Restaurant: Hoa Tuc
Location: 74/7 Hai Ba Trung, Dist. 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Date: March 22, 2014
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Rating: Fresh flavors
For our first real dinner in Vietnam a friend of ours sent us down the street to this upscale Vietnamese place (imagine that — in Vietnam no less!). Although, actually, there does appear to be a wide variety of Japanese, Chinese, and other cuisines in Ho Chi Minh City.
The interior is nice and there is a lovely patio outside for those willing to brave the 80 something evening.
The menus here seem to be gigantic.
Shrimp chips take the place of bread on the table.
And in true Vietnamese form every dish comes with its own sauce. Left peanut, top tamarind (with chili), right sweet, fish chili, on the bottom salt and lime.
Fresh spring rolls with pork and white rice noodle. In America, we’d call these Saigon spring rolls. Well, how apropos. Here they are delicious. An immunologist I know told me to stay away from any leafy washed vegetables — but since that would meaning eating only Pho, we throw caution to the wind and enjoy these delicious puppies (with the peanut sauce).
Fresh homemade tofu pan fried in light batter with mint, chili, and lime. Very light and fluffy.
RYO – char grilled beef in betel leaves with white noodles and rice paper. A bit of each of the wild collection of greens, some noodles, and one of the beef rolls are all assembled in a sheet of rice paper, rolled, and dipped in the fish sauce. In that pile are baby banana slices, star anise, mint, basil, cucumber and more. The combo tastes great. Very fresh and bright.
Mini rice and coconut pancakes with shrimp and spring onions. Another pile of greens! Also very soft and interesting flavors.
BBQ sea bass with avocado mango salsa. A nice light fish.
Chicken wings in a sweet chili sauce. Yummy, like Vietnamese fried chicken.
Braised duck leg in mandarin zest and ginger sauce. Tasty, but a little hard to saw the meat off the bone.
Prawns fried in “green rice” with passionfruit dipping sauce. The green rice turned out to be puffed rice, much like rice crispies!
Passion fruit custard. Yum!
Red bean and black sesame rice balls. Very asian, warm and sticky.
Banana fritter with vanilla ice cream.
Overall, a tasty meal full of bright delicious flavors.