A Movie and some Frog

This past Thursday I got together with a bunch of my Vietnamese friends to go see the new movie "Mastermind". Apparently it is quite the big hit back in the states, but I had heard nothing about it and went along as it was something to do. Per usual, I was the only white person in the audience, and most certainly the only American. This made a big difference because (as some of you may already know) this movie is absolutely hysterical. I spent almost the entire 2 hours laughing out loud at all the jokes, which was a very nice dose of American humor. Due to this cultural comedy, a lot of the time I was the only one laughing. There were multiple Obama references, and other things that really only someone raised in the USA would get, which resulted in a lot of head turning and people wondering just what the heck was so funny. As annoying as I may have been to all the other audience members, I had a great time listening to the voices of some of my favorite comedians (Will Ferril, Tina Fey, and David Cross just to name a few...) and didn't care that I seemed slightly crazy. Just another day as an American in Viet Nam. :)

Afterwards, I got to experience some straight-up Vietnamese cuisine, which was a nice contrast to my previous experience at the movie theatre. We all got on our bikes and drove to a place that's specialty is frog. From there, we went on to enjoy grilled frog with chili, fried frog skin with lemongrass, and a frog hot pot accompanied with mushrooms and bamboo. I have a particular fondness for boiled bamboo, so that last bit was my favorite part of the meal. Frog is actually really tasty, and even the skin was (mostly) enjoyable. I'm wondering if it's possible to get bamboo for cooking back in the states... anybody know? I would love to make some traditional bamboo soup for everyone!

On a side note, I was thinking about some ridiculous encounter I had when Luke was here that totally slipped my mind. It was so interesting that I need to get it down in my blog before I forget- Luke, Son, Flip, and myself were sitting on this roof top cafe admiring the view of the lake when this older Vietnamese man next to us whips out a giant poster of a Vietnamese boy band and starts pointing at one of the musicians, smiling. We all had no idea what was going on until Son did a bit of translating for us. As it turns out, this group is considered the most famous "rock band" in Ha Noi, and the man sitting next to us was the father of the guitarist. This group, called "The Wall" in English, was putting together a reunion tour (apparently they hit it quite big in the 90's) and they had just printed out posters from a recent photo shoot. Naturally, the photo was a bit hokey (cowboy hats and tight pants...) but it was really pretty funny that we just came across this guy in a cafe. Son went on to explain that this music group is a big deal in Ha Noi, and that we were all very lucky to come in contact with someone who's son is "sooooo famous!" I tend to meet a lot of interesting people at cafes, ranging from old opera singers to people working for National Geographic. Well, now that I have got that down and I will no longer be forgetting it, I'm off to cook to some rice.