EATING BOILED SNAILS WITH CLOSE FRIENDS

It's been raining a lot in the city for a few days, so every evening it gets chilly, cold like the last days of autumn in Hanoi in many years. Having encountered this epidemic threat again, I spent a whole week at home all day, and I became very crazy about my feet.

Post date: 19-12-2023

117 view(s)

when I received a phone call from my brother, who was the owner of a small restaurant on the side of the first district road, calling, "If you're at home with nothing to do, come out and I'll have some wine, this is a delicious dish", I quickly took the car out of the house. The streets are deserted, the sidewalks are still wet after the rain, it's cold like this, having a glass of wine is truly heart-warming.

"Here, it's the right song," the brother received from the waiter's tray a bowl of hot snails and a cup of ginger fish sauce, placed them all on the table and quickly poured wine. Through the steaming smoke of a bowl of boiled snails, the dark brown sidewalk glistening after the rain evoked many memories for me.

In the same place, ten years ago, when I was single, I stopped by every day to drink a glass of wine with him, until dawn. In this same place, my wife and I met through a friend, then took our children out to play with them a few years later.

In this same place, many friends sat together like a familiar meeting place. There was even a time when I was drunk and stood up to answer the phone. When the call ended, I saw a taxi passing by and waved, got in the car and went straight home to sleep, even though my close brother and the shop owner looked at each other, "Oh, this guy." Where is it going?".

"Where did you find such delicious snails? Just like the old snail shop I used to eat at Le Van Huu - Hanoi", I asked absentmindedly. "Yes, my younger brother sent me a bag this afternoon, and there's a whole bunch of them in the kitchen. I'll stir-fry the slices of your choice Southern style for you to eat," his brother still blandly said as usual.

OBCfood.com

I actually hate snacking. Moreover, I was extremely scared, so scared that the smell of food would stick to my hands. Yet, I really like this snail dish. But it's also strange. Men usually rarely eat snacks, but I've never seen any men say they hate boiled snails.

I still remember, there was a fat man named Tien who always took pictures of food and posted it on Facebook. He was also a fan of boiled snails. At least more than 4 times I saw him post a photo of himself next to a bowl of boiled snails in Hanoi. Every time I look at that photo of him, I crave it to death.

In fact, there is no more suitable snack than boiled snails. Patiently yes. Sweet and bitter yes. Salty, spicy, and rich in ginger, garlic, and chili sauce. There's a faint smell of lemon leaves again. It goes incredibly well with drinking alcohol.

Besides, men who drink often don't eat much, if not very little. They like to sip more. That's why the boiled snail dish is so suitable. Because it's bite-sized. Not so big that you have to puff out your cheeks and lose all your coolness. One snail, one sip of wine, is enough. Sometimes when I'm excited about drinking a lot, I make some hot snail water. Who said it's as bland as snail juice? But if you add a little ginger fish sauce to a bowl of snail juice, you won't know where it will go.

I remember the days in the North, when I was in school, then later working, every time after work and in the evening of winter days, the boiled snail shops in Hanoi were still places where my friends and I frequented. Drinking wine and eating snails is affordable.

In the midst of the cold, even freezing weather, the heat of the snail bowl is truly divine. Stand up, each person has more than enough for a few tens of thousands. That day has passed so quickly, more than twenty years ago. It's been 20 years since I came to the South. And surprisingly, it seems that since moving to the South, this is the first time I have eaten a bowl of boiled snails in the North's true style.

The new and old wandering thoughts kept coming back, especially right when the shop owner went into the kitchen to diligently cook food for the newly arrived group of guests. By the way, he stir-fried a batch of snails, Southern style like he said. When it comes to Southern snails, I suddenly realize that snails are truly magical snacks. .....OBCfood.com

In the South, there are more saltwater and brackish water snails and the preparation is much more diverse. The snail world of the South is truly interesting. Processing methods are also diverse. And people from the North who come here to visit always have to take each other to make a delicious snail meal.

There are even many Westerners who, when they first came to Vietnam, looked at the rice snails and wool snails and kept laughing and saying "What can they eat when they are so tiny?". But just a few bites and I was crushed. At that time, sometimes I just wanted to joke, "Yes, your country really gets what you want. But how does your country know about such exquisite things?"

Suddenly, it was almost 11 o'clock at night, the central area of Saigon was completely deserted. Ly Tu Trong street is usually bustling every day until midnight, but now because of the epidemic, it's new again after the rain, without a trace of people. Suddenly I remembered my friends, band members, who used to go to tea rooms, and at this hour they also came here to drink with me.

OBCfood.com

The tea room is closed now. How do they live? As I was idly remembering, I suddenly caught a glimpse of someone familiar running past the shop, fast but not in a hurry. Oh hey, is that Son? This guy is the same age, he keeps talking to me all the time. And I called out loudly to the whole street: "Son of mines, Son of mines".

The eyes of the customers at the next table turned to look at me, making me also start to feel embarrassed. Yes, it's so dead. The street is so quiet. The restaurant is so quiet. People talk so delicately, I "have a big mouth" (my father's way of commenting) and it's too ungainly.

I had to smile shyly as if to both cure my embarrassment and apologize. I secretly pulled out my phone and looked up the "mine" guy's number. Damn, in this day and age, can we really forget that we have a phone to call each other? Why do you have to open your mouth so suddenly?

No pick up. I think I must have misunderstood. The owner also finished in the kitchen and walked out to the table. "Who did you just call?", he asked. "The bass guitar player Son often used to sit here," I replied. "Oh, is that so? Will he come back? Tell him to go out and have some fun," his brother suggested. "I must have misunderstood. I called too loudly. I'm embarrassed."

The older brother laughed, "There's nothing to be ashamed of. In the past, we didn't call each other like that all the time. There was no phone to ring." His answer woke me up. Yes, it's been a long time since we called each other's names in the middle of the street. That call is joy.

OBCfood.com

That call is really dear. It's a bit noisy, but it's familiar, like a close relationship has returned. It's not me justifying myself. But ask yourself, how long has it been since we called out to our friends in joy in the middle of the street just because we had a small piece of so-called intelligence in our hands? .. obcFOOD

Surely many people have experienced a time when, morning or afternoon, friends came to the house to look for each other, standing outside the door and calling out a long, sharp "hey". Then from the window, or from the balcony, someone peeks out and smiles, "Wait for me" or a gate opens like opening a heart.

That sound of calling each other's names seems to have died. Instead, there was a text message: "I'm here. I'm downstairs" or better yet, a phone call: "Come down" was short and emotionless. We are used to being emotionless. Just because we are closer to the screen. That screen is colorful and vivid, but in fact it is something without any human emotions at all.

And even the old breakfast appointments have become less frequent. In the past, friends would stop by each morning without an appointment, call each other and take each other to find a bowl of vermicelli or pho early, then stop by a cafe to chat even though they had met each other a hundred days ago.

What now? Text the message "Where is it?" is to go to a familiar cafe and have an early meal there. Where else is the pleasure of taking each other out in the morning to introduce a new store with suitable tastes and have five or five early meals? It seems that modern people have become more mechanical. Do they save time? What's the point of killing time on keyboards and phone screens?

I stopped thinking when I heard the sound of a Honda car stopping in front of my desk. Oh, it turns out he's a real "mine". "Hehehehe, I heard you calling just now, but I had to run over to deliver things to Nguyen Du. I'll stop by now." Then pull up a chair, then raise a glass. My calling turned out to still be valid, still had the right address, and still had a friend to "return to".

And you, how long has it been since you called out in the middle of the night???

tại OBCfood muốn ăn lúc nào cũng có phục vụ 24/24 trên tất cả nền tảng các app thương mại điện tử hoặc mua trực tiếp trên website này

good OBCfood