Follow Laura's Compass: Food Friday 12

Thank goodness Friday is here!

Now hopefully you all have been reading along with the Vietnam posts and have been eagerly awaiting this week’s food Friday to get a sense of what I ate on my weekend trip (and of course this past week). Well, thanks for waiting and without further ado, let’s get to it!

Vietnam Cuisine

During our tour of Vietnam we requested to have traditional, local food as much as possible. First up for us was lunch on Saturday which was pho (properly pronounced “fuh” as opposed to fo like fo sho, as in the American way of saying for sure minus the r’s). Our tour guide brought us to the famous spot, Pho Hoa. I went with the chicken pho and the boys ordered me a fresh coconut to drink which was cold and oh so refreshing! I haven’t gotten into the coconut water craze yet but I doubt I’ll be able to drink the stuff out of a carton after having good fresh coconut water here. If you aren’t familiar with pho, it’s hot broth with noodles and sometimes meat. In the south of Vietnam they add herbs and veggies such as beansprouts to it (but supposedly the North doesn’t do such things). It’s a very simple soup but the flavor is just AMAZING. I have no clue what they put in the broth but man oh man it’s just so good! We also shared a plate of traditional spring rolls with prawn and ground pork. The only thing that gets me about the spring rolls is they are loaded with Thai basil. Now I do love Thai basil but I felt that the spring rolls have so much that it just over powered the rest of the flavors. But that’s just my opinion!

Ethan, me, and Glenn

Dinner Saturday night was with Glenn’s Vietnamese friend who took us to Quan Bui, a restaurant with an awesome sky deck! What was nice too was that its located down a quieter alley so you didn’t have the hustle and bustle of the millions of motorbikes on the street. We left the ordering up to the local which meant we had an awesome dinner! The biggest lesson to learn was making sure to dip the correct dish in the correct corresponding sauce as we were told the Vietnamese are specific when it comes to this issue. First up was a lotus salad with prawns, veggies, and nuts. (Side note: for my nut-free people out there, Vietnam would be a difficult place to eat as nuts, especially peanuts, are in most of their food).

Lotus Salad

Then came the assortment of rolls including spring rolls like the ones we ate earlier, fried spring rolls, and what I’m going to call green rice crispy treat egg balls. Ok, ok so that probably sounds disgusting but let me explain, these rolls were bright green with crisp rice on the outside, a flour coating and then inside was a hardboiled egg. Ethan and I both tried them (dipped in some delicious sauce) and they were surprisingly awesome! I don’t know if there’s a better way to describe them so you’ll just have to take my word for it that the green monster balls (hey! how’s that for a name) were delicious. The white disks you see are just simple, light crackers that went with the salad.

The boys got beef and veggies and for the ladies we went for tofu. Both were very good and we of course had them alongside some white rice.

Then came dessert (who can say no to a sweet treat??). Per suggestion, I ordered the passion fruit custard. It was served inside a hollowed out passion fruit and was deliciously tart and creamy! And to think that this entire meal cost us each the equivalent of about $12 USD. It’s nice how far the dollar takes you in Vietnam!

Passion Fruit Custard

Sunday morning we were up early and on the road to get to the Cu Chi Tunnels. When we were on the national highway of Vietnam, our tour guide pulled over on the side of the road and ordered us each a classic banh mi sandwich. Now this is something that I haven’t had but have only heard amazing reviews of from my older brother (who’s a professional chef so he knows what’s good) and also from Niles too, so I knew since they had had awesome banh mi sandwiches in the US that the authentic ones in Vietnam would have to be stellar. I’m happy to report that they were right. OH my goodness were these sandwiches awesome! So simple, but so full of flavor and the bun was just perfect! Fun fact, banh mi is supposed to be for breakfast (though in the US I think most people opt for this dish at lunch and dinner).

Later on as we were walking through the Cu Chi Tunnels, we stopped and were served pandan tea with tapioca that we dipped in a mixture of ground peanuts and sugar. Now the tapioca was just baked, peeled, and cut into pieces. I would best describe it as a mix between a sweet potato and a parsnip and when dipped into the sugar/peanuts it was yummy! The pandan leaves also made for very nice tea. It was a good snack during the tour.

For our final meal in Vietnam we went to another local restaurant. We each ordered our own meal and then our guide ordered us a bowl of soup to share. I ordered broken rice with bbq pork and it came with fresh cucumber and shredded carrots on the side. Being in Asia, the pork bits were mostly bones which made it very difficult to get the meat off. Our guide actually asked me if I wanted to order something different and commented how we Americans are used to not having to deal with bones…I of course said no its fine and did my best to get as much meat off as possible. The soup our guide ordered for us was mushroom and crab. No silly not crabs from the ocean! These crabs come from the fields of Vietnam…I know I thought it was odd too, land crabs. Well, all three of us agreed that it wasn’t the best tasting soup but we managed to each have a small bowl of it anyway.

Back to Singapore

Thursday of this week I had an early meeting downtown so I took a half day of work and thought I’d enjoy the time to grab breakfast close to my destination. I think one of the things I miss from home is being able to go out for breakfast every once in a while. Well lucky for me I stumbled upon a great café just a couple minute walk from Telok Ayer MRT, Sarnies. When I walked into the narrow café, I might as well have walked into a café in Northampton or Amherst or some other hip New England spot. It was one of those places that has that feel to it…you know where you walk in and feel like home (even though it’s nothing like my mother’s kitchen) but it was just set up in a way that just made me excited to grab a seat, enjoy good food and drink, and read my book. After reading the chalkboard menu printed on the wall, I decided to go with the bacon and egg sarnie, a sandwich with bacon, egg, and tomato relish on sourdough.

To go with it I ordered the lemon, ginger green tea (only to realize it cost $7.50 after the words came out of my mouth). So my meal ended up costing me $15 (yes the tea was as expensive as my sandwich). At first I was a bit peeved at how much it cost me but then I just said WHATEVER, and sat down to read. Of course once my food/drink was served I realized the reason for the high cost of tea was due to the fact that it was a whole pot of tea! Well lucky for me I had time to spare and was able to drink about 3 cups of it (probably consisted of 4-5 cups in total). But man was that sandwich delicious!! The bread was amazing, the bacon was perfect (and in bite size pieces so you don’t have the whole piece come out on your first bite), and that tomato relish was the perfect accompaniment! It was slightly sweet and tangy and it just made for the perfect breakfast sandwich. All in all it made for a perfect start to my day and I would highly suggest making a stop at this café if you’re in the area or not in the area.

So funny story…I ended up back in Telok Ayer for dinner on Thursday night too. After work I met up with Glenn and Ethan for a beer at Level 33 before we headed to the Sugar Hall for one of Ethan’s coworkers birthday dinners. This was just one street over from where I had my great breakfast that morning. Once again it was a long, narrow restaurant but had a great vibe and could have easily mistaken me for a restaurant back home.

I was feeling the need to add some veggies to my life so I decided to get a Caesar salad with a side of the chunky pumpkin . It was delicious! The Caesar dressing was definitely more fishy than usual but not so much that I couldn’t handle the taste. And the pumpkin was soft and had raisins and mozzarella in it too, yumm! It was a great spot for dinner, though it was a bit pricey to have all the time.

Finally Friday!

Today at lunch my group went out for our 2 hour lunch (per usual). We went a bit farther than we usually go but ended up at Restaurant121. We shared fish head curry, boiled chicken, duck, prawn rolls, and some random green veggie. Honestly it was quite a delicious meal, which I don’t know if that means I’m becoming more and more Singaporean each day or what. The spicy dishes didn’t bother me much and I even added more chili sauce to them GASP! To drink I had lime juice with a sour plum. It was quite tart but it made for a good contrast to the curry spices.