Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam

Back to the story of his ride, Pham writes that he leaves Hue to continue south toward a place called the Hai Van Pass. He’s been warned that it’s largely jungle and that bandits roam around, but he rides through with no problems. He continues on to Hoi An, an old trading port on the sea, where he books a room and then heads out for dinner. He eats at a restaurant with only one other diner, an older German tourist, and they strike up a conversation. The chef joins them toward the end and implores them to return for another meal. He promises to make them a dish he calls “gaping fish,” which he learned from a famous Chinese chef. It is prepared by ramming two bamboo sticks through the roof of a fish’s mouth, in just the right spot to paralyze the fish but not kill it. The fish gets cooked whole in oil, again just right so as not to kill the fish. The chef then brings it to the table, removes the bamboo sticks, and the fish gapes, trying to take in air. If not, he promises, the dish is on the house. The German looks queasy from the story, and he and Pham leave.