Saigon, Vietnam

Hi all! Sorry I haven't been updating much this past week, I've been in Saigon, Vietnam and Pattaya, Thailand for the past 10 days!

So whilst I don't have much to report on for Thailand, since I was part of a convention there and was incredibly busy running around and the event was held in a hotel in which we mostly just had catered buffet food.

However. Saigon.

Oh Saigon.

I went in not expecting too much, the trip just kind of came onto me suddenly. Y'know what I mean? You're so busy with your own life that even when the fact that you're travelling somewhere new is coming up in your new future, it just doesn't stimulate you because you're so distracted!

Anyway.

I ended up being in love with the place and in particular, the food.

I was going to go through and blog all the restaurants I went to like I usually do, but I'm feeling perfectly lazy today and I'm just going to post pictures of some of the delicious food I got to eat. The wraps in Vietnam are by far the best things ever!



One of my favourite things hat Vietnam has to offer. Fresh rice paper rolls. They're just...so much better in Vietnam for some reason, the ingredients are so much fresher, so much better balanced...the mint they use is just fantastic. Inside is prawn on one side of the roll and pork on the other, which somehow compliment each other very nicely!



Deep fried rice paper rolls in Vietnam are great too. I like these so much better than traditional Chinese spring rolls as the rice paper skin makes them lighter and crisper. It feels a liiiiittle bit healthier?



More delicious fresh rice paper rolls....



Now these, I ADORED. These are rolls wrapped with mustard leaf, which as a mustard lover, I think are delicious. The subtle flavour from the leaf is just delightful!



Shredded shrimp inside these ones, wouldn't have minded this one to be warmer actually...but still good!

Now I'm going to go through the anatomy of a roll real quick here yah? So you grab one of the rice paper circles, they feel so weird and papery when you first get them, but they soften up once you wet them.



Then you grab the fillings here, basil, mint and vermicelli...



And put them over your rice paper like so!



For the filling for this roll, we had some lovely beef which we very quickly cooked in broth...



And put in our roll! And there it is, wrap it up and it's tasty to go!



Wrap n' Roll was one of the places we went to, I really enjoyed the place, lots of interesting looking things to try on the menu...as I always say. I wish my stomach was bigger!







Lots of banana leaf wrapped things at this place! This was a very thin steamed rice cake with shredded prawn (I think...). I liked how light this was to eat.



How the vietnamese stall holders eat lunch at the market...oh my! I just realised I forgot to upload the last restaurant I went to in Saigon for dinner, so maybe I can make that in a new post. Because my friend, a local took me and it was indeed very excellent food.

In the meantime, just enjoy some more photos of the beautiful fruit market!





If one gets the time to, I certainly suggest visiting the Martini bar in the Park Hyatt, the interior is just gorgeous and I had a very tasty lychee martini. Mmmmm.