"I haven't trusted polls since I read that 62% of women had affairs during their lunch hour. I've never met a woman in my life who would give up lunch for sex"- Erma Bombeck

Lunch. Pork and Eggs with Broccoli

Because my parents’ villages are near the sea and they spent their childhood and adolescent years fishing to earn money in Vietnam, many meals with my family consist of a fish plate because my parents prefer that over any other protein. However, Vietnamese cuisine isn’t necessarily made of fish only. My mother’s best friend is from southern Vietnam which almost has an entirely different culture from central Vietnam. They have their own dialect, foods, and even social behaviors according to what my mother says. In southern Vietnam, the people rarely eat fish. Instead their cuisine consists mainly of meats especially pork.

I start with a small pot and boil a cup of water with a cup of sugar until it dissolves and becomes brown. I set that aside and placed a big pot over high heat and dump medium sized pieces of pork into the pot, stirring it occasionally, and let it cook. In a different pot I boil some eggs and once they are done, I let them rest. Once my pork starts to brown on all sides, I poured in my cooked sugar water into the pot and add more sugar, salt, and fish sauce (a stable Vietnamese ingredient) onto my meat and continue to let it cook until the pork is fully done. I then peeled my boiled eggs and place them gently into with the pork.

For my simple stir-fried vegetables,  first cut them into bite-size pieces and boil them for around 3 minutes so they can cook but not long enough for them to get mushy. I then strained them and heat up some extra virgin olive oil in a pan and add my vegetables in. I then add salt and lots of pepper before shutting off the heat.

Adding a bowl of jasmine white rice is optional.  Lunch is served……..