Category Archive for ‘Vietnamese’ at gas•tron•o•my

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Nem Nướng

Published

on June 30, 2008

. 5 Comments

Nina introduced The Astronomer and I to her favorite Nem Nướng joint for lunch a while back. Quan 33 (33 Ly Tu Trong, District 1) is located steps away from her digs and a stones throw from Ben Thanh Market. Location this good inevitably means higher prices, especially since the folks who run the restaurant do not reside in the same building. The majority of restaurants in Vietnam also serve as the family home, which means monthly rent is a non-issue and prices are much lower as a result.

This bowl of bun nem nuong thit nuong went for a hefty 30,000 VND. Although it was much pricier than bun elsewhere, the nem nuong was everything Nina said it would be—flavorful, smoky and not too fatty! The nuoc mam here is also very good, which is essential for moistening all the ingredients and tying the whole package together. Having Nina around to introduce me to central Vietnamese classics like nem nuong (and corn cha gio!) has been a treat.

And just in case you’re in the cooking mood, here is Wandering Chopstick’s recipe for Nem Nướng.

Saigon Sweets Shoppe

Published

Gastronomer

on June 26, 2008

in Bakery, Banh Kem Su, Dessert and Saigon

. 5 Comments

Bon Bon Bakery (19 Ba Thang Hai, District 10) is a lovely sweets shoppe that The Astronomer and I discovered when we first moved here. It’s located near my old place of employment so we used go quite often during our 1.5 hour lunch break. These days, we only swing by when we’re in the neighborhood shopping at Maximark, a western-style grocery store that carries the essentials like peanut butter and cereal.

This family-run shop isn’t much to look at, but they whip up great Vietnamese cream puffs (banh kem su) for 3,000 VND. The outer shell is light and airy, while the vanilla custard filling is creamy, sweet and chilled. Each puff is stuffed to order, so the shell never loses its nice texture.

The pineapple tartlets (top picture) with sticky preserves are quite addictive, especially at 2,000 VND a pop. I have always adored Vietnamese pineapple preserves (mut thom) because it’s so ridiculously sweet. The pastry tones down some of the jam’s intensity, which helps me to consume more tartlets overall. Bon Bon also makes coconut tartlets, but I’m too enamored with the pineapple ones to try them.

After my trip to Hong Kong, I’ve been on the lookout for egg tarts. I’ve only tried two Saigon varieties thus far—one from Pham Nguyen Bakery that was mediocre and another from here. Bon Bon’s egg tarts aren’t kept warm like those in Hong Kong, but if they were, they’d be almost as tasty. Just out of curiosity, I asked the baker where her recipe came from. She didn’t give me an exact answer, but she said that egg tarts are a Vietnamese dessert. Ohhh, are they?

The Astronomer’s 24th

Published

Gastronomer

on June 25, 2008

in Chinese, Dim Sum, Hot Vit Lon, Saigon and Vietnamese

. 9 Comments

This past weekend, we celebrated The Astronomer’s big 2-4. There are a million and one spirited things to do in Saigon, but when it came down to it, all The Astronomer wanted on his special day was to gorge on dim sum, consume local libations and sing his heart out. Oh, he also wanted to hang out with babes. Lots of babes.

The babes came into the picture early in the morning. While we were waiting for our friends to arrive for dim sum at the New World Hotel, we saw a bunch of Miss Universe pageant contestants who happened to be staying there. Check Miss Adventure’s site for the full babalicious recap. According to Hawk, Miss Korea is a fox.

Here’s the birthday boy posing in front of a flat screen TV advertising the dim sum special at the Dynasty restaurant that we took advantage of. Only $4.99 for all you can eat! Awesome deal.

Here’s what we ate. The har gow AKA shrimp bags were excellent, as were the tripe, banh cuon and fried turnip. The Astronomer’s favorite were the deep fried dumplings doused with sweet and sour sauce. The food was good, but the service was shoddy for a five-star. In a way, dim sum wouldn’t be dim sum without terrible service, right?

Here is Vernon’s lovely Vietnamese teacher Hanh posing with Miss Vietnam. By the way, Miss Vietnam is wearing heels. Really high heels. And Hanh is short.

After dim sum, The Astronomer and I went home and passed out. Then we went running. Running post-dim sum is one of the grossest things ever. When evening rolled around, our friends gathered at our apartment for late night festivities. First stop, sidewalk seafood!

This no-name joint on Ton That Thuyet Street in District 4 (which we’ve visited a number of times before) attracts a fun local crowd and stir-fries up some mean seafood, especially the clams with tamarind sauce. They also make and bottle their own liquor. Who knows what was in it, but let’s just say that it did the job nicely.

Good friends, good food and good spirits. What could be better?

Peter and Nina. Aren’t they the cutest? Nina is currently ranked my #3 favorite Canadian. #2 is Lainey of Lainey Gossip and #1 is Alanis Morissette. Avril Lavigne is #4.

Two Cathys and one shot.

Hot vit lon. Our Vietnamese guests Hanh and Vuong placed an order for fetal duck eggs in tamarind sauce, so I had one too. Mmm! I mean it. We also ate clams with garlic, blood cockles with tamarind and grilled shell fish with scallions and peanuts.

Group shot minus Nina.

After dinner, we hopped a cab and zoomed to New Karaoke in District 3. Hanh made us reservations so when we arrived our room was ready to go!

I got the party started with a sweet sweet performance (if I do say so myself) of “Dress You Up In My Love” by Madonna. The lyrics appear on the flat screen, while the music blares from a fairly advanced sound system. The most awesome part was the video footage that accompanied the lyrics. Instead of a lame music video, there were scenes of Vietnam—Hue, Hanoi, Saigon! While I was belting out Madonna, Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum popped up. Awesome, right?

Oh, and the other super-cool thing about singing karaoke in Vietnam is that your performance is rated afterwards. I scored a 92 with my Madonna performance and a 100 with “Gangsta’s Paradise”!

Here’s The Astronomer cheerily singing “Drive My Car” by The Beatles. He scored in the high eighties for this performance.

Here’s Peter singing some Linda Rondstadt. Nina did not know the words, but Peter’s vocals were so strong that he carried the tune alone.

Here is Hanh singing a Vietnamese number. Later in the evening she treated us to a performance of “Itty Bitty, Teeny Weeny, Yellow Polka Dot Bikini.” How come all Vietnamese people know that song?

And one last shot of the birthday boy (holding a shot).

Scenes: Mũi Né

Published

Gastronomer

on June 19, 2008

in Banh Khot, Mui Ne and Scenes

. 5 Comments

After months of hardcore training, The Astronomer and I packed up our bags and headed to Mũi Né for the Le Fruit Triathlon. Although I was tempted for maybe five minutes to participate, I knew that I couldn’t hack the swimming and cycling portions of the race so I settled comfortably into my role as cheerleader.

We left Saigon late Friday afternoon. Although the advertised trip duration was four hours, the ride lasted closer to six. The bus pulled over at a rest stop about 1.5 hours into the trip and I impulsively bought some Snyder’s of Hanover pretzels that really hit the snacky spot. The pretzels had a certain ‘New Jersey Turnpike secret flavor factory’ taste that I hadn’t experienced in months. Living abroad does strange things to me, I wouldn’t normally eat this stuff in America.

When we finally arrived in Mũi Né, I went for a late night run and we passed out soon after.

The next morning, I woke up bright and early and took advantage of our hotel’s (Sunshine Beach) complimentary breakfast. I ordered a mango pancake. I don’t know what it is about pancakes, but EVERY hotel in the whole country serves them. I’ve had decent pancakes in Phu Quoc and Nha Trang, but these ones were the best because they were fluffy and substantial. Minus points for fake maple syrup.

Afterwards, I read on the beach and went for a walk. Which reminds me, white people love reading by the water.

The view from our room’s balcony. Mũi Né really is gorgeous.

Hey, look who finally woke up!

After The Astronomer pulled himself out of bed, we headed to Jibes Beach Club a few meters down the beach to register for the triathlon, collect his race number, claim his bike, etc. I cheered on the sidelines while this was all happening.

All that cheering made me hungry so I had a panini with pesto, tomatoes and mozzarella at Jibes. Looks tasty, right? It was. The rest of the day was spent napping, reading and taking advantage of the hotel’s wireless Internet. Ah, this is what vacationing is all about! I eventually made myself go for a run and then we headed to Jibes again for dinner. Sometimes choice is overrated.

In preparation for his triathlon debut, The Astronomer carbo-loaded with a hefty plate of penne with pesto sauce.

In a pasta mood as well, I had the home made beef ravioli in a Bolognese sauce. Both pastas were very good, but they took forever to come out. The waitress tried to tell us that our food was taking a long time because of the penne. Riiiiight…

After dinner we watched The Pelican Brief on DVD because we had both recently read the book. Note to self: do not watch a movie adaptation soon after reading the book—you will be disappointed. Then we hit the hay.

Race day! Can you spot The Astronomer?

After the open water swim, The Astronomer was in the middle of the pack. Maybe he would’ve been in the front had he worn Speedos or a wrestling uniform.

Gastronomer! Take my goggles.

While The Astronomer was biking on the sand dunes and running on the beach, I got in my own workout (so no pictures of those segments). After showering up at the hotel, I headed toward the finish line.

I came five minutes too late and missed The Astronomer’s triumphant first-place finish. Dang! Congrats! You rule!

After his victory, The Astronomer was hounded by the media for interviews. He granted one to HTV, a Vietnamese station.

The BEST question was: “Did you know that you would be champion?”

After the media hoopla, we headed to our hotel for breakfast. The Astronomer had the mango pancake, while I had a strawberry one. Once again, a great pancake with lots of fruit in the batter.

For the third time in 24-hours, we headed to Jibes for post-race festivities i.e. awards ceremony, buffet lunch, etc.

The buffet lunch included banh khot.

Unlike the banh khot I had prior, these were more pillowy than crispy and were stuffed with scallions rather than topped with meat.

Even though the bus ride sucks, Mũi Né is a SUPERB beach destination. I hope to return next weekend for Hawk’s birthday. Eee!

Khên Lá - Sapa Cuisine

Published

Gastronomer

on June 18, 2008

in Restaurant Review, Saigon, Vietnamese and Xoi

. 3 Comments

Hill Peoples’ Food - clockwise from top left - restaurant facade, su su xao (60,000 VND), smoked pork (85,000 VND), com lam (15,000 each)

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I stumbled upon Khên Lá over a month ago while working on an article for AsiaLIFE. Here’s a snippet that I wrote about the place in our June issue:

Restaurants specializing in Hue cuisine are a dime a dozen in this town, but eateries serving the foods of north-western Vietnam are few and far between. Khên Lá serves up minority tribe specialties including sup nam huong Sapa (mushroom soup) for 35,000 VND and com lam (bamboo sticky rice) for 15,000 VND. Ga nuong Ngia Lo, a dish of the Thai minority comprised of grilled chicken marinated with cardamom, sweet fennel and cinnamon, is also on offer for 145,000 VND. The strictly Vietnamese menu offers a good selection of Australian and French wine and champagne. Open for lunch and dinner.

Taking a break from our beloved lunch lady, The Astronomer, Nina and I ventured to Khên Lá last week. The restaurant was completely empty because it’s more of a dinner spot. Usually when I scan a menu, whether it be here or in the States, I have a fairly good idea what most dishes are. At Khên Lá, that certainly wasn’t the case. While I could identify individual ingredients, I was clueless for the most part about the mode of preparation and final presentation.

With a lot of help from our minority-tribe-garb-donning waitress, we settled on one main, one vegetable and three orders of bamboo sticky rice. All the dishes arrived at once with accompanying sauces and dips.

My favorite item was the bamboo sticky rice paired with crushed sesame seeds and salt. The rice didn’t taste particularly different from regular xoi, but the slightly drier texture was a notable and tasty difference.

My second favorite was the su su xao or stir-fried chayote with carrots and wood-ear mushrooms paired with a soy-based sauce. Flavored with bits of ginger and a dash of MSG, this simple combination was a very pleasurable way to take in vegetables.

The smoked pork dish was pitifully dry and tasteless on its own, but paired with a sour and spicy chutney/salsa, it was actually quite palatable.

All in all, a decent introduction to the foods of the hill people, but my loyalties and taste buds remain with the folks down north, central and south.

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17B Mai Thi Luu Street
District 1, Ho Chi Minh City
Phone: 8242434