Quick Lunch at Cafe Central

It's the end of our HCM trip. Lin & I went for spa, did some last minute shopping and met up with Hoa for a quick lunch at Cafe Central. :) Besides sandwiches, pizzas, pastas and salads Cafe Central, offers local & other Asian fare as well. :)

Upon Hoa's recommendation, we tried the Cambodian noodles which was basically pork & prawn noodles with quail eggs. Light & tasty. :)

The chef gave us 3 quail eggs each after realizing he had forgotten to give us 2 quail eggs each. Good customer service recovery eh? Wahaahahahha... :)))

Details of Cafe Central:
L1 Sun Wah Tower
115 Nguyen Hue
District 1
Ho Chi Minh
T: +84  08 3821 9303

Brekkie at PHO24

Good morning! We're having beef pho & beef balls for breakfast at PHO24. :)

We were given dough fritters which were to be savoured by dipping them into our beef pho broth! :) It's like eating bak ku teh. :)

Lin tried Vietnamese drip coffee. My initial intention was to take a sip but I finished half as it tasted more like ice chocolate. :)))

And again I had pomelo juice. ^.*

Details of PHO24:
W: http://pho24.com.vn/htmls/index.php?cur=1&language=en

Beef & Pork Rolls at Hoang Ty

Hoa treated us to dinner at Hoang Ty! :) This place is famous for boiled beef & pork, generous servings of veg & it's in-house produced rice paper.

Once seated, we were blown away by the huge tray of greens that was placed before us! *O* There should be at least 8 types of vegs. We had boiled beef briskets and

boiled pork for our rice paper roll stuffing.

There are two type of dips for the rice rolls. One is fish sauce and I don't know what's the other. :)))

We had pork & beef vermicilli as well as fishball noodles to complete our meal. The broth of both were amazingly tasty. :)

Details of Hoang Ty:
70-72, Võ Văn Tần, P.6, Q.3
T: +84 083 930 5210

Cruising Down Mekong River

Mekong river is the world's 10th longest river. It's amazing how it runs from the Tibetan Plateau through China's Yunnan province, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia & Vietnam. We took the opportunity to check it out with Hoa (she has been on this trip n times!). :D

A storm was brewing and we prayed hard for it to be a passing shower so as not to dampen our excursion. *.*

The day trip schedule was as such:
1) Visit rice paper making factory
2) A taste of Mekong's lunch
3) Visit to the honey farm
4) Mekong's music appreciation
5) Horse cart ride
6) A taste of tropical fruits
7) Small boat ride down the mangrove swamp
8) Visit to the coconut candy factory

It was overall boring... *.*

I must say the lunch served was much better than the one Victoria & I had when we did a day trip to Halong Bay. :) The star dish for the local dining experience was a fish with flaky & pointy scales. It was deep fried till golden brown & crispy. The waiter then sliced the fish and rolled them in rice paper with veg & vermicilli for us. Pretty good. :)

In addition, we had marinated fish fillet that went well with a bowl of steamed rice, marinated pork which was crispily yummy, deep fried spring roll, stirred fried morning glory and cabbage & minced pork hotpot (the minced pork was kind of tough?).

After lunch we were brought to Sinh Cafe by boat to enjoy some Mekong honey & traditional music.

I was very happy Hoa came with us. ^.^ For such trips, the more the merrier!

Together with the musicians playing traditional Mekong musical instruments, the lady with her powerful vocal gave a simple but pleasant performance. . :)

There is a need for the locals to improve on the design of their handicraft so as to entice higher purchase from the tourists. Many times, the products are frivolous. Needless to say,we didn't buy anything other than some local food produce.

We were initially thrilled to ride in a horse cart. But the sight of skinny horses having to carry 5 - 6 adults doesn't seem to be a good idea... :( Thank goodness the distance was rather short. Otherwise the 3 of us were prepared to stroll.

Hoa & the two of us became guides to 3 Japanese tourists sitting at our table. We were introducing to them the various tropical fruits and they were gamed to try everything. ^.* I wonder if they would eat durians...which weren't served that day.

The little boat ride down the mangrove swamp was fun! :) It did felt like we were on some adventure to uncover treasures...

The last stop was the coconut candy factory. Nothing much at all...

Rarely do we get close to nature. And so even though we found the trip boring, we were glad we took time to catch a glimpse of the Mekong river. These snapshots will add to our bottle of experiences & memories. :)

Quan An Ngon Ho Chi Minh

If you've been to Quan An Ngon in Hanoi, you'll find the sister branch at HCM pales in comparison; both food & ambience. I left the restaurant feeling slightly disappointed.

We had stired fried morning glory which was quite similiar to chives. :)

Peanut & beef does go hand in hand. :) Unfortunately the portion of beef was miserable. So our rolls had more veg & vermicilli stuffing than the savory meat. :(

The grilled chicken on sticks were tender & the tomatoes just burst & infused with the chicken as you bite into them. :) 

We've been out in the whole day and this hot soupy beef ball noodles was comforting. :)

The sourish tomato broth of the fishball noodles made one crave for more  of these yummy noodles. :) It's not spicy at all despite its appearance.

Hoa had tofu vermicilli. :) Looks good eh?

For desserts, Hoa had a glass of chendol like drink while Lin & I settled for durian & coconut ice creams. The durian ice cream was a tad sweet. If you've seen my posting on the desserts we had at the Hanoi branch, you'll see the food presentation over there is more appealing.

Lastly, we had a glass of pomelo juice each to aid digestion. ^.* Perfect for an extremely humid Monday!

Details of Quan An Ngon Ho Chi Minh:
160 Pasteur Street
Ben Nghe Ward District 1
T: +84 8 3827 7131

Crabby Lunch at 94 Restaurant

Hoa brought us to this run down, local restaurant which specializes in crab dishes. :) Again, we wouldn't come here without her. :)

The first dish was fried vermicilli with crab meat. It's pretty blend on its own and tasted much better with the sweet sauce.

Every dish has crab in it. Next up was deep fried crab spring roll. This was good. :)

Lin's face lit up at the sight of food. She closed both eyes to the run down place. Hahahah... :D

As for the soft shell crab, the three of us felt there was nothing to rave about. : I

Prior to lunch, we did some shopping at Ben Thanh market. :) This place is popular among tourists looking for local handicrafts, souvenirs & food.

Did we get anything? Of course! :D We bought some bowls, plates & spoons for our new home. ^.*

Details of 94 Restaurant:
94 Dinh Tien Hoang Street
District 1
Ho Chi Minh City
T: +84 08 825 8633

Details of Ben Thah Market:
Intersection of Le Loi, Ham Nghi, Tran Hung Dao Avenues and Le Lai Street

The O-So-Good Vietnamese Baguette, Bánh mì

We have read so much review on Bánh mì, we just gotta try it! :) These baguettes are really cheap at a dollar each??? I must say these baguettes are super duper delicious! This is what we call cheap & good! :D We had ours had an annoynomous cafe. ^.* 

Here are the other stuff we had for breakfast. :) Woo hoo! :D 

Quán Rất Huế , A Hidden Gem

Rat Hue is tucked away in a back alley of tiny manicure & pedicure shops. We wouldn't be able to find this gem without Hoa. :) We opted to be seated on the upper level as we wanted to sit on the floor. :)

This shop serves really awesome steamed rice cakes with dried shrimps. Each rice cake is served in tiny ceramic bowl and they come in a tray of 10. This is definitely a must try! Love! :)

The steamed rice roll with dried shrimps & pork wrapped in leaves was delish too. :) It's pretty similar to eating dim sum. :D

The next dish reminded us of the dim sum, Harkow. :D

Vietnam has so many types of noodles other than Pho! Hoa ordered for us beef & pork noodles, as well as grilled pork & beef dry noodles. Both were fabulous! :) The noodles look and  taste like the ones we use for making laksa.

And I complete my dinner with a glass of pomelo juice! Hahahahah...

Details of Rat Hue:
163/11 Le Thanh Ton Street
Ben Thanh Ward District 1
Ho Chi Minh City