Dear Phil - macerate this!

I saw a great tshirt the other day. It said:

 

SNIFFING GLUE

WON'T KEEP

FAMILIES TOGETHER

Well, no. I daresay you'd need a whole other kind of glue for that.

It made me laugh out loud though, which startled Mr Duong a bit, since I was on the back of his motorcycle at the time.

Glue sniffing doesn't do much for familial harmony, but as you're fully aware, PUDDING works quite well. It's a double whammy: while their gobs are full, they're less likely to say disharmonious things to one another. And by the time they've finished the pudding, and it's preceding meal as well, they should be all nice and sleepy. Add a few glasses of wine and you have a perfect recipe for familial cheer.

There's not really much familial disharmony at my place at the moment, but since I finally got round to sacking that maid, we're probably going to have to work a tiny bit harder at keeping things quiet (I'm looking at you, sink hairs!)

Which is why I went out of my way to make sure that this came home with me from Dalat in my hand luggage:

The ladies in the market make these boxes out of old newspapers and magazines.

actually, produce in Dalat, as with everywhere else in Vietnam is of questionable quality, because farming practices are of questionable quality. My friend who is from Dalat told me not to buy anything from the market because it is probably going to be from China, even though Dalat is Vietnam's very own vegetable garden; and because it is probably therefore going to be full of fertilizers and pesticides.

I believe the bit about the fertilizers and pesticides, but China theory seems a little far fetched to me. I'm sure some stuff in Dalat comes from China, but probably not the strawberries. I think Vietnamese farmers are perfectly good at ruining food, without any help from their Northern nemeses. Regardless of their provenance, the strawberries in Dalat were plumper and fresher by far than the strawberries I can buy in Saigon, for around the same price. This one kilo box cost me Đ50,000, about $3 NZ.

My favorite is macerated in sugar and lemon juice with fresh thick cream poured over the top. How about you?