Talkin' Shit About A Pretty Sunset

Anthony Bourdain is one of my favorite people, but he over-glorifies the value of eating "local food" in far-off countries.

Case in point: the cage of rats (right) at a restaurant here in the Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam. I saw this spectacle in several restaurants down here, and some even tout rat as their specialty.

Often, the restaurants off the tourist trail are packed full of foods that would offend most western palates and even political sensibilities. After not seeing white people for several days, I've gotten used to restaurants being mini zoos, where all the creeping, crawling, and slithering beasts are on display for the eating public to choose from.

I'm now starting to believe that "Americanized" Asian foods served in the west are far better than what hits plates over here in countries like Vietnam. Below are a few examples, and remember, all these pictures were taken AT RESTAURANTS.

Here's some "Snake Wine", which claims to cure all kinds of shit like Rheumatism. I believe this bottle is marketed to tourists, but it has some basis in local food/drink. It's a bottle of wine, including ginsing and a cobra holding a scorpion in its mouth.



Here's me and a big ass snake pulled from a trash can of about 50 big ass snakes:



Sea Turtle, in a tank, waiting to end up on your plate:



Our waiter:



They only had one crocodile on hand:



I think these are baby sharks: