Straw Wine
Incidents of Travel > Northern Vietnam > Long Family

Dennis and Lynel host a farewell party for a Population Council colleague, featuring a jug of "straw wine."

Sticky rice, a sweet form of the grain common in Southeast Asia, is left to ferment for weeks in this jug, creating a sweet kind of rice beer. In a tradition from the highlands of Vietnam, guests suck it out communally through long bamboo straws.