As I walked into one of the restaurants, I saw 2 men with a plate of meat in the middle of their table. I knew it was dog meat there, because these restaurants only serve dog meat and nothing else. We sat at a corner of the restaurant and Thanh ordered for us.
When the waitress came to give us our plate of meat, I asked Thanh "is that dog meat?" as I found it hard to believe that it was actually dog meat right in front of my eyes.
I watched Thanh wrap a piece of meat in a leaf and dip that in a raw shrimp sauce. The sauce stinks, but I love stinky food with strong taste actually. So, I proceed as he did, and he took out his camera to film me. The idea of eating dog meat was disturbing and exciting at the same time. I took a first bite and damn, it was good. The meat was so soft, I think we had a young dog.
Usually, people drink rice wine to help digest and to kill the parasites in the stomach. Richard and Thanh don't drink a lot, and most women don't go to dog meat restaurants because women who drink are regarded as bad women in Vietnam. The waiter didn't even give me a glass at the beginning actually.
I don't think eating dog meat is more cruel than eating pig or chicken. Some cultures and traditions are so ancient and rich that people from countries with only a few hundred years of history would find bizarre and hard to understand. I know too many ethnocentric western hypocrites.
Overall, eating dog meat and drinking rice wine was one of the best experience in my life.