Joe wakes up not feeling well. He decides breakfast is not for him today, so it’s just the girls and I at breakfast this morning. I unlock the coffee code by making an iced coffee that’s actually really good! There’s also plain congee this morning, which I dress up with pickled pumpkin and fried garlic. Yogurt of course, and I’m back to being practically vegetarian. They have delicious smelling meat dishes in the hot section, but I now have a fear of getting meat stuck inbetween my teeth and having to have more root canals… Last appointment is this afternoon, and then I’ll be DONE!
We are going exploring this morning! There’s a café we are aiming for outside of our area, but it’s too early to go straight from breakfast to a café, so we decide to check out the large market a couple of blocks away first. We grab a Grab taxi, and get off at the market, which is insanely busy, and we don’t actually think cars are supposed to drive down this supremely narrow lane, but our taxi driver does.
The market is hopping busy. These types of markets fascinate me. What can you NOT find at a local market? Probably cars, but you can buy everything else! Underwear, books, souvenirs, full on fabric stores, plates, cutlery, and all the ingredients you need to cook the most delicious dishes! But what is this one? Comment with your answers below!
We already know we’re not really buying anything at the market, and we’re not eating from the stalls, because the café is waiting. I read in one of the Vietnam tips and tricks groups on Facebook the other day, one lady was asking how to avoid food poisoning, and the advice was over the top… Don’t eat from street carts? Don’t eat seafood? Don’t eat vegetables? Don’t eat fruit? Yes, I get it, caution is key, but following this type of advice would have the travellers missing out on SO MUCH GOOD FOOD! And exploring by eating is my favourite, if you couldn’t tell already…
We walk the short route to Oasis Café, and are transported into a different world altogether! This is a koi café, with koi ponds essentially replacing the floor of the café, with a step stone path for customers and staff alike to get around. We are told that all water level tables are currently taken, but they can seat us waterside. I’m ok with that, and we have a good time watching the koi respond to what they think is food (sorry koi, they don’t sell koi food here, or at least they don’t advertise it).
We each order a fancy drink, and we order some French fries to share. The fries come first, and luckily they also bring iced tea (which was delicious and I honestly wouldn’t have needed another drink if I knew this was coming). Joe decides sitting next to the water is not good enough, so he goes to ask the hostess if a water level table will come available anytime soon. We’re promised the very next one.
Our drinks arrive two minutes before our water level table comes available. A server helps us move all our stuff, and we carefully descend into our water level table. It’s a very different experience! When a koi jumps, we get splashed. Luckily they are only koi, not orcas, so it’s a few drops. If you were to hear Téa’s squeal, you might think it was an orca…
After the café, we head back to the hotel to grab a quick thing for lunch before my dentist appointment. The girls and I get to stay in the room and relax, while we send Joe out on an errand to bring back banh mis for lunch. He has picked a place with great reviews nearby (but across a super busy roundabout), and sets out on his very own adventure. When he comes back, he has two banh mis for him and I, and two square, very hamburger-looking, boxes. They are steamed buns, the girls’ favourite handheld meals! We hungrily dig in, and forget all about taking pictures…
After a delicious low-key lunch, I brush teeth and once again, for the last time, walk across the street from our hotel to the dentist. I’m getting the crown today, and hopefully that’ll be the end of my troubles. Fingers crossed!
I’m done so quick, Joe and the girls are still in the hotel room! Now we set out for our afternoon adventure, we’re on the hunt for the famous egg coffee that our next door café hasn’t had for the last two days… There’s a café next door to last night’s dinner restaurant, called Egg Yolk. Promising, right? But they don’t serve anything else, no snacks, and no non-coffee beverages, so we go elsewhere.
Right across the street from where Joe got our lunch today, there’s Tonkin. Tonkin has egg coffee, and they also have snacks and other drinks! We bravely hide behind a local girl as she parts the traffic with her magic touch, and before we know it, we’re safely on the other side of this busy roundabout.
You may have seen my photo from the other day when we walked by the café apartments, but Tonkin is like an entire apartment building, served by the tiny counter on the ground floor. A very narrow staircase connects several living rooms, and the servers just bring your order up and find you wherever you are hiding. (Although, I guess they may have cameras?)
Joe and I both order the famous egg coffee, and the server sneers at Joe when he tries to order it hot. Apparently it has to be cold? (Someone should tell the other cafés this, they are not on the same page!) We order the combo with croissants, even though I don’t really enjoy croissants (I know, I know), but there’s an option of croissant filled with salted egg yolk cream, and that is different enough for me to want a croissant.
The egg coffee was served in a very interesting way. The egg yolk has been whipped into a very delicate foam, with sugar, and it was served in a class with a rounded base. If placed on the table, it would spin like a toy! Then, a micro mini shot of strong Vietnamese coffee was poured into the egg foam, stirred around, and created a delicious, if tiny, foamy, sweet coffee drink. Not so much a beverage, more a dessert.
After our coffee break, we decided to check out the nearby underground market, thinking it would be maybe cooler in temperature. The first thing we saw was a metal slide next to the stair case entering the market, and a couple of big guys trying to go down it. They generously let the girls go down first, as they were standing there hesitantly, almost giggling. The guys, I mean. The girls hopped on, Maylin first and Téa after, and it was the slowest slide they’ve ever been on!
The market is nice and cool compared to the outside, but it’s still not air conditioned. Maybe because it’s underground? The aisles start out wider than the other markets, but it’s still full. Packed to the rafters. There are things to buy in all directions. The vendors are pushy, but not too aggressive, as some of the ones we’ve met so far have been. We don’t last long. Maylin is complaining and wants to go home, even after we buy her the coolest t-shirt around. Joe tries, unsuccessfully, to bring the price down so we can buy both girls matching shirts, but she’s not budging, so he won’t buy the second one. I’m so glad he’s the one doing the bargaining, I can’t stand it!
After the market, we head back to the hotel. Tomorrow is travel day, so we need to pack all our belongings back into the three suitcases, two carry on suitcases and two duffel bags. It’s incredible the amount of stuff we have accumulated, but the one thing we’ve collected the absolute most, is memories.
Tonight is our last dinner in Ho Chi Minh City, and we aim to follow the sweet dentist receptionists’ suggestion that we head out to a popular seafood restaurant. As luck would have it, there’s one right up our street as well! No taxi required. We walk over, and hesitate. When we’re met with big tanks and “pick your own seafood”, it usually means we’ll be broke by the end of the meal.
We look at the sidewalk tables and wonder why nobody is dining here. Then the hostess leads us to the elevator, and then we understand – the non-smoking, air conditioned dining room is upstairs! There are only a few other tables occupied, all lining the large windows to the outside, on the corner overlooking a busy intersection. It’s a good view for people and traffic watching!
Our server speaks nearly no English and does not understand our questions. There are two sections to the menu, one “pick your own seafood by Xg increments and we’ll cook it one of these six ways”, and another is ready made dishes you can choose from. There is much confusion about pricing and after a bit of trouble with Google Translate doing its very best to help, a supervisor is called over, and the translation app gets yet another workout. In the end, the girls end up with a shrimp fried rice, and Joe and I choose lemongrass steamed snails, and a Singapore chili mud crab.
The crab is local, neither Canadian or Norwegian. When in Vietnam, eat local! The sauce is a Singaporean recipe, and because Joe and I have been religiously watching Australian Masterchef for as long as we’ve been together, this is a dish I’ve been wanting to try for years! It’s a good thing it’s not our first date though, saucy crab is NOT a date dish, it is troublesome, messy, difficult and absolutely exquisite! Now if this dish came with a servant who removed all the shell and mixed all the meat and roe and claw meat neatly into the sauce, I would definitely order it again!
The restaurant is loud. There’s a large family at one table, with the kids running around the restaurant squealing, luckily between mostly empty tables. Another table gets drunk and loud, and refuse to put out their cigars when asked to respect the no smoking signs. Eventually, the supervisor comes to each table in turn to apologize for the unruly guests. The room smells every time the light another cigar, which luckily isn’t too often. We focus on our little table of four, and have a good time. This meal is the most expensive one we’ve had in Vietnam so far, but they don’t serve wine by the glass, so I guess that’s a few thousand Dong saved… And with a grand total of $59CA, it’s not bad.
On our way home, I decide we need some dessert, and we head over to 7Eleven across the street. Téa is finally reunited with her Vanilla Coolish that she fell in love with in Japan, Maylin picks a capybara shaped, strawberry flavoured ice lollipop, and I pick the pistachio chocolate cone.
We finish packing what we can tonight, lay out travel clothes for tomorrow, and stuff our snack back to the brim. We try to get to bed early, but it doesn’t always work. At least we’ll be in beds for 9 hours during the day tomorrow! I think that’s a good thing, but it all remains to be seen…
There was no place for comments for yesterday’s blog.
However, yesterday you mentioned vegan and today vegetarian, both along the lines of missing protein. You know I’m pescatarian and I get lots of protein. If the meat is missing for some reason, just include your protein in other ways, including seafood when available. I see lots of non-meat protein in the meals you describe, which is why so many look delicious to me.
You didn’t mention your post-crown experience. I hope your mouth is feeling better.
Thanks for letting me know, Sandra, I’ve fixed the comments field for yesterday’s post.
Mouth is better, thanks, but I don’t want to jinx it!!