Vietnamese Bread Rolls

The one thing I fell in love with all over again on this trip was the humble baguette and breads.

I like baguettes generally because they're crispy on the outside and so soft on the inside without any preservatives. It's the perfect sandwich bread.

The Vietnamese could really make fantastic baguettes in any manner, be it in the traditional bánh mì or western style sandwiches. There's something in the way they knead the dough and how they bake it that make the baguettes in almost any stall taste good.

I was most intrigued by this dish of roasted chicken (Vietnamese style) that came with a thick brown gravy. Of course I avoided eating the chicken lah. EEEPS. "Organic chicken! Kampong chicken! You can eat this!" the colleagues teased me, knowing my preference for free range chicken if I had to eat any. But the chicken was kinda strange. The meat was tinged with yellow and had a different stink from the ones I'm familiar with.

Anyway, it was the brown gravy and how we were supposed to eat it that was unusual. I couldn't quite make out what went into it. Very probably oyster sauce and pure chicken oil and stock. The counterparts spooned out a bowl of gravy for me. There was so much oil in it that if the bowl stood, a layer of oil rose to the top. A huge tray of sliced baguette came along with the chicken. We were supposed to dip the bread into the brown gravy and eat it. Super oily, but man, it was so good!

Instead of eating that US$6 bowl of lousy beef pho at the airport before our flight, I should have followed the colleagues and quaffed a yummy sandwich instead. The cackling sound made by tearing the bread apart was oooh-so-delicious!