of working for two Vietnamese companies is that I get twice as much free food.

This morning a co-worker passed out young rice cakes for her sister’s marriage. I would have taken a picture of my cake to post but I’ve already eaten it.

Despite having received these wedding cakes many, many times, people always assume that this is my first encounter and feel obliged to explain, in English, that the little glutinous rice square I’m stuffing down my mouth is a Vietnamese wedding cake. These cakes are delicious. They're worth doing some matchmaking around the office to guarantee another little square of savory stickyness. Or I could just spend the 3000 VND (18.75 cents) to buy one.

I once made the mistake of saving one for Nathan to try. When my back was turned he was rooting through my pack for more. Only a heroic tackle on my part saved my secret stash. Nathan will just have to make his own Vietnamese friends.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nathan has no friends, no cakes? That is sad :-(

Juli said...

well, Nathan is going to have to go through his share of repeated explanations to get the yummies, right?

btw., there's a vietnamese restaurant right outside the sschool gates, and the only thing vietnamese they have is a "vietnamese style fried rice" ... whatever that's supposed to mean.

Anonymous said...

where's the pictures of your new kitties?? :)