Chicken Testicles Sautéed with Garlic???

Yes, the dish described above was on the menu last night. As were a few other types of testicles. And no, I didn’t order it, nor did anyone with whom I was dining. I think that I may be fine with staying away from organs and glands in general. Because really – even if I were up for it, I can’t see how chicken testicles could possibly be filling, unless you were to sacrifice the fertility of generations upon generations of chickens.

Dinner was fun – and my friend T promised to show me around Hanoi this weekend, so that will be great. As I’ve observed, as much as I like exploring things on my own, it’s good to have company, too. The regional director for Asia, DK, who’s based here and who I met while in Saigon, met up with us. It’s funny how small the world can seem when you’re in this line of work – everyone in a particular region seems to know everyone else. I, however, know virtually no one at this stage, although my knowledge of names is growing. I just can’t place them with faces or actions or anything else like that.

I had breakfast with R this morning, my French colleague, and we spoke entirely in French the whole time. He was quite patient with me, but I don’t think I sounded like a total idiot, so that was pleasant. I also managed not to fall into the mode of translating everything in my head before I said it, which is a total disaster. It was nice, though – and my French comprehension is still quite good, it’s just coming up with the actual words on my own that is the problem.

Okay – some observations about Hanoi. It is a very old city, and I mean that in a good way. I’m staying in the old French Quarter, which still has a lot of French colonial architecture, but throughout the city, there are small streets lined with massive trees. Even the larger boulevards have a row of old trees going down the middle and along the sides, forming a canopy of green that you just don’t get in Saigon. At one intersection, I think the trees actually completely obscured the traffic signals. Fortunately, it’s not a big intersection, and the difference between that intersection and those more clearly marked was negligible. Hanoi has a very small-town feel to it, as if it was built up piece-by-piece, which it probably was considering that it’s over 1,000 years old. That’s not a typo, it’s really that old. There are lakes dotted throughout the city, that have been here since the beginning, and around which some fascinating stories and legends have sprung up. Driving home, you can see people playing badminton on the wider sidewalks, or in small parks. There are also small alleys that disappear behind and between buildings, but that open up into small plazas in the back, hidden from passing view. It feels like there’s quite a labyrinth here to explore, but I’m not sure if I’ll have enough time. At the moment, I’d have to say that I like Hanoi better than Saigon, despite knowing Saigon better – it’s got more personality and character; it’s not trying to be what it thinks it should be, it just is what it is, which is charming and accessible.

One other thing that I’ve noticed is that there tend to be these mini shopping districts, where an entire street, or at least a cluster of blocks, will be lined with stores that all sell the same thing – if not exactly the same thing, then the same genre. There’s the toy street, with brilliantly colored plastic-coated boxes stuffing the storefronts (lots of which seem to be hot pink – faux Barbies, perhaps?), along with stuffed animals that look like the ones you can win at a carnival, and toy trucks piled up to the ceiling. Then there’s the sports street, jammed with places to buy tennis rackets, athletic shoes, sports-appropriate clothing, and a few stores that sell nothing but trophies. (Anyone want one? For a small fee, you can have proof that you’re a world-class badminton champion!) There’s the shoe street, the hat street, and all kinds of others. It’s interesting.

Before I left, I bought a mini-mouse (no, not Minnie Mouse), with a USB plug and retractable cord – very convenient for travel, and generally quite handy. Well, I wasn’t looking too closely at the package, I just saw the essentials – USB, retractable cord, optical mouse, etc. What I didn’t see until I got it home was that it’s a kaleidoscope mouse. It’s got some kind of fiber optic light show going on inside the body, and honestly, it’s the kind of thing that I’d be inclined to mock and then move away from. In fact, I often remark to myself on its lame-nitude, because I’m not one for cutesiness of any kind. And my mouse that flashes rainbow colors totally qualifies as cutesy. But it’s functional, and way less irritating than using the little touchpad, especially if I’m going to be doing some mapping, so I’m keeping it. Despite the ET-like red glow that it’s currently emitting.

Phone home, indeed.