Bamboo Juice

There are a couple of interesting social drinking practices that happen here on a daily basis. My favorite, and one I completely understand, is called Bia Hoi and involves drinking beer from local breweries. There are several Bia Hoi places, equivalent to western bars, but mostly you see people on the sidewalk in makeshift little gatherings around small tables and little plastic stools that sit only about 6 inches high. Different proprieters have different brews and anyone can have a seat and drink for as long as they want. And it’s really cheap. Also, the beer starts flowing early in the morning and lasts all day long, but mostly it’s an afternoon or evening ritual.

The other social drinking practice is very similar in appearance but the drink is very different. I haven’t tried this one yet but hope to soon. The truth is I can’t stand the smell of it so I’m not brave enough just yet. It looks like fresh bamboo, and until I actual know what it is that’s what I’m going to refer to it as. I hear that bamboo juice is very medicinal and tastes “Delicious” and “Nutty”. (I think you’d have to be a bit “nutty” to drink it!! harhar) but that must be what it is. Bamboo juice!

People flock to it in droves and sit around drinking it at different times of the day. It’s so popular that there are places set up right next to each other, one right after the other serving it.

They have this machine that’s basically a giant press that they feed the bamboo through.

The juice is collected underneath and poured into glasses.

The scraps are then collected by different people from the more rural areas and taken away. I don’t really know what they do with the bamboo scraps but I imagine it’s very instrumental to some kind of basket weaving or chair making or something. The people here are really resourceful and recycle just about everything.