We have some very fond memories from our trip to Vietnam a few years ago. It was filled with wonderful friendly people, vibrant cities and breathtaking rural landscapes and great food.
Mind you, the trip was almost derailed when we had all our electrical items stolen from a budget hotel room in Chau Doc, on the border with Vietnam. We’d arrived early in the evening after a very long road trip from the Mekong Delta and having checked in, locked our stuff – securely, or so we thought! – in our room so that we could pop out and grab some water and orient ourselves before it got too late. Unfortunately, there was a sneaky low life waiting and watching for someone to leave a room unattended and when we returned less than an hour later, it was to a door with a broken lock, devoid of our cameras and other valuables. Apparently, the thief had used fake ID to check into the hotel earlier that day and had therefore passed through reception undetected with all our gear.
Although the police turned up and went through the motions, the scene played out like a bad episode of CSI Crime Scene Investigation and we had little hope of anyone being apprehended or of ever seeing our things again. The really gutting aspect of it all was that most of our photos and videos from the trip to that point were stolen along with the hardware, leaving us with just a few photos that were on a separate SD card that was left behind. It was a blow because everyone we’d met in Vietnam wanted their photo taking and I never did get to see the photos I’d captured.
For about two hours, we almost caved in and considered cutting short our trip and flying home, we were so despondent about the loss. Then, we pulled ourselves together and took stock – neither of us was ill or injured, we had all our money, phones and passports (thankfully with us at the time) and clothes. There was no way was a low life going to ruin the whole thing for us. So, to put the scene of the crime firmly behind us, we promptly left our budget hotel and booked ourselves into one of the swankiest hotels we could find in Chau Doc, which turned out to be the Victoria Chau Doc Hotel. It was a blissful haven and was just what we needed to revive ourselves and get the trip back on track.
Prior to the stop at Chau Doc, we’d spent a blissful few days in the Mekong Delta. The ironic thing was that there, we’d stayed in a tiny place and our room was a thatched cottage on stilts overlooking the Mekong River – no locks, no panes in the windows and absolutely no need for them either. Whilst there, we’d cycled around local villages and met some of the locals and enjoyed some of the most fabulous home style cooking based on fresh vegetables and herbs paired up with rice or rice noodles and super fresh fish. We loved these flavours of Vietnam and one of the things I cooked up on our return home was a rice noodle salad, inspired by some of the dishes we’d eaten in the Mekong Delta.
Rice noodles are the perfect low FODMAP base for hot and cold dishes and they make a great Vietnamese inspired salad with fresh herbs, carrots, and mango. Mango has been tested by Monash and the safe green serving is 40g which is just enough to add a fruity flavour to the salad. If you tolerate fructose though, you can always add more if you want to.
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Loading...This refreshing and zesty salad is the perfect choice during warmer weather. Mango is high in fructose, so this recipe includes just a small amount to keep it low FODMAP, but if you are not intolerant to fructose, feel free to add more. Find it online at https://www.peskyveggie.com/rice-noodle-salad-with-prawns/
Ingredients
- 100g dried rice noodles
- 20 cooked king prawns
- 1 large carrot, peeled and cut into thin batons
- 80g firm mango, peeled, and cut into batons (unripe mango works well)
- 3 spring onions, green parts only, shredded
- 1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
- 10g fresh coriander, roughly chopped
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds
- For the dressing
- Juice of ½ - 1 lime
- 2 tsp reduced salt soy sauce
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 15g fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
Instructions
Cook noodles according to pack instructions, drain well, rinse in cold water and drain again.
In a bowl, toss together the cooked noodles, prawns, carrot, mango, spring onions and red chilli.
In a small screw topped jar, mix together the juice of half the lime, the soy sauce, rapeseed oil and ginger and shake well to mix. Taste and add further lime juice if required.
Add dressing to the salad and turn gently to coat everything.
Top with coriander and a good sprinkling of sesame seeds.
