Every Thursday and Friday I work at the An Phu campus of our school. Every Thursday and Friday morning Yang one of the Vietnamese teaching assistants in that campus brings me a drink of warm Soya milk sweetened with sugar. I’m yet to discover the cost. The drink comes in a container very similar to that of a milkshake. I'm not sure why or what makes the drink unique and rather delectable. Its filling as you would expect from a milk drink, but quite a thin liquid like slightly watered down milk. The sweetening from the sugar is not that great, just enough to slightly change the flavour, as I have sipped a plain Soya milk drink.
Sugar is an interesting commodity used in dairy products here in Vietnam. In the supermarket you can buy carton milk, either natural or sugar sweetened. Yoghurt is another product that is plain or sugar sweetened. In the local Vietnamese Co-op where I shop, milk and yoghurt is either plain or sugar sweetened. There are no other choices, no chocolate or strawberry flavoured. Just equal amounts of both plain or sweetened. Standing beside the refrigerated units is a shop assistant, always asking what you want. Plain or with sugar? And believe me milk with sugar in your tea, tastes strange, worse than tea deliberately sweetened with sugar.
Sugared confectionary is not prominent is the supermarket or restaurants or shops. While I can buy some chocolate its not abig ticket item either. The children at our school don't eat sweet foods. There has to be something said about the diet of the Vietnamese people. I'm yet to see an overweight person, in fact they all looking so healthy and fit.
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