Date night in Saigon #2 (Vino, Gia Dining Room & Cage)

Liz / / 5 Comments

First venue on our 2nd (on the blogging record) date was Vino – a cute little wine shop with a bar situated in The Refinery, the former opium den turned eating and drinking enclave accessed through a French colonial archway on Hai Ba Trung. A few glasses of a Shiraz Voignier in the leafy, tiny front courtyard and the evening was off to a great start. Vino is so low-key and gorgeous I think it’s my new favourite (I know, it changes all the time – I can be fickle like that!).

For dinner, we headed to new restaurant Gia Dining Room. A relatively small, contemporary bedecked space, Gia Dining Room serves up modern Vietnamese fare and French-influenced dishes with some great seafood and delicious duck with fresh green peppercorns (mmm…). Despite it being a Saturday night the restaurant was strangely devoid of customers. By the end of our meal we were actually the only people left in the room. Either Saigonites eat really early or the word just isn’t really out yet about how great this little place is (despite a review being featured in AsiaLIFE HCMC recently). Anyway – Gia Dining Room is well worth a visit if you happen to be in Saigon (and it’s great value for money – fine dining at a modest price!). Sold yet?! Wow, I should be on commission or something!

Moving on… time to sample some Saigon nightlife at Cage, a club and live music venue decorated with (you guessed it) elaborate bird cages with chandeliers inside. We had a few drinks but I think it was a little early or an off night as no-one had braved the dancefloor by the time we left. The funniest thing about Cage is the namebadges the staff wear, which flash ”Hello” in neon. So Saigon!
Romance factor: 9/10 (intimate Vino, chic Gia Dining Room and fun(ny) Cage were the perfect dateworthy combo)
Food factor: 8/10 (delicious baked scallops in a delicate cream sauce were a highlight, and our steak and duck mains were amazing. Points lost as nothing very unique or enticing on the dessert menu!)
Fun Factor: 9/10 (an overall great date and a reminder of Saigon’s stylish side – it does have one, promise!)

Restless…

Liz / / 15 Comments

I’m feeling restless at the moment. I can’t help wondering why I always want to be somewhere else. When living in Sydney all I wanted to do was move to Asia. Towards the end of my time living in Phnom Penh, I couldn’t wait to move on to bigger, brighter Saigon. Once in Saigon, memories of Phnom Penh wouldn’t stop resurfacing and everything here seemed not quite as great (at first – these thoughts eventually went away, replaced with the occasional bout of Cambodia nostalgia). Thoughts of Sydney also emerge now and then – would life be better back at ‘home’? And what about other places? My Bangkok obsession has never really subsided and I often wonder if we should live there next instead of returning to Oz. And I just know that when the day comes (which is yet to be determined) when we move back to Sydney, I’ll be pining for Asia and comparing everything and wishing I was still there. And complaining how expensive everything is! Maybe this is the eternal dilemma of all those who venture outside their comfort zones to live in new places, and fall in and out of love with places along the way. For now – I’m physically settled in Saigon, but my mind refuses to stay put.

Cafe Crush: Orchidee

Liz / / 2 Comments

Orchidee is a light and bright little hideaway down the same alleyway as La Camargue restaurant (off Hai Ba Trung, across the road from Tous Les Jours bakery). It offers the perfect pitstop when exploring Hai Ba Trung’s shops, and serves great iced coffees and ice-cream in martini glasses.


The ground floor feels a little like a cubbyhouse with its rounded windows and colourful stools. If a citrus colour theme isn’t your taste (and I can’t say I love the ‘tropical’ lime/yellow/orange combo) head upstairs to the cute terrace where orchid motifs decorate the cushions and chairs.

Go for: Sweet relief to escape the Saigon-sun mid-shopping spree/street exploration
Not for: The ultimate Saigon cafe experience – more of a cute and convenient pitstop than the next La Fenetre Soleil (this might be more of a short-term cafe crush than a full-blown love affair!)
Orchidee, 195B Hai Ba Trung, D3 (nb:it’s down an alley, not actually on Hai Ba Trung…this is just their address….gotta love Saigon addresses!)

Guest post on Ever the Nomad

Liz / / 1 Comment


A guest post I’ve written on Saigon has been published on cool travel blog, Ever the Nomad (am feeling a bit like a one-girl cheer squad for Saigon right now!).

Ever the Nomad is a blog by Anja Mutic, a Croatian born travel writer, photographer and globetrotter extraordinaire who has called Brooklyn home for the last 10 years. She makes a living from flitting around the globe updating guidebooks, writing for travel publications and making short travel films for Lonely Planet TV (jealous? me??!). Anja’s blog is worth checking out for the other guest posts, accounts of her travels and cool bits of New York (like photos of street art) – pretty inspiring!

Date night in Saigon #1 (Warda, K Cafe & O’Brien’s)

Liz / / 8 Comments


As promised (or at least vaguely conjured up) earlier, here’s the first in what could be a mini-series of ‘date nights’ in Saigon. Before you get all excited and think it’s some kind of Sex in the City-like analysis of Saigon’s single scene, said date and future dates are with my lovely husband!

So, first date on the record was not so planned in terms of venues – it was more of an on a whim, ”where shall we go next?” kind of thing. First up, we went to Middle Eastern bar and restaurant Warda for some drinks and mezze. The ground floor was busy but not too much so, and we were able to get a bench seat near the bar. Our shared mezze (dips, breads, olives, feta, tabouli…) was huge for a supposed pre-dinner snack and the cocktails (rose martini, favourite) went down well. Warda proved a fun place for people watching – the other patrons in the bar area were all Vietnamese, including a group of giggling 20-something girls in suits trying a shisha pipe for maybe the first time, and a businessman with his glamazon, modelesque girlfriend draped all over him. Don’t you just love people watching?!
Next, it was onto dinner at K Cafe, a Japanese restaurant with a not very Japanese-sounding name, but nonetheless a long running and popular spot. There are always lots of Japanese people there – an excellent sign! We decided to sit at the sushi bar (I have a thing about sitting at sushi bars) to see the chefs in action, and ordered beers and lots of dishes to share including spicy tuna rolls, soft shell crabs, scallop gyozas and salmon sashimi. A guy who was acting like the owner was sitting nearby and tried to insist we have dessert (“it’s free!”) but after a huge Middle Eastern spread then dinner we’d had enough.
But there was still room for more drinks! Next door to K Cafe is a bar called O’Brien’s, which for some reason neither of us had ever been to. We decided to check it out and found a small, cosy, exposed brick wall pub with a sports bar meets dive bar vibe. The air was a little smoky, the music very 90s and the crowd a mixed bag of young guys ordering burgers, old guys wearing shorts and t-shirts (so un-Saigon!) and generic people sitting at the bar. Not really my thing. Kind of boring. But we stayed for a drink anyway and it turned out to be a fun place to sit and talk – really unpretentious. And speaking of unpretentious I really should have ordered beer as they make the worst martini ever!

So…how did the date fare?
Romance factor: 6/10 (points deducted for non-dateworthy O’Brien’s)
Food factor: 8.5/10 (K Cafe has fantastic sashimi and I highly recommend the scallop gyozas. Actually pretty much everything we’ve ever tried there has been great)
Fun factor: 8/10 (definitely more of a casual night but lots of fun, conducive to good eats and good chats – even at O’Briens)

More from the market…

Liz / / 5 Comments


Ok, my latest market hauls are starting to get ridiculous! For what you get for the price I mean, and the freshness and tastiness of the produce. I posted a while back about what US$1 will get you at a market in Saigon and since then, I’ve been more and more overwhelmed at the amazing array of fresh food I can buy at such a great price – this despite the fact my local coffee shop owner insists I’m being totally ripped off!! The other day, I bought the following for the grand total of US$3.50:

  • 4 potatoes
  • 1 sweet potato
  • 5 passionfruit
  • 4 tomatoes
  • 1 green capsicum
  • bunch of shallots
  • bunch of coriander
  • 1 small pumpkin
  • 2 big carrots
  • 1 eggplant
  • 6 limes
  • handful of green beans
  • 1 expertly carved whole pineapple
Most have been devoured already – I roasted most of the vegetables in a dressing (olive oil, balsamic, dijon mustard, garlic, dried thyme/rosemary/basil, salt, Cambodian pepper and a squeeze of lime) and the fruit has mostly been used up in breakfast smoothies. Now why am I sometimes so lazy I order pizza for dinner I wonder…maybe I should print this out and stick it on the fridge!

Things I take for granted (Saigon vs. Sydney)

Liz / / 14 Comments

Living in another country means you’re constantly comparing. Living in Saigon (and in Asia in general) there are some things that are better than home, yet have quickly become a normal part of life (and totally taken for granted!). On the flipside, living here highlights all the things I miss about home. Here’s what I’ve realised I take for granted, both here (in Saigon) and at ‘home’ (in Sydney):


I take for granted in Saigon:

  • Metred taxis – yes, taxis exist in most places (except the Penh!), but in Saigon, they’re cheap enough to use as your daily mode of transport. Can you imagine catching a taxi several times a day in Sydney(!) – to work and back, to go shopping, to go out at night and back? Most mere mortals in Sydney use taxis for getting home from a late night out only. It’s a luxury, not a given. One day I’ll be living in Sydney again, schlepping to the train station to wait for my half an hour late train, wishing I could just flag down a Mai Linh or Vinasun and go somewhere for $2!
  • Hired help – without wanting to sound like a total expat w@nker, having people clean your house (or drive you around, cook your dinner, watch your kids, clean your pool and tend your garden, if you want to get really carried away as some do) is a definite perk of living in Saigon and one that quickly turns from novelty to normal (and it is a normal part of life here – most Vietnamese people have some form of domestic help too, it’s not just an expat thing). Anyway, have to remind self that one day, bathroom won’t magically clean self!
  • Things being cheap – in Saigon, most things are much cheaper than at home (except imported western things that can actually cost much more). Haircuts, pedicures and massages are all highly affordable. Eating out can be cheaper than cooking at home and DVDs can be had for less than $1. All kinds of shopping bargains can be found, and there are tailors on hand to whip up copies of whatever you like. All of this is something that makes living in Asia highly enjoyable and highly addictive – enough to make many turn their back on their home country in favour of their amazing lifestyle (tempting, but I know I’ll move home some day).
I take for granted in Sydney:
  • Drinkable tap water – I’m so used to bottled water now that it feels strange to drink out of a tap when visiting Australia. Until you travel or live in Asia you really do take for granted that you can trust what comes out of your tap.
  • Electricity – another bare basic but one that’s not always reliable in some parts of the world. I barely remember any power cuts happening in Australia but here they happen at least once a month. Most annoying is when it dawns on you that you’re totally reliant on the internet/tv/air-conditioner etc. and wish you were a simpler being that didn’t need such things.
  • Footpaths – specifically, clear footpaths you can actually walk along. Ones that aren’t covered in parked motorbikes and people sitting on stools and roosters in cages (not making this up, this was seen on the footpath round the corner a few days ago). I must admit that after living in Phnom Penh the footpath situation in Saigon is a major improvement, but it’s nothing like the sprawling oases of concrete found in Sydney.
  • Diversity and multiculturalism – sure, there are people from all over the world living in Saigon and there are restaurants of lots of ethnicities, but it’s just not the same as it is at home. In Sydney there are entire suburbs that feel like a ‘Little’ somewhere (favourites include Haberfield (Italian), Petersham (Portuguese), Auburn (Turkish), Bankstown (Lebanese & Vietnamese – hang on, I live in Vietnam…). My excursions to other worlds only a short train ride away are one of the things I miss about Sydney. Although I’m living in another world now. But it’s just one kind instead of a million different kinds, if you get what I mean.
I’m sure if I racked my brain I could come up with many more things I take for granted in both cities, but these are the ones that spring straight to mind. It’s interesting that the Saigon list contains luxuries, while the Sydney list mostly features necessities (if you call access to authentic Portuguese chicken burgers necessities, like I do!).
So…thoughts? Ideas? What do you take for granted where you live?

Hanoi Eats: Bun Cha Dac Kim

Liz / / 8 Comments

If you’re ever in Hanoi and looking for somewhere local and authentic to eat, I highly recommend Bun Cha Dac Kim! Crammed, cramped and crazy, the small but multi-storied eatery packs in hungry hordes all there for one reason – their fantastic bun cha!

What is bun cha you’re wondering? Think a clear yet tasty soup, to which you add rice noodles, piles of fresh green herbs, succulent pieces of grilled pork and flavoursome pork mince patties, plus chilli, garlic and other condiments galore, should it not be a tasty enough concoction. Together, the flavours and textures are simply amazing. A side of spring rolls are served with the bun cha, with the casing around Dac Kim’s version akin to pastry – think an Aussie sausage roll…but better!

Bun Cha Dac Kim’s open air kitchen
For more on bun cha, here’s a gushy ode to the delicious dish I just came across: The Bun Cha Obsession. I can see why all the fuss – it really is that good!
Bun Cha Dac Kim, 1 Hang Manh Street, Old Quarter, Hanoi

A couple of cool blogs

Liz / / 5 Comments

My Google Reader subscriptions are getting out of hand… I now have so many great blogs I subscribe to that I spend way too much time reading them all! I follow blogs on fashion, writing, design, food, media and travel, including some others of the ‘girl in Asia’ genre, like ‘Bali Beach Bunny’ and ‘Lost in Translation’ – two cool blogs I’ve recently become acquainted with.

Bali Beach Bunny is written by a girl in her mid-20s who is embarking on a very jealousy-inducing venture – opening her own cafe in Bali with her boss-turned-boyfriend (sounds like a novel in the making!). Her blog is a window into her new life and setting up a business in Bali from scratch. I’m looking forward to seeing how it all comes to be and following her adventures along the way.
Lost in Translation is by a girl named Viv from Montreal. She recently spent a year living in Seoul but is now living back in Montreal – remembering all the quirks and cool things about living in Asia, but also posting on her new life at home and pop culture bits and pieces. Lost in Translation is her favourite movie (one of mine too!) and her experiences in Seoul are very Scarlett Johansson’s Charlotte!
I wonder what else is out there I’m yet to discover?!