36m meat roll to serve tourists in HCM City

HCM City people and tourists will see and taste a long meat roll of 36m long, 25mm diameter, at the International Food Festival at Van Thanh Tourist Park in HCM City from November 11 to December 2.

This meat roll, made by the Cau Tre Export Goods JS Company, has also been proposed for a new national record.

The International Food Festival is being co-organised by the HCM City Department of Tourism, the HCM City Tourism Association and the Saigon Tourism Corporation.

This event will gather top chefs from restaurants and hotels throughout Vietnam and 29 representatives of culinary arts from China, France, Germany, India, Australia, Mexico, Spain, Portugal and the Republic of Korea.

During the festival, the “Seeking Vietnamese Wine Map” programme will be held for the first time. It will introduce special Vietnamese wines at The House of Wine. Visitors will have a chance to learn about the wine culture of Vietnamese people.

Talks about food, including one about Vietnamese pho and its internationality, will be held.

Source Vietnamnet

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Enjoy tea and music

On entering Thao Tra, you feel as if you are in a small teashop in Japan, the land of the cherry blossom.

With a variety of sparkling lanterns imported from Japan by the shopes owners, together with melodious Tam Thap Luc music ( a musical instrument with 36 strings ), you  will savor the taste of many kinds of tea served by young girls dressed in kimonos.

In the wonderful Thao Tra atmosphere, all the pressures of everyday life seem to dissolve. It is so wonderful sitting on a soft cushion enjoying tea on a cold evening.

THAO TRA

109 – D8 Dang Van Ngu, Ha Noi

Tel: 04.2455837

Source Travellive

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Specialties of three regions

Su se cakes or husband and wife cakes are a famous specialty of Dinh Bang, Bac Ninh, The Dinh Bang people make this cake using the white powder of glutinous rice mixed with the extract of danh danh fruit, grapefruit and papaya....

Husband and Wife cakes of Bac Ninh

Su se cakes or husband and wife cakes are a famous specialty of Dinh Bang, Bac Ninh, The Dinh Bang people make this cake using the white powder of glutinous rice mixed with the extract of danh danh fruit, grapefruit and papaya. The centre of husband and wife cakes is made from well cooked beans and is mixed with sugar, coconut (grated into pieces) and sugar coated lotus seeds. The husband and wife cakes are wrapped in phrynium then boiled for 30 minutes. The outside is tied up with pink string. The cake has the flavor of glutinous rice, the flavor of green beans, coconuts, sugar coated lotus seeds and the light smell of grapefruit and danh danh fruit. For a long time the Bac Ninh people in particular and the Vietnamese people in general have considered su se cake as a symbol of marriage, so su se cakes are indispensable gifts at festivals and wedding ceremonies.

Phuc Trach pomelo- The heart and soul of Ha Tinh

While Doan Dung pomelo is famous in the north and Nam Roi pomelo in the south. Phuc Trach pomelo is very famous in the central region. This type of pomelo is sweet and crispy and it’s easy to separate its flesh into segments. It is also not as juicy as the Doan Hung pomelo. Phuc Trach pomelo is very difficult to grow. It is only suited to the regions of Huong Khe and Ha Tinh, due to the clay and alluvial soil there, allied with the cool weather. It is not influenced by the hot gusts of wind coming from Laos. Phuc Trach pomelo is picked from mid June to September in lunar months and is listed as one of the 100 most delicious fruits in Vietnam

U Minh intestine sauce

Intestine sauce which is processed from the intestines of tuna fish is a specialty of the Khanh Hoi coastal region ( U Minh, Ca Mau). It is only made when tuna have been caught. Fresh tuna of 4 or 5 kg in weight are washed, then all their intestines are pulled out, cut into pieces and placed in barrels. At this stage the intestines are mixed with salt and exposed to the sun for 3 to 5 days. A bowl of delicious intestine sauce is black, fatty and fragrant. U Minh people are fond of banh cuon with intestine sauce. The rice pancake is spread with intestine sauce and rolled with pork, fravegetables, green banana, vermicelli, a little chili and garlic. On eating this sauce you will remember it for ever. Though this kind of food is popular and easy to make, it is a specialty of the U Minh people and only close friends are ever invited to enjoy the intestine sauce. If you have a chance to visit Khanh Hoi, don’t forget to visit the fishermen to taste this unique specialty.

Source Travellive

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Rice vermicelli with fish

Bun Tha Ca (rice vermicelli with fish) is not only a specialty of Mui Ne, Phan Thiet but also a dish exemplifying the tine, creative cuisine of this coastal region. Bun Tha Ca is now available in most of luxury restaurants in this “capital of resorts”. It is one of the favorite dishes of discerning diners. Surprisingly, it derives from a very popular dish of the local people.

The main ingredient of Bun Tha Ca is ca suot (smelt fish), which is available locally in Phan Thiet. This fish is small, soft and has small bones with a high level of protein. It used to be served raw with fresh vegetables in the daily meals of the local people. When available in restaurants, professional chefs turn it into a top-ranking dish with far more sophisticated preparation and fine presentation.

Smelt fish is carefully lemon juice.

To get fresh smelt fish, it is best to buy it in the early morning, when fishing boats have just returned from the sea. “Choose fresh ones which are as small as the thumb, “said Chef Pham Van Dong in Hoang Trieu restaurant.

To make good bun tha ca, add fried fish (which is made from delicious saltwater fish), to the smelt fish, along with sliced pork, sliced fried eggs, starfruit, cucumber and vegetables (including shaved banana flower, common basil and coriander, etc)

To make it more attractive and mouthwatering, each ingredient is arranged in the cover of the banana flower, then put in a bamboo tray with a lotus (which is made of and onion) in the middle.

If you want to eat dry rice vermicelli, you can mix rice vermicelli with pork, fried eggs, cucumber and vegetables then pour tofu sauce over it. All the ingredients create a delicious dish with a peculiar blended taste: the sweet taste of fish, the sour taste of starfruit, the spicy taste of chili and the aroma of coriander.

If you want to change the taste, you can use broth which is made from seafood.

You can enjoy Bun Tha Ca at most restaurants in Mui Ne, Chef Dong says that this is one for the favorite dishes of overseas Vietnamese people. It is often served for lunch or dinner.

Source Travellive

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Biz café for businessmen

Designed in the traditional French architectural style, every detail in Bizcafe is harmoniously laid.

The color, lighting and interior decoration are elegant and dynamic. Each floor of Bizcafe has a projector showing the latest news for businessmen or business researchers, relating to finance, the economy and the stock market. Food and beverages here are processed by famous chef in Bizcafe’s own style and include Biz fried rice, Biz seafood soup, etc. In addition, no mater where you are in the café, you have free access to the Internet through WiFi. Biztaxi is always available at the gate of the café to take you anywhere at any time

BIZ CAFÉ

66 Tran Hung Dao, Hanoi

Tel: 04.9426536

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Gai pan tod klua

(Thai-style fried chicken with salt) made by Thai Chef Kawesri Viroj from the Sawasdee Saigon Restaurant in HCM City

Chef Kawesri, a specialist in Thai cuisine, says gai pan tod klua, or fried chicken with salt, is a simple, easy dish to make, requiring little prep or cooking time.

Lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves are the two decisive elements that give this dish its fantastic aroma, while the saffron adds a yellow-brown colour to the chicken. The dish can be served as a main course or as a starter or hors d’oeurve.

Gai pan tod klua

Ingredients: to serve 4

• 500g farm chicken
• 50g chopped crosus
• 100g lemongrass
• 2tsp salt
• 1tsp pepper
• cooking oil
• 10g kaffir lime leaves, well shredded
• 2tsp monosodium glutamate, like granule bouillon

For decoration

• 1 carrot (carved into flower shape)
• 5 cherry tomatoes, halved
• A few greens
• 1 cucumber (cut into a round shape)

Directions:

• Chop chicken into small pieces
• Marinate the chicken with lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, saffron, salt, granule bouillon and pepper for five minutes.
• Heat cooking oil in a frying pan, toss the marinated chicken pieces in the pan and fry them four or five minutes until they turn golden brown and are aromatic.
• Set the chicken pieces in a dish and garnish with carrot, tomato and cucumber flower or leaf shapes.

You can enjoy this dish at Sawasdee Saigon Restaurant, 102-104 Le Lai Street, in District 1, HCM City. For reservations, call (08) 925 7777.

Source VietnamNews

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Tao Li pleases early birds and night owls

Diners in suburban Sai Gon South no longer have to venture to downtown HCM City for fine dining. Anh Thu samples the Cantonese and Vietnamese offerings of this new restaurant and decides she’s a fan – morning, noon and night.

Tao Li, a new restaurant in HCM City’s suburb Sai Gon South, offers Vietnamese and southern Chinese cuisine from sun-up to late night, a long-awaited service that fulfills the fastidious demands of the area’s residents.

Many of Sai Gon South’s residents are foreigners and overseas Vietnamese fond of quality food and service.

With this new venue, owned by Khaisilk, one of Viet Nam’s leading corporations in fashion, resorts and restaurants, the area now boasts a restaurant that supports the suburb’s needs for fine dining in the early and late hours.

Tao Li has different menus for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but what I especially liked was its capacity to serve not only large parties of diners but also quick meals for the single visitor.

For breakfast, you can try a banh bao (shrimp dumpling) cooked Cantonese style (originating from the southern Chinese province of Guangdong).

Served hot in a bamboo pot, the dish includes three soft, white dumplings that resemble delicate white flowers. The outer coating of the dumpling tastes sweet while the inner stuffing is salty. The fraballs are sufficient for a small breakfast.

For vegetarians and those who are watching their weight, there are vegetable dishes, some of which include cabbage and mushrooms, served with a hot, thick sauce. I chose a vegetable dish with steamed rice, which in total cost under VND100,000 (US$6.25) and was more than enough to last me through dinner.

The restaurant at night is especially beautiful. You can dine outdoors and take in the fresh air and quiet atmosphere.

For a main course, fried oysters in honey at VND125,000 ($7.81) is a good choice. The dish’s secret is the coating of flour and honey, which turns a yellow-brown after deep-frying.

Served hot on a large white plate, the dish is enough for two. I finished the dish alone as well as the thin threads of cabbage placed under the oysters as a garnish.

One of the restaurant’s special desserts is sweet dumplings with sesame. The dish is served in hot milk, instead of the traditional hot syrup.

For the thirsty, Tao Li serves free-flowing iced or hot tea during the meal. The restaurant offers more than 120 different dishes ranging from VND28,000 to over VND1 million ($1.75-$62.50).

Its dinner menu includes noodle dishes and rice porridge, as well as dim sum, though the Chinese dumplings are usually served for breakfast. Prices are reasonable, from VND28,000 to VND50,000 ($1.75-$3.10) per item. Service fee is 6 per cent instead of the standard 5 per cent.

"We provide our customers not just with food, but a cuisine," said Tao Li’s owner Hoang Khai, who took great care in decorating the restaurant.

I’m sure that few could have done it better.

Source VietnamNews

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Master chefs to gather in Vietnam for aroma festival

Regis Marcon, a French master chef, is to travel to Viet Nam for the third “Aroma Festival” to take place at the hotel Sofitel Metropole Hanoi over December 12 to 16.

Marcon was awarded France’s Michelin Three-Star, a prestigious award given to the world’s most talented chefs. He is proprietor of the Régis & Jacques Marcon Restaurant in St. Bonnet le Froid, central France.

The festival will also see the participation of a master of innovative French-Japanese cuisine, Dominique Corby, from the New Otani Hotel in Osaka, Didier Corlou and Boris Cuzon, chief cooks at the Sofitel Metropole Hanoi and flavour expert Laurent Séverac.

International alcohol distributors will also bring visitors a five-day long adventure in tasty Vietnamese and international brandies and wines while they discover unique European, Asian and Vietnamese cuisines and learn about the fine arts of aroma and wine. 

Source Vietnamnet

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Flavors of Mekong Delta specialties

The bright green neon-lit signs, tables and benches of the mid-town restaurant Mekong VietFood Express catch the attention of passers-by. There, enthusiastic young guys invite diners to a gastronomic experience of the food specialties of the Mekong Delta.

Recently opened on the tree-lined boulevard Ham Nghi, the fine-dining eatery offers various simple dishes from the region, carefully the owner Vuong Tieu Lan and his wife for the daily breakfast, lunch and dinner menu.

Bun ca Kien Giang is a feature of the menu. This rice vermicelli and fish soup is cooked in the style of Kien Giang Province, a coastal locality where Lan spent his childhood before traveling to HCMC to settle down.   Lan says locals of the province have bun ca Kien Giang for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He credits the special taste of this dish to the harmonious combination of rice vermicelli, fish, shrimp fried with onion and garlic, and sweet-and-salty seafood broth.

In addition to the specialty of his home land, Mekong VietFood Express also serves goi du du, an appetizer comprising of thin papaya slices, steamed pork and shrimp. The additional component rice vermicelli distinguishes this dish from the traditional recipe found at other restaurants in town.

Experienced diners pour a bowl of fish sauce and pickles over the plate of goi du du and mix in papaya slices and rice vermicelli until they are soaked with the sauce before eating.                    

The menu also includes goi cuon (fresh spring roll), deep-fried shrimp cake and other dishes based on rice, vegetables and other ingredients abundant in the Mekong Delta region where canals and rivers crisscross.

Diners can order fruit juice to whet their appetite before enjoying the favors of the dishes Lan and his wife, who traveled a long way inside the region to find authentic tastes for their restaurant.

A long list of vintage wines imported from around the world is also available for diners to accompany their choice of cuisine at the eatery, which is about 50 meters from the city’s landmark market Ben Thanh.

Lan says he and his wife enjoy eating as many Mekong Delta dishes as possible when they return home to Kien Giang Province.  They can never find all the foods they like at one restaurant, so, they have to go from eatery to eatery to satisfy their tastes.

In HCMC, he adds there were no restaurants serving a wide the region.

The couple used the green color to decorate the restaurant to give diners the feeling of being in the rice paddy fields and orchards that have earned a reputation for the region.          

Address: 136 Ham Nghi Boulevard, District 1, HCMC.

Tel: 0903 878 555.

Source SaigonTimes

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Dig in to an imagined American classic

In a city where many ice cream traditions thrive, jive and survive, Jacob O Gold investigates one of the more delicious and inventive transplants Ha Noi has to offer.

These days on our troubled blue planet, it is among the finer consolations of life that everywhere there is ice cream, and that everywhere the sweet substance, in all its forms, serves as a mainline into the everyday poetry by which a given people on the earth have come to enjoy their shared experience. Taste a place’s ice cream, and you will catch a glint of true understanding.

The ice cream bars dished out daily in their hundreds from Kem Trang Tien – bright, gently sweet, subtle almost to the point of austerity yet somehow unforgettable – might broadcast what could be called the common anthem of the Ha Noi character. But Ha Noi, a city of diverse styles and influences, prudently hospitable to its cultural guests, allows its citizens plenty of songs to call their own. Reflected among these are the city’s wide varieties of delicious ice cream, inspired by the traditions of elsewhere but adapted in uniquely Vietnamese styles that, fortunately, can be enjoyed by anyone.

Kem My, at 39E Ly Thuong Kiet, is perhaps the most striking, and uniquely tasty, of these nativised transplants. The better mousetrap at the heart of the place was shipped to Ha Noi some four years ago by a Vietnamese entrepreneur. Passing through the United States, it seems, to quote the old Scots-Irish folk tune still sung in the hollows of Appalachia, "our captain fell in love, with a lady like a dove." Except her name wasn’t Pretty Peggy-O. It was "Flavor Burst".

Out there on the Midwestern prairie, in high school cafeterias and amusement park concession stands, humming away on Little League afternoons and idle teenage evenings, there lives as it rattles a Soft Machine largely unknown outside the nation’s homey interior margins. This is the Flavor Burst ice cream system. A gorgeous living fossil eclipsed by less innocent times, Ha Noi residents ought to be grateful that the device has been redeemed and reinvented to take its place in their city’s mellow golden sun.

This is how the Flavor Burst machine works: At the pull of a lever, a vaguely sweet but undefined rope of soft-serve ice cream tumbles twisting from a steel vat into a clear plastic dish. The Flavor Burst technician then dials a number into the side of the machine corresponding to the patron’s desired flavor. A flexible tube fills with concentrated flavor-dye. The technician proceeds to dress the ridges, curves, and spirals of frosty ice cream with this colorful goo.

The result is an edible abstract canvas crackling with neon electricity, a distilled moment of post-war dreamland in which Jackson Pollock meets American Graffiti at the psychedelic horizon.

And yet this product, and therefore this moment, is largely inaccessible in the country that forms the basis of its inspiration. One wonders if these sensations – born out of nostalgia for a time when folks still dared to imagine the future as something more – are of any consequence to Kem My’s local customers, afforded by their national history with more excitement for tomorrow than dread.

One can contemplate the matter to the heart’s content at Kem My, where a menu of almost 20 deliciously synthetic flavours (including pumpkin!), available in endless day-glo combinations, will enthrall any customer for as long as it takes to bear the matter out.

Kem My
Address: 39E Ly Thuong Kiet
Phone: (04) 9362231
Hours: 6am-11pm daily
Comment: An obscure American taste sensation transformed into a uniquely Vietnamese delight.

Source VietnamNews

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Barbecue heaven in a former motorbike lot

For those in search of a spacious dining destination with friends or family, rather than heading to an air-conditioned stand-by, try an open-air eatery like the Barbecue Garden Restaurant.

The two-month old restaurant is located a few blocks from Ben Thanh Market in a shady corner of the National Library. The restaurant’s owner transformed the former motorbike parking lot into a simple, but pleasant eatery.

The library’s spirit seeps into the restaurant’s décor; the owner up a bookshelf for diners to perwhile waiting for or enjoying their meals. The restaurant also provides wireless Internet, which is indispensable in the digital age.

The Barbecue Garden Restaurant has no fixed roof, and consists of tables placed under the shade of old and newly planted trees. However, there are temporary roofs in case the weather turns sour.

The highlight of the restaurant is not its decoration, but rather its barbecue. The restaurant serves Vietnamese and international barbecue dishes that are cooked tableside. The restaurant also serves a number of French menu items due to its French manager.

Unlike traditional barbecue where the meat is cooked by fire and coals, all tables at the Barbecue Garden Restaurant are equipped with modern built-in gas stoves. Diners have the opportunity to cook a variety of meats including beef with cheese, fish fillet, squid and shrimp. This style of cooking allows diners to prepare their meal to fit their preferences. 

In addition to familiar meats, deer, goat and rabbit are also on hand to grill. Diners can also finish off their meal with a Thai-style hotspot.

As diners feast on barbecued meats, eternal and familiar songs gently fill the restaurant’s air, especially in the evening when the heat has cooled down.

Restaurant patrons come from all walks of life, from white collared workers to expatriates and travelers. The eatery is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Prices range from VND19,000-219,000 per dish.

Barbecue Garden: 135A Nam Ky Khoi Nghia St., Dist.1, HCMC. Tel: (08) 823 3340.

Source SaigonTimes

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Ruou Can Nho Quan

Ruou can is a kind of Vietnamese rice wine drank out of a jar through pipes. The ingredients of ruou can include cooked sticky rice brewed with ferment. The whole brew is put into a jar that is covered tightly for 3 months or more prior to becoming rice wine. The ferment must be made from the mixture of bark of ebony-tree and galingale, ginger and guava leaves, which is grinded for water to be mixed with sticky rice powder.



The jar containing ruou can is put at a fixed place so that as many people as possible can drink it. Pipes are put into the jar prior to drinking and a basinful of pure water is placed beside it.
Drinking ruou can, everybody will forget all their daily worries and enjoy to the utmost the pleasure of tasting ruou can.

Source NinhBinhTourism.com

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Nem chua Yen Mac ( Fermented Pork Roll)

Yen Mac Nem Chua ( Ninh Binh Province) has been made for a long time. The number of locals in Yen Mac who can make this kind of nem chua is small becathe work requires not only secret formula but also passion for the work.

Yen Mac Nem Chua is eaten with guava leaves, fig leaves and aroma vegetables dotted into nuoc mam (fish sauce) which is mixed with mingled with garlic, lemon juice, pepper and chilli.

Source NinhBinhTourism.com

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Rare Goat Meat

Hoa Lu Tai De ( from Ninh Binh Province) has become a specialty in Ninh Binh province. In Hoa Lu locates various limestone massifs which are home to many goats

Goat is deplumed prior to being burned. The next step is to disembowel the goat, which is then mixed with huong nhu (holy basil) leaves or duckweed leaves for more than ten minutes. Afterwards, dipping unboned goat meat in boiling water until rare, then slicing it into thin pieces, which are then mixed with roasted sesame, citronella, lemon leaves, ginger, chilli, lemon juice and glutamate.
Enjoying tai de with unripe banana, acid carambola, fig leaves and soy sauce with ginger and a cup of Lai Thanh rice wine would be very interesting.

Source NinhBinhTourism.com

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