Home delivery dinner in Hanoi

Now I'm normally the type to photograph food, but I couldn't resist this.

Second to last night in Hanoi before I go home and I'm pretty beat. In no mood to go out yet again in search of dinner after a month on the road. My apartment/bachelor suite has a stack of home delivery menus, so I figure what the heck. Let's try it.

An Italian/Mexican sort of place looked good and I ordered the full rack of ribs thinking "full rack" is still a small dish here. I'm used to local sized portions of food, suited for people half my size. Wrong.

Thirty minutes later, after some minor language issues on the phone placing my order, a man arrives at my door with a cardboard delivery box more suited for packaging a small piano rather than dinner for one. I was stunned when I opened the box. $12 and I have dinner for four. Guess what's still in my fridge the morning after?

To give you some sense of scale of this slab of meat, I put my business card in the picture. Salad (dressing is in the small plastic bag) and fried to top it off. Heineken from the fridge, a good movie on Thai cable TV and I'm a happy campter. A stuffed, happy camper with leftovers.

I managed to waddle out of my hotel this morning and spend two hours Christmas shopping in the Old Quarter, then back to my desk for more work.

One last senior level meeting late this afternoon and that's it. All done. Midday flight to Singapore tomorrow, and a night there, then 17 hours of flying time the next day gets me home!

Looks like my next trip back is May, 2007.