Saigon eats: Chilli salt prawns

Liz / / No Comments

Chilli salt prawns have to be one of my favourite Vietnamese dishes sampled so far. I had this dish for the first time at the excellent Quan An Ngon – a Saigon must-do (a collection of the country’s best street vendors all stationed in one indoor/outdoor restaurant with a colonial building in the centre – it’s amazing).

The above picture was taken at a local seafood restaurant we went to recently called Bon Thien. The prawns were coated in a spicy chilli salt mixture and grilled, which made eating the shell essential to take in the flavour. We also dipped the prawns in a mixture of pepper, salt and lime juice for an even greater flavour boost (not that they needed it!).

Is this Saigon’s best value meal?

Liz / / 3 Comments

Ok, it’s not a 12,000 dong bowl of noodle soup at Tan Dinh market (my local – and yes, that is a bargain!), or any other cheap Vietnamese treat, but a 195,000 dong set menu at French restaurant Ty Coz. Specifically, an authentic and delicious 3-course French meal of substantial serving size for around US$12!

Ty Coz is homely and quaint with a French seaside cottage feel – well, as much as you can imagine in a skinny, multi-storey, concrete Vietnamese building. Tucked down an alley off Pasteur (behind Au Parc Cafe) it’s the kind of place you can have a raucous group dinner with screaming baby in tow and no-one seems to mind (perfect!). The owners are really friendly and happy to explain the specials in both French and English.

The specialty is mussels (moules) and there are lots of flavours to choose from, with variations on the cream and white wine theme plus others like curry or blue cheese. I couldn’t resist the great value set menu and opted for a tuna pancake (galette), followed by mussels with a garlic/white wine/cream sauce and a lemon tart for dessert. The pancake was a thin, wholemeal crepe filled with chunks of tender tuna and vegetables – a healthy, wholesome choice. The mussels were accompanied by a bowl of delicious frites and were beautifully cooked, while the lemon tart was the best I’ve ever eaten – light, fresh and equally sweet and sour.

For real, hearty French cuisine, value for money, great service and an unpretentious, fun atmosphere, Ty Coz is the perfect dinner destination.

Ty Coz, 178/4 Pasteur Street, D1, Saigon

Hoi An: Sweet escape

Liz / / 2 Comments

For those with a sweet tooth, Vietnam offers much temptation with its myriad baked goods – cakes, donuts, breads, tarts, croissants, baguettes, mousses and more are readily available. There’s no doubt the French influenced this trend, though Vietnamese people have an obvious penchant for sugar – you should see how much condensed milk goes into a local-style coffee!

During our recent stay in Hoi An we paid a visit (or two..or was it three?) to Cargo Club. A busy, bustling, multi-storey tourist haven, it seems a bit overrun – and it is, but for good reason. The dessert counter offers a luscious array of sweets made fresh in their onsite bakery, from a cashew-laden caramel tart to a decadent chocolate mousse.
One rainy afternoon we tucked into these almost-so-big-they-were-sickening cakes – one white chocolate kahlua, the other double chocolate. Meanwhile, rain pelted down just outside the doorway and people waded and cycled through the flooded streets as the river had broken its banks – definitely a good day for an indoor coffee and cake.
Cargo Club & Patisserie, 107-109 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street, Hoi An

In search of sustenance: third time lucky

Liz / / 1 Comment

In search of something delicious, inspiring and new for Sunday lunch, we ventured to a recently opened Moroccan-themed eatery called Casbah in Saigon’s District 1 (59 Nguyen Du Street – the last right turn off Dong Khoi before the cathedral).

Upon arrival it seemed to check all the right boxes – cool, hidden entryway down a little laneway, cute Moroccan decor (though it’s obviously trying to emulate the more authentic and upscale Warda), different nooks and crannies divided by beaded curtains and Arabesque window cut-outs in which to lounge… however the menu seemed a little suss with its bizarre mix of Asian dishes and Middle Eastern ones.
We should have taken this as a sign the food would be less than inspiring.  We ordered hommus with bread, falafel and tabouli – the hommus was basically a too-small amount of the dip smeared on a plate with a few triangles of bread. The tabouli was actually couscous with a bit of parsley and a few other things mixed through it – not tabouli at all. The falafels were a little better, though came with a dip that tasted just like mayonnaise mixed with chilli sauce, kind of like a spicy version of thousand island dressing.
The food was a major letdown, but the space is really cute and I would go back for a drink instead. Perhaps it’s better viewed as a loungey bar.
So…still hungry and unsatisfied we thought we’d try a cheap Vietnamese place back down on street level called Banh Cuon LA – a chain restaurant in the style of a Pho 24 or Wrap & Roll (which I love – have been going to the branch on Hai Ba Trung alot!) – but specialising in rice paper rolls.
We had the cha gio (prawn and crab spring rolls, fried) and rice paper rolls containing shredded pork, which actually turned out to be some kind of pork sausage instead. The flavour was ok but the rolls were quite greasy, and the cha gio were nowhere near as nice as they are elsewhere.
Refusing to accept that two mediocre lunches would suffice we thought we’d head to Au Parc in search of dessert. Finally – a winner! Au Parc is a favourite already (it seems like Saigon’s version of our favourite Phnom Penh cafe – The Shop), with its colonial shophouse setting, good western cafe fare and importantly, excellent desserts! We had the Chocolate Nemisis Cake – cool name, brilliant cake – almost like chocolate fudge. The perfect cure for my ‘disappointing food experiences/can’t find a good place to rent/the ATM swallowed my card/I’m living in a little hotel room/I don’t know where anything is/I feel lost’ Saigon blues! 

 

Image courtesy Nick Leonard

Cafe crush: La Fenetre Soleil

Liz / / 9 Comments

I was just in Saigon for a few days and spent much time checking out the cafes. One of my favourites was La Fenetre Soleil – not as much for the food (there’s not too much to choose from apart from fried snacks and some desserts) but its eclectic Parisian style décor. With wooden floorboards, exposed brick walls, a super high ceiling and massive French glass doors, the space is dramatic in scale with a grungy European feel. Mismatched vintage furniture, a crystal chandelier and a massive vase of birds of paradise complete the look.

La Fenetre Soleil’s drinks menu is a drawcard – the spicy ginger juice is delicious and there’s a selection of teas made with fresh ingredients (like mint and lemongrass). Despite its dingy stairway entrance (though it kind of adds to the charm) I wish La Fenetre Soleil was my own apartment!

La Fenetre Soleil, 2nd Floor, 135 Le Thanh Ton, D1, Saigon

A new place for a dim sum fix

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On the weekend I tried out the dim sum at the newly opened Yi Sang restaurant at Almond Hotel, another Luu Meng venture (the guy behind Malis, Topaz, Cafe Sentiment and more). Compared to the city’s only other dim sum restaurant (that I know of, and not counting the InterCon) – Sam Doo – the restaurant looked more like a ‘real’ dim sum place yet sadly, minus the trolleys.

The dishes were really cheap (between US$2 and US$3 a basket) and the barbeque pork buns and prawn dumplings definitely hit the spot. Unfortunately though a few things we tried to order (like the barbeque pork in rice noodle rolls) were greeted with the dreaded ‘no have’. We also ordered some sesame balls which strangely didn’t appear though the waitress kept saying they were five minutes away. In the end we just cancelled them.

With the bill for seven of us working out at less than US$6 a head for a dim sum feast and copious amounts of Chinese green tea in a clean, spanking new setting, it now makes me question why we spend so much more in some of Phnom Penh’s grottier old Chinese diners!

Image via Almond H0tel

Vanilla Garden: Dim sum and then some

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A peek into Sauce bookshop at Vanilla Garden
A mask display brightens up the garden

In a similar 3-in-1 setup to Spring-Summer-Winter, Vanilla Garden in Bangkok’s Ekkamai neighbourhood houses a bookshop, dim sum restaurant and retro-themed Japanese cafe in a funky little garden setting. I first read about this place on food/travel/photography/lifestyle blog Primitive Culture and knew straight away that I’d love it!

We’ve now visited twice (so far) – the first time to have one of our all-time favourite foods (dim sum) in the Royal Vanilla restaurant, then again to check out Vanilla Cafe. And both times to peruse the bookshop, Sauce, which is design and food book oriented and conducive to browsing (I could stay there all day).

The dim sum restaurant is mod and black inside, a contemporary take on an old-world Chinese teahouse. The menu consists of a sheet of tick boxes where you select from either dim sum or other Chinese dishes (like roast duck or fried soft shell crab). We stuck with the dim sum, which was around 50 to 70 baht a basket. The ha-kau (prawn dumplings) and steamed rolls with roasted duck were our favourites.

Over at Vanilla Cafe (on a separate day that is!), we ate some delicious prawn sushi, nicely cooked gyoza and some not so inspiring miso chicken (too fatty and lacking the charcoal taste of the same dish we recently ate at Ootoya). The cafe’s furniture and decor were highlights though – 70s wooden furniture with Japanese comics and retro/vintage toys on display.


Now if only someone in Phnom Penh would latch onto this ‘three cool establishments in one’ concept – the closest thing I can think of is Elsewhere’s pool, bar and clothing shop!

A walk on the cakeside

Liz / / No Comments

 

I’ve been indulging (again) in one of the few remaining vices suitable for a 39 weeks and 5 days pregnant chick – cake – this time at princessy pink and white sugar shrine Cakewalk.

With fanciful wedding cakes on display (think innovative and stylish rather than traditional and tacky…mostly!) and a cabinet full of individual servings of luscious cake and mousse concoctions to entice, there’s also a flat screen television tuned to Fashion TV (what else?!), lace umbrella-like light fixtures and clear perspex chairs completing the scene.

The three cakes we tried were each rich and delicious – an earl grey chocolate mousse (with bonus chocolatey bits on top), banana cake with a crunchy toffee lid and chocolate strawberry ‘tuxedo’ cake (so named as it’s topped with a tuxedo-wearing strawberry, naff but yum!).

Bangkokians really know how to create unique cafe interiors and whip up amazing desserts too…a sweet match.

Katsu-don with a side of character

Liz / / 1 Comment
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Great Japanese restaurants abound in Bangkok, but Thonglor eatery Sendai Ramen Mokkori has a little something extra in the form of a very exuberant staff member. We’ve affectionately dubbed him ‘crazy yelling man’, and yell he does – every time someone enters or exits the restaurant he excitedly yells out a greeting or farewell at the top of his lungs. As for the food itself, dishes including ramen noodle soup, yaki-tori with curry sauce and comforting katsu-don make for a tasty and cheap – albeit noisy – dining experience.