Pizza Hut

Okay, I have to admit it. I love food, all kinds of food, including junk food... When I visit China, making a stop to Pizza Hut is a must as the Pizza Hut there serves high end dishes like escargot and seafood pizza. And their crust is not just some burnt up greasy carbs, but is actually a nice soft buttery toast. So after checking out the high end menu that the Pizza Hut located near Vinh Trung Plaza, I had to stop and get something. 

Unfortunately they did not have escargot, though I suspect it is because snails are are very commonly here, so it is not considered a delicacy as it is in China. But the prices on the menu are quite high end, a bit more so than KFC. 

I was finally able to get a watermelon juice, which was okay priced at around 26,000. It was pretty delicious as expected. 

Now the pizza... Ooh... This is the seafood curry, which had yellow curry sauce drizzled over the cheese, and bits of pineapple, shrimp, fish and scallops over the pizza. 

Another view of our lovely "regular size pizza", which honestly I could eat by myself...

Freshly toasted goodness...

This is a closer view at the other pizza, Fisherman's favorite, which had Thousand Island dressing. Now imagine a nice buttery toast with cheese and seafood on it, then throw in the taste of Thousand Island dressing on top... It was a bit odd, though the buttery toast and cheese still made it delicious. But with the dressing, I can't help but think of salads... Perhaps it helps quiets the consciousness as I wolf down thousands of calories.

Our bill, however, took a nice chump out of my wallet (well, at least the VND part). It came out to be about 180,000 VND, which really is less than $9 per person, but being used to meals costing less than 30,000, it was a bit of an expected shock. But all in all, a super delicious meal. I wish I got to try their desserts and pasta... Next time! 

Snacks: I will never be able to quit my sugar addiction here...

So today I finally cave in and bought a jar of candied fruits. There were so many choices! I have been having some bad luck with picking out snacks so I was a bit worried and stayed safe with the strawberry. But it was also so cute! 

This jar was 25,000. I forgot how much it cost at Big C, but was not too much from it. 

It doesn't taste too much like strawberry, instead it's more of a mix of tangy and sweet like candy but with the texture of a dried apricot or prune but more firm. The strawberry taste is more hinted at after you chew for a while. It was a good exercise for my teeth, though given the amount of sugar on it, I am a bit worried for my teeth. 

Also introducing some other random snacks!

I actually am not sure what it's called, though I think it's Banh beo... It's a toasted rice paper with fishy/shrimp like crisps on top, so it tastes like a mix of shrimp chips with rice as a base. But because it is toasted rice wrapper, the bottom part can be quite chewy, a good exercise for the teeth! This was quite cheap at 2000. 

This is a sesame ball, except it's the size of my palm... It looks and pretty much taste like the ones in China, except not as good...

I highly disliked the inside filling, which I suspect is green bean or mung bean filling, except there was probably too much flour in the filling and not enough sugar and oil... I dumped out the inside and ate the skin instead. That was pretty delicious. :D

I probably mentioned this in the Hoi An post, but I think the fried donut deserves a review here under street food. It is different than an American donut in that it the dough is mostly not sweet. However, it still is fried and then dipped in cane sugar. A freshly fried one is delicious! The other triangular one on the right side is a piece of fried dough/bread with pâté smeared on top. The left one has coconut shreds on the inside. This was okay as it didn't have much flavor. The same piece of fried dough can be found with green bean filling and peanut filling. 

These colorful little pastries can be found in a number of bakeries. We initially thought they were different, so bought one of each. Well, their filling is very similar with either green bean paste, lotus seed paste or coconut filling. 

This is the green coconut pastry. Because the skin is the multilayered puff pastry type of dough (though softer and not as crispy), combined with a sweet filling, this can be quite rich.

I will need to write an article on fruits as I bought quite a few and will post when I have eaten them all! XD

Supermarket!

So we decided to go find a supermarket today. The closest one that was within walking distance was a supermarket located in a mall, called Big C. This was located in a pretty busy and extremely bustling area with little stands selling everything from pickled goods, candy by the weight, household products to helmets. It reminded me of wholesale markets in China. This area is collectively called Vinh Trung Plaza, though I think officially it's probably just the large building that is the mall. 

The mall has a Lotteria and KFC, as well as some chain stores like Levi's and some other brands I did not recognize. There was also a tourist stand and other small food retailers.

The whole area was extremely bustling today! I guess it is because of the upcoming Tet where it seems customary to shop your hearts out. I presume it is for the preparation of guests, as candy and other snacks seem to be the most popular item. Also if it is anything similar to China, having new clothes for the New Year is also extremely important. One thing about the stands next to the plaza and in the wholesale market, bargaining is hard. I saw the "prices are reasonable, no bargaining" sign, but as all good Chinese folks, I promptly accepted it and tried bargaining anyways. Based on the quality of things there, nothing was worth the asking price! I only got a hair tie after 1 hour of circling the hundreds of stands. 

Let's talk about Big C. It totally reminds me of any supermarket in China, specifically Carrefour. It is also split in two levels with top selling household goods and lower selling food. The two levels are connected by the sloping escalator for shopping carts. The selection is extremely similar, though replace the foods to Vietnamese tastes. For example, I found bottles of nguoc mam sauce, which I really, really wanted. The only problem is that this stuff expires in 1 year, and I am not Vietnamese enough to eat it every other day. Also, the ice cream selection had chocolate, strawberry, coconut and my favorite: DURIAN!

Alright, by the virtue that durian seems to be a basic ice cream flavor, you know you are in a SE Asian country. 

The prices are fairly reasonable, though it definitely gained me more perspective, which is that Bahn Mi's are just ridiculously cheap! The tub of ice cream above is about 60,000+ VND. This comes out to be about $3, which in China would have cost $5. Detergent was fairly expensive at $5-$8. Meat was also expensive, running around $10 per kilo. The fruits were variable. The dragon fruit that I keep getting charged 40,000/kilo was slightly cheaper at 36,000. But the star apple fruit (I will talk about this tomorrow!) that I pay 40,000 VND/kilo for is sold at 43,000 VND. So yeah, variable prices. Oh, I have been paying 10,000/500 ml bottle for water. Turns out the 1.5 L bottle costs 7800. Now I feel pissed... 

I also found listerine (they had green tea flavor!) here, which has been the only place that I have found so far to have it at 250 ml bottles, though it was still expensive. Also, Kotex here is waay cheaper, like 70% cheaper... yep, I stocked up. 

And just my two cents on these jello cup thingies. 

I love jello cups. In fact, I even like the bigger cups that come in durian, passion fruit and coconut flavors. And these looked just like the ones I have had in China, which was pretty good, so I bought some to try. They taste NOTHING like the Chinese ones. They taste like artificial flavoring mixed with gelatin. Yep, it's that bad. Interesting flavor choices like plum, banana, watermelon and taro, but they all just taste like chemicals made to taste like each flavor... T.T My durian ice cream was much tastier! 

So I think I mentioned this supermarket is just like a Chinese one, which meant that everything that is sold by weight needs to be weighed at the weight check, obtain a sticker for check out. With the huge hoard of people, I somehow remembered to do such for the jello cups but forgot for the hoard of fruit that I bought. After waiting in line for 15 minutes and being pushed and shoved, the check out lady is like WTF... So I ended up taking my stuff back and rechecking out through the horrendous line. 

So speaking of people mountain people sea, I could not figure out if the sheer number of people is due to the upcoming Tet holiday, if there is a huge sale, or if this is just the norm on Thursday evening. Business certainly seems good, and I somehow got a 500 VND bill! Did not know these things existed... 

I am debating whether to keep for souvenir's sake and challenge myself by trying to spend it somehow...

Cafes Part 2

I should mention that I am actually writing this post as I am sitting in a cafe. :D 

Dollhouse Coffee is another book cafe type of coffee place. It is a lot smaller and is a bit noisier on the inside. 

As you can see, it is quite cutesy as well. The circular stairs in the back leads to a second floor, where there are scenes between seats, though it is also a shoes off and sit on the floor type of cafe. Oh, a secret about these places, pick a seat near the walk so you can lean against the wall. It is better than most places. 

They had some more drink choices than Cafe Velo, which I mentioned in the last post. I tried the Oreo Dá Xay (on the right), which is blended Oreos in milky water. Despite the way it sounds, it was quite good, sweet like everything else I have here... The left is cafe sua dá, iced Vietnamese coffee. 

This is lemon juice with prune juice (the Chinese salted kind). It tastes just like really sweetens lemonade with the salty prunes on the bottom. Very refreshing! My friend attempted to order the yogurt drink, sãu cua, but they didn't have yogurt.... So instead she got the strawberry milk instead! It tasted like fresh strawberries with creamy milk. 

The story of how I ended up ordering this quite unpleasant looking fried fish bal... I tried ordering the Oi Xi muôi (guava) that I liked so much from Velo, but they didn't have it. Then I tried to order the Bap Xaò, which they also don't have. No to the grilled sausage either... My only choices were fries or fish ball... At least the orange chili sauce makes everything taste better!

Moka Coffee is directly across the street from Full House. It is a mix of the street viewing cafe and bookcafe. 

The inside has these cutesy studying areas and also window facing seats and bar stools. The menu also contains some alcoholic drinks as well as granita. Unfortunately, no food! :(

So I got the kiwi lassi, which was more like a kiwi smoothing blend. My friend got the orange soda, which is similar but blended with soda rather than milk/cream. I really think Vietnamese people drink everything blended...

This is the only cup of coffee that I have had so far in my trip. The portion size is too small for me to really enjoy or warm up to, so I have avoided it ever since. The other thing to mention is that the "fresh milk" mentioned in these menus just mean with fresh cream, which is considered special here. 

All cafes offer free wifi, and I have to say this is the most accessible I have been to the Internet. Even in the states, there are not as many coffee shops and not all of them offer such easy access to coffee shops. And with the purchase of one drink, you can sit there as long as you want. 

Though a word on the prices. So Bahn Mi ranges anywhere from 10,000 VND (<50 cents) to 18,000 VND. Coffee usually costs 20,000 to 35,000. Juices and blended drinks usually go for around 30,000 VND, which is about $1.50. Food here is definitely pretty cheap, and most people can afford to sit in a cafe with a cup of coffee. I have yet to figure out salary and such. More to come! 

Cafes Part 1

Since the importation of coffee from the French during the colonization of Vietnam, Vietnam has been known for the coffee. Since my arrival, that has been one of the most impressive things about Vietnam. There is literally 3-4 coffee shops on every block of every street. Even in the country side, there were coffee shops along the country roads. And almost every one of them has customers, ranging from one or two to the whole place being filled. And this is at every hour. There are customers at 8 in the morning, mid morning on a work day, noon lunch time, afternoon and late evening. The one thing I never had to worry about since being here is not finding a place to have Vietnamese coffee. 

The coffee shop styles ranges from open coffee shop where it's open to the streets, and these are usually older folks street watching or chit chatting. 

This one is from Cafe Mocda, which I stumbled upon while getting lost in Hoi An. It is a very classic country side cafe with open air, no lights on during the day and no menu. Being the second day in Vietnam, I was only able to communicate coffee to the owner, but the coffee was good!

This is Cafe Suã dá, which is made with sweetened condensed milk. Dá means iced. Of course, this name I learned later in the next week after pouring over many menus. 

Cafe Velo is a different type of cafe. It is a bookcafe, which means it is closed to the outside traffic and is very quiet inside. This one is located on the busy street of Quang Trung near Nguyen Thi Minh Khai. 

The inside is very cutely decorated, and is usually littered with students studying and chatting. It is not really quiet like a library, but is free from the noise from the streets. 

This type of cafe usually have a menu and usually have a few snack foods. My favorite is the Oi xi something something (I forgot the name... -___-), which is guava with dried prunes in prune juice. That is the one in the back there. The left is Bap Xao, which is corn kernels stir fried with scallion and dried shrimp with a side of the orange sweet chili sauce (more on that later). The right is Mi Truong, which I could not figure out what it was and just ordered it... Turns out it's instant ramen! With a sunny side egg on top too. 

Their drink choices comes with coffee, fruit juice, tea, soda or yogurt. The left is Saigon Coffee with sweetened condensed milk. The portion size is a bit disappointing! The left is the delicious Bac Xíu, which I think has milk in addition to the sweetens condensed milk or just extras of it... 

This is when we tried the fruit juices. The left is the Ép dúa, which is pineapple. The right is ép tâo, which is apple. It is actually a mix of some fruit purée with sweetened water?

This is another adventure where I decided to try something I could not figure out off the menu, so I ordered the yogurt hôp, which is actually just regular plain yogurt (see above left)... And I can never get over how sweet Vietnamese like their foods... That yogurt was definitely mostly sweet with a hint of sour! And the middle is yoaurt xòai, which is mango yogurt drink. And then bac xíu again. :) 

And this is the cafe where I found dragon ball z in Vietnamese!

Alright, more coffee houses to come. There are too many for me to list in one post, so I will wrap up about this orange chili sauce. 

It is the orange stuff next to the corn. I will later add the pictures where it was served with the chicken at KFC, the Hong Kong style roasted duck, the fish balls, and a million other places. It is a bit sweet and tangy sauce with a hint of spice. I fully plan on purchasing a bottle prior to my departure from Vietnam, though this is contingent upon if I can actually find a place that sells it... 

An elaborate tourist meal

Part of the day in Hue involved this lunch that was highly talked about. It is called the Ty Ao Garden, and it apparently caters specially to foreign tourists. The lunch is paid for in our tour package, but the drinks are not, and our mineral water that was supposed to be included was not given until after the lunch.

The drinks were definitely overpriced, about 2x the normal price, though they had some interesting drink selections including kiwi juice, which apparently is not very good and passion fruit juice, which was warm!

The first course was this rather elaborate peacock! The body is a hollowed out pineapple with a real flame on the inside. The pork spring rolls (these are the deep fried kind) are on toothpicks on the body. The spring rolls were definitely very good and tasty. 

Course 2 is this carrot and potato soup. The soup like most Vietnamese soups is wonderfully flavored and aromatic (suspect it's a meat based soup). The potato gives this some substance. 

Next up is this slightly skimpy grilled shrimp. I must say overall the meal was extremely filling and definitely more in portion than all other meals I have had so far, but the shrimp in this area tends to be on the skinny side. This was fairly flavorful, though most of the flavor is sitting on the shell. 

This is a Hue pancake. The inside of it looks like:

The inside is mostly bean sprouts with a long meat ball and an even skimpier shrimp. The sauce is unclear what it is to me, as the whole dish was kinda bland and greasy...

Now this! This was my favorite part of the meal! This was a type of salad with pork and shrimp, though the pork seemed like it was more of a paste than actual meat. The salad is scooped into the fried shrimp chips, and the whole thing is absolutely delicious! I could not find out the name of the salad unfortunately...

At this point in the meal, I was too full to enjoy this lotus seed steamed rice. It was rice steamed with broth and the veggies are the lotus seed, bamboo shoots and carrots. Very flavorful, though the rice is a bit soggy for my standards. 

And the meal wrapped up with more elaborate schemes. The mandarin oranges tasted more like the ones I have had in China, which is more ripe and sweet, though I like them more zesty. The left side is actually a fake plant, the dessert is the two fruits, which are green bean filling shaped like a fruit. 

Yep, that outside wrapping is a mysteriously spongy and jello like outer shelled, dyed with some crazy colors... This was way sweet without any flavor and the filling had the consistency of cement paste... I had to spit it out and rinse my mouth out with my own bottled water. 

Overall, despite the poor finish, this was a very delicious and fulfilling meal. My only gripe with this was that for a packed day with multiple activities, the lunch took over one hour as they take time to serve each course, and I felt anxious the entire time knowing our guide was waiting for us outside. 

Exploration Da Nang

Today I learned something interesting about Vietnamese culture. People here seems to not like to communicate their plans or ask you for your opinion. For example, we found out today that the assistant at the hospital actually went to pick us up at the airport. That was never communicated to us. From the email to the local doctor to the phone calls to the attending, no such thing was communicated. And then, when we were discussing our rotation schedule, it was decided for us to go to Nephrology and Endocrinology. Once again, no discussion. Good thing my friend had the courage to say actually no, we want to see the ED and ICU. And then, the issue of Tet came up. Once again, this was not discussed in person and was communicated to us last minute. The plan is no where near set and the only thing that was said about it was "discuss it tomorrow." 

Perhaps it has to do with hierarchy. I suspect Vietnam is a country much like the rest of Asia where there is social hierarchy, and we, being resident physicians and also being female, are placed at a lower hierarchy than our attending. Also, the contributions that we are bringing is questionable, though I hope that we at least do not treat our visiting physicians this way, though now I think about it, I am extremely questionable. 

Having moved and gone through the "new person in town" scenario, I have always been more sympathetic and helpful to others. But this probably is not the standard, and I know many foreign exchange students really rely on the local international community for help for settling in. Unfortunately, I am questioning if such a thing exists here in Da Nang as there seems to be little to none industry and commercialization. 

Speaking of where to find things, we live very close to the Han Market, which is a somewhat large shopping area with a small two story building that sells everything from locks, produce, clothing and beddings. We were able to find a bed comforter, though the price was probably terribly raised up. 

There are also foreigners visiting here, but the sellers definitely don't speak much English. Trying to find a soft bed cover was definitely a trial, though we were able to find it on the second floor. The key to bargaining here is to walk away if you are not getting the price you want. The next stand will have something very similar. 

On to today's food adventure. We wandered around the Nguyen Chi Thahn and Tran Quoc Toan area a little to look for restaurants. This area and the area next to it on Tran Phu is fairly well used to  foreigners and had menus that catered. 

We came across An Thuc Ha Noi 58 by accident. I picked it because it looked clean, and there were quite a number of locals eating there. The staff didn't speak English, but the owner did. Once again, she decided on the menu items for us (probably because we were taking so long). 

This is Bun Cha, which is served with vermicelli on the side with a bowl of broth with various grilled meats in it. You place the bun and the vegetables in the broth and eat it. 35,000 each. It was quite flavorful and the meat in it was delicious. I also love the purple version of shiso, which I presume to be Vietnamese basil. 

This is Nem cua be, which is a square version of Vietnamese spring roll. It is fairly tasty, but it is just a tad greasy. 

For drinks, we tried the tomato water, which I suspect is tomato purée watered down (with bottled or boiled water I hope...). Once again, quite delicious. I may regret this some time later, but so far, GI sickness free.