My first home cooked meal

This is the treat that I'm enjoying as I type. In fact, it's my second one! I bought a 45c plastic bowel and a one piece table setting. Not your ideal equipment for PBJ, but it doesn't get much more American than that! My household goods shipment is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. It'll be nice to be one with my motorcycle again.

My real first home cooked meal was last night at Do's party. We started eating at about 9:30 and didn't stop for 2 hours. He had about 12 guests but cooked for 30. All I have to say is that Pho better start worrying if Do comes to town! Soon as we finished a plate they brought out another heaping one - I think the king crab legs was the only single item that we finished. We had those clear plastic looking rice paper rolls that Jan makes. In the center was all the usual Vietnamese veggies including cilantro and those peppers that look hot but taste like green peppers. Do gave me a little red one that burned my poor foreign mouth. The mussels were seasoned similarly to the ones that Chris and I had at the Italian restaurant in Chicago. The rib eye was marinated like the sweet Korean BBQ that we're used to. His pork had a very tasty flavor. Everything was spectacular, although I went light on the pork since I was reminded of a different recent pork episode. I was the only one who didn't speak Vietnamese, and Do was really the only other one that spoke fluent English. It didn't matter, though. We all had a great time!




After dinner they brought out mango slices and cake. It was recently Dos birthday and one of the girls. After forcing that down, they brought bananas and grapes. Ughh...too much.

We then sat down to play cards. They had a blackjack variant that was pretty entertaining. At about 2:30 I could hardly keep my eyes open. I was down about $15, which is pretty sad on $1 games, but whatever. Do said that they would probably go until about 5. It would be his friends responsibility to whip up another meal of similar magnitude from his refrigerators. I was too tired to try to call his bluff. He explained that they stay up late because the guys had just got off work and that they "only" get together once a week. They rotate between about 5 households and eat on a similar magnitude every time, although the "style of food" differs.