what i'll remember: saigon

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. We arrived the morning of 22 February 2011, left for Siem Reap the next day, then flew back on 26 February and stayed until 1 March.

In those few days, we spent a lot of time sitting in little plastic chairs on the sidewalk, drinking very strong and sweet coffee, and watching the world go by.

Cà phê sữa đá. Iced coffee with milk.

food porn @ trois gourmands, part 2

Hot Tuna and Canned Tuna wanted an after-dinner drink, and so they asked our server for some calvados. She brought us this bottle:

How the hail did they get the apple into the bottle?

That drink, I don't know if it was really calvados, maybe it was the owner's backyard moonshine, that drink was, was... POISON! It was the closest thing to paint thinner I've ever imbibed, albeit with a smooth and fruity finish. It cut through all the dust, phlegm and pollutants that I had accumulated in my throat for the past couple of years. The alcohol burned all the way down and seemed to literally CLING to my body parts-- lips, tongue, tonsils, and all major organs. Minutes after our first sip, we were still smarting from the fumes.

food porn @ trois gourmands, part 1

To call our dinner at Trois Gourmands an "event" is an understatement. It literally took half a year of planning and scheming, involving research on various online food and travel forums, coordinating with the InterContinental Asiana Saigon's very helpful concierge, lightning emails back and forth, and most importantly, making sure that we were all in the same place at the same time.

Trois Gourmands, 18 Tong Huu Dinh Street, Thao Dien Ward, District 2, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. 26 February 2011 at 9PM.

Together at last. Hot Tuna, Canned Tuna and Bunny Rabbit.

They started us off with an amuse bouche. Scrambled eggs perfectly simple and pillowy soft, and all the warm bread we could eat. Evokes the comfort of a hearty country breakfast, and isn't the scent of good bread just so heartwarming and NICE?

Soft scrambled egg with black truffle

visiting saint victor hugo

One of the weirdly wonderful things about Vietnam is Cao Dai.

OK, that sounds disrespectful, calling a religion "weird", but seriously, in this day and age of fire-breathing, join-us-or-rot-in-hell fundamentalists, a religion that accepts and even embraces the tenets of all the world's major religions and philosophies... now that's a little weird.

I decided to hire a car to go to the Tây Ninh Holy See, which is the seat of Caodaism. It would have been much cheaper to join one of those bus tours, but their itinerary is too hectic and they spend only thirty minutes in the temple. And based on my research, this place deserves much more than just thirty minutes. 

foodie wonderland

It's been over two months since I was in Vietnam, and I'm still struggling to blog about the few days that I spent there. Every time I browse through my pictures, I am dumbfounded by homesickness, even though obviously it's not my home (yet), and I had only been there once. (Well, technically, twice. Our trip was Manila - Saigon - Siem Reap - Saigon - Manila.)

And every time I think about the food, I am moved to tears because I miss it so much. Plus I start to drool.

Ben Thanh Market, Saigon. Proof that God loves me.

Just looking at this picture brings back all the sights, sounds and smells. Argghhh!!!

pheromonic vietnam

In The Nasty Bits, Anthony Bourdain wrote: "I love Vietnam. Maybe it's a pheromonic thing. Like when you meet the love of your life for the first time, and she just, somehow, inexplicably smells and feels right. You sense that given the opportunity, this is the woman you want to spend the rest of your life with. I'm in town for an hour, and I'm already tipsy, delighted, giggly, and elated."

Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica, 28 February 2011, 6:45PM.

Marian devotees gather in front of the cathedral each night.

The Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica was constructed between 1863 and 1880, and is 58 meters high.