vietnam is a young country. almost half of vietnamese are under the age of 30. fewer every year even remember what they call here "the americanar." those years were a defining time for just about everyone, vietnamese or american, who lived through them. and though there are still a lot of conflicted feelings back home, for most vietnamese these days, the war has become an abstraction, not even a memory. vietnam is still a poor nation, but the standard of living has improved a lot with the relaxing of hard-line communist economic policies. more and more foreign tourists every year, western chains, inevitably, are everywhere, and president obama is visiting for the first time, taking another step on the long path toward normalizing relations between the two countries. that is good. ooh, hot. ooh, i hit that chili hard.