Things I love about Ho Chi Minh

Although I can't say that Ho Chi Minh City is my home right now, but I have to admit that I have develop some feelings towards it after staying here for almost a month now. Undeniably its not Malaysia and it will never be as great as Malaysia because yeah.. I'm biased and everything but.. It does have its plus points too and I'm gonna definitely miss it when I leave.

Its weird right? To develop feelings for a country. I keep saying I want to travel around the world and all and if possible, stay in a country long enough for me to get to know its culture and lifestyle but with me having my so-called attachments to these random countries, how am I going to travel as extensively as I wished?

I don't think my heart can take the heart-broken-ness of leaving it. =(

Remember how heavy hearted I was when I left Colombia? I don't think I mentioned it here but I fell in love with that country so much! Esp small town Leticia!

Who wouldn't fall in love with a town with this? =P

But anyway.. I guess life has to go own and I have to either learn to deal with it or harden myself into a cold hearted bitch that has no attachments towards anything.

I think the former is better. Don't you think so?

I'm going to try and list down what I love about Ho Chi Minh City, mainly because that's the only place I have been in Vietnam. So here goes..



10. The hustling and bustling of the city and motorbikes.

Have you ever seen the traffic in HCMC? Oh my goodness. In my opinion, if you can cross the road in HCMC, you can cross it anywhere in the world.

I certainly gonna miss crossing the road even when there is thousands of motorbikes zooming past you. The secret is just to walk slowly and pray that you'll reach the other end safely. The motorist will naturally avoid you.


9. The continuous flow of beef noodles, also known as Pho.

Although according to my dad its not healthy because its full of sugar, both in the soup and noodles, I think I have developed a love for "Pho" (pronounced "fur"). The soup, the beef, the noodles..

Ah.. I'm gonna miss it. Can't find any good ones outside Vietnam.





8. Spring Rolls!!!



Pictures can speak for themselves!

Don't really know the difference between north and south.
I love them all!

7. Vietnamese Coffee
I'm not really an ardent lover of coffee but Vietnamese coffee is really nice. Its really aromatic. I like to drink it black without milk. Highlands coffee is the best but all works well too..

Dangerously unbalance glass!

6. The smiley faces of the Vietnamese

I don't know whether they have ulterior motive on to you, eg to get you to buy their stuff or someting, but Vietnamese people are really friendly. Whenever you go into a shop, the sales girl, who's a sweet young thing (like me!) will come over and strike up a conversation with you. Even though they speak terribly broken English, they try really hard to get your interest and ask you where you're from and stuff. I always love trying to get to know them better. They're generally college students earning extra money in boutiques, embroidery shops and stuff.






Okay. I think I should stop now. TOo long and you'll start falling asleep! Yup! You. So I shall continue this another day. Stay tuned! =)

Vietnam Beef Noodles

Being in Ho Chi Minh for almost a month has made me fallen in love with their "national" food. I'm sure everyone knows what Vietnam is popular for. Besides its spring roll and French bread, Vietnam is also most popular for its beef noodles, which is known as "pho", pronounced "fur" with a down accent.

This is in Phumingham

This store is in the city itself.. Different right?


Cooking for you too see!




Different kind of beef and veggies!

With my mum being so fussy with Vietnamese food, the only place that I'm allowed to venture is the famous chain store, "Pho 24". Ho Chi Minh is full of this kinda chain stores which are differentiated with numbers! I'm not sure how many different stores they have but both Pho 24 and Pho 2000 are the popular ones. Ones that suit my "high class" mum. She's super paranoid with the food here. Even after living here for almost a year, my mum still makes sure we don't eat any street food for fear of food poisoning. I hate it though, how else are you gonna truly taste the culture of that country if you don't eat their street food?

It clean right?

Its like eating the "Chicken Rice Store" in Midvalley and not touching the real authentic chicken rice in those hawker stalls!

But ah well.. no point arguing with her. I shall venture out myself next time if I have the opportunity.

For the time being though, Pho 24 is sufficient enough to have a taste on what Vietnamese beef noodles taste like. At least its from Vietnam itself and not those from California. >.< Terrible!



I really like their noodles though. Its half way between Kuew Tiao and Mee Hoon. To put it simple, its a little bit thinner than our normal Kuew Tiao, also known as Ho Fun. I tell you, we Asians are fantastic in making noodles. We have soo many kinds of different noodles that I myself get confuse trying to explain to a fellow foreigner what our noodles are!

One thing about Pho 24 is that its clean. And their menu has English translation. It seems that its even opening branches in Singapore too. I wonder when they're coming to Malaysia.

They have all kinds of beef. Beef fillet, beef flanks.. I don't really know the difference myself. All I know is beef fillet is solid meat and beef flanks has a bit of fat in it. Me like! =)

Beef flanks!

They will serve with a plate of raw vegetables which includes various weird leaves and bean sprout. I only like their bean sprout. My mum always try and ask them to cook it for a while to make it softer, if she succeeds in communicating with them.

Its kinda funny communicating with them. Their "England" is as good as my Vietnamese, which is not existing at all. So you can imagine how we communicate. All I can say is.. one needs A LOT of patience to succeed!

One thing I love about Vietnam is their abundance of chili! Oh my god.. their chili is absolutely fabulous!!! Super spicy! For my noodles, I love putting a lot of pepper and a 3 or 4 chilis inside. Just soaking it inside is enough to make me fly up the ceiling.. I don't even have to eat it.. And I can tell you for sure that I can eat spicy food!

Oooh.. I'm gonna miss this the most when I go back to California.

Blogging about food!

Wow.. its been ages since I last blog about food! I don't really know why either but I have stop posting pictures about food though I occasionally still whip out my camera whenever I go to some new place.

Ever since one of my good friends got a car, we have been driving everywhere to try out new food. Its so exciting having a car! No need to be stuck on campus every single day. You don't know the feeling of happiness we get knowing that we have the freedom to go ANYWHERE we want ANYTIME we want!

Wahaha.. hopefully my results wont suffer.

And hopefully my dad doesn't read this! =(

Anyway, we recently went to a Korean place near Irvine. There's this street call Culver street and it has all kinds of Asian restaurants there. There's even an Indian Curry House and a Persian supermarket. Ranch 99, which is a Chinese supermarket is around there too. Not to mention a few Korean and Japanese restaurants. But as usual, no Malaysian restaurants.

Cant wait for the May holidays to come! Ahhhh..

We went to this place called Koba Tofu. Heard it from one of the students on campus. The interior of the place was very pretty and the waitresses there actually speak Korean. You know the food should be fair if the people actually speak the language! Unlike some Japanese restaurants that is own by Mexicans.

Nothing wrong but you know..

The food there was okay. I like the soup the best. As usual we were served the small dishes as appetizers. I love the fried fish. Never been to a Korean place that serves fried fish!



I ate all of it! Including the bones!

The soup was really nice. We called super spicy. They had the spicy numbering from 1 to 5 and being a Malaysian, of course I ordered number 5. Wahaha..




Too much Tofu though.. Overwhelming. >.<

My favorite Korean dish is bimbimbap. Not sure if that's the correct name but the one where you mush everything up in a stone bowl! Yup, the important thing here is the stone bowl. Therefore how can you serve bimbimbap in a plastic bowl? That is not called bimbimbap already. =.=


Ah well..

Ok ok only.

The food in this place can be considered good if you like tofu. Especially since their specialty is tofu. But I'm not really a tofu person. Especially those white soft ones. Price is normal, not to cheap, but bearable I guess. Around $15 a person.

Nice to have Asian food though. ^.^

Krispy Kreme

The first time I heard about this Krispy Kreme doughnuts was while reading Kenny Sia's blog. He said that it was the best doughnuts that he has ever eaten and that there were fireworks when he had his first bite! The only doughnuts that I ever ate was those sugary doughnuts that you can find it those regular bakery shops. Only after coming to KL did I had my first taste of
these commercial doughnuts and it was from Dunkin Doughnuts. I kinda liked it. Didn't exactly love it to death but I love the one with the strawberry sprinkles and the one with the raspberry jam inside.



Never ever heard of Krispy Kreme before and you couldn't blame me because according to Kenny Sia, the only outlet in South East Asia is in Indonesia! Of all places! Weird right? Even the whole of Japan only has one Krispy Kreme outlet and people have line up for 3 hours just to get it.



Crazy right?

There was another time where I heard about Krispy Kreme. My friend from Australia came back for holiday and we were talking about food. He then told me that Krispe Kreme is the very best! I thought he was talking about the Crispe Crepe we had that was in One Utama for a while. I absolutely love their crepes especially the one with turkey and cheese. When I told my friend that, he looked at me blankly. Then we both realized that we were talking about 2 different things. How can doughnuts have turkeys in them?

But.. whatever it is, both are absolutely delicious. I don't know why Crispe Crepe eventually close down.

Anyway.. back to the topic. I finally went to the Krispy Kreme outlet after being in US for almost 5 months. There had a little factory inside where they show you how they make their signature doughnut which is the original glazed doughtnut. It is basically just glazed with sugar. And the best part is they will serve you their freshly made doughnuts immediately!




I don't really know how the process works.. So here goes me crapping! =)

First you make the dough..

Then you kinda cook it and fry it..

Then you soak it in oil..

Fill it up with sugar, sugar and more sugar!
This is what makes it so yummy!


Tadaa!!!


So many of them!!!

That's how you make doughnuts! Go try it at home!

Wahaha..

Oh my goodness...! I so want one now..

After the little show, you line up to buy for a doughnut yourself!








There are so many different flavours!

Not really that expensive!


But still not as many as Dunkin Doughnuts though..

I expected fireworks for my first bite for the doughnut and you know what..?



I got it...

Oooh.. It is absolutely delicious!!!



Its kinda crispy, yet soft at the same time. Once you bite into one you just feel like having another one, and another one and another one. Until you get diabetics and die.

=(

Ok.. its not that serious but its really that good.

Too bad I can't bring food into the airplane or else I can bring it for you guys to eat..

Wonder when will it come to Malaysia?




We bought one box and I ended up eating 3 of them! Not together of course! 2 for breakfast the next day! =) But I'm still fat! Boohoo.. Havent weigh myself since I came to SF. Kinda afraid to do so.. Ah..

You just need to put it in the microwave for 8 seconds. Why exactly 8 seconds I have no idea but it was still super delicious the next day..

Ah.. just blogging about it makes me hungry.. Why must I blog about food I don't understand.

It was kinda weird too holding the camera and snapping pictures all around while everybody else is just lining up buying doughnuts. Makes me look like a kampung (village) girl!

Aiya.. but who cares.. my imaginary readers more important right?

But yeah.. Do try it if you have the chance! Expect fireworks! ^.^

Animal Style!

Hey guys.. My goodness.. I didn't even realize how long it has been since I last update! Time passes so fast here! Its like I'm in another world and everything on earth is still passing by while I'm having my own life here. Its so weird! Hard to describe but..

I miss Malaysia.. Boohoo.. I miss the food especially. I know that's what all Malaysian says when they are overseas but I tell you.. the food in Malaysia is really one of a kind. I can't find any Malaysian restaurants over in O.C. Or maybe I just don't go out of my university. Whatever it is.. I'm totally deprived of Char Kuew Tiao, Nasi Lemak, Fried rice, Maggi Mee Goreng, Asam Laksa.. Sigh.. I should stop torturing myself here.. Boohoo.. They do serve curry here once in a while, but its either Japanese curry which doesn't really taste like real curry, or the Indian curry here which also doesn't really taste like the curry we have in Malaysia. It doesn't have the authentic feel that we have in Malaysia. The taste is just.. blant.. =(

One thing funny though.. I havent really ate a lot of hamburgers here. They actually serve rice over in my cafeteria so that's what I have been eating everyday. White rice and fried egg for breakfast! Hehe.. no bangles for me! It taste weird! I don't like bread! But I found out a great place to get hamburgers! Hehe.. In & Out hamburgers! Yup! Have you heard of it? Its not really expensive. Its like 1.99 for one burger or for the set its USD 4 something. I know if you convert it to Malaysian dollars its expensive but ah well.. that's life.

This place is pretty weird though. They only serve 2 kinds of burgers here. Unlike McD or Burger King. They only have cheeseburger, double cheeseburger or the normal burger without any cheese. Ok.. that makes 3 types but still.. No different flavors of that sort. But they're still popular. One thing about Americans though.. the meat industry here is really corrupted and the people here are very much aware about it. Being vegetarian is quite a norm here.. unlike in Malaysia. Over here, almost every event you'll get food for vegetarian and not vegetarian. And for most vegetarian, when you ask them why they are vegetarian, they'll always answer, 'because the meat industry here is just too terrible!'.

But however popular vegetarian is, I don't think I'll ever give up eating meat! As I was saying, the hamburger at In & Out is absolutely delicious! Its just a small fast food chain where you will kinda find it anywhere but its just not as 'out there' as McD where they have advertisements everywhere! There's one interesting thing though that new people would never know about, they have a secret menu only long time customers would know.

And that is 'animal style'! What the hell is that you asked? Hehe.. well.. by telling the people behind the counter that you want your hamburgers or fries 'animal style' you're letting them pour in bacon, thousand island sauce, mayonnaise and all those unhealthy stuff into your hamburger or fries! And it is just wonderful I tell you! The funny thing is this 'animal style' is not written anywhere in the menu. And all the workers there would know what you mean when you tell them that!

My burger is 'animal style'!
Notice the normal boring fries?


Animal style fries!

I don't know about the Americans but I find this pretty weird. Though I love it and all.. I don't really like the name. Why animal? Urgh! Makes me feel I'm a big hungry beast gorging down on my burger! Not a pretty sight! But whatever la! Watever that makes my stomach happy I'm happy! =)

Does this make your mouth watery?

Wah.. suddenly so many comments! Will reply soon ya! Muarx! =)

9 days to go!

Oh my god! 9 more days to go!!! Can you believe it? Argh.. I know it doesn't really matter to you guys! But in just 9 days I'll be leaving Malaysia!

Ah..

Negaraku.. Tanah tumpahnya darahku.. Lalala

I'm suddenly a super patriotic gal! =( Too late now..

Just came back from Malacca! The paradise of food!!! Oh.. I have been pigging out so much lately that I don't really think I can fit into the small tiny economy class in Malaysian airlines in 9 days time!

Maybe that's not a bad thing after all! Wahaha..

Let your mouth water a bit! Hehe..

I'm hungry again just looking at it!



RM 5 for this plate. Expensive not le?

This actually looks better than it taste!
But after you flood it with curry! Ohh... Paradise!


^.^

I tell you.. I absolutely just love Indian food.. Oooh.. fish curry.. mutton curry.. chicken curry.. dall.. fried egg.. mee hoon goreng, maggi goreng...

Ah... orgasm already..

Not much photo I know.. Will post some up some other day ya..

Boy.. I'm gonna miss Malaysian's food! Help!!! >.<

Where is your favorite Indian food?

ClayPot Chicken Rice

Non Halal post.

Oooh.. Just looking at the pictures is making me hungry. Oh dear. I should stop posting pictures of food so late in the night.

Anyway, went to Damansara Jaya for dinner the other night. Like I told you, my mother doesn't cook so I eat out EVERY single day. So lots of pictures to show you guys everyday.

This is a coffee shop opposite Lotus the Indian Shop. Near Atria shopping center. Its open from 5pm onwards. And by 8pm or 9pm its finish. Its even worst on weekends!




She is the owner of this stall. The lady in pink. Think she's in her forties. Seems that she has been working for the past over 20 years. Wonder how it feels like to be doing the same thing every single day? I admire her actually. Being in this kinda business must be tough! She can be considered quite successful looking at the amount of customers she has. She's always alone with her maid. One woman show. Wonder if she's married?

I introduced my mum to this place a while ago and she has been addicted ever since. Always asking me to accompany her for dinner here. And I'm always so lazy to go out but.. She's my mum. So..

But the food here is really not bad. The claypot rice I mean. In Chinese we call it Sa Poh Gai Fan!




With salted fish and Chinese sausage (lap qiong) Though I always ask them not to put lap qiong inside. Don't like.

First we stir..

And stir..

and stir somemore..

She serves different type of soup too. My favourite being the pepper pig stomach soup. Its super unhealthy I know but anything pepperish, I like! Hehe..




Haven't eaten pig stomach before? You should try it someday. Hehe.. chewy chewy one. Non halal of coz.

See the amount of pepper inside. Yummy!!! Can't eat that those. Too hard already.

Love it all the same.

Oh dear.. I'm seriously hungry again. See what I go through for you guys pleasure? So sweet la I! =)

Cravings at One Utama

Heard of this place? I just went there on Wednesday. Went for a movie then went for dinner. Quite a quaint little place. On the Ground floor next to GAP in the New Wing.

A very quaint old china coffeehouse.

The menu



I ordered Fu Kin Chao Mein (Fried Hokkien Mee)
I think it was RM12


It does looks a bit like worms but its just yellow mee!
Kinda tasteless though. Not enough salt.

And very full after eating it. Dunno y!

This is what my mum ordered. Cantonese Fried Kuew Tiao.



This is nice. Seriously. I think the only thing that is worth eating.
Around Rm12 also I think.

I went here a few times already. Tried different things but all of them ok ok only. Nothing special. But the Cantonese Fried Mee is nice. Got Wok Hei! (Em.. fried enough!) Or something lidat. My mum loves that dish here. Always order same thing wan.

So yeah. If you want nice oriental food, this place is not bad.