YOGAYUGA

Overall the trip was good though I can’t say I am a big fan of Vietnamese food and things to do in Vietnam. I guess I like the atmosphere and feeling of Thailand the most in Asia compared with other Asian countries. Moreover, I much prefer spicy food. Vietnamese cuisine is rather mild for me. The French influence of Saigon is what I like the most. I did manage to have a French cuisine in one of the local well known French restaurants last night, La Camargue. It took us more than an hour to get there as the first address we got was the old one. However, we found it at last after we had been told the restaurant moved to another area. The food was good though my appetite isn’t very good lately. Vietnamese people are overall very friendly. Once I stucked in the middle of road, and didn’t know how to cross to the opposite side, a very nice lady took me through. (there were too many motorbikes travelling around on the road) She was so kind, same as many others who instructed us how to find our directions though they can’t speak English. Ho Chi Minh was also kind to us as it was supposed to rain with thundering during the period we were there, but it ended up no heavy rain. It rained in short time only the first day we arrived. The local taxi is very cheap. Few minutes ride with taxi, it costs less than USD1.00 per trip. The longest ride we took with taxi was the trip from airport to our hotel that took 25 mins. It costs USD7.00. I found no McDonald in the city, but many KFC around though.

The rest of photos are on Flickr, enjoy!

The last Vietnamese local cuisine of the trip…

At La Camargue, one of the best French restaurans in Saigon….

The beef rice noodle soup again as well as the ice coffee at the boarding gate of airport…

A delightful and tasty Vietnamese cuisine restaurant in Ho Chi Minh city, where you can have very nice Vietnamese food. It’s a kind of classy restaurant in Ho Chi Minh, where Hollywood stars also visit. I like their interior decoration a lot. I feel Vietnamese cuisine is kind of mixing with Chinese food culture in many ways. It’s quite light in flavour generally. Air conditioning is not really common in Ho Chi Minh I found, as it is actually not existed in any kind of restaurants included this one. I am glad that they do have big windows by the table we sat as well as decorative fan otherwise I would feel like being in the desert.

Very nice floor tile….

Vietnamese rice wrapped roll and spring roll. I love all their herbs as the flavour is so refreshing.

Green pea sweet cake and squid with white pepper.

We had a great Shanghai and Hangzhou cuisines with relatives tonight. Shanghai cuisine is always one of my favourite Chinese cuisines. Due to my family background, it is a particular one that me and my dad love the most. We do also cook it often at home. You can see from what I posted on my blog about our family dinners. However, some of these dishes are not easy to be homemade, so we need to visit restaurants from time to time. Six of us had 20 dishes totally, but I only took 11 photos of it. The food was great, and unbelievable delicious. Yummy!! I indeed ate a lot during this Chinese New Year. It’s hard to stop eating under such cold weather. The cold of this year is unusual. It has been under 50F/8C in my area during the past one week. Food does keep me warm!

Gosh! I went to eat again, and with my sister and Dad this evening. I found a very nice and small home style French restaurant located in St. Francis Yard, Wanchai, which I found from a magazine. The waiter, chef and waitress all look like they are from the same family. Anyway, they cooked great food!! I had French palombe with pan fried goose liver and French onion soup as well as French Escargots for starter. It tastes so delicious. I don’t know how to explain how delicious it is for what I had, but indeed I enjoyed my dinner very very much. The customers acted so much like they were eating at home, as I found that the restaurant manager knows everyone sitting in the restaurant except us. Overall, it’s a good one to give a try.

I went to La Pampa for dinner in Soho. The steak was fine, but I found the way they cooked is rather dry included the vegetables. The portion is kind of large. The French onion soup was nice, but the cheese on top was a bit like a piece of biscuit. The restaurant was so full though. It seems like a popular restaurant in Soho.

The city was a bit quiet today no matter where I went. The MTR wasn’t crowd as well as shopping mall. I guess it’s because of the cold. Well, it’s not really that cold but I guess sometimes it’s nice to stay in during winter time especially staying at home and watching movies on internet!

I like this cafe. It’s a very very local cafe located at Ya Ma Tei and nearby Temple Street with over 40 years of history. There are only few such kinds of cafe survived in HK. I don’t only like their interior, and also love their food. Their coffee and tea are excellent. The Mince beef sandwich and French toast are absolutely delicious. There are black and white western movie photos being hanged along their stairway. Those western movies were taken in HK during 50s. This cafe was being used as movie scene of several international HK movies as well as some western TV movies. I really like their coffee cups, are all printed with brand name of “Black and White”. You can only find milk product of this brand in this cafe. This cafe is a good local place to visit for tourists, where you can see the real local eating scene of HK. Unfortunately, their menu is not in English at all, though they offer HK style western dishes.

I had the Thanksgiving meal in American Union Bar and Grill of IFC, which was a really good meal. I can’t finish the whole meal even I shared with my friend. The full course meal included turkey with stuffing, apple salad with blue cheese, pumpkin soup, apple pie with ice cream. Every dish was in large portion. They served the same meal whole day on Thanksgiving Day. The restaurant was so packed, and fully booked. I was going to Main Street Deli, where is a popular place for Thanksgiving meal but was totally booked up. Anyway, I had a cheerful day. Happy Thanksgiving!

I eventually tried the “Four Treasures of Chinese Scholar” in South Beauty tonight as I missed it in the last visit. Four Treasures of Chinese Scholar is the tool of traditional Chinese calligraphy. The following pictures show how they get this idea into dessert. Basically, they all are traditional Chinese sweets, but made in the form and shape of the calligraphy tool.

The spicy chopped duck meat with Chinese bun is great too!

Agnes. B has a restaurant opened in Causeway Bay, but as expected the food is just ok. Oh well, actually is not so good. I didn’t even take any pictures of the food. The only one I love is the French Onion soup. I just love the cheese on top of soup, it tastes so delicious. Their onion soup is exactly the same as those in Paris.

I had dinner at the new Quarterdeck tonight, where is located in Ocean Terminal. I love their window view by the water. Seriously, I do think their food is better than the Quarterdeck in Wanchai. The one in Wanchai you can enjoy outdoor sitting, but the view is very limited. Their view is almost occupied by the nearby reclamation construction site.

The Prawn Cocktail I had tonight, which make me think of the one I saw in the restaurant of Catalina Island in L.A.