During our stay here in Vietnam over the past 10 days we have had the oppurtunity to visit many different types of markets. Markets that sell everything imaginable that you could find in the U.S. as well as many things you would have a hard time finding in the states. I have been in the food industry since I was 15--almost 20 years now. I have seen my fair share of different types of food preparation and sanitation but this is like nothing I have ever seen before. Since I am a meat cutter/sausage maker by trade I can best relate to the meat markets I have witnessed here. In the food markets of Vietnam you don't have the luxury of refrigeration like we have so the only way to maintain freshness is to not slaughter until the morning of, evening before or during the market day. Even still I can only imagine the bacteria levels in the meat sitting out all day under the blazing sun swarming with flies and other various meat attracting insects. It is truly amazing the things that are sold here that I have never seen before, such as squid, octopus, shrimp, snails, oysters, crabs of various species, all sold still alive to maintain somewhat reasonable freshness and minimal at best sanitation. We have seen and tried all these either raw or cooked seafood items. It would seem to me that seafood is the meat of choice in asian countries, well at least here in Vietnam for sure. It was amazing to see all of these items as well being sold completely dehydrated as well, dried shrimp or squid jerkey for example. As far as the other meats go you can find readily available and slaughtered the same day, duck, goose, beef, pork, poultry and dog. Yes I said it and tried 'dog.' It is a delicasy here in Vietnam and very tasty too. My biggest criticism and or concern would be the amount of time it takes for fresh meat to be cooked or cooled from kill because the heat in the 90's daily and constant near 100% humidity is guaranteed to be a recipe for sickness, right from the time the animal is slaughtered it is in the temperature danger zone. The danger zone is any meat that is between 40 and 140 degrees F, this is the range in temp when bacterial growth is most abundant and can multiply at a staggering rate in minimal time. Bacteria will multiply by the billions in just a matter of a hours from kill when in this type of environment.
I didn't know you were a meat cutter/sausage maker; that's cool! If you get a chance there is a huge live bird market west of Hanoi. There were smaller markets in town but this was huge.
ReplyDeleteI went to a slaughter house too. I was there at 2am and all the animals (birds, pigs, cattle) were being brought in, processed, and taken out (often tied to the motos) to be at the morning markets. It was a bit grim and I was off meat for a few days.
I never ate dog. They told me it was for men. The vets took me to a restaurant that specialized in mouse, but they were out of mouse that day and we had eel instead.
Oh wow Michele! We have not heard of mouse! We feel we have eaten nearly everything else. Much seafood! Goat twice, a very small amount of beef, pork to be sure and a little poultry. We've mainly had seafood and pork.
ReplyDeleteWe went to a pottery place but haven't gotten to post that yet--I recall you had brought some back. We aren't sure how we'll pack it yet.
We've seen the dog meat (they refer to it in English as meat dog...which sounds like hot dog) in the markets but not every market. I can easily (now) recognize which dogs are raised for meat and many families have one of these dogs that they are raising.
I think I am happy not have mouse! Although I've tried everything put in front of me. We had congealed blood in soup and that was the only thing that I haven't liked.
They eat VERY healthy here. Have enjoyed reading your book (thank you for lending it to us) and learning about the importance as well as high quotent of happiness here. Very, very interesting and with so little.
We leave today to go to HCM City in the south and will be there most of the rest of our trip I think. Thank you for your comments and for reading our blog! -Rachel & Jake