Posts Tagged: vietnam

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5
Nov 09

Phat in Nha Trang: Banh Xeo

Another late post..

So during our trip to Vietnam, we spent a few days in the beach town of Nha Trang. It was really chill and laid back, even the backpacker district was less douchey. Plus, a gorgeous strip of white sand beach runs along the entire city, so you are never too far from the water.

After a day of beach bumming and scooting around town, my alarmingly good-looking photographer and I wandered around in search of Banh Mi. We had just turned the corner from our hotel when we saw that a couple of ladies had set up shop down a little alley. Very curious. We went to investigate and found:

banh xeo!
Banh Xeo! (Vietnamese crepe)

Before this trip, I had never had banh xeo. I’d seen it on menus often, but it always looked pretty ehh… like a giant omelette or something from the asian version of Crepevine in SF. Not very exciting. But these were small versions, and they looked really crispy. The ladies cooking them up gestured for us to take a seat and we didn’t turn them down.

banh xeo
We ordered up a serving of the Banh Xeo (5 pcs for $15,000 VND = $0.84 USD). They came hot off the griddle, served with a bowl of fish sauce, a generous serving of fresh watercress, and lots of spicy chilis.

banh xeo
The banh xeo was a really nice treat. The crepe part was crispy all over, a perfect accompaniment to a filling of fresh bean sprouts, squid, shrimp, and green onions. The tricky part was trying to figure out how to eat these things. After watching a couple locals, it seems like the tried & true method is to dunk the entire thing into the bowl of fish sauce and slurp it all up. Its all about the technique.

Did i mention we returned the very next day?

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5
Nov 09

Phat in Saigon: Quan An Ngon

This post is a little late… but decided I should throw it up anyways!

So on our last night in Vietnam, we met up with our friend Minh at a “street food restaurant.” I expected lots of little red plastic chairs and blue tarp. Instead, we ended up sitting at a shared table in a beautiful French colonial villa under swaying palms and breezy white canopies.

Photo credits go to Ades.

open kitchen
Quan An Ngon is Saigon institution, and apparently an inspiration for NYC’s famed Spice Market. Its an open air restaurant that features some of the best street chefs in the game. Conveniently, all their different specialities can be ordered from one menu.

Rice with periwinkle clams
I’m really glad Minh was there, because we totally got schooled in Vietnamese food. This was my favorite dish of the night (left), and something I had never tried before. I believe Minh said it was a Hue dish. I don’t know the name, but basically it is rice with periwinkle clams served with shrimp paste on the side. Yum! It’s been a while since I had had either periwinkles or shrimp paste, so this was a real treat.

EDIT*** This dish is called Com Hen, thanks to Dennis!

grilled oysters
The grilled oysters were really fresh and meaty, cooked simply & served with lime dip.

Snails!
Oc buoc nhoi thit, snails minced with pork and lemongrass. I havent had very much experience eating snails, but these were delicious. I like how you tug on the knot of lemongrass to release the snail/pork meatball from the shell.

shrimp on sugar cane
I love Vietnamese food because eating it is such a customizable experience. We ordered chao tom, shrimp on sugarcane, which was brought to our table and expertly sliced off the sugarcane skewer for us. Then we got to wrap up the pieces with fresh lettuce and herbs in a rice paper wrapper which softened in the accompanying fish sauce. (No, that is not my man hand up there)

???
This meal took place a little while ago, so I can’t really remember what was inside this rice noodle roll. But im sure it was delicious because I remember really liking it. Served with cold cuts on the side. Looks a bit like what I had at Chatuchak in Bangkok, eh?

dessert
For dessert, we each had a tall, icy glass of che suong sa hot luu, which is coconut milk topped over tapioca pearls, mung beans, water chestnuts, and various types of jelly (herbal jelly, green bean jelly, jelly noodles!). It was so good. I’m glad I made a little extra room for jelly in my belly. hahah.

If you are in Saigon, you should definitely stop by Quan An Ngon, the price is much more expensive than what you get off the street, but the experience and the atmosphere really make it worth it. Enjoy!

$
Quan An Ngon
160 Pasteur, District 1
Saigon, Vietnam
+08 3827 7131

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26
Oct 09

Phat in Phu Quoc – Grill + Beach = WIN

So after our stint in Saigon, we were ready for some rest & relaxation. We took a one hour plane ride to Phu Quoc, a relatively “untouched” island west of Saigon. Phu Quoc is a pretty cool place and is famous for three things; fish sauce (explains the ripe smell hanging over some parts of town), black pepper, and their dogs!

darly
Cute huh? Phu Quoc dogs are known for their razor sharp teeth & claws, as well as a fierce-looking ridgeback of fur. I had to restrain myself from stuffing this little guy in my bag.

We stayed at a place called Beach Club, which is situated at the end of Long Beach. Nice accomodation, mediocre food. Luckily, we ran into our friends, Drew & Yaya, (big ass coincidence) and they gave us the run down about this beach on the southern end, called Sao Beach. Untouched! Hammocks! Amazing grilled prawns! Delicious ribs!

Curious, we booked a night at the only resort on the beach, called My Lan. This place is basically a bunch of wooden shacks, but it is served by a fantastic restaurant.

super succulent and fresh prawns grilled tableside
Drew & Yaya were right about the prawns. Grilled tableside! These babies were monster size, lightly marinated, and extremely succulent and juicy. I can’t stop using the word succulent on this blog. SUCCULENT!!!

marinated spareribs grilled tableside
Drew & Yaya were also right about the ribs. Marinated in a slighty sweet sauce, they grilled up real nice.

hammock time!
Drew & Yaya were also DAMN right about the hammocks.

Beach Club on Long Beach
Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam
+84 77 3980998
Email: info@beachclubvietnam.com
www.beachclubvietnam.com

My Lan on Sao Beach
Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam
+ 84 77 3990779

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21
Oct 09

Phat in Saigon: Ben Thanh Market

Saigon is a crazy place. Really crazy. Lots of interesting people just hustling and trying to make a living. The trick is not to let the hustle YOU! Here are some quick tips:

-Don’t pay 50,000 dong for a coconut.
-Don’t get in fake taxis, they will rape you. Look for Vinasun or Vinataxi.

And when you are done getting ripped off for the day, you can suffocate yourself with food at Ben Thanh Market. It’s pretty lively at night, with lots of touristy shopping stalls and restaurants setting up shop on the streets. Look for the ones with the most SMOKE. yep – more smoke = more food grilling up! We were drawn to this one spot that was grilling whole red snapper on the street.


The outdoor kitchen was poppin, a sure sign that good stuff was coming out. This place had tons of seafood and even some frogs strung up. Yeah, cruel. But delicious.

Ben Thanh Snapper
Of course we ordered the main draw – red snapper grilled simply with lots of salt. Served with lime dip (salt & pepper, wedge of lime) on the side. This fish was cooked perfectly, with crispy skin and super tender, juicy flesh. So fresh and perfect!

Ben Thanh Clams
Steamed clams with plenty of fish sauce, green onion, and chopped peanuts. Tasty! The only misstep on the menu is their fresh summer rolls, or goi cuon. Really awful. They just let those suckers sit in the open air so its like gnawing on a piece of plastic by the time its actually served.

2 person FEAST
We had all of the above with an order of seafood fried rice (fuckin fantastic!) and shrimp cooked with tamarind and loads of onion. Sweet & savory, mmm.

All this food, with icy cold Saigon 333 beer – for two of us! We were stuffed to say the least.

Pinoyfoodcritic , 9000 Hours in Saigon & Miss.Adventure in Vietnam also did some writeups on Ben Thanh, ch-ch-ch-check it out!

Peace!

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21
Oct 09

Phat in Vietnam: In Search of Banh Mi

Ok, so obviously by now everyone knows what the hell a banh mi is.

I remember getting $2.25 combo special banh mi from Lam’s Vietnamese on Taraval in SF. (sucks that its closed now). That was good, but I’ve always been on the search for something better.

First there was Banh Mi So on Broome st in NYC. Good, but the bread was a little too dense. But I liked the red pork and the guy behind the counter. I tried a few other places around NYC Chinatown. The Sau Voi (VCD & bra store) was close to my office, Banh Mi So (the jewelry store place) was good, Paris Sandwich was oookay but lacked SOUL… and then i found Ba Xuyen in sunset park. I’m really hesistant to blow up this spot any further, cause seriously, they serve the BOMB banh mi. I only hope the 40min subway ride will keep all you other foodies from crowding it up and buying all the grilled pork sandwiches before i get there!!


Ahh, the perfect sandwich. smear of pate, generous spread of homemade mayo, gratuitous fillings of headcheese, cha lua, godknowswhatelse, all topped off with perfectly pickled daikon & carrot. Finished off with cilantro and stuffed in a crispy and light baguette. Gimme a jackfruit shake and i’m golden!

Anyhoo, you can see how passionate I am about my banh mi. So when we got to Vietnam, I was pretty determined to find some damn good banh mi.


First attempt at banh mi was in Pham Ngu Lao (backpacker’s district) of Saigon. It was quite good, the bread was an appropriate ratio of light crust to bread innards. The fillings were a little meager tho. But of course this is Vietnam and apparently thats they way a banh mi should be. And for 20,000 VND (~$1.12 USD), can’t really complain. It seems the banh mi in Vietnam all come wrapped in recycled paper. Dunno what this paper was about.


Second attempt at banh mi in Pham Ngu Lao. This banh mi lady offered a much better sandwich. The bread was nice and crispy and this banh mi offered the additional green onion and pork floss. Yum!


Paired with a nice ca phe sua (ice coffee with milk), its a perfect lunch.


The best banh mi I had in Vietnam was acquired on a street corner in Nha Trang. And I’m not just saying this because the photography is the best! (thanks adrian) Look for this vendor! This banh mi was way better than the others because of the bread. It was superbly crispy, comprised of almost all crust! So light and the perfect wrapping for tasty banh mi fillings. Didn’t hurt that this banh mi lady had a toaster in her cart. Also, this particular sandwich, wrapped in Microsoft installation instructions, had plenty of pork floss and some kind of ground meat in sauce topping. AMAZING.

So in conclusion, the best banh mi? I feel like its hypocrisy saying this.. but… BA XUYEN! I guess i like my sandwiches big and beefy (err, porky). and brooklyn style.

The Porkchop Express has a fantastic banh mi guide for NYC, go get schooled.

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20
Oct 09

Cheeto Love!

You know when you move to a new place and you find that there is one thing you really really miss and obsess over? When we moved to SF it was smarties and Old Dutch ketchup chips. (always gotta pick up some of these things when i’m in the motherland, ay) Then when i made it over to NYC it was flamin’ hot cheetos & mom’s tamales.

Now that i’m in China, its just cheetos in general. All they have here is “milk” and “bbq” flavored crap that has no semblance at all to the crunchy, artificial-cheese powder coated stick of magic we’ve all come to know and love.

But apparently its not just China… Asia is pretty much a cheeto fail across the board. What the hell is this crap?


cheeto fail thailand


cheeto fail vietnam


My friend pelle was kind enough to bring Swedish cheez doodles with him when he came to visit the hai. Yummy! But something was still missing….


Finally, straight outta the states! You can find me in the corner covered in orange powder. Later!