RICE PAPER SCISSORS

After Saigon, Can Tho was our next stop because 1) it’s the heart of the Mekong Delta, with one of the largest floating markets and 2) it’s my father’s hometown. Since it’s much less crowded than Saigon, you can cross the street without dying a little bit inside.

We stumbled across Di Dung’s Sup Cua stand walking from the main harbor to my cousin Tan’s house. The crab soup features egg drop, quail eggs and pig brains, topped with fresh chicaronnes and shrimp chips. We enjoyed the buttery brains and various textures so much we asked if we could film her making her dish the next morning.

After doing a 7am boat ride through the floating markets, we showed up at her house and talked about selling street food while picking herbs and shelling hundreds of quail eggs on her living room floor. We met her daughter, who was in charge of frying up the chicaronnes, and her son-in-law, who prepped the pig skin. Her husband peer pressured us to join him for some Heinkens, but we had some street food to make!

Once prep was done, she made us a vegetarian lunch with fried lemongrass tofu, greens, and pickles. It’s an amazing thing — going from a street food customer to feeling like someone’s opened up their home and craft to you. My cousin Tan (who became our translator and improvised cameraman) said it was his favorite experience during our stay. We couldn’t agree more.