Round 6

“Eww! What is that?” she asked.

She was looking at a bowl of steaming Mien Ga which had all my favorites in it, including shrimp meatballs, squid, and shrimp along with cellophane noodles.

“Its food” I responded “get over it.”

“You didn’t order me that did you?”

“No, I told them to bring you the tripe” and at that I had to chuckle at the look on her face.

As soon as I’d said that her lunch appeared which was a delicious looking Vietnamese version of a hero sandwich which consisted of grilled pork, onions and peppers.

“This is a sandwich” she bluntly stated.

“I thought that you might be more comfortable with a familiar format since this is your first visit to My Canh” I said. “If you want some dipping sauce just tell Trinh and she’ll be happy to get some for you.”

As I tore up some licorice basil leaves into my soup and pondered the choices of nuoc cham on the table that day she continued with her objections as to my choice of restaurant that day.

“Why would you even think of eating in a place like this?” she asked.

“Take one bite out that sandwich and I think you’ll understand” I responded.

She went on complaining “This place smells like…like.”

“It smells like fish sauce…nuoc mam in Vietnamese. It’s very potent but you get used to it and eventually come to like it. It’s an acquired taste.”

“So how do you know so much about Chinese food?” she asked.

“Vietnamese food…don’t call it Chinese because it’s completely different…please.”

“OK, OK, Vietnamese food, why are you so picky?”

“I’m not, the people that own this restaurant are, and the owner is standing over your shoulder right now” I said. “Trinh, meet Mary, Mary …Trinh. Sorry for bringing a heathen into paradise, and hey, thanks for the squid.”

“No problem Will, we know you like the eight legged protein” Trinh joked. “Someday we’ll get you to eat the pho tai sach.”

“Tripe? No way in hell” I responded and with that Trinh smacked me on the back of the head.

“You are the 80% gourmet Will” Trinh laughed, “and we’ll always be here for you to take you the rest of the way.”

“So he eats here a lot?” Mary asked Trinh?

“Will is a regular customer from long ago” Trinh replied, “he’s been with us from the beginning and my brother and I broke him of his addiction to fried chicken and hamburgers years ago.”

“Very funny” I replied as Trinh smacked me again.

Trinh went on to explain “when my family and I first moved here we opened a little café and he was one of our first…well…local customers, and my brother and I refined his taste in food to the point that he can’t live without us anymore.”

“It’s your mother that I can’t live without” I replied, “and her tenderloin and carrot stew. By the way where is she?” I asked.

“In the kitchen as always” Trinh replied, “you should go say hello and tell her how that marriage is going Will…she was worried about you for a while…she thought about hooking you up with my cousin once.”

Trinh laughed at the thought and told me that she’d watch over Mary so I ventured back to the kitchen to say hello to her mother, who was wielding a huge cleaver as she expertly cut up a pork shoulder for the grill.

“Danh tur! No one tells me that you here…you try this…you try this.”

She motioned to a plate that held a few narrow spring rolls with what looked like a new dipping sauce.

I dipped the spring roll into the sauce and bit off an end, and the most incredible shrimp taste filled my mouth followed by the most incredible burning sensation I had ever tasted.

“Shrimp mousse roll with chili” Trinh’s mother said.

My eyes were watering from the heat and Trinh’s mother gave me that “I got you” raised eyebrow look and spooned me a lychee to kill the heat while saying “I work on that for menu, what you think?”

Blinded by the heat I nodded my head and left the kitchen to finish lunch and my conversation with Mary.

When I returned Trinh took one look at me and said, “Oh no, she didn’t get you to eat those did she?”

I just nodded as Trinh returned to the kitchen to apparently have a good laugh with her mother about the idiot that would eat anything…well anything but tripe.

Mary had made progress on her sandwich and was impressed by the quality of the food. “This is good” she said’ and your friend is really nice. You brought me here for a reason, right?’

“I brought you here to see that you’ll have to adapt to the unfamiliar, and I

also wanted you to see real family…because this is the real deal. You see that kid playing over there? She’s Trinh’s daughter, and the people in the kitchen are Trinh’s parents and the reason that they’re happy is that they have family.”

“Mary, you are about to enter into the most challenging period of your life and I know something about it…because I’m a father and I entered into it on the best of terms and was still overwhelmed by it all. You are entering into this thing alone and you have just your mother for support.”

“So I hope that you see the support that family can give, and I hope that you can accept the fact that your life is going to be very different from now on. Eat the rest of your sandwich.”

“Is that really squid?” she asked.

“You want to try some?” I said.

“Yeah…I guess I could try.”