@DiggingDogFarm
I'm back home and did, as expected, meet some Vietnamese people on my short trip down to the China-Vietnam border area. I remained on the Chinese side this time.
Unfortunately, and I should have thought of this earlier, the people I met were all from North Vietnam, particularly Hanoi. I'm taking a wild guess that your friend Bill wasn't stationed in North Vietnam!
Anyway, I asked and, after a few blank looks, they concluded that 'red chicken' is probably some kind of variation on Chinese red-cooking (红烧 hóng shāo) as I mentioned, but they weren't 100% sure.
As you suggested it may be a different, regional dish which they don't know. Do you know where he was stationed?
In the meantime. I'm sorry I haven't been able to help much, but I will keep accosting passing Vietnamese and demand a sensible explanation!
