Vietnam Saga: Street Food, Rewarding Experience

To me and to many people I met in South-East Asia, Vietnamese cuisine is the best. It is, really. Not only is it super tasty, but also varied and spectacular. They cook almost everything on Earth and everything in their hands becomes delicious. Probably even rats, but I was not that curious.

  

Nha Trang Beach, Vietnam - Ladies selling grilled seafood.

Nha Trang Beach - Bliss!

447 km North of Saigon. Best beach in Vietnam. 1 hour by plane (~$100), 8 hours by train ($15), 10 hours by sleeper bus ($10) from HCMC. But it is worth the trouble:

Some say it's overrated but I don't. Emerald and sapphire waters. Wonderful reefs (but not excellent). However, friends says it's the best diving in Vietnam. Snorkeling is also awesome. A day snorkeling tour with a group of 20 people costs 250,000 VND (roughly $13).

There are many food and drink options on the beach, but not as many as we have expected. Most peddlers sell souvenirs, so that a day on the beach goes like that: 

'Souvenir, madam!'

'No, thank you.'

'Silk painting, madam! Cheap, good [in fact goose] price for you!'

'You're very kind, but already bought one!'

'Fruit madam? I have sugar fruit for you [that is, 'sweet fruit']

'No thank you, just had some. Later.'

'Massage, massage madam!'

'No. I said no!'

'Lobster! Lobster, madam! Very big and fresh, I cook for you!'

'Ok. How much?'

'400,000. Very cheap!'

'No way!'

'Ok, good price for you. 

[She punches in a much more reasonable price.]
'Ok?'
'Ok.'

'Ok, then you buy two!'

'No, only one!'

'Ok! I cook for you with chili, salt, and lime. Goose?'

'Very goose!'

 There's almost nobody on the beach, except early in the morning and in late afternoon, as the Vietnamese fear the sun like hell. However, you won't see people bathing in their jeans, shirts, hats, and bike masks.

Que Nha Restaurant (Saigon)

Egg rice

My penchant for egg rice is definite, but good egg rice can be hard to find, even if it is common food. But when it is accompanied by grilled squid with chili

 

mango salad with dried shrimp in fish sauce

 

grilled mudfish in bamboo leaves

and fried tofu in egg batter

it makes PERFECT dinner. At a Vietnamese restaurant called Que Nha, located in a very busy intersection in district 3, north of Nguyen Thi Minh Khai:

Que Nha - 01 Cong Truong Quoc Te, P6, Q3, Saigon; Tel: (08)62907061/62/63 www.amthucquenha.com. All major credit cards accepted.

How to Dye Easter Eggs in Asia

Easter Eggs dyed by my mother in Romania.

Christmas in Vietnam is a big event for everybody, but Easter, even if we live on an alley mainly populated by Catholics, has passed mostly unnoticed. Except for the church choir that we could hear more often during Passion Week, there was no egg painting, no egg hunt, no nothing. As we celebrated Orthodox Easter one week later than the Catholics, I had enough time to convince myself that we would not have any gorgeous dyed eggs on our table. 

And this is how I found out coloring the eggs with natural, organic dye. Yay! So I tried my hand at that using turmeric (for yellow eggs) and red onion peels (for brown):

Ingredients:

turmeric (2 tablespoons) boiled in 500 ml water

red onion peels (from 3 large onions) boiled in 500 ml water

1 teaspoon of vinegar for each color

6 white eggs

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

 Instructions:

Boil the turmeric and the onion skins in two separate dishes. Before bringing the water to a boiling, add 1 teaspoon of vinegar and stir well. Then submerge the eggs in the water and let them boil for 9 minutes. After you remove them from the stove, check on the color of the eggs periodically and leave them in the solution until you get the color you want. I kept mine in glass jars for 5 hours, until they turned orange and medium-brown, to match the color range of my dinner setting.

Pretty simple! Once the eggs have dried, rub vegetable oil to bring a shine to them.

You can also boil the eggs separately and then put them in the coloring solution - the colors will be lighter. Here is what you can use in order to get naturally dyed Easter eggs:

Turmeric / Saffron - yellow

Onion peels / coffee - brown

Beets - red

Blueberries - blue

Green tea - green 

Red cabbage - purple

Not so simple when you want to cook traditional Romanian Easter dishes, so I had to improvise and decided on:

stuffed eggs

humus

toast with mozzarella

fried fish with garlic paste

oriental salad
Vietnamese sweet bread with coconut

 

Back at home, my family cooked "the real stuff":

Boeuf salad (decorated accordingly as only my Mom can)

Drob (minced lamb or chicken with eggs and shallots)

cozonac (sweet bread)

and Pasca (sweet bread stuffed with cheese and raisins)

Hristos a inviat! (Christ is risen!)

Perfume River (Hue, Vietnam)

Perfume River crosses Hue from West to East. Its name comes from the flowers from the orchards upriver which fall into the water, giving it a perfume-like smell.

Mai Am Matrusaden Guesthouse (Mui Ne)

Our second holiday in Mui Ne didn't start very well. We had booked three double rooms (two with garden view and one with sea view) at this guesthouse on booking.com. After a 5-hour drive from Saigon, we finally got there around 9:30 pm to find out that there were no rooms with sea view available. We showed the manager the booking confirmation and it took him half an hour to understand what we want. After he apologized for not having the room we booked, he gave us a room with garden view for a cheaper price ($35 instead of $40). OK, we took it. After we unpacked, surprise! the AC was not working and there was no other room available, except for one with the view to some metal roofs. No way! We wanted what we had booked or at least something reasonable. After another half an hour trying to repair the AC, the manager gave in and told us that our first night there would be free and that we would move to another room after the guests leave in the morning. Well, it was already 11 pm, what could we have said? OK. The troubles ceased next morning and we started having a great time (even if sometimes there was no hot water etc etc.)

Reception and part of the restaurant area.

The guesthouse is really pretty and well taken care of. It is located on the main street between Phan Thiet and Mui Ne, but quite far from what everybody considers to be the "main area", at 148 Nguyen Dinh Chieu. However, it has a nice small private beach, some really good restaurants in the neighborhood, and it is really cozy.

Rooms are large and clean and beds are great. Some rooms have a small fridge, some of them don't (the standard ones). Wi-fi works well, especially in the courtyard. Each rooms or pair of rooms actually form a small house with a nice porch:

Each superior room has its own private porch.

Breakfast is served from 6 to 10 and you get one dish and one drink for free. All the items in the menu are reasonably priced. The restaurant area is really nice, but most of the tables are too low and there is not enough room for legs.

The stretch of public beach next to the guesthouse.

For the picky ones, there is a great restaurant 200 m away on the other side of the street - Lap Thao, at 239b Nguyen Dienh Chieu. As for the tours you can book, we bought one from the manager for $30 (5 people) which included the Red Dunes, the Fairy Stream, the Fisherman Village, the White Dunes, and the Red Canyon.

Mai Am Matrusaden Guesthouse - 148 Nguyen Dinh Chieu, Ham Tien, Central Mui Ne Beach, Phan Thiet; http://www.guesthousemaiam.com/

Green Hotel (Vung Tau)

Right across the street from the Back Beach, Green Hotel is conveniently located for the ones who mostly go to the beach during their holidays in Vung Tau, but it is quite far from the hydrofoil station or from downtown Vung Tau.

However, this is a very good 3-star hotel. Rooms are large, air-conditioned, clean, well furnished and equipped. We stayed in a superior double room and paid $30/night. Free wi-fi is available in the entire hotel.

Service at the reception has been quick and effective. I can't say the same thing about the two bartenders in the lobby - do not order more than one cocktail at a time. We asked for five and it took them the same amount of time and concentration it usually takes a brain surgeon to perform an operation.

A free buffet breakfast with plenty of choices is served every morning from 6 to 9 in one of the three restaurants.

Green Hotel - 147C Thuy Van, Thang Tam ward, Vung Tau, Ph: 0646 251003, Fax: 0646 251006; http://www.greenhotel.vn/ Major credit cards accepted.

People & Commitee (City Hall) in Saigon

The City Hall (or the People's Committee) is located at the end of Nguyen Hue St., on Le Thanh Ton, between Pasteur and Dong Khoi, in the immediate vicinity of Rex Hotel, Vincom Plaza and Parkson Mall. For most locals and visitors, it is one of the most stunning pieces of architecture in the city, boasting French colonial style and covering an impressive area. It was built between 1902 and 1908 for administrative purposes and it still serves the same purpose today. Illuminated from various angles at night, the building is definitely a popular spot for tourists. The best place to take pictures of the building is the little park in front, which also hosts in impressive statue of Uncle Ho, reading a book to a child.

Ganh Hao Restaurant (Vung Tau)

Being in Vung Tau for a couple of days over the weekend, we reserved our last night for a special treat: Ganh Hao restaurant. We had read its fabulous reviews on Tripadvisor and thought it would be worth a try.

Ganh Hao is located at 3 Tran Phu St., right next to the water and locals say it's the best Vietnamese restaurant in town, serving the best seafood. It is true--the food is gorgeous:

Fried Spring Rolls

Fried soft-shell crab in butter with garlic

Fried spinach with garlic

Service is fast and never fails to impress: they help you deal with the food with your are a foreigner and don't know how to make a decent rice paper roll, they recommend the best and most affordable items on the menu, and are very fast.

Fish steamboat

The menu is extended and well presented. Even if it is maybe pricier than other places in Vung Tau, it is still fairly reasonable. The bill for four people was around 900,000 VND ($45), with lots of Saigon beers included.

The place is huge and it can accommodate 200 people at the same time. Yet, it is always packed with tourists and locals. For this reason, it's not the best choice for a quiet dinner, but it is perfect for birthdays or parties with friends.Don't forget to make a reservation for dinners over the weekend.

Ganh Hao Restaurant - 3 Tran Phu St., P. 5, TP Vung Tau, Vung Tau; All major credit cards accepted. 

Ganh Hao

Tax Department Store

(c) VAMP TM Lam Tran

When I am in the city, I go shopping on Sundays. Many times, Saigon Tax Department Store is the place I choose, at the intersection of Nguyen Hue St and Le Loi St in District 1 (across Rex Hotel).
It may be a rather common department store, but it spares you the hassle and bustle of the city, the heat, and the madding crowds of other shoppers and bikers. The place is air-conditioned and managed after Western standards.

It sells everything, from jewelry and electronics, to food and touristy stuff: lacquer ware, silk scarves and T-shirts,bags, fridge magnets, paintings, etc. The selection is wide, but you may not get deals as good as in Pham Ngu Lao area. Anyway, everything is affordable and turns it into a good shopping spot both for middle-class locals and for tourists.

What I find really useful is the supermarket on the first floor (first - by European standards; second - by American). It's convenient and well stocked, both with Vietnamese and Western stuff.

The Supermarket in Tax

Hosehold items isle in Tax

Apparel isle in Tax

You can pay cash (in VND or even dollars) and by credit card. We usually pay around 1 million VND in one shopping round (under $50) for several piece of clothing, food for one week, cosmetics, and occasionally household items.

You can take a break from shopping at SenViet Restaurant or at the Highlands coffee place on the 3rd floor.