Sau Sanh @ Binh Duong , Vietnam

Traveling by road around Binh Duong area, it was close to lunch time , Ms Host asked ‘ Do you take beef ?’ I nodded and that was how it all started….

Sau Sanh was a shop by the side of the dusty road, which made good sense that the utensils were kept under wraps

After taking our seats, ordering took place and a stove, tea cups , plates of vegetables and bowls were brought to our table..

Plates laden with the chewy, non-chewy, the soft, the hard part of the moo moo..were delivered to our table

Don’t these beef tripe ( stomach) looked beautiful and inviting ?

Part of the ingredients to preparing a beef-wrap…green star fruit and something that look like some green lemon/ citrus peel

First – wet a piece of rice paper to soften it, then take a piece of star fruit/ citrus peel, add some piece of basil leaves plus some other greens. Choose a piece of beef/ section of the moo moo that you fancy, then roll ‘em up like you would when preparing spring roll and there you have it. Oh, I forgot, dip the roll in the sauce and enjoy ! The verdict : Yummy…This is why i love traveling !

Then they brought the soup..large cubes of congealed jellied cow blood were dominating in the tasty broth ..

First…Take a few pieces of uncoo

Dip the raw beef into the soup for a few minutes..and there you have it..yummy..the beef were chewy yet tender…nice

In the midst of the rolling of the beefy spring rolls, cooking the beef..a lottery seller came by and Tuan  took out a few lottery tickets from his wallet and begin to check them against the results. Tuan was lucky, he won 100,000 VND ( ~ RM15) and but instead of getting the cash, he decided to use that to exchange a few lottery tickets

I was given two of the tickets to try my luck.  First prize was 1,500,000,000 VND , which is about RM 220,500..wish me luck !!

Grilled beef..these were juicy, thick and very tasty. These were pretty basic cooking, but it worked and brought out the beefy flavour and texture. Some of the pieces were quite large and took a bit of jaw work but well, who is complaining ?

I think I haven’t had so much beef/ part of the cow in a meal before..but well, who is complaining !

err.. i think the cows/ cattle might be complaining

Dar Her Yuen大和園 @ Binh Duong, Vietnam

Was in Ho Chi Minh for a short working trip, the first day of arrival was  a long day, I was looking anxiously at my watch and hoping that we could stop the discussion soon, as it was already 8pm ( and 9pm in KL , which meant that my feeding time was long overdue ). Finally, the last question was asked and discussed and then we set off for dinner. Huraaahhhh

Before we drove into the compound of the restaurant, I remembered that our host had brought us there before and of course I was pleased as I have had a pleasant dining experience here. Read about the previous visit here.

For the appetizer we were served pickled cabbage, luckily ( for me) this was not the full fledge kimchi  but a milder version of it, the cabbage were crispy , a bit sourish and tinge of chili powderDeep fried prawns – the prawns came with plenty of garnishing –garlic, spring onions, dried chili and the potent chili padi. The prawns were fried to a crisp and the flavour from the garnishing had penetrated the prawns which made this so flavourful and yummy, the garnishing was very good to eat too, until one bite into the chili padi and start a coughing fit Deep fried  tofu –crispy on the outside and smooth soft tofu on the inside, not sure what the sauce was but we guess to be fish paste.Vegetable with scallops- I am not sure what the vegetable is, seemed to be something from the gourd or melon family, the vegetable came with scallops and black fungus, the sweetness of the scallops adds to the enjoyment of the dish.Grilled cuttlefish – the grilled cuttlefish were sprinkled with pepper and salt, taste wise, this works but sadly the cuttlefish was a bit chewyBeef fillets on skewers- the beef was well marinated and the addition of the vegetable rolled between the fillets made the whole thing chewy plus a bit of a crunchiness which was good.Seafood hot pot – in the pot were prawns, fishballs, mussels, cuttlefish , tofu and vegetable, this was served with noodles, the soup base  was slightly sourish which was a change from the hot pot we get back in KL, but interestingly, the soup works with noodles or the rice.Overall, an enjoyable meal- Ms Host commented that the dishes that we had were more closely reflecting a Chinese version  rather  than Vietnamese.

Location : (not far from the Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park ( VSIP)

11A, Binh Duong, Lai Thieu,

Tel : 06500371888

Nha Hang 18 @ Binh Doung , Vietnam

After visiting a particularly difficult customer, everyone cheered up when we drove into the compound of Nha Hang 18 for lunch. There were a few individual ‘huts’ with attap roof where you can dine in private , but all of these were  taken, so we had to settle for a bigger hut with a  ‘common’ eating place

The first dish that arrived was a plateful of steamed /boiled vegetable that  came  with a pungent smelling sauce which was later explained as fish sauce plus sugar. My thought process was ‘huh ? eating at a restaurant, and we are having steamed vege ?’ but surprise surprise- this was kinda good, I didn’t know that steamed/boiled vege can taste so good one ler, the ladies fingers were deliciously tender and sweet, cabbages, lettuce and the best kick was from the tiny bittergourds, there were sooooo bitter and one can’t help but cringed while bitting into it. The sauce went really well with the vege.  

Pork ribs cooked with some kinda sauce, the pork ribs were deep fried so that they were a bit crunchy but yet the meat were not dry or tough, I can’t make out the gravy though – a bit oyster sauce maybe, with a bit of chili and fish sauce most probably   but bottom line was – it was delicious

 

Fried rice – rice with bits of corn, carrots, spring onions etc – this was kinda dry, rather bland really.

 

Vegetable soup – I think I had vegetable soup for lunch almost everyday, must be a Vietnamese thing, but no complaints

 

Hot plate tofu – don’t let this dish deceive you, inside the foil compartment, underneath the 3 different types of mushroom , slices of capsicum and prawns…were some Japanese tofu- the mushrooms were the decoy, I guess. This dish came with some crispy noodles , the idea being – fill  your bowl with some crispy noodles, scoop the mushrooms ( plus tofu- if you can find them) and gravy into said bowl and let the gravy soften the noodles. This was not bad.

If you would like to read more about Nha Hang, you can visit their website by clicking   here , the location map and contact is here  

After lunch, I was whisked to the airport …and look what I found in my knapsack

 

 Err…as if I didn’t know that was in my knapsack lah, said banana was nicked from the breakfast buffet spread