Rounding

Every week, we go to the market to purchase our fruits and veggies for the week.  Whenever we get home, we become excited to see what "extras" our market friends have thrown in for us.  Sometimes we open the bag to find green onions.  Sometimes it is cilantro.  Other times, handfuls of little, spicy red peppers.  We have always smiled and laughed about how they must think our cooking is extra bland and boring and they are doing their part to help us develop a more flavorful palate.

Well, imagine our surprise when just a few weeks ago we learned the truth.  These additions were not well-intentioned freebies.  Rather, they are thrown in to round a market bill up to the nearest thousand (as is the smallest denomination in Vietnamese dong).  We were not getting some extra help but rather simply helping our market man do easier math.

Our collection of "free" mini peppers has grown over the past few weeks and can now fill a Tupperware container. 

The gift from our market means we are making everything extra spicy.  This means that our booties be burnin'!