Beef in 7 dishes at Au pagolac

Beef in 7 dishes or as we call Bò 7 món is very popular, esp. in South. I remember when I was a little boy, my mother used to take us together with some our cousins to a small but very busy restaurant in Pham Ngu Lao street, not far from Ben Thanh market (I hope my memory did not betray me!) to enjoy these seven dishes . But most memorable to me, among these 7 dishes, was "the beef dipping in vinegar" (bò nhúng giấm), probably because they served the dipping vinegar in a coconut, so we just dipped thin slices of beef into the boiling vinegar mixed with coconut juice.

              Beef in 7 dishes at Au Pagolac 

Walking along the evergreen streets in Saigon

Saigon used to be a beautifully green city, maybe still green but the image of a charming city has gone. Back in 70s, I was just a little kid, but still remember the image of Saigon in the old days.
Not much traffic, much cleaner, less populated, less polluted and it seemed people at that time behaved more properly.

                  Nguyen Van Cu street with the narrow alleys along two sides of the main street.

Three Brooms town of Somewhere-land in Saigon

Every kid love fairy tales, without exception. We surely never forget those stories that came into our life in early years - the fairies, the witches, the magic stick.There was times that I dreamt I could fly, could be invisible to do some "horrible things". And these days it seems we need to sweeten more our life with those imaginations as too much headache out there!
I didn't know we have a place called "Three brooms town of Somewhereland" in Saigon, where I'm sure some parts of your imagination, your dream can come true. Who loves Harry Potter, should definitely visit this town, right in the heart of Saigon.


                    Welcome to the Three Brooms Town of Somewhereland! 

The steak from the giant bird - the ostrich

I heard about this giant bird meat quite long time ago, when in Vietnam the ostrich suddenly became a big focus for many business people. It seems everyone, everything love to follow the trend, not only in fashion, lifestyle but also in business. Before snake, crocodile farms...nowadays yogurt, donut, milk tea stores...So, the ostrich farm business was one of those, back to late 90s.

When the first ostrich farms probably appeared in South of Vietnam, I was wondering what we could do with this giant bird? We only see them in the zoo and I never thought that we can have this bird in our table for lunch or dinner. Anyway, today we have ostrich steak, a quite popular dish and has been considered as healthy food. I did try snake porridge, fried crocodile meat, stew turtle...so I absolutely have no problem with ostrich, by somehow it took me even years to try it.

                The ostrich meat texture looks exactly like a beef