BISHAMON RAMEN
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ramen is just comfort food at its best, you have hot tasty soup, half boiled egg, noodles and pieces of pork, or whatever it is. i ate at bishamon two fridays ago, i first tried this at great worl city when i was still working in CRUSH, and it kept me coming back for more, though i know there are better ramen places, this was okay, kahit medyo fast food material siya.


this is the ramen i always order, soup is miso like, and there is just one big chunk of charsiew.


tita bot and lin shared this seafood ramen. i didn't try it kasi mukha siyang cup noodles. JOKE!


tofu with bonito flakes, there's much better tofu somewhere out there, am sure.


tita bot and lin shared this grilled pork on top of rice. i dont eat rice anymore.


gyoza, i always order gyoza din. i think its something that you can never go wrong with.

think we paid almost $47 for this meal, it was okay lang, around $10 plus per person.

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i'm meeting reb and carmen later, we are planning to have steamboat. i am not a fan of steamboat, but they decided against it, so we are having that. i haven't seen them for such a long time, and i cant wait.

JUMBO weekend
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because of achi mich's advice, tita bot was making me kulit to eat at JUMBO and WEE NAM KEE. jumbo is famous for its chili crab, and they have separate outlets here in singapore. as for wee name kee, they serve the best chicken rice in singapore - a claim which might be true, well for me that is.

so last sunday, i accompanied them to grassland in chinatown point, to book their KL-GENTING trip. after, i went off to california fitness, and they went around chinatown for look-see and some shopping. around 6pm, we met at clark quaye, to grab early dinner at JUMBO.


before dinner, i brought them to HOKKAIDO ICE CREAM, $3.50 a scoop. they ordered berries, and i had black sesame. i think they were weirded out by my order, but i swear that this is heaven. japan's ice cream is just light, it leaves your tummy ample space so you can eat other food naman, not like HD aand BJ.


JUMBO seafood in CLARK QUAYE. this is also the first time for me to eat at JUMBO. well, ok lang siya.


oatmeal prawn, i love this meal, singapore is the only country i have been to that serves this.


chili crab, i wish we could have ordered black pepper crab.


salted fish fried rice - i didnt have this. my love affair with rice has ended.

tota bill was around $87, with 3 cola's.

shopping spree
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i have been shopping for the past few weeks, from saigon to singapore, and i think that i need to stop na if i want to save up for future travels. haha! well, chicho requested me to post some of the items here.

tita bot and lin are off to KL and GENTING today. they got really good cheap tickets, $450 for both of them, VIP coaches plus 4d/3n stay at a 4star hotel. i like, i havent been there, and they are asking me to join them, unfortunately i cannot since my leaves are all allocated na.


messenger bag from saigon kitsch, US$18. first time i saw it in the store, i fell in love and instantly bought it. tita bot said na its a waste of money lang daw cause of the material, which is 'sako' type. i like it, if you take a closer look, it has some leather actually, and the color was just really bright and cute. sunny disposition ika nga nila.


nice color blue. not too dull.


i got this bag from muji, it doubles up as a messenger bag, cool huh? double purpose for the price of one. i got it for S$89. i dragged tita bot and lin to paragon to get this bag.


i took this in my room, together with tita bot and lin's bag. tita bot got her SPEEDY at HK for US$665 last april, and lin got a LONGCHAMP from dutyfree in manila. i saw the color blue in paragon, it was nice. i think aggie should get one too. its pretty simple, handy and its a classic.

PS. cho, the other stuff, i will post next time na lang.

LAST PART: PHO 2000 aka The Restaurant where BIll Clinton ate
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eating here is simple: beef pho noodle, spring rolls, and iced coffee. exactly what i wanted to eat back in 2005. kaya lang, i remembered i was on a diet then, so i didn't eat anything aside for iced coffee, so i knew how good the iced coffee was. this time, i told myself that i have to get some beef pho fix, together with fish sauce, it feels like heaven.

i just love fish sauce aka patis, i need it when eating sinigang, or almost anything, kaya kawawa ang liver ko. but i should just take it in moderation.


beef pho noodle, all of us had this.


spring rolls ulet.


iced coffee, better than starbucks.

i enjoyed vietnam, and i can't wait to be back to visit more friends, and explore other stuff naman. hopefully, the next time, i go there, i'd visit cambodia na din.

SAIGON RESTUARANT 4: NGON
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obee brought me to get lunch at NGON, located near the reunification palace, or just in front of it actually. we ate there for lunch, since dinner was a no-no, you wouldn't get to enjoy your dinner since there will be tons of people, and you'd get stressed lang daw, and we don't want that.

its actually a refreshing change, i wasn't able to take picture, but it looked like a big festival of southern vietnamese food. they cook the food downstairs for everyone to see or buy to take-away. we passed by it, our seat was on the second floor, we requested to have some airconditioning kasi.



special fried rice, which i didn't eat, cause am on a freakin diet. HAHA! no, i try to not take rice becuase of the fact that there is a rice crisis, its the little contribution that i make, and hope it makes a difference. i don't really miss it din naman, and am surviving without it.


again, fried spring roll, the funny things is that no matter how much spring roll i ate, it never taste the same.


vegetable salad, this was mine and obee's main meal. it was good, obee doesnt eat rice din kasi. actually si cheryl din, we all can survive without rice.


prawn roll in sugarcane - this dish, you actually wrap in a rice paper, together with the pho, some meat and add the good sauce (thats what i call it)


oh this dessert was to die for, obee ordered this together with the mains, kasi super sarap siya and nauubos daw.

total bill was around VND350,000.. cheap and cheerful place.

SAIGON RESTO 3: GOOD MORNING VIETNAM
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this restaurant have a funny name.. i remember 'good morning baltimore' tuloy from HAIRSPRAY. i asked obee to bring us to an italian restaurant since am craving for pasta and i kind of dont want to eat spring rolls for that night. i've been eating spring rolls thrice a day for 2 days, so imagine my delight when i saw and tasted italian.

i'm sure there are much better italian places around manila, or maybe singapore, and if this is the best italian resturant in vietnam, then i suggest for you to go and try it, just dont expect it to impress you and come back for more. the menu had tons of entree, variety kung variety. the place was nostalgic, its like your stuck in the province with all wooden furnitures around. no white lights, its warm yellow to orange kind of effect, good for intimate moments, i guess. we saw dustin nguyen, a vietnamese actor in hollywood who was dining with friends on the other table. i guess its because of the upcoming miss U pageat to be held in vietnam.


appetizer, calamari. i thought it would be fried to perfection with mayonnaise, but yea it turned out to be something like this. in case your wondering whats in the middle - its cabbage salad.


any meal especially, pizza is perfect with coke light.


half bacon, half pepperoni pizza, i was with my aunt and they are not so adventurous when it comes to food, so we went for the basic flavors.


seafood marinara was one of the better versions i had, i dont like the thick slop of tomato sauce in marinara, so this was just perfect. it was light, and the seafood was great.


mushroom tagliatte - this is cream based, i wish i could have ordered penne gorgonzola with blue cheese. i love that pasta, but we traded for this. i don't like it, the mushroom was bitter.

total bill was around 450,000VND, but obee had 200,000VND voucher, so we paid roughly 300,000VND na lang. it was cheap, maybe because of the location, it was situated in backpackers area, where i guess a lot of caucasians would be in, hence, its location.

SAIGON RESTAURANT 2: FANNY's ICE CREAM
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fanny's was a discovery since way back in 2005, its near saigon square, and near one of my favorite stores, saigon kitsch. back then, i went with julette and kaye to eat at fanny's, we all loved the place, the setting and ambiance, its like french styled house, well vietnam was conquered by the french naman kasi.

being able come back, it made me really appreciate simple things in life, how some things doesn't change. how it maintained its simplicity and elegance. how life can be so much better with great ice cream or desserts, just hanging around and enjoying the moment. there were a lot of people when i went there, but it just seemed so peaceful and quiet. it calmed me, it was a safe place, it was like home.


outside fanny's - where the home made ice cream are delisciouly formed.


fanny's menu and the glass that i have loved since 2005. i remembered asking them before, if they can sell me their glasses, and they are willing to do it for $2 a pop. maybe when i come back, i can ask them again, i hope they sell it to me at a lower price. :)plus now that i have my own place, it will be useful.


lin ordered coconut sandwich ice cream. i wasn't able to try it kasi am not such a big fan of coconuts, but judging by the way she ate it, am betting it was good.


it just dawned to me now, that this was the same things i ordered before. ano ba! i could not really remember kasi but when the girl brought it to me, it kinda looked familiar, when i tasted it, i was already sure.


tita bot ordered crepe with vanilla ice cream, it was good, this i tried. i would love to order this next time.

ooops, but i saw their menu, they do have more choices now, they have aprty platters, and fondue like how haagen dazs does it. i better cvheck that out too. plus, obee was telling me that every first friday daw they have ice cream buffet, which should be really heaven. comfort food at its best.

Saigon Resturant No. 1: MAXIMs
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one thing i asked obee is that i really wanted to eat good vietnamese cuisine, there she goes explaing that there's northern cuisine, hue (central vietnam), and southern cuisine, since am no food connoisseur, i just wanted to eat really good food, no matter where it came from.

MAXIM's is a restaurant in dong khoi street, just right next to obee's office. she said that it was an old theater that was converted to a restauarant, therefore very good ambiance and the place was just fantastic.

the price is quite on the high side, but the food was very good. in fact, its my aunt's favorite restaurant out of the whole trip.


fried spring rolls - meals wont be complete without it.


garlic sauteed beef with pho noodle.


fried tofu - i like this kind of tofu. they just have a lot of sauces on the table, 1 viand, 1 sauce.


pork in claypot.


coconut juice.

total, we paid like 700,000VND for this meal, but it was well worth it.

back from saigon
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so everyone knew i went took some time off work and went for a holiday, to take tita bot and lin around, and to visit my friends in saigon. the fact that i had a lot of friends there, was reason enough for me to go. i actually felt really comfortable and happy to see them, i mean i know a lot has happened since they were all there, but it wasn't awkward at all. apart from the reason that we have all matured, i guess time is the key factor, to make things seem normal. ewan ko. these guys i know that i only want the best for them anyway.

right now, i will just post things that i loved, for the food, i will dedicate a separate posts for each of the restaurants i have tried.


obee picked us up at the airport, and we went to have breakfast at pho 2000. super touch ako kay obs, kasi 8am on a saturday yon, but in fairness, she still was there to pick us up and sinamahan to tour around, for the rest of our stay. i appreciate this a lot kasi mahirap naman talaga mag-entertain ng tao when you are damn busy.


fanny's ice cream, i had to go there. yun na.


after dinner drinks at MOJO, mojito for obee and me. met kate, paolo, and their 2 friends here. MOJO is somewhere in dong khoi.


artwork i really loved, but too bulky to purchase, so i got a smaller one but a different design. i was able to buy 2 cute wood figures and 1 eggshell art - to put up in my new home. goodluck to me.


halo halo ng vietnam, it had water chesnut, and i loved it. its a much better version of pinoy's halo halo.


obee and kate with my aunt and cousin outside the reunification palace. the place was closed because their ex-prime minister died and the burol was happening inside.


3 of 12 at war museum.


neon shoes pang gimik, i was telling them, the brands of the shoes were STABILLO. this was at li chin thang - they were selling original branded shoes (some are overruns, some are puslit from the factory.)


last monday morning, kate picked me up at my hotel and we sneaked in breakfast at HIGHLANDS.


kate and me, updating each other, since this was the only time where we could talk.


i got a massage for US$25, swedish massage at BELISSIMA, loved it.


rommel brought me to little manila, where they served pinoy food, which i craved for.


my order, chicken ala max and chopseuy.


tindera sa ben tanh market, the girl on the right didnt allow me to leave, i need to buy something daw, as in lin had to buy that bag so i can get out of the store. the other day, she keeps on touching me, and i really didnt want to be touched by people i dont know, so i told her.. "dont touch me".. natawa si tita bot and lin.


on the way back to sg, tita bot got this bag at ben tanh, and this is the new saigon international airport, kawawa naman ang NAIA, nakakahiya.

for food and shopping updates, ill post in the next few days. i have to work na.