Eating And Traveling
My hometown city, Philadelphia, has a famous place for diners seeking a wide variety of flavors; it’s the market of the old train station at 12th and Arch St. The cheesesteaks are probably delicious, but I wanted to sample a few places instead of just filling up on meat and cheese. Continue reading “Philadelphia ~ Reading Terminal Market”
Moving from the sea of Trieste to the lowlands before the Dolomites lies Udine. It’s the largest city in the province, and the only city in Friuli Venezia Giulia to have a professional soccer team in the Serie A. Continue reading “Where to Eat in Udine”
This bowl of seemingly simple noodles was extraordinary. It looked like every other restaurant on the street, but what a dish! The pork was so soft and tasty, the noodles al dente, and plenty of green onion. I was so happy eating this.
So great, look at the sesame seeds and bubbles of tastiness floating there.
The left dish was egg wrapped around rice and drowned in a gelatinous goop (tastes better than my accurate description). The right dish was a pretty good ramen soup, but not nearly as good as that first one.
We pulled into Osaka rattled after a bumpy, thumpy flight over the South China Sea from Kuala Lumpur. Luckily, we booked a lovely place called Hotel Monterey which was connected to the subway. It was late, and Japanese go to bed early, so we rushed into the nearest tiny restaurant. The old businessmen were sitting and smoking beside crumpled napkins and the ruins of dinner. We ordered big. Everything was delicious and VERY different from the saucy SE Asia noodles and rice and much less spicy than Korean noodles and rice. It was just a small place so there was minimal attention paid to appearance, and more to the taste.
I actually have no idea what the name of this restaurant was, but it was something like that. It’s on one of the side streets. Among the myriad of bugs swarming the halogen lights, we dined on some more traditional Laos food.
Simply titled: Rice noodles with Beef–balanced and not oily. (<3US$)
Vegetable Stew: Full of dill, eggplant and green beans, not spicy and tender, but strange chicken pieces. (<5US$)
It’s a famous restaurant in town that prepares completely traditional food for reasonable prices. I stumbled accidentally, in a dazed post massage pleasure stroll, into this restaurant. They offer cooking classes and have a three page history of Laotian food at the back of the menu. I got a good vibe from the place.
First, I ordered the Beer tasting platter. It’s just a big Beerlao, but it comes with a plate of nibblins, Laos nibblins.
Starting clockwise at the rice cake, under it was a sweet potato cracker, pumpkin seeds, dried ginger, dried mushroom, dried banana, sesame seaweed and salty peanuts in the middle. Perfect finger food with a cold beer.
The next dish was called “Five Bites.”
Starting clockwise at the amazing Luang Prabang sausage, (and ignoring the sticky rice) lettuce wrapped around peanut paste and lemongrass, minced pork in dill and coriander, pickled cabbage, and water buffalo beef jerky. I couldn’t have picked a better lunch for my taste buds. Total satisfaction for under 10US$.
Recommended*
Since there were few options for quality Western food in these listless river cities, I ate local. My favorite way to eat local is by asking what is the waitresses’ favorite dish, but English isn’t widely spoken, so I took my chances. Menus usually have three options: rice with various meats, noodles with various meats or fish…with rice or noodles. I’m not complaining, sometimes it’s strange and delicious, but other times you are hungry for specificity, which can lead to frustration. That frustration goes simmering into the sunset when you get a dish like this:
Perhaps because of the heavy influence of American troops from the war, perhaps because of the massive amount of transient backpackers funneling in on night buses, perhaps because the locals are interested in Western Cuisine, or perhaps because all the best Vietnamese food is elsewhere, HCMC is a destination for world cuisine. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to eat all the places that looked interesting, instead, I went the comfort food route. After all, it had been a month of focusing on Vietnamese food, I was ready for cheese!
Continue reading “Western Food Paradise in Ho Chi Minh City”
Its natural beauty is easy on the eyes, but as with most resort towns, tourists find a way to crowd out the beauty to be replaced by high rise hotels and trendy beach bars. The city is overwhelmed with Russian tourists due to the one way flights serviced from Moscow. Signs and menus are posted in Vietnamese, French, Russian and English. The Russians seem to be a hard bunch to impress and walk around with faces that seem to ask, “Is this all ya got?” Continue reading “Nha Trang ~ The Russian and Backpacker Beach”
I had searched a few times for this place, and couldn’t find it. Then, as always, when wandering lost on my last night, I found it. Lonely Planet recommended it, and with good cause. It’s an outdoor seating, BBQ/family style gem. They offer a SET (as in, only thing you can order) menu for 125,000 dong (6$). It includes a large salad, marinated vegetables, fried spring rolls, two kinds of pork, fried pancakes, rice paper for wrapping and the special sauce. The nice ladies who work the place will help you build a few of your wraps until you can try. Basically, you just put a splash of all the ingredients on the table into the little, clear rice paper wraps, roll, dip and eat. I had been underwhelmed with the amount of street/authentic local food in this tourist haven. This was a place where everyone comes. Your fingers are greasy, beer is condensating, stomach is full and then they bring you a little chocolate or mango mousse with a dollop of whipped cream. The chairs aren’t comfortable enough to make this a place to chill for a long time and hang, but it serves a delicious purpose.
Best restaurant in Hoi An. (51 Tran Hung Dao)
E.A.T. 