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Friday, December 3, 2010
Mutton at Mumtaz
MUMTAZ IS ONE OF THE MOST RESPECTED INDIAN RESTAURANTS IN HO CHI MINH CITY. At meal times it is usually packed with Indians doing business deals over the table, foreign tourists or curious locals. The menu is extensive and authentic. The restaurant is located on Ho Chi Minh City's "golden mile", Bui Vien Street lined with bars and backpacker hotels. It is in fact at the "Indian end" of Bui Vien Street, and there is another classic subcontinental restaurant Akbar Ali right across the road. Whereas Akbar Ali is cosy and carefree, Mumtaz seems more like a serious business and possibly even a chain in the making (there is another establishment on the Han River at Da Nang). For the full Mumtaz review, click here.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Banh Mi Pork Overdose
AS PEOPLE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA WOULD KNOW, BANH MI COME WITH MANY KINDS OF FILLING. They even do them with fish, if I interpreted a request my girlfriend Nga made of me right. She was in bed in our holdout at the City Star Hotel near the Cultural Park, and had asked me to go out and buy a few kebabs at the place I had found round the corner earlier in the year. I remembered that the kebab stand only opened in the evening, and it was now around lunchtime (late lunchtime). She suggested I go pick up some banh mi instead. "But don't get any with fish in them," she said. That was strange, I couldn't imagine banh mi with fish, but they have them in San Francisco as I have since learnt. I guess Nga wasn't keen on trusting fish served on the street. Having seen the meat pole at the kebab stand standing idle in the midday sun waiting for its evening primetime, I can't say I blame her. Anyway, I went out and found a banh mi woman at work near where the kebab place would later spring to life, and ordered two sandwiches. The banh mi woman asked me via gestures if I wanted some pork inside. As it turns out, pork was about all it contained. Salty. gristly, but sumptious pork... (for the full story, read here.)
Tuesday, November 24, 2010
Cafes by Numbers
THINKING UP A NAME FOR SOMETHING (OR SOMEONE) IS THE HARDEST THING, I ALWAYS WORRY THAT I AM MAKING A LAME CHOICE. Café owners in Ho Chi Minh City do not have to deal with this dilemma, because it is perfectly acceptable just to name the establishment after the street number, the address. It is not only acceptable, in fact, it is fashionable... even clichéd. Walk around Ho Chi Minh City and you will see numerous cafés with names like Café 99, Café 42, Café 88, and whatever. On the way to Chợ Lớn one weeknight back in July I passed these coffeshops, one of them called the Café (Máy Lạnh) 204, and one of them called the Café 206. Obviously they were neighbors. For more cafes by numbers in this coffee loving city, click here.
Wednesday, November 11, 2010
More Bus Stop Snacks and Surprises
ON MY LAST TRIP TO HO CHI MINH CITY I WALKED EVERYWHERE; ON MY NEXT TRIP, WHICH STARTS ON NOVEMBER 29, I WANT TO GO EVERYWHERE BY BUS. Foreigners may be afraid of riding it, but Ho Chi Minh City boasts a comprehensive workers' bus network. Tickets might not be free as they should be in a workers' paradise, but they cost next to nothing... 3000 Dong (US$0.15) for a trip less than 31 kilometers. I am planning to build up a guide to riding the bus network in Ho Chi Minh City... click here to see where it is at.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Taste of the Hermit Kingdom (A North Korean Restaurant in Hanoi)
I HAVE HEARD THERE IS A NORTH KOREAN RESTAURNT IN HANOI CALLED THE PYONGYANG RESTAURANT (OR IN VIETNAMESE, BÌNH NHƯỠNG QUÁN.) According to a magazine story I read in Le Pub (Ho Chi Minh City), it is at 28 Nguyen Thi Dinh Street, a little bit hard to find, and surrounded by other Korean restaurants. From Sydney to Saigon, South Korean restaurants are dime a dozen these days... North Korean restaurants are a rarity in comparison, and I would love to visit Bình Nhưỡng Quán after soaking up some of the mausoluems and other socialist monuments in Hanoi. Hanoi seems the perfect place to do it. True to style, the staff at this official restaurant are said to be impatient and rude, at least according to the magazine I read in Le Pub. Perhaps this magazine visited on a bad day, because other reports claim Pyongyang puts on a splendid show, complete with dancing girls and the last remnants of classic Communist choreography you will see this side of the Cold War. While it may be expensive, the food is also reputedly gourmet.
As it turns out, Bình Nhưỡng Quán is just one of a chain operated by the North Vietnamese government all over Asia. According to Slate, there are dozens of such restaurants stretching from northern China to Thailand. The Pyongyang chain helps funnel much needed foreign exchange into the coffers of the Hermit Kingdom, and possibly to launder money raised from other more illegal enterprises. They offer something of a propaganda service, but that is perhaps just a cover for their real reason for being. Interestingly, many of the diners are South Korean tourists; the waitresses and dancers are young, loyal, carefully vetted hospitality students. Slate's Sebastian Strangio dropped in at the Pyongyang restaurant in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and wrote: "Visitors to the restaurant are ushered into an air-conditioned, flood-lit hall filled with dozens of glass-topped tables. Unlike North Korea proper, which is wracked by economic sanctions and constant famines, the food here is fresh and abundant. The menu features specialties such as Pyongyang cold noodle (served encrusted with ice), barbecued cuttlefish, stringy dangogi (dog meat) soup, and countless variations on the kimchi theme, all served with glutinous white rice. Also available for sale are a series of North Korean products, including ginseng wine and some nameless bear 'product' promised to increase sexual virility. All carry hefty price tags in U.S. dollars, since the Cambodian riel is not convertible outside the country."
At Pyongyang in Hanoi (this place also goes by the name Pyongyang-Hanoi Friendship Restaurant) dishes include roast chicken (ga nuong) for US$7.50, fried hog meat (heo xao cay) for US$6.50, fried crab (cua chien don) for US$8, roast beef (phil le nuong) for US$8, and so on... you can see from this selection this is a pricey place. You're paying for the ambience here (and for the survival of the North Korean economy!)
The phone number of Pyongyang is 04 6281 8302.
There are branches of Pyongyang in Siem Reap, Vientiane, Bangkok, Pattaya, Jakarta and Ho Chi Minh City.
Prices range from 150,000 to 300,000 Dong.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Congee (Colorful Comfort Food)
PORRIDGE NEEDN'T BE BLAND, AS I DISCOVERED RECENTLY WHEN MY GIRLFRIEND NGA BECAME SICK, AND WE WENT OUT IN SEARCH OF CLASSIC COMFORT FOOD. For the full story, read here.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Cooking Classes in Ho Chi Minh City
SOME TWO YEARS AGO MY PARENTS AND THEIR BEST FRIENDS DECIDED TO VISIT ME AND NGA IN VIETNAM, TO SEE THE COUNTRY FROM POLE TO POLE. As it was my folks' first trip to Asia, I was worried how they would fare. Especially in Vietnam, which is one of the more hardcore Asian destinations. Especially with my father, who doesn't react to pressure well. Fortunately Nga had an idea for their first day in Vietnam which was original and fresh... she enrolled them (and me) in a Vietnamese cooking class. For the full story read here.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
World Dining in the Park
I MISSED NEW YEARS ON ACCOUNT OF BEING HAULED UP IN A NEARBY HOTEL... BUT TODAY THE BIRD WAS FREE TO FLY AT LAST, AND I FOUND PLENTY GOING ON. At Công viên 23 tháng 9
there was this big festival going on, highlighting many of the various culinary and cultural attractions of the city... and beyond. There were tents with charts and photos promoting the real estate boons of all the different parts of Hồ Chi Minh City... Quận 1, Quận 5, Quận 10. There were plenty of young people playing badmintion and kemari, Pakistani hockey players in two and threes, little kids selling balloons. I walked past them all, weaving between the artful mariashi and dodging the persistent touts before darting across the hurly burly road to mount the western half of the park. Here it was all strictly music and food. Fairy lights, German sausages and beer going for about a dollar a pint... they seemed to be popular with the evening crowd. The obligatory banh xeo restaurant and Thai. Mock temples had been set up to showcase children dancing to bad house music and techno. There was Vietnamese theatre on the water, stupas, folk performances. At the big amphitheatre at the end of the park an American heavy metal band was on stage, leaping about, trying frantically to whip up a vibe. A large crowd sat or stood watching it all, faithfully maintaining their quiet. When each song finished they neither cheered nor booed nor applauded, they just sat or stood there and watched. "You're a great audience!" the lead singer proclaimed at one point, sarcastically. "Come see us play at the Hard Rock Cafe, where we are in residence." Or words to that effect. The crowd just sat/stood there and stared, like good Confucian Communists. Had I not already eaten, I would have begun hankering for a taste of something exotic... Singaporean? Indian? Thai? there was plenty of everything in abundance. This had sure become one multicultural park. Not so far away there was not one but a couple of Malaysian tents set up, dishing out curry and bread to the masses. The food they were dishing out was halal. Had I not already eaten, I would have walked up there to grab a bite.
Every day on this Blissful Flow holiday, all over downtown Hồ Chi Minh City, I would bump into little groups of Pakistani hockey players, all appropriately bearded and uniformly garbed. I don't know if they ate Malaysian while they were here, but they definitely required halal. Among the Vietnamese population at large, there seemed to be plenty of interest in the dishes at this stall, representing the Nhà Hàng VN Halal... Vietnamese Malaysian cuisine for Muslims... for the full story read here.
