Restaurant 13 & Kem Bach Dang

If you're looking for a place to have reunion dinner or a meal to catch up with friends, I think Restaurant 13 is a good choice. It is a relatively small restaurant that sits about 20-30 people so it tends to get very crowded during meal times. Apparently it's a famous restaurants that many tourists go to sample and savour a variety of good Vietnamese food. The thing I like most about Restaurant 13 is its rather homely atmosphere. Their menu is extremely extensive so you'll definitely be spoilt for choice.

How the restaurant looks like from outside. It's one of the many shophouses along the street so it doesn't really stand out. Just look for the big red 13!

For starters, we had crab meat and asparagus soup. There weren't many bits of crab meat and neither were there a lot of asparagus but it was eggy and flavourful (:

Rice paper spring roll (or what GT will call "Vietnamese popiah"). Each roll contains white rice noodle, shrimps/ prawns and vegetables. There's this particular vegetable that we dislike because it kind of spoils the entire spring roll. It's overpowering and it spoils the otherwise perfect sidedish =( Sorry we can't pinpoint what the vegetable is, otherwise you can ask them to leave it out. Also, this dish isn't really called "rice paper spring roll", it has a fancier name which I can't remember for nuts so I guess you just have to read the dish descriptors and order whatever you like (:

I am pretty sure I ordered stir-fried french beans but this is what they gave us. I thought french beans were the ones that look like long beans? Thankfully, this vegetable dish was very well cooked so we'd no complaints.

Their variation of chicken rice which is actually plain rice with some chicken. I was hoping that they would serve the fragrant chicken rice that is served in Singapore but unfortunately we had to make do with plain rice.

Because we didn't feel like eating dessert at Restaurant 13, we made our way to Kem Bach Dang icecream shop, which is quite near Restaurant 13, for some icecream!

I tried their coconut icecream because it was recommended by a friend. I expected it to be mindblowingly good but it was only average. In fact, the coconut flavour was so subtle that I couldn't really detect it.

Jeffrey opted for chocolate icecream but somehow it came with chocolate sauce and the works, which he didn't really appreciate. I helped him finish his dessert because he didn't quite like it and the chocolate icecream was slightly below average. Perhaps we should have chosen an icecream combo or something else.

Alright, shall end off here (: Will contine with Saigon posts tomorrow.

Addresses:

Restaurant 13 - 15 Ngo Duc Ke

Kem Bach Dang - Nguyen Hue Street (opposite Saigon Centre).

Pho 24

The following posts are written specially for my family members because they will be going to Saigon over the CNY break. Hopefully one of them will be diligent enough to record the addresses of the following addresses so that they will be able to show the address to their taxi drivers! =)

Before I went to Vietnam, the only dish that I could associate with Vietnamese cuisine is Pho. It's essentially rice noodle in soup and it can be found pretty easily in Saigon. When we first arrived at Saigon, we didn't know where to dine at but thankfully there was a Pho 24 outlet near our hotel!

Essentially, Pho 24 is a chain of restaurants that specialises in fast-food-like Pho. The service is brisk, the price is reasonably cheap and the quality is pretty average. In short, Pho 24 is a good place to dine at if you've a budget to keep to or if you're extremely hungry and have no time to look for nice restaurants to eat at.

I chose to order their special fruit shake (which I think contains strawberries, honey and I forgot what else) and it was surprisingly good! (: The shake was thick and fruity! A delightful drink to have on a hot day.

Condiments which we could add to our bowls of pho.

Chicken Pho.
Beef Pho. Personally, I prefer the beef pho because the broth is more tasty. If you are torn between the beef or chicken pho, choose the beef!

Caramel custard. We each had one of this for dessert. It's essentially a custard flavoured pudding and it's not too sweet so it's quite nice. I think my brother will like this though it's definitely not as wobbly as his Hokkaido milk pudding at Sushi Tei.

Address:
271 Pham Ngu Lao (it should be quite near your hotel)

Other Pho places that are near your hotel which you may want to try:
Pho Quynh - 323 Pham Ngu Lao (order pho bo kho)
Pho 2000 - 1-3 Phana Chu Trinh (near Ben Thanh Market)

Angelina

Have you ever tasted something so good that you're almost sure that any other variation of this particular thing will not come close?

For me, it was the hot chocolate served at Angelina in Paris. My good friend told me that I HAD to try it because it was "the best hot chocolate in Paris" and to this day, I'm thankful that Jeffrey and I made the effort to find and drop by this parisian restaurant for breakfast one rainy weekday morning.

The interior of the shop looks a little like the bigger version of the TWG outlet located in Ion shopping centre. Surprisingly, there were quite a number of patrons though it was still pretty early.
The table setting was wonderfully complete: there were cups on saucers, butter knives, sachets of sugar, butter and jam on a platter and glasses for fruit juice.

Breakfast set for one includes: a plate of danish pastries (bread bun, croissant, sultana, chocolate croissant) as featured above, a small jug of hot chocolate and a glass of fruit juice. The pastries were freshly baked and they were really tasty. Somehow the sweetness wasn't overwhelming and the pastries didn't taste too buttery either.

Unlike most cafes and restaurants that hot chocolate by the cup, Angelina serves their hot chocolate in jugs so that we can control the whipped cream: hot chocolate ratio. To date, I have never seen any other hot chocolate drink that looks like Angelina's. Instead of the usual milo-y texture and look, Angelina's hot chocolate tastes more like melted chocolate. It is thick, milky, warm and it has a richness that makes you feel like your world is temporarily complete. I literally felt as if I ascended the high heaven of all sweet things and experienced a moment of pure, gastronomical bliss. It was truly magical.

The whipped cream that you can add onto your hot chocolate.

Whipped cream on hot chocolate.

Although I would love to dine at Angelina's again, the reality is that I probably won't be going back to Paris any time soon, so I have to shelve my desire for their luxurious hot chocolate till my next visit. It's going to be a long long time before I get to taste Mr-willy-wonka's-chocolate-river-kind of hot chocolate again.

Or maybe not.

Recently, I discovered that Angelina has opened a second outlet in Bangkok! =) I was determined to pamper my taste buds all over again!

The Angelina outlet at Central Chidlom shopping centre in Bangkok was, in contrast to the Angelina in Paris, relatively empty. Perhaps it is because we visited it during dinner time instead of breakfast? Or perhaps it's because the prices here are comparatively higher than other places? It didn't matter, we were dead set on trying their hot chocolate and we got ourselves a table.

Our pretty old-looking menu, which makes me wonder when this outlet was set up. They included Thai food in this menu too so people can have a complete meal there.

As we already had our dinner, we opted for two desserts and a jug of hot chocolate. This is their version of tiramisu, which was surprisingly nice. I always thought that tiramisu was more of an Italian dessert but this version was pretty good =)

This dessert is called Mont Blanc and it is listed as their signature dessert dish. Apparently it was imported all the way from France and it is one of their 'must try' dishes. It is essentially whipped cream covered with chestnut puree so it is soft and creamy. Personally, I don't really like it that much because I'm not a big fan of chestnut puree or meringue but I guess it's not a dish that many will dislike.

We waited quite a long time for our hot chocolate and we were elated when it was finally served. Unlike the hot chocolate we had in Paris, this hot chocolate was in a darker shade of brown and it didn't look as tempting. When I poured the hot chocolate into our cups, I noticed that the viscosity was not even and I started to think that this may not taste like what I previously had. Nevertheless, I still hoped that looks were deceiving and that my hot chocolate would taste as fabulous as it did the last time... but it was not to be. Not only did this hot chocolate taste less milky, it carried with it a bitter taste. I'm not sure why it was bitter but my guess is that the hot chocolate was exposed to high heat (because they wanted to serve us quickly) and hence the base got burnt in the process. It was an utter disappointment and it left both of us feeling rather deflated =(

Well at least now we know that there is only one place that serves THE best hot chocolate and we look forward to tasting it again.

Asia Grand Restaurant

Hello! (:

Sorry for the long hiatus! I went away for a while to sightsee, eat, shop and relax (: It's good to be back though, just in time for Christmas! (: My siblings and I are going to cook Christmas dinner tomorrow and I'm excited to see how that turns out.

Anyway, my family and I went to Asia Grand Restaurant before I left for my trip to celebrate my sister's 21st birthday! =) We chose that restaurant because it serves Chinese food (my parents are fond of Chinese cuisine) and also because their Peking Duck is extremely affordable! Instead of charging the usual $60+ for an entire duck, Asia Grand only charges $30! We've tried Peking Ducks at other Chinese restaurants and Asia Grand's isn't inferior in quality or quantity despite the cheap price. It's definitely THE restaurant to go to if you're a fan of Peking Duck because it allows you to enjoy the dish without burning a hole in your pocket.

Table setting. The restaurant has an oriental feel but it wasn't overdone.

Instead of serving the usual peanuts for pre-meal nibblers, they serve preserved vegetables with mini fishcake bits ($3). Because the preserved vegetables have a sweet and sour taste, it whets your appetite and prepares you for the glorious food that's about to arrive at your table.

Peking Duck ($30). In my opinion, I feel that people are drawn to Peking duck because of the duck skin wrapped in crepe dish. There's no other roll that is quite like this. The duck skin is nicely roasted and it goes perfectly well with the crepe and duck sauce. It's like a popiah/ handroll made specially for carnivorous people.

Stir-fried duck meat with spring onions ($10). The rest of the duck meat can be cooked in various ways but you've to pay an additional $10 for this. Surprisingly, the duck meat wasn't as tough as the previous time my family had Peking Duck so I guess it was a good choice to have the duck meat cooked this way.

Fried mantous/ Deep fried plain buns ($4 for 4). My brother's staple at Chinese restaurants. They're quite small so you can order more if you want to.

Fish maw thick soup ($42). We ordered a huge bowl of fish maw soup which was enough to serve 10-11 people. It had a nice, thick texture but it tasted pretty ordinary. Nevertheless, I liked it because I wanted something warm and soupy to start off my meal.

Broccoli with scallops ($48). This is probably my favourite 'Chinese' dish! I like ordering it but because it's awfully expensive, I try not to order it every time we dine at a Chinese restaurant. Both the broccoli and scallops were fresh and the xo sauce made the entire dish delectably delicious.

Prawns with egg yolk ($39). If there were such a thing as a 'best new entry for cooking for the year' kind of award, I think the salted-egg egg yolk mixture is definitely a strong contender. I first tasted this novel flavour last year at my dad's birthday dinner, when we had salted-egg egg yolk crabs and I was blown away by the peculiar richness of this particular concoction. It is a taste which can be acquired though some people take to it almost instantaneously. Definitely a must-try, even if you may never ever want to come close to this dish after sampling it! =)

Beancurd with spinach ($24). As Asia Grand doesn't list many tofu dishes on their menu, we asked the waiter for his recommendation and he suggested this. The tofu cubes had light and crispy skin and its apparent blandness was offset by the sauce and vegetables that accompanied them. It's a dish that I would strongly recommend and I hope you like it as much as my family did.

Stir-fried green beans ($24). This was a more straightforward vegetable dish that tasted pretty ordinary. Though the green beans were crunchy, it was slightly too spicy and it didn't appeal to those who don't like to have so much spice in their food.

Sweet & sour fish slices ($39). Another outstanding dish that everyone ought to try. It's probably one of the best sweet and sour fish dish that my family has tried and trust me when I say that my family members and I have tried enough sweet and sour fish dishes to tell the good, the average and the bad ones apart.

Mango cream with sago ($5). To round up our feast, we ordered these two cups of cool, fruity goodness. It's pretty average but nevertheless sufficient as a finale dish. Afterall, we'd a huge chocolate fudge cake to consume after my sister's cake-cutting session so all of us were sugarhappy by the end of the night (:

Alright that's all for now! I hope that all of you are enjoying your holidays! Merry Christmas to one and all! =) Hohoho!

Sweet Salty Spicy

Hello! (:

It's the weekend once again! How's everyone doing? I can't believe the first week of December flew by so quickly =( Sometimes I wish time would slow down when we're having fun! Apart from watching (and finishing) Boys Over Flowers, Jeffrey and I spent some time meeting up with good friends at Sweet Salty Spicy during one of the weekdays!

Sweet Salty Spicy: Food Market & Thai Canteen is located at Rail Mall and it isn't very crowded during lunch time on weekdays so it's quite a good place to chill and catch up with friends.

The interior decor is simple and classy, which befits the restaurant's modern Thai concept.

One reason why I prefer dining out during lunch instead of dinner is because there usually are set lunches/ lunch menus which offer quality food at more affordable prices. Although the a la carte dishes at Sweet Salty aren't too pricey, we still opted for their set lunches because we felt that they were more worth it. You can choose to have either a two course (~$14) or three course (~$18) meal.

Since two of our dining companions came late, we didn't manage to capture photographs of their dishes but I'll just put up whatever that Jeffrey managed to take (: We chose to try different dishes so that we could taste a variety of their dishes.

We had a generous serving of crispy squid and green mango salad for one of our appetizer dishes. I thought that this dish was very well done because it was sour and spicy enough and it met my expectation of what Thai mango salads should taste like.

Another starter was fried chicken wrapped in leaves. The chicken has a "nice Thai flavour" but it wasn't spicy at all so people who can't really take spicy food should order this dish =)

Perhaps the most disappointing starter was the Tom Yam Soup. Not only was it bland, it only had mushrooms and tomato chunks for condiments =( I wouldn't recommend ordering this.

Green curry with jasmine rice. The green curry wasn't spicy but it had a very thick texture. I would have preferred it if it wasn't so thick but I guess that's their style of cooking. Their jasmine rice tasted like normal white rice so there wasn't anything special about it as well.

Traditional Thai fried rice with chicken. Jeffrey thoroughly enjoyed this dish so I guess it wasn't too bad.

Pad Thai. My "default" Thai dish because I always order this whenever I don't know what else to order. It must have been pretty tasty because our friend finished all of it! (:

Sweet Salty Spicy's cupcakes are pretty good and there are quite a few flavours to choose from! A perfect light after-meal dessert (:

Jeffrey & I had a HUGE slice of chocolate cake EACH because it came with our sets. The chocolate sponge cake was pretty hard and the fudge tasted more like chocolate cream instead of chocolate fudge so on the whole, it was decent but not fantastic.

Sweet Salty Spicy is definitely an attractive place to go to because of its relaxing ambience and affordable lunch sets but the quality of food served lacked the wow-factor. In fact, I think you'll get a wider range of Thai food if you were to dine at Thai Express. Nevertheless, it was great being able to have a relatively good meal with friends without having to jostle with the lunch time crowd for seats or to speak loudly in order to be heard (:

Marmalade Pantry

Hello! (:

The school hols has officially arrived and I'm really happy about regaining my temporary freedom! (: In addition, I'm starting to feel the festive atmosphere and I love it! =) It feels good to be able to do what I want (most of the time anyway) and not dread having to travel to the far reaches of this tiny planet for school!

To usher the school hols in, Jeffrey and I paid a visit to the popular Marmalade Pantry at Ion last weekend!
As expected, it was quite packed and almost all their seats were taken! Thankfully, we made a reservation and hence we didn't have to wait too long to get seated.

Tiny Christmas tree on the table top for decoration. I was reading their Christmas brochure and it seems like they've quite a number of nice festive promotions! =)

Salt and pepper shakers, a bowl of sugar cubes and a glass of water. I really like the simplicity of their layout. It's fuss-free and classy (:

Fruit juice ($8). As I'm on a "rebalancing" phase, I asked for orange banana juice (which isn't in their drinks menu) and I was pleased that they would be able to make it! It was yummy.

Eggs Any Style ($16). Frankly speaking, most items on their menu look very appetizing so I'd a hard time deciding what to eat. In the end, I opted for this weekend brunch dish because I love "American" breakfast! Everything, including the tomato, was well done (: I especially liked the toast and the eggs!

Crabmeat Linguini ($22). Jeffrey tried their famous crabmeat linguine and true enough, it was scrumptious! He polished the entire plate of linguini! (: I think we'll definitely go back again to try their other signature dishes.

As with our mains, we'd a hard time choosing something from their tantalizing dessert menu! Every item looked delectably delicious and I'd a tough time deciding what to eat. Eventually, we settled for a humongous slice of Old Fashioned Chocolate Fudge Cake ($7.80). The cake was moist enough though I felt that it wasn't particularly fudgey except for the thin layers of fudge on top and in the middle. Nevertheless, it was a wonderful dish to end off our meal (:

Prior to this visit, Jeffrey and I actually patronized the Marmalade Pantry outlet at Holland Village before it closed down. We went during tea time and we weren't aware of their serving sizes then so we each ordered a slice of cake. When our cakes came, we were shocked to see that they were much larger than expected! If you aren't really a cake person or if you're not particularly hungry, I'd advise you to not order an entire slice of cake for yourself because you'll definitely have a problem finishing it. Thankfully, Jeffrey and I were pretty hungry on that fortunate day that we visited Marmalade Pantry so we managed to finish our cakes! Amazing feat.

The Marmalade Carrot Cake ($7.80). Their carrot cake is much denser than Cedele's but it is chokeful of flavour and goodness! Carrot cake lovers will probably appreciate this cake! (:

Cheesecake ($7.80). This cheesecake didn't leave a distinct impression so I guess it was pretty average. I remember liking the base though =)

I've been putting off this visit to Marmalade Pantry for quite a while because I find the food pretty pricey but the quality of food served makes up for the teensy hole in the pocket at the end of the meal. Thankfully, Jeffrey and I didn't have to pay much for this meal because we applied and made use of the White Card! (: It's basically a card which offers discounts at a number of good (and often expensive, at least to me) restaurants! =) It's quite a worthwhile investment if you enjoy eating! In fact, the total cost of our meal was $36.35 because we'd a $22.90 discount all thanks to the White Card! (: Check it out if you're interested! (: