Who doesn’t love a sashimi Japanese meal?!
i'm waiting, i'm waiting!!
sushi is now more than seaweed wrappings
squid tempura, it was very good
i love salmon...raw or pan-fried or baked
a little too greasy for me
i'm canadian, i luv beef
HK urchins
drool, sashimi platter
beef sashimi! WAGYU BEEF
some warm sake is a great idea!
Yummy! Warm, freshly made coconut candies are very good! The warm sugar candy melting in the mouth was such a cool feeling!
coconuts are first cracked
the coconuts then go through this little machine
next, it's grinded into a coconut and sugar concotion
it is then roughly rolled into long stick shape
it is then allocated into the proper rectangular sized stick cutter
each piece of coconut candy is individually cut and wrapped
For me, there are a lot of eating when I travelled to Ho Chi Minh, and I really enjoyed all the foods I got to taste on the trip.
See my previous blog on Hue Cuisine (imperial court cuisine) foods in Vietnam
Of course Vietnam is famous for its coffee and beef noodles (pho)–> both of which I ate a lot of! But there are a lot more yummy and local foods I got a chance to experience and really like. I find some of the tastes and foods are quite similar to Chinese food, but different at the same time. I noticed with Vietnamese foods, it involves a lot of vegetables, dipping sauces, and wrapping of foods because the ingredients used are so fresh and can all be pretty much eaten raw!
this was such a treat for me, we were pretty much sitting on one the tables in the middle of the road and being served a cup of coffee while watching the city and motorcycles whizzed by. I really recommend all travellers to do this, but you do need a local around because there are no menus, you just sit on a stool and order away. My local friend was wonderful, while sipping the cup of coffee, we enjoyed some local treats she enjoyed on a regular basis.
this is a breakfast snack and I absolutely love it! It's a clear rice paste and inside are dried salty shrimps, it reminds me of Chinese Cheong fan (shrimp rice rolls), a dim sum dish, but I like the Vietnamese one, it looks so cool and it tastes very good
you would expect me to show a picture of pho (beef noodles), I had this at some outdoor eating shop, it was cool. In general, the pho I had outside of Vietnam are quite good, but I think it's because the soup base are all pretty much the same (MSG!!!), but I think the beef are better in Vietnam
Vietnamese drip coffee is famous, I had it everyday when I was in Vietnam. This is actually the civet coffee...you know the beans that went through the system of the civet cat?! Anyway, Vietnamese coffee tends to be stronger in general and we are not supposed to inhale and gulp the drink down like a lattee, rather you sip it and let it stay on your tongue, so it can take quite some time to finish the actual cup (though small) if done the right way
Here, we have the Vietnamese pancake, the one we ordered have mushroom and cheese inside. There is definitely French influence in Vietnamese food, but the Vietnamese love thier vegetables, so you actually use a fork to pull some of the pancake and put it on top of a piece of vegetable and then dip it in sauce before eating it, and it's very good
i cannot tell you how much snail I had when I was in HCM, this is snail cooked in sauce, but I love the minced up snail with stuffed meat the most, which I shared in my "hue cuisine" blog
on one of the evening, we went to a grill restaurant and had a lot of grilled food such as grilled fish and meat, and of course, you wrap all the grilled food in vegetables & dip in suace before eating ^0^
this looks cool huh? You will basically take some of the fish and put it on rice paper with veggies, wrap it and dip in sauce before eating....like I said over and over again, lots of wrapping going on with Vietnamese food, you got to work before you can enjoy ^0^
“Hue Cuisine” is also known as “imperial court cuisine”, and it is of course regarded as the best and most delicious cuisine by Vietnamese. Though the name implies it might only be eaten by kings and emperors, these traditional everyday Hue cuisine tells the life and story of Vietnamese people. For me, it serves an important purpose– it provides delight and pleasure to the palettes, we were in food heaven.
this is definitely a very famous and delicious dish of steam cake with a bit of dried shrimps on top. Hue cuisine tends to have a lot of sauces to match the dishes, and I must say the taste of the sauces is another delight in itself. There was a group of 4 Japanese tourist sitting at the table next to us and all they ordered were a basket of these steam cake for each person. It really is THAT GOOD
mussels with grilled cake--you basically scoop the minced mussels onto the grilled cake and dip in sauce to eat
i don't remember what this is, it's some kinda of shrimp wrapped in rice wrap--lots of seafood in Vietnam
this is pork paste wrapped in banana leaf--I don't really like eating it plain like this, I prefer it in noodles or wrapped up with rice paper dunked in sauce
haha, grilled pork paste with Vietnamese rice noodles follow
i am not even going to share how many of these stuffed snail I had in Vietnam, this is definitely one of the top dishes I enjoyed most!
Vietnamese cuisines consist of a lot of food wrapped in rice paper, noodles, and variety of vegetables, this one is wrapped with grilled pork paste
this is a beef rice noodle wrap
this is a shrimp rice noodle wrap--at the end of the trip, I decide I can make a lot of rice noodle wrap at home for lunch too! The most interesting thing I have discovered is they use star fruit and pineapple as part of the wrap and I really like how it taste
The first time I was exposed to masala tea was in Singapore a few years back when I ordered a Himalayan tea latte from McCafe to start off my day of shopping. My original idea was to order something I haven’t tried before and couldn’t find in Hong Kong. The second I took a sip of the hot beverage, I was instantly in love of the exotic taste and flavor. I think the best way to describe the taste is that it is similar to chai tea latte from Starbucks, though I find the Himalayan tea to be more exotically flavored and the taste is not so one-spiced dimensional. Haha, does that make sense? However, I need to point out McCafe uses powder to mix the drink, and I don’t like to consume creamers, so I never bother buying the three-in-one with all the creamer, sugar, and stuff I don’t believe in.
Over the weekend, I found masala loose leaf at Mustafa Center, which I’ll described as a crazy mad house of millions of goods chaotically placed on shelves after shelves, floors after floors, it really is a crazy mad house in Little India. Anyway, I finally decided to create my own “Himalayan tea latte” and I need to praise myself and give myself a pat on the back, because yes! It was that good!!!
OMG, there is absolutely no turning back and I have upgraded away from McCafe powdered Himalayan tea, muhaha.
loose leaf masala tea typically consists of strong Ceylon black tea leaves which will bring out the flavors of spices. The typical spices found are cinnamon, ginger, cardomom, fennel seeds, peppercorn, and cloves.
because i plan on making masala tea lattee, i used maybe 1/4 cup of hot water to bring out the taste of the tea before I put milk into the drink
because milk is good for me, I made a masala tea latte
I have been looking forward to scouting out some good delicious rich creamy to-die-for durian and through some hiccups and missteps along the way, I found the place for (貓山王) ma shan wang durian! Ma shan wang is known as the king of the king of fruits, very rich and creamy and sweet with a very small seed.
The first time I had ma shan wang in Singapore, I went to the Geylong strip that is “famous” for all varieties of durian, but to be honest, I was not overly impressed. It was so expensive and I actually think the stalls are ripping people off probably because majority are tourists. However, I do need to point out, I was brought to this durian strip by a local Singaporean. Anyway, so I am very happy to find this little durian corner, I will always come to this place for durian from now on! $8SGD for a ma shan wang, that’s very good price! The only complaint I have is, I wish it was bigger!
貓山王 ma shan wang durian!!!
a mushy creamy durian has been selected for us to inhale
i need to dig in!
the famous bak ku teh shop--we estimated its sales revenues to be in the millions
I was quite excited to visit this little shop that has served over 1 million bowls of this herbal style pork bone soup since it opened in 1988. I was especially excited to visit it because it made news in HK when it refused to serve the chief executive of HK, Donald Tsang because he went during its off hours. The next time Donald Tsang was in Singapore, he made a mental note to visit this shop during its operational hours and finally tried the broth, haha.
I am not sure if I am not quite adapted to the Southeast Asian tastes yet or what, but I actually don’t think it’s anything special. Aside from the pork knuckle dish that I really enjoyed, I was disappointed with the famous star dish, the bak ku teh. I think it was too peppery and salty, I just keep dunking the fried dough into the soup and slurp it up. My friend keeps saying it’s too peppery and he keeps drinking it till the last drop, lol.
highlighting this braised pork knuckle dish, the meat was tender and the sauce was very good
my bak ku teh lunch with an impatient companion
There really are a lot of tourists that visited the shop, while eating or lining up for a table, I see millions of cameras just flashing, I actually felt kind of weird over this experience. I like the Malaysian style bak ku teh better, with the herbal soup flavor, yummy.
Very good experience with great food, great services and excelling atmosphere at extremely affordable prices, what more can I ask for? Eating Chinese dinners usually mean a round table with large plates of foods shared between the whole table, but today, I experienced single serving Chinese food slightly fusion off with little twists here and there, but it still retains the sumptuousness and hearty eating associated with a Chinese dinner. Two thumbs up!
the meal started off off with an abalone soaked in tsingtao beer, it tasted extremely refreshing, I love it! It comes with a small side salad
swallow saliva, very good
of course, I really like roasted pigeons
i love this so much! it's a baked escargot in a conch shell with a very delicious filling of pork, rice and knick knacks
must have some greens during the meal, these bok choys are drizzled with a fish soup, it was good
i was so busy eating my noodles, I forgot to take a picture until it's pretty much finished. I really like it, it's actually spicy like it's supposed to in sichuan
and a visually pleasing dessert platter to end the night, it was really really good dessert!
I never get tired of eating outdoors, I love the food and everything that goes on around me. This dig is delicious, I recommend it, though it’s a bit far from town. The dai pai dong joint is in Yuen Long, right next to the main bus terminus that has KMB buses heading back to town, so it is really very convenient if you are willing to take the time to head into Yuen Long. After eating, walk around this vibrant township, there are so much to see and so much little knick knacks to buy. I used less that $500HKD (around $65USD) and bought 6 t-shirts, good quality t shirts like adidas, new balance, nike, COOL EH?
there is a strip dai pai dong alongside this main bus station--different color table cloths distinguish each eatery
a happy staff makes the dinner that much yummier! The two big bowls of rice could be finished by 4 ppl
i really like roasted pigeons
this is pumpkin in a batter mix of salty eggs and flour, I love it, it reminds me of the best pumpkin slices I had in Guangzhou years ago, I still couldn't find one comparable in HK, this one is the closest, but it's still very far off from the yummy one I had before
i am a sucker for black pepper short-ribs
I also recommend that after eating outdoors at dai pai dong, walk around and find one of those herbal shops that serve dark color drink concoctions, hees. As my aunt said, there are so much heat from eating at dai pai dongs because all the food have lots of heavy frying, so it is best to drink those herbal teas to cool down the system and avoid pimple break-out–good advice for me!
when you spot one of these herbal tea shops, just drink one any one of the random bowl of black goodness
I was recommended to drink this black soup because the chrysantumum sweeted the tea and I wouldn't find it too bitter
One of the things I have come to enjoy in Singapore (aside from the fresh air) is how cheap it is to eat fresh fruits. I’ve been eating mangosteen, papayas, pineapples everyday! $1SGD (less than $1USD) for a giant papaya that takes me two days to finish! I love it! A variety of fresh produce and fruits could easily be found in any markets dotting Singapore.
The other night, I went down to Geylong and there is a street filled with stalls selling DURIANS, WOW!!! In HK, we generally import only the Thailand variety of Durian, but in Singapore, there are just so many selections of durians, it boggles the eyes. We end up eating the most expensive supreme durian, it was so creamy and rich, wow!
As good as it was, there was a price to paid, I got two bright red pimples on my chin! Notice them right when I got home.
seafood pasta with lots of tomatoes & carrots
