A haphazard chronicle of my inevitable misadventures during a year in Vietnam and points east.

p.s. I'll be pitifully grateful if you send me email during my exile: TravelerKaty@hotmail.com

October 2002 November 2002 December 2002 January 2003 February 2003 March 2003 April 2003 May 2003 June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 February 2006 March 2006 May 2006

 
You may recall my first experience at eating at a sidewalk restaurant in my neighborhood (teeny tiny weensy miniscule tables and stools). I have actually eaten at this establishment fairly frequently over the last two months, and recently they have renovated. Well, maybe renovated isn't the exact word -- moved might be more accurate, or maybe expanded.

Originally all the tables, stools, food selections, charcoal grills, etc, were located on the sidewalk. But right next door pile of rubble that used to be Sheridan's Pub (you really can't escape Irish bars anywhere in the world) was just sitting there unused! Clearly this was a perfect spot for restaurant expansion.

I'm not really sure if Sheridan's burned down or if they just razed the building and couldn't figure out what to do next. The space, which is on a corner, currently features one exterior wall (emerald green, as befits an Irish Pub), with a gaping hole where the doors used to be. The other exterior wall is half demolished, so that even the parts that are still standing have holes you can peek through. The teensy tables and miniscule stools (or maybe we should call them "wee" tables and stools given their new location) are situated in what used to be the tiled entryway to the bar. It's not completely tiled anymore, and of course there's no roof, so I tend to choose other restaurants when it rains. Surrounding the eating area are large piles of rubble from the former building -- partial bricks, lumber, chunks of plaster, and lots of unclassifiable dirt. Have you ever seen Mad Max or any of those other post-apocalyptic movies? I would imagine that if Mel Gibson had decided to set up a nice rice and barbecued meat restaurant instead of kicking ass across Australia, it would look very much like this one.

I have learned that it is illegal in Saigon to operate these sidewalk restaurants, food carts, and mini-cafes (more bureaucratic idiocy). Every few months the cops do a raid on a street and although they don't generally issue citations per se, they confiscate these poor vendors' carts, tables, and other accoutrements of business. This morning, as a matter of fact, I was eating Pho for breakfast at a sidewalk restaurant when we heard a police siren. I've never seen people move so fast -- the stools and tables were being picked up and moved to a narrow stairwell within seconds. False alarm, fortunately.

The point is that most of these people only operate on the sidewalk -- they don't have a permanent business site at all, but set up in pretty much the same place every day. I applaud this particular restaurant for craftily getting around the Ho Chi Minh City cops, and look forward to many more meals in post-apocalyptic splendor.

?2002 Katy Warren
posted by Katy at 4:43 AM