The food in HCMC is quite unique. Most of their dishes are of vietnamese chinese style. They have different kinds of sauces to go with their main dishes like the fish sauce which actually tasted odd at first. The photo shows three kinds of mi soups. The dish at the top right corner is called the Bun Mang Ga and it comes along with a plate of herbal leaves which are edible. Ga in Vietnamese means chicken and Bun is a type of mi. It cost me around 19 000 dong. The dish at the bottom right corner is the Mien Ga. Its quite similar to the first dish but it consists of a different type of mi.The price is similar to the 1st dish. The bottom left dish is called the Mien Thit Heo. In Vietnamese, Thit Heo means pork.This dish cost around 15 000 dong. All 3 dishes were delicious!
A roadside stall opposite Vietnam National University-USSH was selling this dish where a lot of customers were eating with pleasure. So we decided to try this food and it cost us only 4000 dong. It consists of a type of flat noodle with green bean kueh , a slice of pork and beansprouts. And fish sauce must be added to it. Mix it well and enjoy! Though it was a small portion, it was a hearty meal indeed.
Bubble Tea in HCMC,District 1. Posing in front of the bubble tea outlet. the cheapest bubble tea at this outlet costs around 6000 dong.
The photo above shows a traditional food which is known as Banh Tet and is similar to the ketupat. Its basically made up of bean paste and rice. It is packed into a banana leaf tightly , boiled and it is ready to eat when cooked. It tastes like rice cake with bean paste in the middle.
Small bottle of snake wine
District 1 is home to 2 hindu temples namely Mariamman Temple and Thendayuthapani Temple.Upon arriving at the temple, the people who had set up shop outside will pester us to get incense sticks and flowers for the deities.What amazed me the most was that the majority of devotees were Vietnamese.Raja,Lu Wei , Teck Hiang and me went into the temple. We cleansed our feet and prayed at the individual sanctums. When we were walking round the temple, a temple staff approached and gave us some prasadham (gift of fruits). We accepted it graciously.We wanted to ask someone why they had given us this because in Singapore usually this is not the case.Devotees have to get a receipt with our name on it stating which deity we want to perform mantras. So we approached a hindu and asked him. He told us that here it is done differently where they present us with whatever they have at their hands. Before leaving, we donated some money into the charity box. It was indeed a Holy Hindu- Vietnamese Experience.
Vietnam National University
We went over to Saigon Trade Center to check some banks such as VietComBank and Standard Chartered. Spoke to them about opening an account over there and I also managed to converse with a Malaysian who was there settling his account. We got some info from him too....
Vietnamese Chicken Rice
Our House
My room
Mr Doi came to our house at about 6pm to bring us for dinner..and by the way the sun sets here quite early at about 6 plus in the evening... so by 7pm its already dark. He brought us to a kopitiam where he ordered Lau- which is hotpot in Vietnamese. it came with a dose of leaves and grass which we had to soak in the hotpot. we also had fried fish which was pierced through a satay stick. After which we headed back home and started our spring cleaning. We swept and wiped and mopped down our room. by the time we finished it was around 12am. We called it a nite at about 1 am.Pheeew what a day in HCMC !
