Food Trippin: Saladaeng Cafe

I am definitely running late with these things because this happened almost a week ago but only now that I am home in the Philippines can I actually stop to catch my breath and get down to finishing up in between study breaks (reality check, I am still a student after all).

Any how here is a restaurant on mom's list that was a HIGH priority, by this point we were on our third leg of our holiday trip and earlier on in the day we took a 5 hour taxi ride from Siem Reap, Cambodia in to Bangkok, Thailand.  Yep the location for Hangover 2 is the location of my Tita's (aunt's) wedding and this amazing restaurant, Saladaeng Cafe by Jim Thompson.

The menu is not by Jim Thompson himself but the restaurant is merely owned by the conglomerate under the same name.

The cuisine at Saladaeng Cafe is a definitely Thai food but the dishes definitely have a western zing to them.  The waitresses were warm and were not hard to converse with, they bring over shot glasses of lemon grass tea and sweet and spicy nuts along with the menus to start you off.  

The whole restaurant was old world colonial and very expedition-ish if you know what I mean.  It makes me think that if it was not airconditioned and if we came in during the day instead of dinner I would definitely feel like a traveler coming into a jungle nook carved out for explorers.  What's more is if the food the explorers had was half this good I would imagine they'd have enough reason to keep exploring, from the appetizers all the way to dessert none of what we ordered disappointed.  

Sweet and Spicy Wok-ed peanuts, with crispy basil leaves and garlic.  These nuts were NUTS!
Definitely a Bangkok flare on peanuts!

The hot and refreshing lemon grass tea, as to be expected was very clean and soothing, definitely something we needed after traveling and walking around all day.

Another Beer to add to the list of beers I have had on this trip so far, this puts my count up to 6 different kinds. (Saigon, Angkor, Tiger, San Miguel Light, Anchor, and Singha)

The Golden Triangle, a somewhat appetizer sampler of Prawns wrapped in rice paper and egg noodles, Thai Spring Rolls and Prawn Cakes, all of which was fried perfectly and served with sweet chili sauce and spicy plum sauce.  This one was EXCELLENT I wanted to have another order if only we didn't have to try everything else.

They had Jim Thompson water, I just had to take a photo, sorry but Jim Thompson is somewhat of an icon to me and my family. 

Yam Sam O, this was not your run-in-the-mill Prawn and Pomelo Salad, where in most of the ones I have had have been watered down because of so much dressing this one was dry but still had all of the flavor I was expecting and more!  What's more is that they do NOT skimp on the Prawn here the prawn pomelo ratio was just about 1:1 considering the mass and volume of each.  Totally worth it!

This was my sister's steak, Seau Rong Hai Gap Nahm, this was a well grilled rib-eye steak served with garlic tamarind sauce that my sister just sopped up like soup.  She actually had the meat sweats while eating this, then again it may have been because the tamarind sauce was a bit spicy too.

We were in Thailand so we HAD to have some local curry, we decided on the Gaeng Khew-wan Gai rue Goong, the only green curry on the menu I'm not sure if we ordered this one cause it was vegetarian or if my mom's favorite color is green. 

This one was my dish, one of the weekly or daily specials they had, Black Pepper Prawn Pasta, this dish looked so appetizing on the menu that I just had to try it.  It was just as I expected, AWESOME!  What surprised me though was that when it was described as Black Pepper Prawn Pasta I only expected a lot of blackpepper but the description was more literal than I thought, It had more RED peppers than black and gave one hell of a kick but at least it was the good savory hot and not the one that disheartens you from finishing your dish.

Truly and excellent meal but the meal ain't over till we get dessert! 

I love coconut and so I got the Coconut Icecream, normally you see a lot of Buko Sorbet and ice in the Philippines.  I mean I have had Buko Icecream but to see Coconut Icecream on a menu was eyecatching.  I know it should be the same thing with a different name but I just knew it was different considering the quality of food we've had so far.  I was not wrong, this has to be the BEST COCONUT ICECREAM in existence, no exaggeration, it was THAT GOOD!

the other dessert we had was the Mango Sticky Rice, this one was interesting because I like trying everything on a dish individually before trying it as a whole.  The mangoes were incredibly sweet and made me think they were from Cebu if only they weren't of a different shape.  The sticky rice was bland and al dente, and the coconut milk was raw and surprisingly salty.  All together though can be simply put, it just works, INCREDIBLY!

This was an excellent meal from an excellent restaurant, there is no doubt I will find time to come back here anytime I am back in Bangkok.  Not just for the old world feel, not just for the great service and  mainly because of the food.  Saladaeng gets 4.5 out of 5 Prawns from me.  Definitely a must stop when you are in town!

All Photos taken on an iPhone 

All Photos are Copyright MGAntonio

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FoodTrippin: Cha Ca La Vong

First I want to say I really love food and I have no problem changing my eating habits on a whim to be able to savor a specific type or kind of food now or some other time hence.  I am not quite sure why I had to say that but it felt like I had to, but as a follow up so far on this trip every meal we have had has been a FULL meal in on itself, add to that the street fare we (me and I) have to try and well I'm pretty sure I am going to have to get those extra hours of cardio come January. 

So anyway Foodtrippin Episode 2, Cha Ca La Vong, Ho Chi Minh.  This was the second restaurant on my mom's gotta-try-list.  Suggested to us by my ninang (aunt) as one of the best meals you can get in the city and as a restaurant where no matter what you order you will get blown away, more on that later.

I would like to add that our journey to this restaurant was kind of cool for me because it was the first restaurant that I was able to track down and get to with the use of my phones GPS mapping.  So okay I may be geeking out a bit here and maybe I am overusing my new toy a bit, but hey if it is helping me find good food I do not really care what others will think.

Okay so lets start with some back information on Cha Ca La Vong, word is this is the oldest restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City, well oldest that served the public for money is what I am guessing.  As for what I said earlier with regard to getting blown away with whatever you order that is because in this restaurant you are actually given no choice in what you are going to order because the truth is there is only one thing on the menu and it is the house specialty and wouldn't you know it, it has the same name as the restaurant Cha Ca La Vong.

Literally one dish on the menu, not counting drinks of course.

So as I said it kinda makes it hard to go wrong in this place, that is of course unless you do not eat fish or hate vegetables where in your fate would be to eat nothing but THE fish.  Though for all those doubters out there let me reassure you that if you are one or the other you will have no problem eating this dish, unless you are my sister.  That is because even I myself am very particular with the fish I eat.  This one though just blew me away and easily cracks my top 2 if not 3 fish dishes I have ever had.  To be honest, now that I am thinking about it, if I have a second round at this restaurant I am pretty sure it will jump to number one on my fish dish list.

There definitely is a small snag to this and that is by eating this fish I am going against who I am with regard to being a ecological conservationist.  That is because to my understanding they use catfish from the Mekong river delta, from what I know there are several species of catfish that live in the Mekong.  That should be pretty obvious given that the river spans several countries but it is worrying to think that I may have been helping cause the extinction of Mekong river catfish by eating here.  I just hope and pray that it was not the endangered giant Mekong River Catfish.  The photo of Granny with an above average sized catfish is a thinker though.  (But if it was, again I'm sorry, it was so good! Though if i do find out that it was, I will honestly have to never eat in this place again, so I am praying extremely that it is some kind of cultivated species or something like that.)

Anyhow back to the eating, when it came down to it, again there was no problem ordering, we basically just got two orders and split it between the three of us. It is very interesting how this goes, because it seems that you can get as much trimmings as you want. Trimmings being, pho or noodles, lime, peanuts, dill, green onions, fish sauce, chilis, coriander, and rice crackers as you want so from my stand point it is an all you can eat buffet, or sit down rather. Now to describe the dish in of itself is something mind boggling because by looking at it is incredibly simple yet when you're eating you get hit by one of the most complexing mouthfuls of your life, each and everytime.

All the trimmings you can eat if you can stomach it without the fish becase each and everyone is a strong taste or flavor of itself.

To try and explain that, when the dish is unassembled as it is dispatched to your table it looks bold yet simple.  The first thing you notice is that everything is unique and contrasting, in both flavor and texture.  You have your crunchy peanuts, you have your soft rice noodles, you have the hot chilis and then you have the cool coriander, then you have shrimp sauce, lime and green onions all of which are incredibly over powering when not properly proportioned.  So it gets you wondering what the hell am I about to eat that will make this discombobulated mix of ingredients actually work, then the star attraction arrives.

Never believed the simple catfish could be this good.

Okay so all of a sudden this secret recipe cat fish lands on your table like mana from the food Gods. It gets served to you on a hot plate that is kept hot by a gas stove they leave on your table.  Now this thing is just AWESOME!  This recipe or whatever seasoning or mix of shiznit they throw on to this fish is just something you feel you want to jump into yourself.  Put it this way, catfish is plain dull white meat, normally we have it with citrus, anything acidic or even just salt so we can actually taste the darn thing but oh my God!  This is the first dish that I have tasted that I can actually say that is catfish, I can TASTE catfish, which is weird because before this day it was like I had no idea what catfish really tasted like, though I did but I mean like after eating this dish only then did I really know what catfish is supposed to taste like.  It is one of the closest dishes to heaven that I have tasted in recent memory.  It was THAT AMAZING! 

Also that was when you try the catfish on its own, the fun part of is is mixing in all the other stuff they served with it.  At this point it is supposedly build to your own taste sort of but I have to say it did not really matter at all what combination you had whether you had little or a lot of whatever ingredient they gave you because no matter my combination once it got mixed in and as long as you had a bite of catfish or even just the catfish jus, it was over.  Done deal, each bite is just war with your understanding of what is actually good in the world because before that bite you just did not know something as odd as this mix could be that good.

Oh so simple looking but OMG! Officially the best seafood (technically riverfood) Pho of my life!
powered by INSTAGRAM (just saying)

So my verdict on Cha Ca La Vong, MUST ADD TO ANY FOODIE BUCKET LIST!  I will bet my integrity as food lover on it!  It may not become the best meal you have ever had but I can assure you it will crack your top 10.  Not bad for a dish that has not been changed in close to a century, so it gets 4.5 out of 5 La Vongs.  I cant give it a 5 out of 5 because even though I got mind blown it just wasn't THE dish of my life just yet. 

Lucky Guy

Last School Holiday (I hope)

Finally vacation sort of, my preliminary exam week just wrapped up though I owe one of my instructors an exam that I'm gonna take when I get back next year. That and I have 2 projects to work on whenever I can find the time for it.

That's all out the window right now though I may plan on picking some of it up during the break. The point is it's my break, it's the holidays, and it's my last extended free time as a student if I graduate this coming march.

So the way I see it, I have to have a blast this last time out. I know I have been neglecting my blog cause I had to focus on school for a while but now that it's over I intend on having a few more entries, they may come out shorter but I don't see much harm in that cause I foresee quite a few of them in the next 3 weeks.

So okay 3 days into the break I find myself in Manila in the midst of a 5 day lay over before we start hopping southeast Asia. So far I've gotten 6 Christmas gifts, already opened them, sorry but I couldn't resist! So the count is 2 pairs of shoes, one new toy, 2 shirts, and green that I hope to flip for a bag insert either later or tomorrow. With that I would like to say MANY THANKS TO MY THREE NINANGS (godmothers) and MY MOM for all the presents! I love you guys to bits and you've made this an awesome start to the holidays!!!

Now as for the social aspect of my life so far of this trip I've started it off with two spectrum parties. The first being the birthday of my one year old godson, who I still owe a present too. The second being a house party with a few of my old Manila dorm mates.

I love my godson and he is totally the most adorable kid that I do feel guilty that I have not gotten him a birthday or Christmas gift so I hope to fulfil my godfather duties as soon as I get back and who knows maybe I'll fulfil it while out on this adventure.

With the second party I got the sense of great friendship and timeless brotherhood. NO HOMO guys but I love you guys no matter how little time I did or do get to spend with you all. More so with two of my bestest friends I mean we turned a one night chill out session in to a two day total blast from the past. I know all we did was play computer, eat Mexican food and sleep but it totally felt like we were back at the dorm. Not that that was all we did during our dorm tenure of course, ehe.

So anyway that was just the start of this 3 week roller coaster, today and maybe tomorrow we're going to make the last of our preparations before flying out. I honestly can't wait to get this next adventure on! I know it's going to be something amazing!