Since my relatives back in Vientiane were celebrating Chinese New Year, I didn’t want to feel left out and joined the celebration by having my own little party. I went to the local Chinese grocery store and stocked up on a few things. I then made som tam or tum maak houng, however you want to call it for lunch, with water spinach and brown rice vermicelli on the side.
For dessert it was sweet melon and sweet potato. It was a pity that I didn’t find any sweet dried coconut. I used to eat a great deal of that when I was a little kid in Laos for Chinese New Year. If I was still in Laos at the moment we would be dining on roasted pork and would be having a Chinese movie marathon for a week.
What a coincidence, my dad would buy the same thing for desert but only for Chinese New Year. Instead of roasted pork, he had chicken or duck with head and feet intact, it’s harder to find this here, where in Chinatown, NY there is a place that they would kill the live one for you.