Sunday, March 25, 2018

Vietnam: What We Had In Ho Chi Minh City,

Hello!

Vietnam has always been one of the countries in my travel list. As there were 2 long weekends in December and I was free during the last week of December, Mr. Z and I decided to fly over to Ho Chi Minh City for our short break. It was really a well-deserved break for me as I was super busy over the planning of Company Annual D&D from the month when I joined till late December 2017! There was also a time when there was a meltdown due to the hectic stress at work, but that's not the point.

Today, I shall go through the list of food places during our short 4D3N visit to HCMC!

Our flight was in the late afternoon so by the time we checked out of the airport, the sky had already turned dark. Checked into our hotel, which I'll talk about it in another post, and made our way down to 4P's Pizza for our first meal in HCM!

4P's Pizza


We did not expect 4P's to be in such an atas place! We did not look up the Internet of how the interior design was too that is why we were both quite surprised in a pleasant way when we reached the restaurant. We were brought up to the second level and the environment was really good. Apart from the noise level, I think this is a good place for you to visit if you love to have some Italian cuisine in HCM!

One thing good about this restaurant is that, we could order 1 pizza with 2 different flavours. I forgot if there were any additional cost to it but this helps to save so much stomach space in us! Imagine if we would like to try 2 different flavours but, like everywhere else, we had to order 2 whole pizza to try. Eew. So this is one of the pros for people who love to try different pizza!

With that, I ordered half Terriyaki Chicken and half Salmon Miso pizza, and a plate of carbonara pasta for our mains. As for desserts, I had Frozen Yogurt while Mr. Z had Double Cheese Cake. This guy of mine can never resist a cheese cake!

Carbonara Pasta

Please give this carbonara a try! I'm not sure about others but as a carbonara lover, this is really something that is worth the calories! You have to make sure to mix the cheese cubes well with the pasta and voila! Everything was so perfect that I had wanted to order for another plate of this!

Unlike some of the carbonara pasta we have in Singapore, this is thick and I think people who don't usually eat creamy carbonara sauce will somehow like eating this too. It just didn't give us the sick-of-this feeling at all!

Pizza. Left: Salmon Miso, Right: Terriyaki Chicken
I couldn't decide on the pizza so I had Mr. Z to help me with it. We both agreed on Terriyaki Chicken pizza and I just had to choose another one to make it a whole so I decided on Salmon Miso.

Terriyaki Chicken is so much nicer than Salmon Miso. It was also a wrong choice to eat Terriyaki Chicken before Salmon Miso. Terriyaki Chicken is very flavourful together with the sauce and seaweed seasoning. We then tried Salmon Miso and it tasted really meh as compared to the other one. I wonder if things would be different if we had eaten the salmon first. Hmmm. But anyway, Terriyaki Chicken is one of their signature dishes for the pizza!

Frozen Yogurt
This dessert was super legit! Like what the name suggests, you could taste the ice and yogurt! Jokes aside, I think I will never get sick of this bowl of goodness. I finished all by myself without any help from Mr. Z. Okay, except for the strawberries and that stem of leaves. Other than that, it's nothing really special about this lah. Just thought it was worth trying.

Double Cheese Cake
Mr. Z ordered this as cheesecakes are his past, current and future lover. Lol. I guess this suits the cheese lover in Mr. Z! He mentioned that it doesn't taste like the usual cheesecakes he had and that it was quite a unique texture.

Verdict: Yes, please visit this restaurant even if you have only 1 day in HCM. Hahah, it's really worth the visit! Mr. Z and I agreed upon visiting 4P's Pizza again if we ever go back there for leisure / any purpose!

Oh, I forgot to add that the total bill for these was only S$27!

Imotaro Lau

This is a random Japanese Restaurant that we chanced upon after our half-day tour to Cu Chi Tunnel. We were both famished and couldn't wait till we get to another area for a local cuisine so we settled for something that I love instead.

Again, we were brought up to the second level where it was more private and spacious!

Yakitori Don


Menchi Katsu Teishoku


The portions were huge which was really a good thing because we were famished and needed lots of food to energize ourselves for the rest of the day. Hahah! Mr. Z, yet again, said that mine looked better than his order. To which he was right! I have no idea how his Yakitori Don tastes like because I didn't get to try. Anyway, this meal costs us only S$17!

Pho 24

To be honest, I think we went to the wrong Pho 24. The one we patronised was a franchised one and we were being told not to go for franchised outlets. Sadly, we didn't know it.





Isn't this nostalgic to you?



I have no idea what we ordered. Anyway down to the point of the taste.

I personally think that the soup is really good. The broth was thick and to my liking! I could finish the whole soup if I hadn't bought the bottle of coke! The rice noodle, was really meh. I didn't quite like the texture of the rice noodle. It just felt weird to me. Or prolly because I am already used to the ones I had in Singapore. But not true, because the one I had at HCM Airport was good. So I thought the problem might lie with the franchised outlet? The beef was okay? I think the only thing I'd recommend would be the broth. JUST. THE. BROTH.

Banh Mi Hoa Ma




This is a local breakfast and it is located in District 3. It was quite a distance from where we stayed, and the Grab journey took about 25mins? I fell aslp on the way there. Lol.

Anyway, fun fact about bahn mi that I came across on the Internet. Bahn Mi started during the French Colonial times, introduced to Vietnam at that time as bread was one of the food that has to be on the menu as the French loved eating breads. I guess it still is now? As baguette.



Anyway, this is the Vietnam version of baguette lah. It tasted hard, yet a bit crispy at the sides. The hard and sharp parts actually caused my gums to be swollen after the meal. Mr. Z took the one with ham and bacon in the baguette while I had the other set which tasted oily yet good! The eggs were fried with lots of oil, I felt sick after awhile. But it is still recommendable as you can experience the way the locals have breakfast in Vietnam.

L'usine

We patronised only 1 cafe throughout our 3.5 days in Vietnam and L'usine was the one we went near Ben Thanh Market.

It consists of 2-storeys, the first level is where you can shop while the cafe is located at the 2nd level.





Tomato, Fresh Mozzarella & Feta Sandwich

L'usine Brekki
 Mr. Z ordered a cup of Vietnamese Coffee as well to go with his mains. Overall, I think the food was average. I personally think that the L'usine Brekki is nicer than my sandwich. HAHAH, needless to say actually cus it's one of the signature dishes there.

Night Market

Initially Mr. Z planned to have our dinner at a Vietnamese Restaurant. We checked out the restaurant before we headed down to this night market for a walk. We then decided that we should just stay in this area and not spend so much on a luxurious restaurant for dinner. Hahah. Tbh, I have no idea where this night market is located. The name in my video below might not be correct as well... But the one thing I knw was, this night market has quite a lot of snacks to buy!

Beef Cheese - This is really good!!!



Chicken Egg Roll

Vietnamese Pizza (?)



Airport foodcourt

Earlier I mentioned about the Pho 24 and the pho at the airport, this is the one! The rice noodle itself is so much nicer than Pho 24. Sorry, but really, personally I feel that this is nicer. Not just the rice noodle but the broth as well!


That's all for the food in Vietnam for 3.5 days! Here's the video...


Goodbye! 

Sunday, March 11, 2018

TRAVELWITHLEEN: Beijing Day 9 & 10,

Hello!

It's down to the last two days of my Beijing trip. It really took me so long to do it!

Day Nine: Forbidden City x Capital M

We started our day by visiting a 小吃店 for their local breakfast - 豆浆油条

The shop is really small and seats are limited. Not sure if that's the way of doing their businesses in China. We settled for this 小吃 bcos I was legit craving for 油条. I mean, how can you not have their local delicacies/breakfast when you're in a foreign country, right?




I wanted to get these crispy stuff but the staffs mentioned that they don't sell that alone. They would fry it together with the omelette which I found it a bit gross? Like, why would they cook smth crispy tgth with a wet dish? I think it's just me lah.

And it's also me that I will always place my food that is crispy or fried on one side of the plate. I will even "scoop" the rice over and make a "hole" just so that I can place the fried food on the dry part while those with sauces would lie on my rice. I'm weird like this!


Oh yes, they don't sell 油条 alone too! The fried dough fritter is sandwiched between the omelette. I t can be seen in the above image. Imagine how disappointed I was after knwing that they don't sell fried youtiao!


Their 豆花 was bland AF. Not sure why. The one in Singapore is flavorful with sugar syrup but theirs are really bland and totally not what I would go for! It tasted super thin! Sorry but this is totally MEH!

After this, we walked to Forbidden City, like finally!




We rented these for free so that we could understand more about the place. It comes in different languages. You may choose between Mandarin, English or French and more.




We came across this huge tank that everyone was snatching to touch their head as shown below. Totally have no idea what that signifies!




We ended our trails not long later and decided to find somewhere to eat - 金鼎轩

鸡丝皮蛋粥
This congee is really good! I ate most of it because I was feeling uncomfortable and this soothed me so much! The crisp was awesome!

蜜汁叉烧包

黄蛋菜尖

Fried mochi

Steamed Spare Ribs with Black Bean Sauce

Carrot Cake



Walked arnd the vicinity and decided to proceed to 前门 as we were gna have our dinner at a restaurant there.

It was Capital M. Initially Mr. Z said that shall be our candle-lit dinner as I was supposed to fly over alone to find him without my mum. But now we made do with my mum as well. HAHAHAH!




The Starters.




Foie Gras with salted caramel & pistachio brittle
apple chutney & toasted brioche
Sadly, this foie gras wasn't what I had expected it to be! Mr. Z and I prefer the usual cooked and soft kind instead of cold ones. This tasted really cold, hard and erm... Butter. We got sick after a few small mouthful of it.

Risotto
Me loves risotto!!!
Duck Leg Confit

Crispy Suckling Pig

House-smoked Salmon

Truffled Mashed Potato
Chocolate Fondant
Apple Tart




Happy girl with happy stomach! 
We headed back to our hotel to rest for awhile before Mr. Z and I headed out again for K sesh at a nearby mall. The one that is cheap was super crowded and we had to wait for 1hr? We sourced for another one and it was really expensive but erm. If you were to calculate, it would be cheaper lah because it was like SGD50++ for 6hrs? That's if you were to really stay there for 6 hrs. The room was huge too!! But too bad, we stayed their for only 2hrs because people from other rooms were smoking and the aircon had this cig smell which was rlly choking. And I felt like I was gna faint anytime!




 Day Ten: Back to Singapore x Last Phase of LDR


We had our brunch at the place where we had our lunch on the 3rd day because it was so good!

Salted Egg Mushrooms

Vegetarian Dumpling


Sweet & sour pork

Fish congee

Stir fried beef noodle




This concludes my trip to Beijing during Mr. Z's 1-yr of exchange program. Never will I want to experience this kind of LDR again however, sadly, he is now away for his family trip in Italy. /Rolls eyes gaogao/!

Goodbye!