Monday, April 6, 2015

10 VIETNAMESE FOODS YOU NEED TO TRY WHEN YOU COME TO VIETNAM

Com tam
Com tam, “broken rice”, is a street-stand favourite. Recipes vary, but you’ll often find it served with barbecued pork or beef and a fried egg.
The main ingredient, broken rice, is a traditionally cheaper grade of rice produced by damage in milling. It is mainly used as a food industry ingredient in America and Europe, but in West Africa and South East Asia is used for human consumption. Broken rice has a lower fiber and nutrient content, but generally has a similar energy content to intact rice.
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Nom hua chuoi
Vegetarians rejoice. Nom hua chuoi, or banana-flower salad, is a great meat-free option.
Lime and chili are the key flavors and add a refreshing punch to the shredded veg. Really great food at a reasonable price. I was so happy with the dinner that I went to the kitchen to personally thank the chefs. Spicy enough for everyone, and then spicy enough for me when asked to take the spice up a notch.11
Mi quang
This unheralded and affordable noodle dish is a Hanoi specialty. Ingredients vary by establishment, but expect to see a simple bowl of meat noodles enlivened by additions like flavoursome oils, fresh sprigs of leaves, shrimp, peanuts, mint and quail eggs.
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Cha ca
Seafood dishes are among the standouts of Vietnamese cuisine. Cha ca, reportedly devised in Hanoi, is perhaps the best known. It sees white fish sautéed in butter with dill and spring onions, then served with rice noodles and a scatering of peanuts. Cha ca is a dish that is so delicious and iconic to Hanoi that a street in the city is named after it. It is also the star dish of a famous local a restaurant (Cha Ca La Vong) that has lasted over a century and multiple generations of the same family.
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Cao lau
Central Vietnam does it best. Among Hoi An’s tasty specialities is cao lau, a mouthwatering bowlful of thick rice-flour noodles, bean sprouts and pork-rind croutons in a light soup flavoured with mint and star anise, topped with thin slices of pork and served with grilled rice-flour crackers or sprinkled with crispy rice paper.8
Pho
Vietnam’s national dish a the country’s great staple is pho (pronounced “fur”), a noodle soup eaten at any time of day but primarily at breakfast. The basic bowl of pho consists of a light beef or chicken broth flavoured with ginger and coriander, to which are added broad, flat rice noodles, spring onions and slivers of chicken, pork or beef.
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Bun cha
A Hanoi specialty, you’ll find bun cha at food stalls and street kitchens across the city. Essentially a small hamburger, the pork patties are barbecued on an open charcoal brazier and served on a bed of cold rice noodles with assorted foliage and a slightly sweetish sauce.
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Banh xeo
These enormous, cheap and filling Vietnamese pancakes translate (banh xeo means “sizzling pancake”) pancake contain shrimp, pork, bean sprouts and egg, which is then fried, wrapped in rice paper with greens and dunked in a spicy sauce before eaten.5
Banh mi
This baguette sandwich filled with greens and a choice of fillings, including paté and freshly made omelette, is so good it’s been imitated around the world. Vietnamese baguette sandwiches, called Banh Mi, have attracted a loyal fan base like never before. Like a musical band with rock star status, these sandwiches have an almost cult-like following of epicurean devotees. The uniqueness of these sandwiches not only lies within the french influenced baguette, but it’s also the flavor packed, savory Viet fillings that what makes the marriage of the two main ingredients a true love affair.
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Goi cuon
Vietnam’s most famous dish: translucent spring rolls packed with greens, coriander and various combinations of minced pork, shrimp or crab. In some places they’re served with a bowl of lettuce and/or mint. A southern variation has barbecued strips of pork wrapped up with green banana and star fruit, and then dunked in a rich peanut sauce – every bit as tasty as it sounds.
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Friday, February 27, 2015

Best place in Mekong Delta Tours

Great place to stay when you want to experience Mekong delta. We stayed here two nights. The family is friendly and you can feel comfortable. Garden is fantastic with chickens, dogs and cats and all other animals. Dinner and breakfast were just great! We had also possibility to see how they prepare food. And what was surprisingly, there was not almost none mosquitos. Cottage was clean and pretty. We recommend to take bikes to go around the village and fruit plantations. Family can takes you also for a boat trip. I wish I could talk french because in english you don´t get so much information.



We enjoyed staying at this beautiful homestay in the middle of the Mekong for 3 nights. No cars are able to reach the location so know that you will have to travel the last few 100meters by motorbike, which is no problem, as they are used to this. We enjoyed staying in our cottage after we moved out of the one which was directly located next to the kitchen. As they still cook with open fire, which is great, the smoke didn't stay only in the kitchen but also reached our cottage. But mentioning this to Vinh, he directly helped us out and we moved to another charming cottage. Vinh is really a great and sweet help, together we visit the local market by bike and did our groceries for our dinner, which was super tasty and fresh!! Make sure you bring cash as there is no cc service available.
Want to experience the real Mekong Delta without having loads of tourist around, this is the place to be.



This was one of the highlights of our trip to the Mekong Delta Vietnam the place is nice, they have small, clean and well decorated bungalows around the property a nice area to have lunch and breakfast outside and the owners are great Vinh was always smiling and trying to please us
we stay only one night and went on a bike ride around town and had the opportunity to see and talk to the local people around the villa our guide help us with the language.

The garden and surrounding areas need some TLC and also the ponds that they have besides that it is perfect we had the opportunity to cook with them a traditional meal from scratch and was a great experience we ate sitting on the floor as per our request because that is the way they do it and we felt that was a real authentic experience .The food was phenomenal at dinner, the lunch was very good too however the breakfast was very simple (tea,fruit juice,bread and butter and pineapple) .

After the dinner, Scooter Sai Gon Tour gave us a nice foot massage and it was the perfect final touch for a day full of activities. They had a nice little dog "Nana" and she escorted us everywhere. very sweet
It is out of the beaten path so is not very touristic just what we wanted to go a way of the rest of the tourist 


See more and book Mekong Delta by Scooter

Mekong Delta scooter tours from Saigon from 98$

This tour, which lasts approximately seven hours, starts in Ho Chi Minh City and heads towards rural areas of the delta. Guests will have the opportunity to experience spectacular scenery, local cottage industries and much more before returning to downtown Ho Chi Minh City.



Begin your great fun and adventure scooter tour to Mekong Delta from Ho Chi Minh City and ride to Can Duoc Market – a stunning rural market (40 km). The scene changes from bustling streets with buildings and noise to peaceful rice paddles with cottages and small houses en-route. Then you will take a rural route to My Loi Ferry. Some stops en route to see farmers working on paddy fields. Cross Vam Co River by the ferry then ride to Go Cong then Tan Hoa (25 km). Have some stops en-route to visit an incense workshop, through some remote villages and reach Tan Thanh beach for seafood lunch and relax. Then continue riding from this Mekong Delta beach to Ben Tre (45km).





We spent the first day by the pool relaxing and eating cornflakes. The next day we went to the market in the morning which was by far the cleanest one in Vietnam we had been to. Everything was so fresh and many of the animals were still alive: fish, snakes, turtles, shellfish, and snails. There weren’t too many prepared food options for lunch though, so we bought some sketchy street pancakes and headed back to the hotel for a swim.




Mekong – My Tho – Ben Tre: enjoy cruising on a hand-rowed sampan under the shadow of the water coconut trees along natural canals, then enjoy seasonal fruit honey tea to the sound of “Southern Vietnamese folk music”, performed by locals. Mekong delta by Scooter is the right choice for you!  We aim to show you how real Vietnamese people live, work and eat!