Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Ho Chi Minh - Food Galore...

I just love Vietnamese food especially pho (noodles). It is a known Vietnamese slang that noodles means a mistress or another girl friend. But for me it means real Vietnamese Beef soup noodles. I can have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner - it just taste heavenly.

Chefs all over the world hail Vietnamese cuisine as healthy, especially since it is loaded with vegetables, spices and herbs such as mint and coriander. Many of these contain antibacterial compounds and provide added fibre to the dieat, therefore a Vietnamese meal is usually low in calories.
Famous for its lively, fresh flavours - Vietnamese cuisine uses abundant fresh herbs and greens, delicate soups and stir fries, and well seasoned grilled foods with rice or noodles are the main-stay of Vietnamese dishes. While the Vietnamese cuisine relies on fresh vegetables and subtle seasonings - it also has subtle Chinese and French influences.

Food Review - Recommended Vietnamese restaurant @ HCMC which I have tried:
  • Lemon Grass - $$ - 4 Nguyen Thiep St - (opposite of Sheraton Saigon Hotel). A small three-story restaurant that serve good value vietnamese food
  • Pho24 - $ - (opposite Sheration Saigon Hotel) - very delicious vietnamese noodles
  • Hoavener Brewery- $ - 28 bis Mac Dinh Chi Street - This Czech brewery is Vietnam's first microbrewery pub and restaurant - a very nice brewery with reasonable priced food.
  • Lion Brewery - $ - located @ 11C Lam Son Square, Dist.1 next to Caravelle Hotel - The German microbrewery uses the traditional processing method and technology of Kaspar Schulz - serves good German sausages. I went there during the Oktoberfest - the whole place was decorated very nicely.
  • Blue Ginger - $$ - food served on a crisp, white table cloth, housed in a former journalists’ club at 37 Nam Ky Khai Nghia
  • Hoa Vien Restuarnt - $ - located @ 148 Hai Ba Trung, Dist. 1. Next to Renaissance Riverside Saigon Hotel - very affordable and good food - you will find many locals dining here.
  • Indochine restaurant - $$$ - 32 Pham Ngoc Thach (District 3), northern vietnamese - specialties in style. The menu shaped like a non (Vietnamese cone hat). Menu prices are quite expensive.
  • Au Manoir De Khai - $$$$ - I think this is Ho Chi Minh City’s most opulent and grand French restauant with a glimpse of the silk and gilt coated interior of this two-storey manor. They have a very good collection of French wines.

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