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This clip comes from one of my favorite TV shows, No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain. The show is all about 2 things I love: travel and food. Food maybe the best way to learn about a culture, especially the cheap street food that the common man eats. In this episode from Vietnam we see Anthony enjoying a simple local sandwich on a busy city street. The sandwich itself might not be what one would expect in Southeast Asia. Like many other countries the history of the place is made evident in the food, in this case we see the strong French influence in Vietnamese cuisine. First, the sandwich is made on a French baguette and is brushed with a duck-liver patte. French food is some of the most recognizable in the world and it remains even when they have long since departed. This is a prime example of how easy it is for a foreign culture to assimilate into the local culture, and for better or for worse it will never be the same again. America knows this better than any other country on Earth, like it or not we are a nation of immigrants and each new person brings new customs, traditions, as well as foods to the table. The trick is to appreciate the new, without corrupting and forgetting the old.
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