Hey Hive!
If you missed the last post, we're currently recounting our trip to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, from back in July 2019! It was the last trip before Sean was scheduled to start his full-time job so we decided to go on a short getaway to Vietnam to visit a friend! We'd also be traveling with a mutual friend of ours and his family!
Last week, we finished exploring the neighbourhood around our hotel and passed by some fancy buildings and rustic alleyways before ending our first day in Ho Chi Minh City with a very delicious homemade meal cooked by our local friend Teddy's mother! She very generously welcomed us into her home and prepared an authentic Vietnamese home-cooked meal for us that was soo yummy and satisfying!
It was probably the best version of Vietnamese food I've ever had and is still memorable to this day. After that we had a very nice sleep in the hotel after such a filling meal.
21 July 2019. Sunday.
Today was going to be fun since Teddy offered going to bring us around the city and show us a couple of interesting coffee spots! Vietnam is known for their coffee so even though neither Sean nor I are coffee drinkers we felt like it was mandatory to at least try the local coffee in some way.
But first, breakfast!
The hotel we were staying in - Roseland Sweet Hotel, had a breakfast buffet included and it was from 8-10am or so. The dining room was actually kind of small as we saw quite a few guests there so I'm glad we managed to get a table.
They had a number of cooked dishes; mostly Asian cuisine but also some classic Western breakfast options as well like sausages and bacon. And of course an omelette station!
This was my plate for breakfast! I think there were some salad options but I'm not a fan of cold food.
And of course we also ordered some eggs from the omelette station, like a ham omelette and sunny side up!
Teddy said he'd arrive at our hotel at 11 so we had some time to kill after breakfast and decided to check out the rest of the hotel. There was a pool and bar at the roof so we took the lift up to see.
It was actually kinda nice! The pool was a little small but it had a jacuzzi jets. There wasn't much of a view but it was alright. I don't think you could see it from the pool though but I guess that meant some privacy.
There was also a bar but it was closed obviously since it was before noon. I assume they open after 5pm.
We could already feel the heat from just being outdoors so we went back to our hotel room to relax while waiting for Teddy. We hung out for a bit and played some games on my Nintendo Switch. We knew there would be a TV and since we were all gamers it made sense to bring it.
We were still full from breakfast so we hung out and played until past peak lunch hour since it was definitely going to be crowded on a Sunday. By the time we left it was 3pm.
There was a lady wearing traditional Vietnamese wear, or Ao Dai on the street probably advertising some wellness service like a massage parlour.
We also saw that there was actually a FamilyMart not too far from our hotel! FamilyMart is one of our favourite convenience stores in Japan so we were kinda excited to see it here especially since we don't have it in Singapore. Malaysia has them though curiously enough.
Teddy was leading us to a nice pizza restaurant he knew about nearby for lunch but he said it's always crowded around lunchtime so I guess it was good that we stayed in for a bit. Anyway it was really hot at noon and we did not want to get stuck outside in the heat.
We ended up in the alleyway at a restaurant called Pizza 4P's that has a logo that looked like Windows. The restaurant itself looked a lot fancier on the inside than the outside.
The whole place looked really swanky I felt a little underdressed, although most of the patrons were dressed quite casually as well since the heat outside was sweltering. Their menu consisted of various types of pizzas, ranging from classic Italian toppings to their own Original creations and Vegetarian options.
We ordered a couple of dishes to share between the 5 of us, starting with this manga parma ham wrap appetiser:
It was alright at room temperature but I was not used to eating mango mixed with ham. It was a curious combination and I rather eat them separate but it was still pretty good nonetheless. The mango they used was sweet thai mango which was nice.
We also ordered this clam and basil sauce spaghetti, which is definitely not something Sean and I would order since we're not fans of shellfish. But it actually tasted okay and not fishy or clammy. The taste was actually quite light and nice.
And of course Sean ordered the carbonara, which is their Japanese carbonara with homemade camembert topped with bonito flakes. I'm not sure what exactly made this "Japanese" per se but I guess just the use of bonito flakes and seaweed? I mean it was an interesting combination and still tasted good.
We also shared two pizzas, with different halves. This was half Burrata Parma Ham, half Milano Salami & Chorizo Margherita:
I wasn't a big fan of the burrata one but the margherita one was really good! The crust was crispy and thin, and the salami was yummy even though it wasn't very crispy.
We also ordered half cheese, half Smoked Cheese Seafood Spicy Tomato Sauce, which I wasn't a big fan of since I don't really like seafood on pizza.
And while I wasn't very lactose intolerant at the time, the cheese pizzas were a bit too much for me.
Teddy also recommended the House-made Cheese pizza which was another special where they combined at least 4 different cheese together, and there was curiously a pot of honey for you to drizzle on top of the pizza!
It was definitely interesting; a combination of sweet and salty but thankfully the honey wasn't too sweet so it gave a nice light sweetness to the cheese.
Overall, it was definitely a very filling and satisfying meal and we all enjoyed it very much! I was soo stuffed after all those carbs.
After that we were all in need of a nice walk to burn off the carbs so Teddy brought us on a nice walk of the city for a bit until we couldn't take the heat and decided to get a car to go to this coffee place.
But I think we'll do that in the next post! Stay tuned for more Vietnam adventures then!
Thanks so much for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
Check out my previous post in this series!
TacoCat’s Travels #180 (Vietnam 2.0): Enjoying Truly Authentic Homemade Vietnamese Meal! 😋
