Ngo Gia @ Bihn Phouc, Vietnam

I was told the night before that we will have a longer drive today, the driver will pick me up at an earlier time tomorrow. As Vietnam time is one hour later than Malaysia, psychologically- a 7:30 pick up time meant that it was already 8:30 in Malaysia, so, it was nothing to worry about, the only worrying thing was how to cross the sea of motorbikes to get to the car parked across the road…helppppp….

This was the first time that I was staying at the Vien Dong Hotel at Pham Ngu Lao Street. Apart from the traffic jams on this road, the hotel faced a park and I found out the hard way that Vietnamese are early risers- even at an unheavenly hour of 4:30a.m the park was already busy with people, and some announcement / music over the loudspeaker, not to mention the honking tour busses that use this as a stop to pick up the passengers. Although the room was huge, modern and comfy, if was not soundproof and I could hear the traffic, honks and music from across the Park, The road that the hotel is at is the centre of the touristy area- to me, this is a place to avoid !

The road outside my room by day

By night

Anyway, back to the subject of food….after a few visits to the customers in Bihn Phouc – which I learned from Wikipedia – a province in Vietnam , located in the southeastern region of the country ,  to the north of  Ho Chi Minh City and It shares a border with Cambodia..It was time for lunch and after some discussion amongst my two host, from the main road we drove into a small lane which expend later into a resort-like environment complete with attap huts

A small lily pot next to the chicken coop..

First dish ,  this was something like stewed fish ( if I was not mistaken, it was something like the cat fish) with fatty pork. An interesting combination – mixing pork with fish but happy to note that it worked ! the dish was cooked in some black sauce plus a heavy dose of  pepper and chilies , taste wise- kinda sweetish with a tinge of spiciness. The fish was fresh and smooth and the pork was fat and tender. Nice  combination !

Steamed / blanched vegetable- I am not sure what sort of vegetable this was- maybe pumpkin shoots ? it was soft, not too heavy on the ‘greenish’ flavour, the Vietnamese were dipping this into the chili sauce before eating it, but I prefer it as it isThere was a fish pond beside our ‘hut’.. peaceful and Zen-ish..while we enjoy our lunch

Grilled pork – The cooking method was very basic, which brought out the rawness ( not in terms of the meat being raw but meant that as in err..simplistic) and wholesomeness of the meat, some of the pieces were really too tough for me, it was either to just forget the chewing and swallowing them whole  , or consider defeat and leave them partially chewed on the table..But I have to admit these were good. If I was eating these at home, I could use my hand and tear at the meat like a ferocious hyena

Fish in soup with bamboo shoots. There were tons of crispy bamboo shoot slices in the soup  and I think this was part of the same fish that was used in the fish stew.

Overall, an interesting meal.. and oh, sorry to report that I  didn’t win any money from the lottery. Although Ms T did win something and exchange the winning ticket with more lotteries and distributed that around the table..so, I have another chance at winning the big prize tonight

Location

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

Vietnam House @ Ho Chi Minh

Touch down in Ho Chi Minh….phheewww…the usual large sea of motorbikes…

The hosts booked me into Vien Dong Hotel…@ USD80/nights inclusive of breakfast, while we were at the lobby..we were entertained by musicians and dancers..oh oh..this definitely smelled of a tourist hotel !

I was asked what I would like to have for dinner..Ah, surely Vietnamese Food mahhh ! The driver dropped us off at  Vietnamese House . Soft lights, red napkins, wine bottles and all…

For drinks , I ordered a young coconut. I don’t think they expect me to eat the coconut as they didn’t give me a spoon to do the scraping..

For starters, we had Vietnam House Sampler (VNM 129,000). Pork pie : the texture was like steamed egg with meat,  the pie didn’t  taste very porky-ish but was light and quite enjoyable. Papaya salad : this didn’t pack as much a punch as as the Thai version of som-tam. Fried spring roll : This came not mounted on the customary sugar cane stick but was yummy as usual. Charboiled Beef in ‘Lot’ leaves: Initially I thought the black covering was seaweed, turned out to be some kinda leaf, from my internet search Lot leaf = wild betel leaf, the leaf didn’t have much flavour which allow the flavour of the beef to shine through> this is my favourite amongst the four starters.

Pan fried shrimps and green rice raviolis (119,000 VND) : this was a pretty dish and am happy to report that this taste as good as it looked. The shrimp paste had that strong sweet flavour of shrimp and the texture soft yet firm. Can’t find any fault with this.

Clam in lemongrass – ah..the soup had the subtle light fragrant of lemongrass , this was simple, fresh and nice..

We had progressed with dinner although the Big Boss was caught in the Ho Chi Minh jam and had not yet arrived, so at this point, the waitress was asked to slow down the serving of the dishes…. ahh finally…Madam Boss had arrived and the dishes continue to fill our table..

Steam Grouper in bean paste : There were a lot of garnishing  ( and bean paste) on the grouper that they almost seemed to drowned the fish…I was worried that the bean paste would make the fish over salty but luckily this was not the case. Due to the long wait for Madam Boss, the fish was slightly over cooked, which made the meat a bit tough, which was a pity as the fish was fresh and would have been smooth and sweet

Sautéed morning glory with garlic ( 69,000 VND)  : fried garlic were sprinkled on sautéed kangkong, this was a bit too plain and the KangKong was a bit over chewy.

Bittergourd soup with shrimp balls :   thinly sliced bitterguoards and tasty shrimp balls. The broth was nothing to shout about though

Fried rice in lotus leaf : I couldn’t  taste any infusion of the flavours from the leaf into the rice and I wasn’t sure was it due to our delay in getting the food on our table that result in the rice being a bit dry and the meat a bit tough and ‘old’ . This was so-so for me

Overall, an interesting meal

Website : http://www.vietnamhousesaigon.com/home/en.html

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