Travel checklist: Vietnam

Whenever I find myself in another country I make it a point to:

Buy street food
I’m a firm believer that there are hidden culinary gems cooking in those pushcarts and hole-in-the-wall places. So even though my dad sternly warned me that there would be a good chance that I’d get cholera or some other food-borne bacterial illness, I still bought food from this lady.

I noticed that most of the street food vendors had a set up like hers. She had a small stove powered by a tiny lpg tank (set up inside a contraption like a taho vendor’s). Then a few steps away people would be crouched over steaming bowls of food, balancing small plates on stools and makeshift tables. Hygiene be damned, but it must be damn good food.

The lady was selling some sort of dish that involved glutinous rice cake pieces (sort of like ddeokbokki) sauteed with some spring onion and finished off with egg. And the sauce that came with it… was amazing. It was spicy, sweet, smoky… it was a dream. I wasn’t even able to take a picture of it properly because I was too busy devouring it. Haha! I wanted to go back to that lady (she was on the right side of Ben Thanh market, near Pho 24) the next day, but our itinerary got in the way.

Try the local beer

For some reason, all the beers I’ve tried seem to taste better than San Mig Light. It always seemed to go down smoother, taste a little sweeter and not really taste as macho as the beer here.

Not think twice about trying food

I’m not really a fan of souvenirs (as in I buy only if people request something as pasalubong) and I don’t really go all-out shopping except when there’s a crazy sale (or so I’d like to think), but when it comes to food I go all out. I don’t really feel buyer’s remorse when it comes to food, maybe because no one gets grumpy on a full tummy. So I tend to impulsively buy food that seems funky or interesting. Like this one, which I saw randomly as we were going up the escalator in Diamond Plaza.

Whole bananas encased in coconut milk, with a few peanuts for an added crunch. It’s a pretty simple frozen delight. What amazed me was how fresh the banana pieces were, very minimal browning! Very yummy. And I like the packaging, it’s so neat! It really makes eating a “popsicle” a less messy ordeal, because you can set it down on the tray between bites.

Kem Bach Dang (Bach Dang ice cream)

It’s really nice to explore all the nooks and crannies of Saigon, but the heat really gets to you. It’s a good thing that it’s easy to hail a cab in the city. Aside from the much-needed A/C, their cabs smell really good because they keep bundles of pandan leaves under the seats. (It’s a great car tip! I tried it once we got home and it really works. Plus, it’s all organic so no irritating chemical smell!) If you’re headed to Saigon soon, take note that there are only 2 taxi companies you can trust: Vinasun and Mai Linh. Other taxis are notorious for overcharging or rigging the meter.

One famous spot to cool off in the city is Kem Bach Dang (Bach Dang Ice Cream). It’s an ice cream parlor that’s practically regarded as an institution by the locals. No surprise, because they really are creative when it comes to coming up with tropical-themed and fruit-flavored frozen concoctions.

Ice cream with slices of watermelon and dragonfruit, with cream puff shells.
I love how abundant dragonfruit is in Saigon.

I think this was Longgan ice cream. My dad started eating it before I was able to take a picture.

Kem Back Dang has two branches across the street from each other, at the corner of Le Loi Street and Pasteur Street (26-28 LE LOI STREET, District 1).

More Korean Frozen Treats!

Today was more bearable because it started to rain in the afternoon. But whatever, it’s not like you need an excuse to eat ice cream.

I think this is the Pinipig our parents enjoyed as kids. Vanilla ice cream with ripples of pureed berries, encased in chocolate and covered generously with peanuts. The tart berries cut the richness of the ice cream and the peanuts provide that irresistible sweet-salty balance. Yum!

Korean frozen treats!

In honor of today being the hottest day of the year in Manila, I’m going to do a post on Korean frozen treats. I’m not sure if it shows in this blog, but I really love burgers and ice cream. I’m thankful that I don’t look the part. Yet. Hopefully never.

Cookies and cream ice cream layered between two slices of the softest, puffiest vanilla spongecake. Awesome.

Cleaning out the freezer

I had to finish half a pint of ice cream so I figured I’d make an ice cream sandwich out of the white choco crunch cookies I made last week and Selecta Gold Vanilla Almond ice cream.

P.S. I really think I should get a new camera. My old Sony 5.1MP is way past its prime.

More ice cream discoveries

I think I’ve been eating too much ice cream that it’s starting to show in my food blog. Haha! I have two new discoveries that would delight two types of people:

Dublin Brownies from Sebastian’s (P105/scoop)
Do you love Bailey’s? If you do, be sure to drop by Sebastian’s to get a scoop (or more) of Dublin Brownies: a mix of ice cream made from Bailey’s and chunks of fudgey brownies. I don’t know how many scoops will give you a buzz, but at least Sebastian’s has found a way to make the Bailey’s last longer.

Make your own froyo at fruttiYogurt (P75 onwards)
A lot of people are nuts about frozen yogurt. I noticed that a lot of the froyo places have the same concept: some variety of yogurt plus your choice of toppings.

fruttiYogurt from Dizon Farms (one of the biggest fruit distributors in the country) bucks the froyo trend by mixing your toppings along with the yogurt. It’s Dizon Farms, so I trust that you get top quality fruits. The one pictured is made from raspberries. The fruits are frozen, but these were probably frozen at their prime. The raspberries were still gritty. Yum!

Fruit, chocolate and cookies!
Some of the toppings they offered: mangoes, strawberries, raspberries, kiwis, bananas, pineapples, grapes, lychee, melon, oreos, chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, m&ms and sprinkles.

A single blend (choice of 1 fruit) costs P75. A double blend costs 120. Extra toppings are at P10 each, while extra fruit toppings are at P15 each. For those who want plain yogurt, a regular one is P60, while a large one is P110.

Vanilla froyo with blackberries and Choco+Vanilla swirl froyo

Personally I love the yogurt (sans toppings) at Yo Swirls in Shangri-la Mall. It’s a sister company of BTIC. I think they’re the only ones in Manila who have four types of yogurt: Chocolate, Vanilla, Plain and Tart. I tried the Chocolate yogurt; I am now devoted to it. The vanilla flavor tastes a lot like the McDonald’s sundae cone. They even have a promo card which gives you one stamp per cup of yogurt purchased. Then you get a free one after 10 stamps.

fruttiYogurt from Dizon Farms is located at Market Market, in the open area in front of the Serendra driveway.

Coney Island ice cream is back!

Thanks to OAP’s tip, I found myself rushing over to SM Makati to try Go Nuts ice cream. As a kid I loved Coney Island ice cream. They had all sorts of cute and creative frozen delights. My favorite one was the plastic cone filled with bubble gum ice cream. Complete with a gumball at the bottom!

Bubble gum ice cream (P60, single scoop)

There are a lot of flavors available, but I chose bubblegum just to check if it was indeed Coney Island ice cream. And it was! The creamy swirls of pastel ice cream, the chunks of gumballs… it definitely made me feel like a kid again.

Singapore: Azabu Sabo Hokkaido Ice Cream

“What is it with tourists and ice cream?” I got that line from My Life in Ruins, Nia Vardalos’s (of My Big Fat Greek Wedding fame) newest movie, wherein her character still works for a travel agency, only this time around she’s a tour guide taking obnoxious tourists around Greece.

But that line is so true. I don’t know what gets to me whenever I travel, but I just have to have ice cream. To illustrate: while in Berlin, before going home I would switch trains just to buy ice cream at Potsdamer Platz Arkaden; in the US we’d pick out klondike or some ridiculous over the top ice cream with 1000++ calories in it and eat it at midnight; I’m pretty sure I stopped at every gelato stand I saw while in Italy. CRAZY. I guess ice cream is something you can’t pack in your suitcase, so you might as well eat it now.

When I was in Singapore I got to try Azabu Sabo Hokkaido Ice Cream. Azabu Sabo is a Japanese brand famous for its dessert shop and teahouse. Its Hokkaido Ice Cream prides itself because it uses farm-fresh milk from Hokkaido to make its yummy low-sugar and low-fat ice cream.

What attracted us to Hokkaido Ice Cream was the peculiar way they scooped the ice cream unto a cone.

The server actually redoes the cone if it isn’t pointy enough. We were so amazed that we just had to get one.

The standard flavors like chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry were in the roster, but since I wanted try something different, I picked Green Tea with Red Bean and Black Sesame. So good! Black sesame was like biting into one of those delectable Chinese desserts. Green Tea with Red Bean would be something that Green Tea Frap lovers would love: just the right blend of matcha bitterness perfectly swirled with creamy Hokkaido milk. The sweet red bean offered a great contrast to the green tea.

I also observed the cleverness of the square-shaped top part of the cone. There were less drips, unlike in your circle-shaped top part of a conventional cone. Genius!

The Azabu Sabo Hokkaido Ice Cream kiosk pictured is located in Takashimaya on Orchard Road.

Wasabi ice cream

Wasabi Ice cream at Yaku (P60+)
Have you always wondered what wasabi ice cream would taste like? I have, ever since a friend randomly texted me about the wonders of wasabi ice cream eons ago. You can get a scoop over at Yaku, a japanese restaurant at The Podium. (The Podium now seems like a one-stop ice cream hub, with Pagliacci and Sebastian’s.)

Wasabi ice cream is best understood in layers. It starts off creamy and soothing, like it disguises itself as “normal” ice cream. Once the coolness dissipates, the wasabi starts its attack by assaulting your tongue with tingly, spiky sensations. The wasabi ice cream wasn’t spicy at all. But then again if you want one with more kick, you can probably make your own with a few scoops of softened vanilla ice cream and powdered wasabi.

Yaku is on the 3rd floor of The Podium in Ortigas. You can call them at 6875368.

Gelato!

Gelato @ Pagliacci (P120)
Sembreak sure feels a lot like summer vacation, with the sweltering heat and the total disregard for academics (haha). Nevertheless, it’s always a good time for ice cream. Pagliacci, an Italian resto over at Podium sells some good gelato. We tried the pistachio (it even has this weird salty aftertaste), nocciola (hazelnut, which should satisfy a grown-up’s Nutella craving), and ricotta (faint, creamy whispers of cheese with some nuts and fruit). The server actually piles too much ice cream into one little cup (boo, there’s no cone option), so there’s no harm in sharing. Plus, you can get two flavors for one serving.

Pagliacci is on the 5th floor (near the Cinema) of The Podium, Ortigas.