American men with Asian wives: what are your thoughts on living with her parents/ your in-laws?

[phil09 8]

I was surprised when I was told that the curious taste in Vietnamese sandwiches was from the shrimp paste (the "pate" they called it).

The "pâté" in Vnmese sandwiches is not shrimp paste. It's very similar to French "pâté" (as in "pâté de foie gras"); when I first came to the US and could not find pâté, I'd use liverwurst. It's nowhere as good as pâté, but it'd do in a pinch.

Shrimp paste is "mắm tôm" and even as a Vnmese, I cannot stand its smell, let alone eat it.

Edited September 2, 2011 by phil09

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

The "pâté" in Vnmese sandwiches is not shrimp paste. It's very similar to French "pâté" (as in "pâté de foie gras"); when I first came to the US and could not find pâté, I'd use liverwurst. It's nowhere as good as pâté, but it'd do in a pinch.

Shrimp paste is "mắm tôm" and even as a Vnmese, I cannot stand its smell, let alone eat it.

Ok, I was told it was shrimp paste, but the person who told me that isn't the best translator. I know it wasn't pate de foie gras. That ####### is made from goose liver, and it smells and tastes disgusting.

[Hot Vit Lon 7]

If you're about to eat something, please stop reading my post below...........................Fair warning.................

Imagine if some food (Mam Tom is one of them) smell that bad "outside" your digestive tracks, how much worse could them be "inside" there? And wouldn't you think that horrid smell would cause some of the "good" bacterias in there to take a good vacation in order to avoid those nasty food?

Instead of consuming good food with "good bacteria", ie. yogurt, people choose to do otherwise. Sad.

Lots of Vnese love eating salty, high saturated fat food (well seasoned with MSG) combined with lots of smoking.

End of smelly whining, without cheese.

Edit to add: I used to work at a "Pho" (noodle house) restaurant. I can tell you, eat whatever else, cereal, a banana, whatever than a bowl of Pho. You're doing your body a big favor! Once you've seen what's going on inside the kitchen, "throw up" is too nice of a word to describe afterwards. Some people think that hot soup (nuoc leo`) would kill any harmful organism in there. Big laugh!

Edited September 2, 2011 by Hot Vit Lon

[quann 26]

Edit to add: I used to work at a "Pho" (noodle house) restaurant. I can tell you, eat whatever else, cereal, a banana, whatever than a bowl of Pho. You're doing your body a big favor! Once you've seen what's going on inside the kitchen, "throw up" is too nice of a word to describe afterwards. Some people think that hot soup (nuoc leo`) would kill any harmful organism in there. Big laugh!

don't know about anywhere else...but my family owned a pho store and i had a bowl everytime i went out there to help out...and my mom would taste the soup stock everyday to make sure for consistency, so it's not like we were avoiding the food and the secret ingredient is dead rats.

i would agree that having a banana or apple is healthier than a bowl of pho.