Meat, Vegetables & Dessert

Camera in hand, the filmmakers Pham Dinh Hoang and Sherman Ong use prolonged shots to depict three different eating moments in Vietnam. Dog lovers be warned: the first and longest part of the film is devoted to the preparation of fresh dog. Without comment, they simply show how captured dogs are carried into a restaurant, clubbed to death, skinned and cooked in a pot, and subsequently braised in a straw fire. The cooked dog is stripped of its entrails and other organs and sold in pieces in the street, where it finds ready buyers. The cooking of vegetables, in preparation for a visit to the temple, takes place in a large kitchen, and again without comment. Hoang and Ong quietly film how the cook takes some money, goes and gets an ingredient, upon returning continues with his dish and slowly brings the vegetables in the pan to a simmer. When the serving tray is full with various dishes, it is taken to the temple. Only in a dessert shop does the dialogue get going, when the filmmakers ask the part time saleswoman and student a lot of questions. Candidly she responds. "No, I don't sell dog meat. I'm not from around here."