Category: Good Eats

More Hanoi-- Walking through the French Quarter and more good eats and unique places

7/15/2015

Food.

Fine dining you can afford: Cau Go Vietnamese Cuisine,
7 Đinh Tiên Hoàng, Hàng Bạc, Hoàn Kiếm, Hà Nội

If you're in the mood for some fine dining, Cau Go Restaurant is a great bargain-- it overlooks the Hoan Kiem Lake, serves good food, cheap drinks, and has air conditioning and English-speaking wait staff. Our 4-person meal cost something like $85 bucks, including drinks. Additionally it has one of the best sunset views of the Old Quarter's Hoan Kiem lake.

View from the restaurant (located on the 6th floor)

Forgot what part of Vietnam this dish was from but their stewed beef was excellent (along with everything else we tried).

Nice ambiance and decor....

Pho Thin @ 13 Lo Duc: Supposedly the best pho in the city-- just south of the "French Quarter"

Even though I wholeheartedly approved of what we ended up ordering, I wish that we had some sort of phrasebook to help us through ordering some variety of pho here. Cash only, but their stock (although a bit salty) is excellent.

Long Bien Market-- right underneath the Long Bien Bridge

Walking the Long Bien Market after dinner. We didn't walk around the whole thing, but instead walked parallel to the main road and marveled at the sheer amount of fruit in one spot.

Seriously, this is a whole truck load full of melon.

Sights and Sounds

More sights of Hanoi-- fairly common are the road-side barbershops.

It's like a bike sent from heaven-- mangosteens and longans for sale?!

French Influence along Phan Ding Phung (street that sort of connects the old with the new)

The official French Quarter area

Walking along the railroad (Northbound)

West Lake-- very dirty and strange....

Visiting Hanoi: Seeing the Old Quarter

7/14/2015

First impressions:

Flow. It's all about the flow. (At least when it comes to crossing the road.)
There's a lot of energy, and I'm glad I'm not driving.
Tourist traps are all over (but there are plenty of people who are actually decent and not trying to rip you off as badly as the nice storefronts.
Sometimes changing money at a pawn/jewelry shop seems sketchy but hey, if they give you the best rate....
Crossing in groups is better than crossing alone (though still scary when it comes to major streets that aren't well regulated by lights). Tip: Go diagonally across, not straight.
Food. Beer. Follow your nose and just be wary of how they wash things. (I drank a cup of tea that obviously was used for coffee and wasn't well cleaned on the rim-- and that was a nice-looking open-air cafe! Also, some street vendors really do wash their pot on top of the drain in the sidewalk....) Sometimes those reviews on Trip Advisor are really helpful!

I've only been here a little over a day and a half, but this is a remarkable place. Remarkably polluted, yet there's so much of a distinct culture that you can just feel. This is not your sanitary Singapore with air conditioning. This is your 95+ F with 60+% humidity that has you dripping like a ice cold beer no matter what you do, with people who barely speak English, and well, let's just say that neither myself nor my "bodyguards" know enough Vietnamese to get by. As my Uncle Wilfred put it, we are 4 sotongs (squids = clueless people) wandering through Vietnam. It's the blind leading the blind! Living standards are way different, but it's so fascinating to sort of step back in time into what my sister called "Singapore from the 1970s."

My Bodyguards:

Food places I'd recommend going to

Cha Ca at Cha Ca Thang Long Restaurant: BBQ'd fish that gets fried in spring onions and dill at the table, and served with rice vermicelli, shredded spring onions, peanuts, fish sauce, basil, and mint. $6 USD (or 120,000 dong) per head, and we got the combo which came with beer, fruit, and tea for $8 USD/head. Pretty awesome.

Quan An Ngon Restaurant: Steamed rice noodle with BBQ pork, fish sauce, and herbs. This is a good place for trying out dishes with fresh vegetables, and offers a fairly decent array of food from all over Vietnam. Not the best steamed rice noodle I've ever had, but it was pretty decent for the price ($6 including a soybean milk).

The wee guide to fruits

6/30/2015

Ah, the exciting fruit that's found in Southeast Asia-- Mangosteen -- just squeeze to break the rind. Usually comes from Thailand. (Make sure the stems are green and the fruit gives when you squeeze on all sides before you buy. If it's rock hard it's no good.)

Lychees! Ok so maybe not exactly a "SEA" fruit, but definitely an asian one. Generally air flown from China. Generally brown-ness on the outside means it hasn't been stored at the right temperature and might be "se-kor" (spoiled) on the inside. Fruit should not have any dents visible from the outside. Try to eat one before you buy.

Snakefruit! It's got white-colored crunchy flesh. Personally I'm not a big fan.

Durian! Spiky on the inside, but...

Creamy on the inside! D13 is pretty good. Note: Better to buy fresh, not when it's in a styrofoam container (that durian might have fallen on the floor first).

Jumbu-- "Rose Apple" (tastes nothing like roses but is like a very airy apple)

The way to eat Singaporean jumbu, which is typically not as sweet as Thai or Taiwanese jumbu.

Mm, jumbu with kecap pedas (like hoisin sauce with a kick)

Where to buy these things

The market works well, but if you're really into fruit (and have a friend with a car in Sg) then you should go to the Pasir Panjang Wholesale Center.

Indonesian Food at Clarke Quay (Touristy Part of Sg)

6/25/2015

In need of AC + good indonesian food? Clarke Quay has you covered. (Fyi it's pronounced Clarke Kee.) I don't think I need to explain anything in words-- the pictures speak for themselves.

Cendol-- the perfect appetizer, yeah? (In all seriousness, this is a must-try dessert that is basically Indonesian shaved ice and we were trying to cool off from the hot weather while waiting for my cousin to join us. Plus I have a family of dessert freaks who will eat dessert before a meal all the time.)

Chicken satay! Reeaaaaallly good.

Mm, Gado-Gado (a sort-of Indonesian salad). Krupuk (bitter version of the shrimp/crab chip), fried tofu, rice cake, some deep-fried veggie, stewed carrots, string beans, boiled cabbage, and some kang-kong veggies (eng-chai), all with a great peanut sauce.

Slow BBQ fish with assorted chili sauce. Also very tasty.

Cumi Bakar-- Spicy bbq squid.

My eating companions:

Good Wonton Mee in Singapore

6/24/2015

Located on Joo Chiat Road is the famous Fei Fei Wan Tan Mee

Mmm fresh wontons

Must mix the noodles with sauce one otherwise bo-ho-jiak (not good eating).

Fried Wonton Mee! (with fried wontons! yum)

You know you're Singaporean when... you like eating crab

6/24/2015

Mm. Beehoon Crab!

I first ate my first black pepper crab when I was 9 (I really loved that stuff more than chili crab, so I have no idea when my first chili crab was). I've learned to cook it (really time intensive) but nothing beats eating the Sri Lankan crabs down here (I've had to turn off my ocean-conscious-and-guilty-brain for all of this seafood indulgence).

We have yet to try the salted duck egg crab, but we did order a black pepper and a beehoon crab last night. Yummy. This restaurant is apparently the place that created the beehoon crab dish.

The Golden Spoon Seafood Restaurant in Tiong Bahru-- they created the beehoon crab dish and is totally worth going to.

:D the classic black pepper crab, shiok!

Singapore's Hawker Food

6/20/2015

Breakfast at Ayer Rajah Market near Clementi. Chinatown Porridge is a pretty tasty place! The cheong fun was very well done.

Breakfast standards that are pretty decent everywhere:

Yu-tiau/Yu-cha-kueh with Toh-jiang/Tao-hueh-chui (aka. chinese donut with soy bean milk)
Roti prata with curry gravy
Cheong fun (rolled rice sheet noodles)
Bah-zhang (wrapped glutinous steamed rice)-- try the nyonya zhang too.
Try local drinks like iced milo, coffee with condensed milk, soy bean milk, or barley water.
"Ah-pom" (if you can find it-- it's an indian pancake usually served with orange-colored sugar)
Rice porridge-- whether with 1000 year old egg or fish or pork, this stuff is always good!

Roti prata. Definitely worth it to stop and watch the guy make it by hand. Great with a side of curry!

These are some great dishes to try-- the upper right is Yu-Tiau/Yu-cha-kueh and the other things, well, I've forgotten what they're called but the top shelf is all deep-fried dough, and the bottom is this fried pancake that has different fillings (usually peanuts or just sugar).

Cheong-fun. There's also some steamed rice/radish cake mixed in. Both are good with the chili and dark soy sauce.

Lunch/Dinner:

Hainanese Chicken Rice (the sauces make a big difference)
Fish ball kueh tiao noodle soup (fish balls with wide rice noodles)
Cha-kway-tiao (fried flat rice noodles with fishcake/chinese sausage/spring onions)
Mee Goreng (fried noodles)
Mee Pok (flat egg noodles with a mixed assortment of meats)
Ju-hu Eng Chai (spicy stir fried squid with kang kong-- veggie related to morning glory?)

Singapore: Land of Constant Eating

6/20/2015

As I sit here, munching on my jumbu fruit, relaxing on a couch in my grandmother's living room with the breeze coming through the open window, a part of me really thinks that living in Singapore is quite pleasant. Granted, I'm staying with family, and had fantastic food at the local wet market where I discovered that you can eat an amazing breakfast for less than S$5. Pinapples for S$2, fresh durian, mangosteens, rambutans, jumbu... American fruits seem so boring sometimes! And I'm avoiding the heat by staying out of the sun. For once I'm actually feeling a breeze here!

S$100+ for a box of Japanese loquats. (According to one of my cousins, Japanese fruit is the thing to buy nowadays.)

Soursop-- looks a lot like custard apple... but isn't.

Of course, on our first day back, we had to trek down to Orchard Road, the "shopping capital" of the island, to buy things (because there's also the "Great Singapore Sale" going on, lah).

To get there we took the MRT (subway), which after living in Boston for so long and riding the dinky green line trains, the MRT seemed pretty luxurious. No squeaks, barely any jerky movement-- riding this public transit system was a breeze. Not only is it fairly straightforwards to get a card (you go up to the kiosk by the turnstiles-- you pay $5 for the card but each ride is substantially cheaper, though there are a few good alternatives for those who are only visiting for less than 2 weeks), but it's also really easy to figure out where you're going. The trains even tell you which side the doors are opening on, and their maps tell you were you are/where you're going. Plus, everything is full of air conditioning. Now why can't Boston's T system have that? (Well, this is the relatively new MRT system that the country did spend millions on, so....)

But back to the story-- shopping on Orchard Road. Note that mid-day, although crowded, is still fine to bring strollers and wheelchairs around. Come rush hour, though-- it's a fast-moving river of people that's almost impossible to cross. Anyway, our first stop: the Ion Shopping Centre.

Imagine your typical high-end shopping mall in America (like South Coast Plaza or the Natick Mall), but add more boutiques and shops you wouldn't find in the States. Even the American franchises are called slightly different things, like McDonald's McCafe, Coffee Bean's Beanery, though there was (surprisingly) a Dunkin' Donuts. Of course, I avoided those like the plague (though as a side note, it's more common to find packets of chili sauce here as opposed to ketchup), and followed my grandma into Ion's basement food court, also known as the "Food Opera." It's a bizarre place, with its picture frames around lights on the ceiling and random animal sculptures all over (including wall trophies). Despite the odd decor, I managed to find two shops with excellent food: the Teochew Fishball Noodle Soup stall and the Chicken Wing store (I bought Satay, though their wings did look good). For the most part, these basement food courts are generally sub-par of the traditional "sweating-my-ass-off-but-it's-so-damn-good" outdoor hawker centers that I grew up going to (which are beginning to die off because very few people in the current generation are willing to stand for 15 hours a day making amazing food). However, the satay was actually cooked over charcoal, and the fishballs were made fresh daily, so I figured I couldn't go wrong.

Fish ball noodles with excellent fish balls. (I'm a fan of kueh-tiau (wide rice noodle) soup.) Definitely stop here if you're near the Ion plaza.

I was hopeful that was a sculpture by an artist I knew, except there wasn't any caption saying who made it (I wasn't aware of more than one driftwood-horse sculptors). But this is an example of the random sculptures all over the food court.

Mm. Satay, fried over a charcoal/gas grill. (Apparently the authentic version has a piece of lard in between each chunk of meat. Yum.)

Ice desserts are a must. Ice kachang is like a shaved ice, Bobo chacha is this black rice with cocunut milk, Chendol is this cocunut milk with tapioca and some other things... they're all pretty good.

A few stores down from the food court was an interesting french-looking bakery called BreadSociety that had all sorts of interesting fusion breads. I didn't eat any of their wild concoctions (like lychee earl grey toast) but my grandmother bought some... stay tuned for the verdict.

Fancy bread flavors like earl grey lychee exist at BreadSociety.

It's a loaf with 4 different flavors: black sesame, green tea, rasins, and carrots. Not sure that would go well with kaya (coconut egg jam).

Mm.. freshly grilled bah kua.

I didn't take a picture of the public restroom, but it's worth a look with their push-button sliding glass doors for the changing rooms and handicapped bathroom. (It's also in B4- same level as the food court).

After our adventure in Ion, we headed back past the MRT Orchard station towards Takashimaya-- what I consider the closest thing to Harrod's in Singapore. It's got your fancy designer goods, cosmetics, housewares, bathroom needs, alongside a basement with a selection of fairly authentic Singaporean goodies like freshly grilled ba-kua (jerky) and kuehs (cakes). I don't really recommend anything in their food court, and it's not a terribly long walk to Ion, so I'd recommend eating there instead. We spent a few hours here because my mom wanted to pick out some dresses for work (apparently most nice dresses here fit well and are washable).

Phew. That was a lot for the first day!

Forward>>

More Hanoi-- Walking through the French Quarter and more good eats and unique places

Food.

Fine dining you can afford: Cau Go Vietnamese Cuisine,
7 Đinh Tiên Hoàng, Hàng Bạc, Hoàn Kiếm, Hà Nội

Pho Thin @ 13 Lo Duc: Supposedly the best pho in the city-- just south of the "French Quarter"

Long Bien Market-- right underneath the Long Bien Bridge

Sights and Sounds

French Influence along Phan Ding Phung (street that sort of connects the old with the new)

The official French Quarter area

Walking along the railroad (Northbound)

West Lake-- very dirty and strange....

Visiting Hanoi: Seeing the Old Quarter

My Bodyguards:

Food places I'd recommend going to

The wee guide to fruits

Jumbu-- "Rose Apple" (tastes nothing like roses but is like a very airy apple)

Where to buy these things

Indonesian Food at Clarke Quay (Touristy Part of Sg)

Good Wonton Mee in Singapore

You know you're Singaporean when... you like eating crab

Singapore's Hawker Food

Singapore: Land of Constant Eating

Adela Wee

Archives

Categories

Food.

Fine dining you can afford: Cau Go Vietnamese Cuisine, 7 Đinh Tiên Hoàng, Hàng Bạc, Hoàn Kiếm, Hà Nội

Pho Thin @ 13 Lo Duc: Supposedly the best pho in the city-- just south of the "French Quarter"

Long Bien Market-- right underneath the Long Bien Bridge

Sights and Sounds

French Influence along Phan Ding Phung (street that sort of connects the old with the new)

The official French Quarter area

Walking along the railroad (Northbound)

West Lake-- very dirty and strange....

My Bodyguards:

Food places I'd recommend going to

Jumbu-- "Rose Apple" (tastes nothing like roses but is like a very airy apple)

Where to buy these things

Adela Wee

Archives

Categories

Fine dining you can afford: Cau Go Vietnamese Cuisine,
7 Đinh Tiên Hoàng, Hàng Bạc, Hoàn Kiếm, Hà Nội