The Pub With Cold Beer, in the middle of nowhere near Phong Nha in central Vietnam, is a local legend. “Discovered” by Ben, the Antipodean owner of nearby Phong Nha Farmstay who has helped place it on the tourist map, it’s a family concern where you can live out your Ray Mears dream – and kill your own chicken for lunch.
The “pub” grows all its own food – from the vegetables to the peanuts to the chickens running around – and the beer is, indeed, cold. Killing your lunch is optional; you can let the family do it and order by the kilo (chicken’s the only thing on the menu).
But there is an argument that if you are going to eat meat, you should be prepared to kill it yourself – and this place is the antidote to the clinically sealed, slimy, supermarket chicken breasts that distance us from the realities of where meat comes from.