Seeweed meal

Seoul - It was a lunch meal with my customers before leaving for home. 

3 different seaweeds

The dish in the center is actually fermented fish and it stinks but I am comfortable with the smell as we have belacan - which is fermented ground shrimp mixed with salt.  I like the taste, it goes perfectly with steamed rice.

Sashimi Flounder

Spicy soup with Flounder bones

The meat was sparse as it's the bones that is being cooked into this spicy soup.  The soup is nice but I had to deftly maneuver the fish bones in my mouth.  

Eel and Abalone

Seoul - I was thinking about eating Eel when I arrive and I was utterly surprise when my customer asked me do you want to eat Jang-eo; of course.   The way it is done in Korea is best; the fresh is shown in front of you rather than it being cooked in the kitchen.

Side dishes with Lettuce

Grilling meals always comes with a generous serving of lettuce and lots of side dishes.   For the frilling of Eel, you add ginger and the black sauce to bring out the taste of the eel.

4 Abalones for each of us

Fresh uncooked Eel

Under the hot coals, the Eel is still moving.

Cooked eel

The price of 3 slabs of Eel is about W42,000 about USD 42.  We had 2 rounds of it with Soju and Beer.  It was a very delicious meal...

Bulgogi a must have....

Seoul - I hanker for a meal of Bulgogi and so my wish was granted during dinner time.  I had a delicious meal of BBQ beef with lots of vegetables to wrap with.

Spicy Chives

Seasoned Onions

Chives are herbs that belongs to the family of Onions, Leaks and Garlic.  It is very good for your health.

Bulgogi over an open charcoal

Unlike in Singapore, Koreans love their charcoal in the restaurant as it brings out the flavour of the meat.  Grilling meat over charcoal taste much delicious than over gas fire.   The coals were brought it from the kitchen and laid into a burner to fuel the charcoals during dinner.

The weather is a cool 17C perfect for a BBQ.

cooked beef

Mint leaves and lettuce

Wrap the beef with mint leaves and/or lettuce; either add kimchi or garlice and put it in your mouth.  The flavour is perfect and top if off with Soju.  In Korean BBQ, it is not only the meat but also lots and lots vegetables and kim chi that goes along with the dishes.  It gives a good and healthy meal. 

Kimchi soup

This Kimchi had a longer fermentation period which is ideal for the soup.   Scientist and reseachers now realised that fermentation is a must for good metabolism in your whole well being.   Besides Kimchi, there are also other fermentation food that is good like yougart, miso, etc...

KTX to Daegu city

Seoul - Young Jin picked me up in his car and off we went to Seoul station to catch the 10am KTX high speed train to Daegu city to meet our customer.   The LTE internet network is good as I am writing this blog on the train at speeds exceed 200km/hr

Went to lunch immediately after reaching Daegu.

3-layer pork & spicy vege

Side dishes

Hot plate keeping rice warm

Mushroom steam rice

The picture looked blurred because of the steam evaporating out of the hot steam rice.  The above is only a sample of the numerous dishes we had for lunch.

82nd Trip to Seoul and it Raining

Seoul - Seoul is raining heavily and when I reached the Hotel.  The Limo bus stopped opposite the Hotel and I had to cross the road and was soaking wet when I reached the reception.  I had washed quickly and changed to meet my customer a short distance away via taxi.  Temperature fortunately is a cool 19C.

Gingkos office new office was nicely decorated and since all of us were hungry we ventured to Basement 1 of the building for a Tuna sashimi dinner and bottles of Soju and Beer.

All parts of the Tuna

Spicy Sting Ray

The Tuna sashimi was free flow; once the plate is cleared of tuna.  The waitress will bring in new tuna sashimi and place in on the platter.  We had 3 rounds of tuna sashimi spread before we are ready to go home.  The waitress was from the Harbin, China and of course spoke Mandarin.

When we finished our dinner, it was still raining and finding a taxi took a while.

Balut (egg)

Ho Chi Minh City - A good Vietnamese friend brought us to Hoang Yen restaurant - next to Sheraton Riverside Hotel.  This is a Vietnamese buffet restaurant and they have a very wide selection of buffet dishes at affordable prices of SGD 15 per person.

They had Balut as one of their dishes and thought it was a delicacy only to Philippines but further research revealed that it is also cherish as an aphrodisiac in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand too.  I was challenge to try one.

me holding up my Balut

That is the de shelled portion of the Balut egg revealing the yolk of a boiled and cooked embryo duck's egg. To a novice like myself it was an overwhelming feeling similar to a 'Fear Factor' competition.  The very thought of being able to see feathers and beak; though it was soft; was extremely a slow process of swallowing each teaspoon of the Balut.

Not much taste to the Bulut egg so spice and salt are dipped to taste.

The taste of one was enough for me...

Day trip to My Tho and Ben Tre

Ho Chi Minh City - After the projects are over, my customer and I took a day tour costing SGD 12 per person from Shinh Tourist Travel near Pham Ngu Lao.  

My journey begins early in the morning as we had to be at Shin Tourist office at 8am because the tour begins at 8:30am.   It was good that the tour guide speaks English too.   The journey from HCMC to My Tho takes around 1hr 40 minutes along the National Highway bordered by green rice fields.   The weather was hot and humid but I had no comfort the air-con struggles to cool the coach.

My Tho is located in the Mekong Delta region of South Vietnam and important enreport years ago.  On arrival at My Tho, we took a leisure boat to Tortoise island to see rice paper making.

ferry terminal

Bridge that we just crossed

that's the ferry boat

Along the wide river, there are many fish farms.

Fish farms

Rice Paper Making

I always wonder how it was made and it was amazing to see the simplicity of rice paper making.

Stage 1: Grinding the rice

The grinder will grind the rice into a fine water base which will be mixed with tapioca flour to be laid out on a steamer.

Stage 2: steam

Stage 3: dry in the sun

Distinct Rice Paper pattern

 That is how the rice paper has the distinct pattern naturally.

Bee cultivation

Bee Hive

I tried their cultivated bee pollen and natural honey - nice.

Horse drawn carriage

that's my transportation

It is very different from the calesa in Philippines; it was a rough mode of transportation.  You can feel the bumps when crossing over a pot hole. 

The tour provided lunch but it was not appetising but I ate to fill my hunger.

Coconut Candy 

Melted candy simmering over a hot stove

soften candy paste

Candy production line

Then we went to another location to taste local fruits and listen to Vietnamese traditonal folk music.  Afterwhich, we proceeded on a boat ride steered by women down a narrow Tan Thach natural cannal in Ben Tre.  The cruise was under the shade of the water coconut trees, in Singapore we called it 'attap chee' (scientific Nipa Palm).  This is the only palm adapted to the mangrove and grows along the coastline.

We reach back to Ho Chi Minh City at around 3pm.   A tiring but eventful and educational day.  

Vuong Quynh

Ho Chi Minh City - Late night and hankering for food, the taxi driver brought us a Pho restaurant that I have never been to - Vuong Quynh.  I am also not sure how to pronounced Quynh too.  This restaurant serves Hu Tieu Nam Vang" or Phnom Penh noodle soup.

Across the street, you have another restaurant - Quynh hot pot restaurant and next to it Quynh Cafe, serving coffee.   Quite a huge variety to serve the late night crowd hankering for food.  

Address:  A65 Nguyen Trai, Q1, HCMC

Pho Pork Bones

I tried their Pho Pork Bones, the broth is tasty quite different from other Pho outlets.   The Pork bones are huge and not so refined like our Singapore Bak Kut Teh.  But the essence could be tasted from the pork and it is good and tasty.   The Pho is also different.   Pho is pronounced as 'Fur' and NOT 'Fo'.

For SGD 10 for 2 persons of Pho Pork Bones + 2 can of coke + 1 bottle of mineral water; seems like a good deal....

Enjoy!

Seafood street food besides Ben Thanh Market

Ho Chi Minh City - This seafood restaurant with make shift tents only opens at night for dinner and I have been coming here since my very first trip to Saigon.   I would think the price here is a bit pricey but the waiters speaks English and the food is fresh; even though it could be consider street corner food.

Fresh Spring Rolls

I must have this Vietnamese gastronomic dish - fresh spring rolls.....

Vietnamese coconut drink

I thin the pinnacle of coconut fruit drink is the Thai young coconut drink - it is succulent and sweet.  But the Vietnamese coconut comes the closet in so far I have tasted across countries.

Bowl of boiled snails

This boiled snails are cooked with citronella.  Yes, that was stated on the menu but Citronella plant is not edible and it is also called mosquito plant - the scent aparently drives mosquitoes crazy.  But Citronella is a close relative of the Lemongrass plant.  So, it should be boiled with Lemongrass.   Nevertheless, the taste of the snails (or escagoes) are lovely.

Crabs fried with garlic

Medium sized mud crabs nicely cooked - average it terms of the crabs dishes I have tasted at least better than the crab I had in Cebu.

Deep-fried Elephant Fish

The taste of the elephant fish is flavourless but with the delicious Vietnamese sauces, the dish comes alive.  You have to wrapped the fish with basil, lettuce onto the paper wrap into a spring roll and pop it in your mouth.   A very fresh and delicious meal....all this for a 991,000 dong bill (SGD 58).  

Pho24 Com Tam

Ho Chi Minh City - For lunch visited the old faithful pho restaurant Pho24.  They have changed their menu recently to include broken rice (Com Tam) set dishes.  So, I tried one of their broken rice set dishes.

Broken rice set dish

It wasn't platable to my liking.  The broken rice was a first for me; very different from the long grain fragrant Thai rice.  The only meat was chicken but it was too hard and void of taste.  So, just rice and egg was my lunch.

Broken rice (com tam) is traditionally eaten by the Vietnamese working class as it is cheaper to buy and has gained recognition as a dish due to its unique flavour and texture.   Broken rice originally consisted of grains which were broken during the harvesting and cleaning of rice. Today, broken rice is softer in texture than it’s cast-off ancestor and has become distinctly Vietnamese.

Broken rie are rarely sold in Singapore anymore; it used to be the favourite for making 'cantonese porridge' - an early morning sun riser meal for many.  

Sour sop smoothie

Platter of spring rolls

I love all kinds of Vietnamese spring rolls....

Nha Hang Tan Hai Van restaurant

Ho Chi Minh City - Had dinner at Nha Hang Tan Hai Van restaurant.   This is another upmarket Vietnamese Chinese restaurant with a very wide selection of dishes.    This restaurant is part of the CNSG group of restaurants.

Address: 158-160-162 Nguyen Trai, P. Ben Thanh.

Chicken Noodle soup

Won Ton Noodle Soup

Sweet sour pineapple pork

Deep fried Lady's fingers (Okura)

Fruits platter

Trung Nguyen Coffee

Ho Chi Minh City - After the meeting we had coffee at Trung Nguyen Cafe - their coffee is famously exported around the world.   The aroma of freshly brewed coffee was very pleasant to my senses.

Vietnamese brewing apartatus

coffee strained out

perfectly brewed cuppa coffee