Tag Archives: @Vietnam

Vietnam: #1.4

Following one the massages of my life ( the masseur had really massaged the life out of me with her roughness – but the next day I really slept like a baby) .. Aunty P was in the same room as us and she was terrified they would break her bag of bones (ok sorry inside joke I just had to mention it) .. “OK” is really a universal language .. ahhaha helped me survive through the massage ..

So now that we are all ‘marinated’, its time to end off our Vietnam experience with what we came here for: our French cuisine dinner.

I must make a special mention, as quoted by Papa B, that “THIS IS THE ONLY FRENCH RESTAURANT THAT OPENS ON SUNDAY IN VIETNAM!!”

This restaurant is so nicely tucked away in the neighbourhood .. you could possibly drive pass it thinking it’s another house in the district

Entrance

Courtyard dinning

Indeed it is! And thankfully for that, we managed to get a reservation here! The previous one we reserved received our reservation on Sunday but closed on Sunday? Hahaha .. what a joke .. anyway we were pleasantly surprised and thoroughly enjoyed this whole dining experience!

#1:truffle ice cream

#2 : Baked Eggs with Truffle

#3: Home made Bread

then of course, came all of our starters! the pictures below are the variety of starters that we ordered!

Nem de Fori Gras - Goose liver spring roll

This was like the melting point of 2 worlds. One bite and it totally melted in the mouth! and yet crunchy!

Asslette de Thon Cru et Fume - Raw Tuna and Smoked Tuna

Tartare of de Saumon au Fromage Frais : Tartare of salmon with Fresh Cheese

Lagsagne of Agneau - Lamb Lagsagne

This lamb didn’t have any of the lamb smell .. 🙂 delightful

Escargots de Bourgogne au Beurre - Burgundy Snails in Garlic and Parsley Butter

Poupannette de Choux au Confit de Conard Sauce Foie Gras -Cabbage Duck Sauce Goose Liver

Grilled Scallops in Butter Sauce

Coquille St Jacques Cru a I'Huile d'Olive Vanille - Raw Scallops Vanilla Oil

This is one of the best raw scallops I have eaten, apart from the Japanese style of cooking and presenting ..

Queue de Homard Barigoule - Lobster Artichoke —

Ok.. these are mostly the combinations of starters that we ordered.

This was really like truffle heaven! It was as if they harvested their own truffle! Almost every dish came with truffle, like our two amuse bush, as well as some of the mains inside (that we didn’t pick) also had loads of them!

Now the mains:

Margret de Canard a l'orange - Duck breast with orange sauce

Cuisse de conard au choux rouge confit - Duck leg confit red cabbage

Jaue de Boeuf et Foie Gras Poele - Beef Cheeks with Foie Gras

Chevreuill Sauce Venaisaon - Venaison <;;>;

Grilled beef cheeks with 2 Special sauce - mushroom and ....

Everything was just cooked to perfection. We were trying each other’s dishes .. I thought the duck confit was a little too saltish for me, the venison didn’t taste like venison – the sauce was nice, Duck Breast was moist, the beef cheeks totally melted in your mouth!

Kudos to their great service as well! We told them that we had to be at the airport by 9:00 so our dinner for us got shortened to 2 hours, instead of the usual 5 hours course. They promptly catered to our needs, being a big group of 9, and successfully executed the dishes accordingly.

We were then brought to another part of the house, to choose from their homemade cheese! Amazing!

arrays of cheeses

From the left: truffle cheese, spring onion cheese, assorted blue cheese

A huge variety and generous in sharing their pride with us! We were so stuffed and spoilt for choice with the cheese platter! we had to tell them to cut back and not give up too many so as not to waste food.

One attraction and their pride would be their imported fresh vanilla beans that you could smell the fragrance of it through the package!

Imported Vanilla Beans

Of course, dinner would be incomplete without dessert!

Foundant au Chocolat - Foundant cake 🙂

Macaron a la Creme Passions Framboise Fraiche - Macaron a la Creme Fraiche passions Rasberry

Tarte Tartin - Apple tart Upside Down

Dessert de Gils - Dils Dessert

This dessert was a house special! it was like a combination of macaroon, with a little tart taste, rasberry galore and some bits of surprises that combine the whole dessert together.

The owner as well, took out his long well stored sweet brandy that added that extra kick to all the desserts.

This was a nice sweet touch to our trip to Vietnam before heading home back to Singapore 😦

Verdict: 9/9 of us (including an elderly hip hop happening couple) will return for this dinning experience, as well as food 🙂

Trois Gourmands
18 Tong Huu Dinh 
Thao Dien Ward
District 2, 
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Vietnam: #1.3

Phở Phở Phở – this is a must eat when we come to Vietnam! I mean we came all the way here already, how can we go back to Singapore without trying the real pho?

As recommended by Mama P, we headed to Phở Hòa Pasteur

Front of the Shop

This ‘shop house’ has like 3 levels? at least .. and I noticed on every table they placed

Chinese Doughnuts(you char kuey), Wedding Cakes, Viet sausage

Amazing! We were led to the second level .. and Mind the stairs!! the stairways remind me of those haunted mansions and its very low and dimly lit .. But ok all for pho!

So what lies inside here?

Viet mini sausage - didn't dare to try it

I looked at every one’s expression before attempting to try this .. and after gathering all their expressions.. i think i made a good choice not to eat this

hahaha .. ok back to the real stuff now!

Raw Beef and Beef balls

The beef ball was not like starchy .. and it had that bouncy texture to it, just like the Singapore fishballs! .. and the beefiness level is alright for me – just that it’s really too MANY beef balls! The raw beef was also awesome in that it cooked quite fast in the soup as well.

Special Noodle with all kinds of Beef mixed

Beef Brisket and Raw Beef Combination

trooper pei pei mentioned how the brisket is very tender! and cooked to perfection 🙂

Some special drinks that we ordered as well:

Ice Chocolate!

This was like lieterally drinking melted chocolate! yummy and rich!

Salted Lemon Drink

For the salt lovers out there, this is your drink! It’s refreshingly saltish :p
Overall, The soup broth is very well liked by us all! and the portions are generously served! It is clear but rich! amazing how much work goes into ensuring the goodness of the broth.

Verdict: 8/9 of us will return for the pho! Just don’t look on the floor and slurp up your noodles!

Phở Hòa Pasteur
260C Pasteur Street
Saigon, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Vietnam: #1.2

Out next stop: Bến Thành Market 

We proceeded there to buy local goods and have a walk around to digest our full meal. We were only here for a day! so we needed to fully utilize all the time and stomach space .. But! must be on a vigilant lookout for pick pockets! Our sharp Mama P saw this checked shirt man who kept following the group and looking over our bags, pointed to us which man was it and he turned around and walked in a different direction.

As we entered in

Bags!

Food! Snacks

Fresh Produce

Vietnamese Market Food stall

There are alot of touting around, so do becareful as well!  But, What a not better way to round up the market trip in the hot sweltering humid Vietnam=afternoon with

Coconut power

only complaint was that we got ripped off, and there wasnt a spoon to scoop out the flesh …

Next stop! Pho Pho!!!

Bến Thành Market
Le Loi Boulevard, District 1,
(At the junction of Ham Nghi, Le Loi and Tran Hung Dao)

Vietnam : #1.1

we all decided to take a trip to Vietnam!! Mama P mentioned how she went there the last time around and how awesome the French food is! Adding to that, how superbly CHEAP the French food there was and good value.

So we booked ourselves those cheap tickets and flew on Jetstar!

We were blessed to have Mama P to help us plan out the itinerary of the trip, as well as rent a bus(“Mercedes”) to bring us around, as well as make reservations for the French food. Totally trying to have a taste of what it is like to live like a millionare :p

As we got off the van, There was this fella who took his opportunity to sell us

Viet Doughnuts?

and he probably ripped us off .. but then again, whatever we are millionares (ok trying hard to comfort us) and shocked the real mama P when he tried to put his whole tray of food onto her head for a picture! hahahaha we all totally cracked up! Classic timeless expression!

Close up

It tasted like fried crispy sticky rice? it was pretty sweet as the top part of it was caramelised with hard coatings of sugar! Quite an experience indeed! first encounter with Viet street food ahhaha ..

ok proceeding on, our first meal was at this place : Nha Hang Ngon

Entrance

Inside

The interior had a very villa , bangkok-ish feel mixed with alfresco style of dinning. Their kitchen was a very open kitchen concept. towards the left and right side of the entrance, was the kitchen! Each part of it was divided into Sweets/Desserts, mains, small snacks etc .. I think they were also trying to incorporate the Vietnamese street food culture into their dinning concept. You could choose from all the arrays of neatly organized snack and food nicely placed in rolls, with a few ladies handling each sections, made to order.

Spot the Vietnamese Sausage!

Viet Spring Rolls!!!

Desserts!!

Ok enough of the kitchen! now back to the real deal .. so we all ordered :

Guava Juice

Set: vermicelli with Vietnam Sausage

Close up

I concluded Vietnamese Sausage tastes like a mixture of .. Sausage with a fish cake texture. Its not very saltish, but can’t really seem to taste the porky-ness in this particular one (not that I am complaining) .. Good try nonetheless 🙂

Broken rice with Pork Chop and Egg Cake(Omelette)

Full View

And of course, the meal cannot be complete without:

traditional Vietnamese Coffee

Viet Coffee Latte

Fried Viet Spring Rolls

We wanted the original one, but they misplaced our orders .. and we also ended up eating one of the troop’s order for herself :/ whhoops
Ok! moving on to our next destination!!!

Nha Hang Ngon
160 Pasteur St,
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam