Secret Garden Restaurant, Saigon

I like this restaurant pretty much for its location on the top floor of an old building right in District 1. Secret Garden has a very simple design for both inside and outside on the terrace but I prefer sitting outside where I can enjoy the breeze even though it was in a very hot day in Saigon when I visited in May. The open space idea is great with wooden tables and chairs and some colourful flowers around that made me feel like I was in the small garden.

The restaurant has short menus for both food and drink which is great as I don't like too many choices. I love the simple way they cook the food but without compromising on flavour and authentic Vietnamese style. My favourite dishes the day I visited were the stir fried beef with càng cua vegetables and the crab broth served with pickled baby eggplants. Another rustic idea was the serving of drinks in small bottles with lemon grass, a slice of lemon and ice.... a very refreshing look!

I'd love to come back to the Secret Garden again on my next visit to discover more of their delicious food and drinks menu.

The Secret Garden 
158 bis Pasteur, 
District 1
Ho Chi Minh City

Hủ Tiếu

Hủ Tiếu Saigon is a signature noodle dish from the south. In the north, it is more of a dry noodle dish, while in Saigon it is clearly a soup. It consists of a choice of egg or rice noodles, a rich porky broth and lots of fresh salad and herb content on the side to counter the meat in the dish. This is one of the dishes on the top of my list whenever I'm going to Ho Chi Minh City. I'm sure there are plenty of people there who make amazing Hủ Tiếu but I love my lady in Bùi Viện street, who serves the best version I've had.



In the last 10 years or so, regardless of where I stay when I'm there, I always eat her noodles for breakfast. It's not just because it's cheap but also about how delicious the broth is: cooked with pork bones for a long time, with incredibly tender meat and the smile she greets me with.



She knows I like to eat fresh bean sprouts, soft knuckles of bone and some thinly sliced pork with not many noodles. I suppose you could say I'm a difficult customer - maybe that's why she recognises me! I enjoy her company and her staff seem to have been the same for years. So she must be a good employer, as well. All middle aged and very funny, sometimes it sounds like they are arguing but it is just a normal conversation. I enjoy being part of their conversation and laughing with it. She told me she doesn't care who her clients are or where they're from, they all human beings and she charges everyone with same price and I like that.

Saigon, July 2010

I'm in Saigon for a few days before taking some members of my family to Bangkok for a short vacation. The weather in Saigon is a bit different to Hanoi but I like Saigon as it always cool from 4pm which is much better. At the moment it's rainy season which helps keep temperatures down a bit.

Yesterday, when I wandering around the market in the afternnon when I realised my Iphone had gone. I'm very upset with myself for not being more careful with my bag. Normally in Hanoi I know exactly what's going an around me and where my phone is. I just lost concentration for a second and it was gone!

I'm trying not to let this incident ruin my holiday but it's hard. After trying to call the phone a few times I gave up and went back to the hotel. Later in the evening I went out for some snacks, including duck eggs and crabs with tamarind sauce. This made me feel better but I'm still thinking about the phone.

I was trying to take few photos of the food but I couldn't get them in focus, which I hate. There must have been something wrong with me at the time. I decided to walk back to the hotel for an early night. The next day I returned and had more success taking photos of the food. I really love eating from this old lady who has quite a striking face. She is quite a character, smoking, swearing and laughing with all of her customers. She rocks everybody who comes to her stall.

I also went to my favorite Hu Tiu vendor for breakfast. It was great to see she remembered me and what I normally order as extras such as fresh beanshoots, a bit more dried onion... The only thing that she doesn't know is that I don't eat lots of meat and noodles now because I am trying to loose some weight and workout on my belly. Anyway, I went back to her shop for every breakfast and the day I left early for Bangkok, I got up extra early for another serve of noodles.

A smile and a wave from her was a great start to my trip.

Saigon

It's pretty exciting for me when I'm able to get down to Saigon for a few days to see my dentist and visit my sister. It's nice to be in the sun and eat my favorite food from the south. Food in the south is getting dearer but it's well cooked, fresh and tasty and worth the money.

After I visited my dentist, my sister took me out for dinner with her family and our nephew by the river. We had a such a beautiful meal there, ordering coconut salad with chicken skin, stir fried duck eggs with tamarind sauce, fried rice with eggs and garlic, stir fried beef served with vegetables, pine apple and fresh noodles, and the last dish was Thai hopot. They're all really tasty and the bill came out amazingly cheap.

The next day, my niece's boyfriend invited everyone out for breakfast and we chose to go to Lam Son beef steak restaurant. It sounds funny to have a beef steak for breakfast but this is a common thing to do in the south. We had a mixed beef steak which includes fried egg, ham and french fries. It's surprisingly nice and the place is generally really crowded. Good to eat something different instead of chicken noodle soup - pho ga - all the time :).

In the evening, my nephew took everyone out to have Keo fish hotpot which is one of my local favorite even though I am not really into river fish. We ordered some grilled river prawns, grilled Keo fish, grilled squid and Keo hotpot. We were totally full after all and I couldn't even move. It's really nice being with family especially as I'm very close to my sister and my nephew. It's good to see them again and I will be back here briefly at Tet after my trip to Phu Quoc. Looking forward to that!

Coriander Restaurant

Do you like Thai restaurants? It's a bit hard to decide which Thai restaurant to go to in Ho Chi Minh as there are so many to choose from. My friends told me about the Coriander Restaurant in the back packer area in Bui Vien street. This is a small and simple restaurant like others in this area. When choosing where to sit, there are three options that you can choose: the second floor, the first floor or the back room. I love the back room because it's very simple, traditional seating on floor cushions and nice Thai paintings on the walls.

The menu highlight was Pad Thai, great Thai green papaya salad and you cannot miss the Thai green chicken curry. Take care though, as I was nearly crying when I finished the curry because I forgot to tell the waitress to make it mild.

Beside the Thai menu items, they also have some other Vietnamese and Western dishes and imported Thai drinks. The food is presented carefully and really tasty with big serves and quite cheap compared to other Thai restaurants in town that I've been to. I recommend this one!

Coriander restaurant
185 Bui Vien, District 1
Telephone 84.8.8371311
Mobile: 0909304814
Ho Chi Minh City

Christmas Holidays In Saigon

I have arrived in Saigon after over two hours flying from Hanoi with Pacific Airlines, a cheap airline joined with Qantas Airlines from Australia. The flight was delayed for 30 minutes but the journey was fine and I am now in Saigon for two weeks holiday for Christmas with my friends and my sister's family.

I love going down here because the weather is not cold during Christmas time while Hanoi is freezing and it's sunny today, great, I love it. The food in the south is great with lots of herbs and vegetables and also people understand my countryside accent because I'm from here. I also love being with my sister who is going to cook me good food and hang out with me in the shops and on the tennis courts.

I will try my best to update my blog as much as I can during the next two weeks. Hope everyone has a great holiday season.

Saigon Dec 2007 - Part I

I always wake up a bit late on my holidays and it's no different today as I woke up at 11 Am. After a few minutes washing up, I started my day with a bowl of Saigon hu tieu. There's nothing better than that and a beautiful sunny day. I wandered around for a few hours before stopping at Sasa Cafe in Bui Vien Street for lunch.Walking the whole morning is hard work. The food isn't bad here with the high light being the spanish fried rice with chicken, seafood, sausage and vegetable, fresh spring rolls and cold beer. What I always notice in Saigon is the friendly service, which is one of the differences between the north and the south. In Hanoi, sometimes the service in restaurants can be not very welcoming.

Later in the day, my sister and her friends invited me to Hoang Ty restaurant for dinner. This is my favorite place in Saigon which serves great steamed fish and deep fried fish with lots of different vegetables and herbs, rolled in special Trang Bang rice paper. We ordered these dishes plus Cu Chi beef which was recommended because it was very tender like western beef. We also ordered boiled pork, crab and prawn noodle and pig feet noodles. It was enough food for a whole army and we couldn't actually finish it all.

After dinner, we headed off to play tennis and we were all too full to play and not surprisingly, we couldn't move well to hit the ball!

To be continued.

Mua Rung Restaurant

Don't get confused between Mua Rung restaurant and Mua Rung Discoque. This is a real famous restaurant for southern Vietnamese dishes. When the locals talk about Mua Rung, they always mention Ca Keo hot pot which is the most popular dish at this place. I love this hot pot, too.

This restaurant is huge but it's busy all the time according to my sister. On the day of my visit earlier this year, it was packed. There is nothing special about the decoration and the set up but the friendly staff, great food and reasonable prices make it so popular. You can choose to sit on the first floor, second floor or on the third floor where they all have big fans spraying out a fine mist to cool the temperature down.

The ca keo hotpot contains Ca Keo fish, sour broth(canh chua) include dry onion, morning glory, Keo Neo vegetable, Dang vegetable, lots of herbs, bean shoots, lotus, celeri, water spinach, criander, banana, and other vegetables that I don't know how to translate(Bach Tang, Giang leaves, Keo Neo and a very special vegetable called Nhut which is only available in the south). They use pork bones cooked for a long time to make a natural sweet stock then add some Thai sate stuff and their own special Mua Rung ingredients to make a really yummy sweet and sour stock.

Beside the hotpot, they also serve a variety of Vietnamese food but for me, the highlights are the chicken feet salad, grilled Ca Keo fish, and grilled small river shrimps or sauted beef with onion and green pepper.

Check them out at Mua Rung restaurant
4 Su Thien Chieu
Ward 7 District 3
Tel: (84-8) 9307064 - 9307036
Ho Chi Minh city

Noodle Soup In Saigon

Because I live In Hanoi, where pho comes from, eating noodles in Saigon is always an interesting experience. In Saigon nowadays, there are so many modern noodle shops which are nothing special but way out expensive, such as Pho 5 Sao , Pho 24 and Pho 2000. It's better to go to normal noodle soup stalls on the street or in the market where the atmosphere is from the past and the noodles are cheap. Real Vietnamese food is always found on the street even though it is sometimes not very comfortable to sit down on a low chair. But you can clearly see how the sellers prepare your bowl of noodles.

My breakfast of noodles was 5000Vnd noodle on the street near my hotel in Bui Vien street. It was super and the owner is a friendly lady who charges the same price for everyone, regardless of where the come from, foreigner or local.

If you want to try some other noodle soup, then go to Ben Thanh market where all types of great southern food is sold. It may a little bit expensive than on the street but there's no doubt about the quality. I always go to the Ben Thanh market whenever I am in Saigon.

Nam Giao Restaurant

Going to Saigon to eat Hue food is a bit weird for but I love Hue food and Nam Giao Restaurant is my favorite place to eat traditional Hue cuisine. I took my mother and my nephew there. We ordered quite a few different dishes which in the end added up to only 135,000Vnd, such a cheap place.

The restaurant is located in a small alley which is really busy especially both at lunch and dinner. The soups like bun bo Hue and cakes like banh khoai are amongst the most popular. If you're in Ho Chi Minh, it's worth stopping here for a cheap meal.

Nam Giao Restaurant
136/15 Le Thanh Ton District 1
26/B13+14 Su Van Hanh District 10
Telephone: 08. 8250261 / 8621203

Saigon, Welcome Back!

After a few hours wandering around Noi Bai Airport due to a delay of Vietnam Airlines, I arrived in Saigon at 4 pm during a heavy rainfall. I was a bit disappointed about the weather but luckily it was only raining around the airport, not in the city center. This is kind of weird because the city is only 15 minutes from the airport.

Anyway, I am happy to be here, having fun with my mum and my sister's family. Will try to update when I'm in KL and Singapore with them soon for a short holiday.

Alibaba - Indian Restaurant

This Indian restaurant in Saigon has a special name and I like it. It's a small restaurant with a good chef, great food but the service is not really what I expected. They didn't explain what each dish was when it arrived at the table and, it seems that smiling is a very difficult thing to do here :) However, the owner is a friendly Indian guy. I reckon that they need to ask the staff to change their attitude or they will lose their customers.

I really can't remmeber what I ordered except for plain nan and garlic nan, some curries and tandoor dishes. I enjoyed my food and watching Indian music videos with beautiful Indian singers on a big screen. It was a bit like Bollywood. We need one good Indian restaurant like this place in Hanoi.

Alibaba Restaurant
60 Le Thanh Ton - Dist 1
Ho Chi Minh City
Tel:P 84.8.823 3594
Email:alibaba@hcm.vnn.vn

Dzoan Cam Van

Cam Van is a well known name for most Vietnamese who work in hospitality because she has her own cooking show on TV and I decided to go to her place to try it when I was down south a while back.

As I expected, the food was delicious and well presented, the staff were really friendly and helpful. I tried quite a few different starters and I was really impressed about the flavours in the food. I also tried the most popular dish, the hot pot with seafood and beef, which was the highlight. Doan restaurant serves generous portions that are enough for at least two people and it's not expensive at all.

You can choose to sit inside with airconditioning or outside in the garden or at the back of the restaurant with fans, overlooking the foutain.

Check out at: 438 Vo Van Tan, District 5, Q3
Ho Chi Minh City
Tel : 84.8. 39291949/59
Email:dzoan53@yahoo.com.vn

Bach Dang Ice Cream

I'd heard heaps about Bach Dang ice cream before but this was the first time I tried it. I don't really know how many branches of Bach Dang ice cream are in Saigon but I think the ice cream at the shop I ate at was really good.

I chose my favorite, coconut ice-cream in a coconut with dragon fruit, grapes, some sweets and some chocolate ice cream. Yum, I always loved this kind when I was a young boy in Nha Trang where the ice-cream is the best but I have to admit Bach Dang ice cream is of the same quality.

There are lots of different kinds of ice cream and juices which are available here and it's not very expensive. They also decorate the cream with many shapes like hearts, flowers, baby faces ... and fruit decorations as well. This is a good place worth coming to for a cool down with friends, where the second floor is air conditioned and the ground floor has water fans.

Bach Dang Ice Cream
28 Le Loi Street
District 1
Ho Chi Minh City

Lac Thai Restaurant

I am not much of a Thai food fan, but my friends took me to an amazing Thai restaurant which is in a small alley in Saigon. The restaurant is not big but it is very nicely decorated. We sat on the top floor which meant I had to force my lazy feet up to the third floor on a small metal staircase. It was a big surprise, a small area with low tables and so laid back like Japanese style.

I am not a fish fan either but I did love their cat fish salad, the fried shrimp patties also. The dish I can't forget is the Thai style soup with beancurd. It was simple and delicious. The pineapple fried rice was impressive looking, served nicely in a pineapple.

Lac Thai is not a really pricey place. It deserves its small following and perhaps the owner needs to spend some income on advertising to attract more customers. Highly recommended.

Here is the address: 71/2 Mac Thi Buoi - Ben Nghe - Dist 1
Ho Chi Minh City
Tel: 84.8.823 7506

Fish Rolls, Hoang Ty Restaurant

My sister and her friends took me to this place and I was confused about the name because on the sign it said Trang Bang and I don't know what Trang Bang actually is. At this very busy local restaurant they serve a variety of food but by the way people were ordering, I reckon steamed snake head fish rolled in rice paper with over 10 different veggies is the most popular dish here. They also serve a special long round noodle with pork or pigs feet or normal noodles with Thac Lac fish.

The food was good but as usual with local restaurants the atmosphere was really noisy. I think it was worse than usual because it was June 1st, which is Childrens' Day in Vietnam. Lots of screaming kids running around.

At the finish of our meal, we only paid 270.000Vnd for six people, which included a few beers, soft drinks and dessert. I thought they had made a mistake but it was right. Another good thing about popular local food shops like this is that you don't need to make any reservations :)

Banh Canh Tan Hoang Ty
106 Cao Thang Dist 3
Ho Chi Minh City
Tel:84.8.8332077

Ho Chi Minh City's Cafe

Coffee shops in Ho Chi Minh City are very big and all look expensive due to the huge competition down there. Cafes try to outdo each other with decor to attract customers. The owners think that if they don't have the best shop then nobody will come.

In Viet Nam, people eat quite fast in restaurants or at home but they spend hours in coffee shops chatting with friends. Saigonese not only drink coffee when they go to coffee shop, though. They have plenty of options to choose from, including mixed juices, heavy liquor and cocktails. Some places make really good cocktails and some places make good juices. I can’t drink coffee a lot so that I usually choose fresh passion fruit or lemon juice.

In Saigon recently, I drank lots of coconut juice because the naturally sweet coconuts don't seem to be available in Hanoi and they cost triple the price. I love to simply drive around and stop at a coconut stall right on the street, ask for a cold one and drink it 100% in one go, and keep driving. Such a good summer drink.

@ Cafe, Napoli cafe, MTV cafe, Highland cafe… are the most popular in Saigon at the moment. They’re all in good locations and beautifully fitted. Some of these cafes also serve good value office lunches.

Viet Nam House

Viet Nam House is a very nice restaurant located in the most expensive location in Saigon, Dong Khoi Street. But you will be surprised because the food is excellent it's not expensive at all.

Live traditional music is on almost every night,which creates quite a nice atmosphere. The staff are great. I love to see people smiling when they work.

While looking at the menu, I got recommendations from the staff and they were all good. the Papaya salad with pork and prawns was a great starter, fresh and tangy. The Grilled beef in La Lot leaves and stir fried mixed vegetables with tofu and mushrooms were also knowledgeable choices for my main course. I think the fish in clay pot had an amazing rich sauce but the fish was a bit over cooked.

Viet Nam House
93-95Dong Khoi Street
Tel:(84).8.829.16231
Ho Chi Minh City