Tuesday

Finally, at long last, an ordinary day from start to finish. There are no flights scheduled in the near future. Nothing was on fire in the walls. I woke up, took a long shower, and pottered about trying vainly to catch-up on the ordinary things I'm always behind on, not those special things I've been getting behind recently. I glued together some ceramic figurines that were broken in our move here. I wrote yesterday's Update entry. Yawn. Lovely, boring blogicide. Since today was Tuesday, Ms. Hương arrived this afternoon with a grocery bag, prepared to cook us a meal. This is another ordinary thing, though I've not gotten used to it yet. Sunshine has put numerous post-its throughout our cookbook. These are color-coded to indicate fish or vegetarian recipes Ms. Hương can cook for dinner, or chicken lunches she can pack for Sunshine. There's even a special pad of third color stickies for Ms. Hương to mark recipes of interest to her. We think Ms. Hương should run wild, cook whatever she always wanted to cook while paid by the hour, using our groceries and us as guinea pigs. Tonight she was eager to make bánh xèo for us. This is a Vietnamese dish of overturned turmeric flour pancakes, like quesadilla omelets, filled with ingredients. Ours were filled with sprouts and shrimp and rice, served with lettuce, mint, nước mắm, and basil on the side. We were a little stymied about how to eat these large things,* but I was too shy to ask the cook, who was already enduring a longer workday than she normally does. Eventually, we looked it up in a nearby world cuisine guide, then wrapped the pancake in the lettuce and herbs and dipped before eating. Just like a large, floppy spring roll. [Cavin]