UNUSUAL RESTAURANTS

by David Nuttle

For global travelers who like the exotic, I am posting info on three unusual restaurants that I had a meal at. To wit:

a) The Boa Dai Restaurant, in Cholon, Vietnam. This restaurant was named after Emperor Bao Dai who lost his reign in that nation. For my special birthday dinner in 1961, the staff there served me with a 42-course meal over about 2-hours' time. All the portions were small and quite exotic.

b) In Boun Me Thout, Vietnam there is the White Rat Restaurant. The walls of this diner were and are covered with cages of living white rats typically having fun playing on their exercise wheels in those cages. There was a rat-dish menu plus an Regular menu. I selected the dish I wanted from the latter since I did not like the idea of eating a rat.

c) There is a restaurant in Laos, known as the White Rose. A few visitors from Hollywood even made special trips to have an exotic meal at this unique diner. The major attraction was the fact that all the staff there were very attractive Lao women, typically aged 17 to 24, who were serving diners totally in the nude. When I worked in Laos, my family was living there with me and my wife, Patricia, was encouraged by U. S. Embassy wives to have at least one meal at the White Rose. She asked me to take her for a meal there but when I did she made an angry exit within minutes after our arrival.

N. B. The other attraction to Laos was the fact that, at the time I was there, gold was being sold for $32 per oz. Local jewelers would make large 24- karat gold necklaces for any of our visitors to wear, and not have to declare, upon returning to the U. S.

Keep a record of your own exotic experiences for others to enjoy in later years.