Food Mood: Crème Brûlée

       

Crème Brûlée is a custard-based dessert with a caramel topping. The base is usually vanilla-flavored, but it can also be fruity. This 400-year dessert is also known as burnt cream (referring to its caramelized finish), crema catalana (after its Catalan counterpart), or crème caramel. 

Food Mood: Cheese Fondue

  
Melted cheese dip - a great way to bring friends and family together around the same pot. A wonderful reason for a communal table with lots of red wine and golden toast. Yumminess.

Food Mood: French Onion Soup

Onion soup is a staple of the French cuisine. It is comfort food, very filling and tasty, packed with carbs and fat, but who cares? Just have a look at what it looks like and you'll see what I mean. 

Food Mood: Moules-Frites / Mussels and Fries

   

Les moules frites was originally a Normand dish, but it spread all over France with the speed of light, as it is both deliciously simple, and simply delicious: moules frites = mussels with fries. Its popularity also stems from the tactile eating mode it triggers - you won't need only a glass of chilled white wine, but also lots and lots of paper tissues.

Food Mood: Quiche Lorraine

Quiche Lorraine, literally meaning Lorraine Cake, is a popular, rustic pastry dish filled with meat, vegetables, eggs, and lots of cheese. It is an open pie baked in a springform pan. With a buttery crust and a tender filling, it makes a popular option for basically all meals of the day.

Food Mood: Croque Monsieur vs. Croque Madame

If you visit Paris on a budget, the Croques are the most affordable food for you, except for the Turkish or Moroccan hole-in-the-walls. The average price is 6 euros. This basically very simple, popular food imbued with the French influence brought by the Bechamel sauce is a favorite among both locals and foreign tourists. But what's the difference between these two?

Croque Monsieur. (c) Premshree Pillai via Flickr.

Food Mood: Pain, Amour et Chocolat

  

Pain au chocolat. Thank God I will have finished my diet when I arrived in Paris. This sweet roll, similar in texture with puff pastry, has melted chocolate at the center and made it quickly in the top 5 on my To-Eat-until-You-Explode list. No wonder, Sherlock, you have buckets of love, now all you need is piles of pain au chocolat to justify the title of the post. Hope it is not going to take me weeks until I figure out the difference between a croissant and this. 

   

Food Mood: Macarons. Colored Macarons.

  

Fragile and precious, colorful and temperamental, macarons have been lately the queens of cookies. Had you asked me about them three months ago, I would have told you I would refuse to touch them, as I hate glitzy

Larue Export Beer - The Friendly

Brewed by Foster's (Danang).

Alcohol content: 4.5%. Export pale lager. Clean light golden color, nice white cap, good lacing. Malty and fruity, sweet and grassy taste. Soft carbonation. Bittersweet aftertaste. Should be served only very cold. Very friendly, inoffensive. 17,000 VND in decent eateries.

San Miguel - Not Really a Pilsner

Brewed by San Miguel Corporation (Philippines).

Alcohol content: 5%. German Pilsner style, but more of an American adjunct lager. Very clear golden body, thick white head that fades out quickly, but with a good amount of sticky lace down the glass. Moderate bitter-sweetness, surprisingly malty. Medium active carbonation. Overall refreshing, yet very offensive.

Tiger Beer - The Most Popular Among Tourists

Brewed by Asia Pacific Breweries (Singapore) in 12 countries all over Asia.

Alcohol content: 5%. American adjunct lager style. Definitely a favorite of most tourists in Vietnam. Light colored, thin white cap that doesn't last long. Grainy metallic smell, harsh in flavor at first taste, but crisp and clean. Bland lager, inoffensive. Marries well with spicy food. 18,000 VND for a 330 ml bottle, 23,000 VND for the large one in most decent eateries.

Red and Green Saigon Beers - The Most Affordable

Brewed by Sabeco (Ho Chi Minh City).

Green Saigon (Bia Saigon Lager) - Alcohol content: 4.3%. Clear golden body pale lager with a thin white head. Nice refreshing citrus smell. Pungent malty taste. Light bodied. Light sweet aftertaste, a bit metallic. Not bad, yet very light and watery - goes well with very spicy food. 14,000 VND at most reasonably priced restaurants.

Red Saigon (Saigon Export) - the premium version of Bia Saigon Lager. Alcohol content: 4.9%. Light golden body. Distinct taste, surprisingly good, refreshing. Averagely carbonated. Hoppy bitter aftertaste.  17,000 VND at most reasonably priced restaurants.

Zorok Beer - The Most Flavored of All Locals

Bottled Zorok, not that frequent

Brewed by SABMiller Vietnam. Alcohol content: 5%

Clear pale golden lager with small white cap. Mild fruity hops and mild sweet malts aroma. Low carbonation. Bittersweet aftertaste. The most flavored of the local beers. Not available in all restaurants. 25,000 VND per bottle in street-side bars.