A day out to the sea & specialities in a seaside town - Vũng Tàu!

Vung Tau or as we used to call this seaside town by another name - Cấp, used to be a favourite holiday place for many people living in Saigon. Only 120 km away, nearly 1 ½ hours by car...but by somehow this small town is no longer in our heart. It's still very close, by distance, compared to the other seaside places along our long coast. I was born in Saigon, so...I have many sweet childhood memories with this town and more than that, my very first "accidental adventure" when I was just few years old, happened here, where together with my elder brother we were "left" in the pagoda, I was starving...that will be another long story!        

               I have no idea since when this "bánh khọt" became Vũng Tàu speciality...


Back to our today story, with a group of old friends-colleagues, we decided to escape from busy, noisy Saigon just for a day. Vũng Tàu is the best choice for all of us! We arrived there around 10:00 am, we all love Bình An village - a small resort, famous by its design and landscape, right next to the sea, and that was our first stop for light refreshments! The menu and beverage quality here is far from good, but at least the view is terribly beautiful!

              Bình An village - a small but famous resort in Vũng Tàu thanks to its design and landscape

After spending few hours at Binh An, for lunch, we decided to try the famous fish-head soup. It was really yummy! I love fish...we still order some other dishes like fish salad, it was good but not that good as in Mủi Né, another popular seaside place, and steamed cuttle fish.  

                The famous fish-head soup at 46 Hoàng Hoa Thám, Vũng Tàu  

We do care our friend, also our driver and a "billionaire", we spent more than hour for foot massage that I didn't enjoy very much due to quite poor quality technique from the therapist, but our friend need a nap - he was behind the wheel!

After the foot massage, we were heading to the most famous "bánh khọt" place, according to one of our friends, named "Bánh khọt gốc cây vú sữa"! We arrived to a very high-end neighbourhood, we saw a huge luxury hotel "Bánh khọt gốc cây vú sữa", so we guess after long years of business, the owner is able to build such a beautiful hotel! But the eating place is not in the hotel, just nearby, around the corner!

             When we arrived, not crowded, the kitchen prepares "bánh khọt" right after we order...

What's "bánh khọt"? It was (because I didn't see it much today) a very popular traditional dish, down-to-earth, originally probably from somewhere in Mekong Delta (!?) I loved the taste due the combination of coconut milk, the green bean, the sweet and hot fish sauce...My mother also loves it, I remember we used to order after the afternoon nap...but this "Bánh khọt Vũng Tàu" is not exactly like that, with a big shrimp, the texture quite similar to "bánh xèo" - thin, oily and we wrap it with veggies and dip into fish sauce...I prefer the old, traditional one!

                 after few seconds they add a big shrimp and then... 

             all bánh khọt with shrimp then they will be moved to the next pan...    

             the next pan for frying bánh khọt, make it more crispy but also quite oily... 

            and here you go the finished "bánh khọt", ready for serving...

           the way of eating similar to "bánh xèo", wrapped in same veggies and dip into sweet fish sauce 

To be honest, I'm loyal to the traditional "bánh khọt" that I used to eat in my childhood, similar mould  but the cake shape was more "chubby", the texture different,  the taste also different due to the tasty coconut milk, the green bean...I miss that bánh khọt, not this one!  I will find out where we still can try the good bánh khọt of the old days! See you in my next post, it's about the little tiny cake that drive our youth crazy today - sponge cake with salted egg!