HCMC to Taipei

We went out in search of pho again for breakfast, but went to a different place this time.

The pho.

We also checked out another market in Cholon (HCMC's Chinatown).

Produce.

Lotus root.

Unknown fruit. Somewhat like durian and jackfruit in shape, but an entirely different color.

???

Dried items.

For lunch, we went to another fancy restaurant.

Frozen edamame and green mango (with basil, small dried shrimps and fish sauce).

Shrimp chips and pork with shrimp, onions and some other veggies.

Clams.

A much stronger fish sauce. I think this one is actually made with dried brine shrimps or something like that. Not sure if this is the infamous "vietnamese tear gas."

Wild boar in curry and coconut milk.

The tea came with gigantic chunks of ice to keep things cool.

Grilled frogs.

The veggies for the "Thai" soup shown below.

The veggies included "sea spinach", coriander, banana tree trunk, morning glory, some unknown bitter vegetable, and some kind of celery-like item as well.

Tje kitchen area is open for viewing.

That afternoon, we took our flight to Taipei.

Airplane food. Can't tell you what all of that is...

HCMC

This morning we decided to not do the hotel breakfast and go hit the streets instead.

So we got ourselves some pho. Very tasty. After this, we did go back to the hotel and grab a little more (the hotel breakfast was already paid for as part of the tour package, so we just grabbed some fruit and a piece or two of bread).

At the Cu Chi Tunnels, we got a snack of potatos with some kind of sweet/salty dipping stuff. This was actually pretty tasty.

Random booze with both snake and scorpion! (No, we didn't have any of this one.)

Lunch:

Soup with thick noodles, pork, carrots and cauliflower.

Battered and fried shrimp. The batter had a texture that was more similar to corndogs than tempura, but it wasn't made with corn.

Noodles with pork and veggies.

Make-your-own-sandwich: little meat chunks and veggies.

More markets back in HCMC:

Fishes.

Vegetables.

Random market shot.

After walking around, it was time for another ice cream break.

Our ice creams.

More street markets:

Lots of rice varieties!

Smallest liquor store I've ever seen, but with a pretty extensive selection.

Fruit.

Organs.

So up to this point, most of the restaurants that we had been eating at had been fairly clean, tourist-friendly places. A lot of these places are the types of places that only rich Vietnamese go to, or perhaps only for very special occasions. We finally got it through to our guide that we were also interested in scoping out some places that are frequented by everyday Vietnamese as well. So he took us to some of his old stomping grounds from his college days; we were the first tourists that he ever took to these places.

Cold sour pork patties.

Left: pork wrapped in long noodles (like the "chang/ fen~" that you find in dim sum places), and right: unknown meat products and taro cakes.

Vermicelli with grilled pork and fried shrimp roll.

Condiments for the broth shown below. Herbs and bean sprouts on the left, and some sort of fried item that was very similar to the Chinese "yio/ tiao/" (a.k.a. Chinese Donut).

This was a very heavy, meaty broth. It includes thick noodles, meat, blood, and crab.

Unknown vegetable drink... possibly watercress juice.

Funky agar-based dessert, somewhat like very firm jello in texture.

Then we went to what is supposed to be some of the best ice cream in HCMC. Tiny hole-in-the-wall joint down a dark alley. We got quite a few stares as I don't think they get very many tourists.

Longan ice cream.

We thought this was very funny. The like to eat fried fish balls (little spheres of ground up fish paste) along with their ice cream! When in Rome...

We got a couple more dessert items, but just took them back to the hotel since at this point we were already pretty darned stuffed and needed a breather before going back on the offensive.

Bean + green glutinous rice + coconut milk and ice.

Glutinous rice with durian, coconut and coconut milk. This was actually really tasty.

Mekong Delta to HCMC

Breakfast at the homestay...

Vietnamese coffee.

French bread, fruit, and a funny little tube of some kind of processed meat spread (the red tube on the small dish right below the bread).

Checking out some local markets:

Many different kinds of rice.

Rice candies/snacks.

Fruit!

Fish!

Vegetables!

Dragonfruit + unknown melon.

Meat! (note: no refrigeration!)

Coconut juice!

Before hopping back in our van, we spotted a bahn mi cart, so we had to grab a couple of sandwiches.

We also briefly visited a monastary.

Monks' lunch settings.

Then we went to a pretty fancy restaurant for lunch.

Lots of broken necks. (You gotta do that if you wanna eat meat!)

Giant fried glutenous rice balls (note the three or four of 'em at the right in the photo). These are similar to the red-bean-filled sesame balls that you can get at dim sum restaurants, but these are hollow and not sesame seed coated.

Fresh squeezed pineapple juice.

Lotus salad and rice chips.

The glutenous rice balls.

Something fried.

Another elephant ear fish.

Vietnamese spring roll. Filled with noodles, shrimp, herbs, and maybe pork. Dip it in fish sauce.

Fresh-squeezed watermelon juice.

I don't remember.

Fried bananas.

We wandered around HCMC a bit that afternoon and stopped at an ice cream place.

Unknown brown drink for me, and lime soda for sue (you just squeeze limes into the glass, dump in some sugar, pour in the soda water, and stir).

Vanilla ice cream with unnecessary decoration.

I think by this point our guide was finally starting to figure out that we were fairly adventurous eaters, and so he took us to an outdoor joint (bunch of tables covered with tents), although this was still in a touristy part of town so it probably wasn't too wild.

Marinated beef for grilling.

Morning glory.

Shrimp and lotus salad.

Unknown drinks. I think the one of the left is some form of ice coffee with condensed milk.

Very herby soup.

Shrimp chips.

Tamarind crab. This was my favorite dish of the evening, as I had never had crab in this type of sauce before. Definitely a new flavor experience.

More soup (with noodles this time, I think).