By this point in my trip, I had been living outside of my home country for 9 years. I had already spent years making meals into "cultural experiences". At this point, I just wanted the food that I wanted. Plus I don't like seafood, and soup isn't considered a meal where I come from.

I had some great local food in Vietnam, but Thai is more to my taste. I think if Vietnam had Thai cuisine, it would the perfect country.