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Eating Hanoi – Club Opera

May28

Location: Hanoi

Date: March 28, 2014

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Rating: Upscale take

Our second night in Hanoi brought us (accidentally) to an even more upscale take on Vietnamese cuisine. Of course, it still had the giant menu.

And fresh spring rolls. Just here, you get an individual sauce on a spoon!

Or these Friend Spring Rolls Hue Imperial Style impaled on a coconut.

Or these other fried spring rolls.

Mango Salad with Grilled Australian Beef. These are always great.

This was a kind of rice ravioli. It was a little bland.

Seafood rice noodle. There are glass noodles in there and all sorts of seafood including fish, shrimp, and squid.

Grilled Australian Beef tenderloin with lemongrass and chili.

Grilled pork ribs with Mandarin sauce. Apparently, like Mandarin oranges, Mandarin sauce is well… orange (and sweet).

Grilled Duck in Tamarind Sauce. Yum.

Grilled prawn with lemongrass.

Steamed prawn in passion fruit sauce. Great over rice.

Overall, things were quite tasty here, but the level of formality and “rigidity” of the place didn’t really fit the vibe we had grown accustomed to in Vietnam. It also wasn’t actually “better” than the good casual places. Sure, presentation was a little more elaborate — and it was still an on point kitchen — but I don’t think it was worth the price hike.

Another mysterious observation. Having grown a bit sick of beer, I went to the wine list. It was mostly French, but there were no German or Alsatian wines. And very few whites, maybe a Sancere or two. Nothing that really goes with this cuisine (I was looking for a dry or slightly off dry Riesling). Lots of Bordeaux, which the Vietnamese seem to like but which I think clashes terribly with the complex and slightly sweet flavors of the food.

For more Vietnam dining reviews, click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: eating-vietnam, hanoi, spring roll, Vietnam, Vietnamese cuisine

Eating Saigon – Hoa Tuc

Mar26

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.

For more Vietnam dining reviews, click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: bbq, eating-vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City, Hoa Tuc, Saigon, spring roll, Vietnam, Vietnamese cuisine

Taking back Little Saigon

Apr28

Restaurant: Little Saigon

Location: 6218 Wilson Blvd, Falls Church, VA 22044-3210 (703) 536-2633

Date: April 22, 2011

Cuisine: Vietnamese

ANY CHARACTER HERE

One of my favorite places back “home” (Washington D.C.) is Little Saigon, a local hole in the wall Vietnamese place with absolutely stellar food. I reviewed it once before, but I’m back again for more.

This is just a page of the 6 page menu, for the whole thing look at the older review.

A nice sparkling wine goes well with Vietnamese.

My dad also brought this old cab. But it was corked, and probably not the worlds best wine to begin with :-).

Table condiments.

This is marinated raw beef, soaked in fish sauce, with onions, chilies, and basil. Not a typical American flavor, but amazing nonetheless.

These are an interestingly different take on these classic soft Vietnamese rolls. Besides some of the usual veggies (lettuce, mint, bean sprouts, vermicelli, shrimp, etc) they also have a bit of spicy pork sausage.

With the crucial dipping sauce. These are really tasty.

This is a four person portion of the rice noodle pork soup with some kind of dumpling. There’s also cilantro, scallions, peanuts and who knows what else. But it’s certainly delicious with one of those complex flavor and texture profiles that is typical of good Vietnamese.

The individual bowl (approximately a quarter of the first bigger bowl).

Chicken wings sauteed in butter and garlic. Basically Vietnamese fried chicken. Sweeter and crunchier than the American equivalent and way strong on the garlic. Very good for sure.

Crispy orange duck. This must be Chinese inspired, but it’s amazing, totally amazing. The duck is perfect, and the sweet/bitter tang of real orange peels (not to mention the schechuan peppers) delectable.

Mixed seafood (all the S’s – shrimp, scallops, squid) in lemongrass sauce. Nice tasty subtle flavor to the sauce. This is a fairly exotic taste, but really good.

Little Saigon never disappoints. And this whole meal was like $80 for four!