Banana fritter

They come in lots of shapes, sizes, and seasonings, but banana fritters are a South-East Asian constant. Here, at the lovely market in Vinh Long, in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam.

Heart of palm

More homecooking in Saigon - fresh heart of palm, with water spinach and rice.

I was already a fan of canned heart of palm, but this was a whole other creature. Much firmer though not tough, a little fibrous, and with a rich, subtly sweet, slightly coconutty taste. Truly delicious.

Now I'm looking forward to trying South American style fresh heart of palm for comparison's sake...someday.

Ca phe sua

Delicious, strong Vietnamese coffee filtering down into the condensed milk below.

Inner Sanctum

The head temple of the Cao Dai sect in Vietnam. They favour eyes, lotuses, and revere Victor Hugo as one of the three great spirits bringing us messages from the world beyond. In Tay Ninh province, Vietnam.

Chinese parsley

Just one of 12 different herbs served to us in a heaping pile with our banh canh breakfast in Tay Ninh province, the western edge of Vietnam. Sitting on an unusual, delicious opaque rice paper wrapper.

Unexpected work opportunities

An impromptu position as simultaneous interpreter of silent-film title cards, from French to English. The subject, a decades-old 8mm film of Laurel and Hardy, projected onto the wall in the front room.

Hu tieu chay

One of our last homecooked meals in Saigon was this delicious vegetarian version of hu tieu, the pho of the South.

Vrrrrooom

Standing still on Saigon's busy streets, everything blurs past you, from yoke-bearing street vendors to the many many motorbikes.

Banh dap muc

Grilled squidlet dips a languid tentacle in the nuoc mam, contemplates making a break for it from its bed of crisp rice cracker and lettuce, at our favourite banh xeo place, tucked in a little alley of Hai Ba Trung, Quan 1, HCMC.

Last ca phe sua da of 2009

The last of many delicious iced coffees in Vietnam - and maybe the best, too. In our host's "secret" favourite cafe in Phu Nhuan district, HCMC.

Imperial cuisine

Lotus seed dessert soup in Hue, Vietnam.

Limestone looms

Karst rock formations loom out of the waters of Halong Bay, which we traversed in a sumptuous junk for an afternoon sail.

Fusion Mozaic

Detail of a mozaic depicting the four seasons, from a tomb of an emperor in Hue, Vietnam.

The whole effect was stunning, a large open room with this huge wall to wall mozaic. I especially loved that the rivers were made with bits of smashed blue-and-white Viet crockery.

Strange fruit (vu sua)

One of the many, many delights of exploring Vietnam with Vietnamese people was getting the Fruit Tour of Vietnam. I think I tried ten fruits that were totally new to me, besides luxuriating in some I'd tasted before but never as good as these (though I have to say I think I prefer Hawaiian pineapple.)

Pictured here, vu sua or milk apple (nearly every new fruit I tried in Vietnam was called something apple, except all the ones that grew on some kind of palm).

Everything is edible but the skin and the big black seeds, though the texture changes through the fruit, also depending on ripeness. Some parts were chewy and others soft and jellylike. I found it tasted like a combination of young coconut and lychee, and the opaque milky juice was also delicious.

p.s. Pardon the lack of Viet diacritics - I hate to omit them but it's too complicated to figure out how on a Thai keyboard.

I think I'm in love

This naughty little water buffalo is eating corn that was meant for humans! And eating them one whole ear at a mouthful, at that.

But how could you be mad at him when he is so cute and happy? And so calm that I could come right next to him without him stirring at all.

Banh mi

The bread in Vietnam is absolutely delicious. French colonialism brought the baguette to the region, and the locals improved upon it to make it their own, adding some rice flour to the wheat, adjusting the recipe to the local climate.

We ate banh mi for breakfast on many of our Saigon mornings, often with op la! (exclamation mark all mine), a name that makes me happy just to hear it. It means fried egg, and is another legacy from the French 'au plat'.

Our amazing host also taught us the secret Vietnamese way to toast banh mi, when it needs a bit of a lift or just when you want it to be extra crisp. Most Viet homes don't have ovens, since grilling and frying are much more pleasant and practical in the heat and humidity. And even if you had a toaster, you can't really fit a baguette into one, especially the fat round Viet variety.

So instead you toast it on the stovetop - in a pot. Sounds crazy, but it made the most delicious crisp crust with a soft, warm inside, as if it had just come out of the oven.

To make it, you put a large pot over medium-high heat, then put the baguette in on a plate, then put on a tight-fitting lid. You're basically steaming it without water. Apparently leaving it there for 10-15 minutes gives the best results, but even 5 minutes made it really tasty. We are anxious to get home and experiment to see what this method does to other kinds of bread!

Lunch in a leaf

Heat, humidity, strong sun. Prawns from the river, vegetables from the alluvial plain, noodles formed into delicate vermicelli from rice grown in paddies. Lunch in My Tho.

Water Hyacinth

Water hyacinth is just one more of the many edible plants that grow rampant across SEA. We were told that no one bothers to cultivate it, since you can just go pick it for free whenever you want.

We sampled a blossom culled from one of the Nine Dragons (Cuu Long) of the Mekong Delta - a mild taste, but pleasant enough, and the real thing much more beautiful than the photo.

More from the floating market

A customer at Cai Rang heads home, where she'll sell the produce she's picked up wholesale.

The fertile Mekong Delta region is famous all over Vietnam for its richness, for its three annual crops of rice, and for its fruit, the best we tasted.

Floating markets

Photo: A market vendor pulls up to our boat to sell us banana sweets at the Cai Rang market, Can Tho, Vietnam.

Ever since I first read about them I've dreamed of the floating markets of South-East Asia, so finally arriving at one of them was an epoch in the trip!

Indeed it was as bright, colourful, and crowded as we expected, though we arrived toward the end of the market. It is mostly for wholesale, and you can tell the product being sold by the fruit or vegetable tied to the masthead!

We didn't get to completely fulfill my dream, which was to eat noodle soup from a boat (our hosts were dubious about the hygiene), but we did get gorgeous sticky-rice packets wrapped in banana leaves and steamed. The filling was a sweet combination of bean and banana, the latter turning pink from the heat and the whole thing a lovely sticky treat. Ngon!