Bookend Meal at Quan An Ngon

One of the first meals we had in Vietnam, all those moons ago when we first visited, was at the Quan An Ngon in Hanoi.  Our first meal was probably at Pho24 - yeah, cliched, I know.  

So it's faintly appropriate that one of my last meals in Vietnam would take place at Quan An Ngon, this time in the HCMC location across from the Reunification Palace.

It's Saigon, so you gotta grab a Saigon Special beer.  And it's Saigon, so it's freaking hot and therefore I needed a side of iced green tea.  And you thought I was drinking my beer with ice.  And a straw.  Dude, I ain't that local.    

First up, you guessed it, banh cuon.

Next up, some grilled shrimp.  Seeing that I was eating alone, the waiter warned me that a single order was 10 skewers and asked if I really wanted it.  Of course!  Gluttony is best when left last.  

The dish came out with 12+ skewers.  This was some of the best grilled seafood I've had in this country, so I did the proper thing and finished it up.  

You can't often order snails, outside of Escargot at Les Halles or someplace like that, in the States, so I had to get some.  Strangely, they tasted like hard boiled eggs.  

  
To finish things up, I answered a curiosity of mine.  In the evenings till dark, food vendors on bicycles and carts would ply their offerings on the streets of Saigon.  One fare that I often see, and wonder about, is the "Bo Bia" carts.

My limited Vietnamese translates that to 'beef and beer,' which would be an interesting product to sell on the streets.  But I doubt that I was correct, so I never bothered to flag the vendors down and order some.

I saw "Bo Bia" on the menu here and had to finally know.  Turns out it's just a version of some spring rolls.  Then I recalled going to a spring roll dinner party in Hanoi, where the dry rice paper wrappers were in cellophane packaging labelled "Bo Bia."

So I knew it all along, but I forget things.  Coulda used The Google though. 

Bia 33

Recently I had some Bia 33.  If you're paying attention, then you know that in Vietnam it is Bia 333 - yeah, there's an extra "3."

I read online somewhere that the name sprouted the addendum shortly after 1975.  Maybe they changed it from the "33" to throw off former American servicemen, or to distance itself from Rolling Rock, who knows.     

What I do know is that the Bia 33 that is available locally to me in the States is made by some outfit in Binh Duong and is a heavier lager.  Bia 333 is made by SABECO (i.e. Saigon Alcohol and Beer Company), which may or may not have a factory in Binh Duong, and is a much lighter brew... like a Coors Light to the 33's Budweiser.  

Weekend Eats and Other Stuff

I was walking about D1 this weekend to do some shopping.  Ended up at the Parkson's Mall when hunger kicked in.  Unfortunately their food court is undergoing renovations, so I hit the street, hit the wall of steam and quickly decided that I neede to get indoors stat.  So I ventured to the food court at Eden Mall across the street instead.  This is the second time I've eaten at this food court, and again I'm impressed. Maybe I should go here more often.   

I got the above from Little Manila, which also has a full fledged outlet in PMH.  What captured my fancy on the menu was the whole fried Tilapia, for 45k.  Not bad, especially for an aircon food court.  The entirety above was like 120k.  

I don't know if it's a Filipino thing, or if it was just prepared incorrectly, but when the menu said "whole fish" I didn't really expect a whole fish, guts and all.  Maybe someone can enlighten me.  Save for the guts, the rest of it was pretty good.   

It's been a long while since I've had pizza in Vietnam.  It's one of those 'why bother' foods for me in this country.  As in, why bother eating it when you can wait for the next trip home.  But I was lazy and therefore wanted delivery.  Ordered from Pepperoni's in the backpacker area, and it was delivered in about 20 minutes to the CBD.  It was pretty decent, considering where I was eating it.  This large, 8-slicer good for about 2 adults was 110k or so.         

Of course, once in a while one has to do "work," so I attended the grand opening of the first HCMC branch of Tien Phong Bank, which may be more commonly known as the bank FPT (with some others) started.

I didn't do anything but watch the proceedings, yet it was freaking exhausting.  Whomever thought to have a protracted outdoor ceremony in the midday sun in Vietnam should really rethink their event planning skills.    

But the expected dragon dance was still cool.  

It was late, the restaurant was starting to shutter its operations for the day, so the older lady who owns the place broke out her Wii to get some tennis in.  This was more amusing to me than the drunk dude below.

Some dude by the name of Thirsty has been stalking me.  Here he is rolling on a moto, smoking up a cigar.

And again, next to a guy who had a really, really good evening out.  

I've been on a chao kick recently; here is the way they serve it at this particular Chinese joint on Nguyen Trai, which is one of the places in HCMC to grab some late night food after having your fill of beer. 

O'Hare Flooding (Again) and United's Red Carpet Club

Here's another picture of the flooding at O'Hare the other day.  I'm relatively sure that the loader vehicle there has a set of rear tires obscured by the water.

Saw on the news that evening that Terminal 2 of O'Hare got evacuated due to the rains.  In the terminal I was in (1?), there were lots of water-catching pylons made up of those x-ray trays all over.  Walking around the terminal to stave off boredom reminded me of those Hertz O.J. Simpson commercials, with the dodging and weaving.  Hey, it's football season, and I don't mean EPL.   

This was the scene about an hour before the scheduled departure.  Relatively stress-free compared to the scene a few hours later when the flight got cancelled, due in part to the rain/flooding, in part to maintenance issues on the plane.

This is United's Red Carpet Club (or at least one of them) at O'Hare.  It's mostly empty because I was practically the last person to get a hotel booking voucher from United.  Just imagine a load of passengers on a 747 filling this space.  

I think she *was* the last person to get a hotel.  Eating granola bars and drinking tea gets real old, real fast if one is stuck around for 2 hours.  Especially if there is no free wifi! (Boingo offers 1 free hour of wifi at ORD, but that runs out in a blink of the eye when your flight gets delayed)

This is the bar.  Where you have to pay for a drink.  Wha!?!  What is the point of an airline membership lounge where one has to fork over money for drinks?  And where the drinks cost the same as the bars out in the terminal.  There's no point to this lounge business in the US airports with these dumb cutbacks.  I think this woman got her hotel and flights rearranged already, but she's a college football fan.

The cancelled flight meant a hotel voucher, a taxi voucher (that only covered about 60% of the taxi ride to West Bumfuck), and a $15 food voucher for use in the airport, all courtesy of the airline.  The final poke in the eye by United is that the food voucher cannot be credited towards drinks.  In my estimation, a low-fat, carbonated drink filled with carbohydrates counts as food to me.  

Whatever.  Screw the voucher, it's been a long day.  Order some tasty dishes and finish it off with a Goose Island brew.

No Free Liquor

Just recently discovered that United International flights no longer
serve complimentary alcohol on their flights, as of Aug 1st 2008. I
guess I have to start buying 100ml bottles to smuggle things on board.

From now on bring USD when flying, in increments of $6USD.

Some More Street Seafood

It tastes too good not to post pictures. Lots of food and some beers for two totalled 420k in the Pham Ngu Lao area. Some crab claws were about a third of that - I guess it is out of season.

Golf in Danang

Sunrise over the bay in Danang.

Huda on the beach.  

Playing the new Montgomerie Links.  

It's a nice course in great condition (because it's new and all), but it's hardly a "links" course.  A bit disappointing if you're pulled into going due to the way it's being advertised.  

Underground Stout

The Underground is an expat/tourist bar right in the middle of the
Dong Khoi area of District 1.

It serves a local stout called Amber. Not bad, but not hearty enough.
It is tough to get Guiness locally though, so this will have to do.

New town, new beer

This is some local brew that's been around when Vietnam was still a
colony.

Hmm, beer

Found this off of YT - an Asahi Beer dispensing machine at the Narita Airport (in the Northwest Lounge).

Speaking of airports, the best airport I've been to is the Beijing Capital International Airport, mainly because you can buy beer out of vending machines. Vending machine beer! And they have a selection too, mainly limited to Yanjing. For 8 or 10 RMBs, which is $1.00-1.25. It was a great way to use up all the coins I accumulated prior to departing the country.

Contrast this with Nội Bài airport in Hanoi. This place kinda sucked 'cause I couldn't find a cold soda anywhere. The gift counters on the main level sold knicknacks and room temperature soda. Only in the sole eatery in the whole joint, on the second floor, can you find a cold drink. $2 for a soda, which isn't bad for an airport, I guess. But Bejing spoiled me. Nội Bài needs to join the communist revolution and get some vending machines.

Speaking of Nội Bài, all this time I thought it was (translated) "Place to Fly" or basically "airport," in third grade speak. Little did I know that airport is "Nơi Bay" and the name of the airport is completely different. Darn diacritical marks!