eatingbugs

Hue and Hoi An-just food

Hoi An has the best food in Vietnam. Obviously a disputed opinion, but Mrs. V owns four restaurants in the area and if she doesn't have a Michelin star in the next few years I am going to write a letter. We are starting this food exploration in Hue, where Henry was actually puking the entire time. So there is just one meal, but it was excellent.

Cha Tom again, if you have seen the photos from Hanoi, you know they use the word "cha tom" fairly liberally. Nonetheless, it was at this fantastic restaurant with much French influence.

Pork pancake with peanut dipping sauce.

Banh xeo, essentially a pancake fried with shrimp. It is meant to be filled with tomato and lettuce then wrapped in rice paper. It's a Hoi An specialty.

Cau Lau from Morning Glory; our favorite restaurant in Vietnam. Mrs. V owns four restaurants in the area and offers cooking lessons.

We had to get the seafod dumplings, because they were out of the elusive white rose. Which is essentially a shrimp dumpling and another Hoi An specialty.

We basically ate a lot at Morning Glory. This was the duck Henry ordered. It was really delicious with a prune reduction sauce

This soup is actually meant to be a disgestif. Clams in lemon grass.

This may seem a bit ridiculous, but lunch for the next day we walked around a bit clueless of where to eat and ended up at Mermaid Cafe, again owned by Mrs. V. because she is insane.

I am unsure if it gets better than this. Again at Mermaid Cafe. For about 2$ you can order squid stuffed pork with shallots in an onion fish sauce.

The Beef curry we had at Mermaid. It was great, but a bit of a heavy choice in 100 degree temperature with 100% humidity.

Brother's Restaurant in Hoi An is a gorgeous, romantic place to eat. Having said that, the food is great at a bit of a price for Vietnam. This is the white rose which is very delicate.

Again at Brother's we had braised beef and chicken hot pot.

On our last night in Hoi An we landed right back where we started at Morning Glory. Which was obviously the right decision, look at the grub:

Cha Tom with ground shrimp. I think I prefer the shrimp to the pork cha tom, but the rice paper was a bit chewy.

Pork pancake and pho.

This was pork belly with noodles and sadly, I cannot remember what it was called.

This is actually a remedy for stomach (so says Mrs. V). It's ground shrimp wrapped in cabbage. Very delicate.

Hanoi-foodwise

I am pretty sure Hanoi is my favorite big city in Vietnam. It is bustling with a very rich history without as much Western influence as Siagon.

I love this market! It's actually where we got Tim and Olivia their weasel coffee.

These are delicious pork roll. steamed rice paper stuffed with grilled pork, star fruit, mint and thai basil at Little Hanoi. Great place to pop in for a snack and some fruity drinks

The Street food place in Hanoi is awesome. Set up with about 20 different stales for you to choose from. Above is a cha tom dish basically grilled pork with herbs and spring onions and add your own noodles. It was great but not as good as the best pho I have ever had

This is the best pho ever. The meat was chunked as oppose to strips of beef. It also had thick noodles and was very spicy.

This is a basic spring roll. really good cost about 50cents.

This is actually a restaurant we just walked into called Rainbow Cafe. This dish is actually called Cha Tom basically it's beef roasted around sugar cane served with rice noodle, pinapple, star fish and small banans and some herbs that you are meant to wrap in a dry piece of rice paper and east as a sort of asian burrito. so good.

Henry had Bun Cha. it was good. Another kind of do it yourself meal. I was a bit confused as every time we ordered Bun Cha it came out completely different.

This is actaully in Halong Bay which was for us a two day side trip from Hanoi. It was right after we went caving (or rather henry did and i relaxed on the boat. More water spinach. The Siagon spring rolls are to die for. the crust is actually tiny noodles made into a dough. Haven't tried to make them yet...

This was on the island of Halong Bay. Pretty standard meal again with the Saigon spring rolls.

Cambodia-meals

I'm not going to lie, I found the food in Cambodia to be a bit more mild and not quite as delicate as that of Vietnam. Nonetheless, this is at Friends in Phnom Penh it is known for training street kids to be apart of the tourist industry in Cambodia and the food is lovely.

This is (from bottom left corner) Khmer Chicken Curry, pork, samosas, banana leaf wrapped fish (a khmer specialty) and pork chops.

We didn't get to eat any bugs and I must say I was a bit upset about that. I really wanted to try some fried beetle!

Siem Reap restaurant. This is the most amazing spinach they have it everywhere throughout the area and it's called water spinach. It is delicious stir fried with garlic or even in a salad. clockwise from there fish curry, mango salad (which I think made me ill) spring rolls, and yummy fried pork.