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Ho Chi Minh: A French Delight!
By estar | October 26, 2008
I’ve never been a fan of Vietnamese cuisine - those plates of spring onions, mint leaves, bean sprouts and other veggies accompanying every dish have always put a meat-etarian like myself off. Beef though, is my favourite meat, so when I arrived in Ho Chi Minh, all I could think of was trying their famous beef pho.
Our first lunch stop was Pho 24, a chain with numerous franchises in Ho Chi Minh. I was slightly disappointed with the beef pho, which came in a rather weak broth.
My colleagues were, however, duly impressed with one of Vietnam’s largest export - coffee - and grabbed every opportunity to order it throughout the trip!
Knowing that Vietnam was once a French colony, we were eager to see if Ho Chi Minh could offer up some good French eats. Based on a positive magazine review, we trooped off to Ty Coz for a 3-course set lunch. The appetisers included seafood platter with a homemade mayonnaise and poached eggs in a beef tomato base, both of which had the thumbs-up from my colleagues.
A tart dragonfruit and passionfruit sorbet cleansed our palates before our main courses were served.
For mains, my steak with green peppercorn gravy was done perfectly, with a slight crust and juicy inside. The mussels in my colleague’s moules et frites was average. While the mussels weren’t exactly the plump Belgian versions, the hand-cut potato chips (some of which also came with my steak) were truly the best I’ve tasted in a long while.
Dessert were less than stellar, with a rather pedestrian raspberry roulade and coffee mousse crepe drizzled with custard.
But for just S$20 per person, the meal was definitely value-for-money and worth a 2nd visit the next time I’m in Ho Chi Minh!
Topics: Coffee, French, Restaurant, Travel, Vietnamese |
October 29th, 2008 at 4:18 am
[...] Ho Chi Minh: A French Delight!I’ve never been a fan of Vietnamese cuisine - those plates of spring onions, mint leaves, bean sprouts and other veggies accompanying every dish have always put a meat-etarian like myself off. Beef though, is my favourite meat, … [...]
October 29th, 2008 at 4:22 am
[...] Ho Chi Minh: A French Delight!I’ve never been a fan of Vietnamese cuisine - those plates of spring onions, mint leaves, bean sprouts and other veggies accompanying every dish have always put a meat-etarian like myself off. Beef though, is my favourite meat, … [...]
November 6th, 2008 at 11:27 am
[...] Ho Chi Minh: A French Delight!I’ve never been a fan of Vietnamese cuisine - those plates of spring onions, mint leaves, bean sprouts and other veggies accompanying every dish have always put a meat-etarian like myself off. Beef though, is my favourite meat, … [...]
November 18th, 2008 at 11:41 am
[...] Ho Chi Minh: A French Delight!I’ve never been a fan of Vietnamese cuisine - those plates of spring onions, mint leaves, bean sprouts and other veggies accompanying every dish have always put a meat-etarian like myself off. Beef though, is my favourite meat, … [...]