Day 58: The Long Walk for Crab!

This has got to be one of my favorite meals in Saigon. Based on recommendations by some food blogs, we went in search of Restaurant Hong Hai. The hotel concierge said it was not famous and that he had never heard of it before. But he drew the location of it on the map for me. Silly me figured that we should just follow instructions and walk there, and did not take down the exact address. That was a mistake. But after asking several people along the way, and getting several blank stares and confident but alas wrong directions, we were there. The restaurant reminded me of the seafood restaurants like no signboard along east coast, but without the coast. It's not air conditioned but the place is cool, and you can choose to sit in the little outdoor area under the trees and lanterns. Quite pretty.

Between the 2 of us, we had the crab fried with garlic (absolute must try), morning glory with garlic (yums), grilled pork (mr kwek loves grilled pork), tofu cubes (recommended on a trip advisor review as well as the waitress but it didn't taste like much to us) and the crab fried rice (yums, but I would try something else next time). Including drinks (a coconut and a tiger beer), the bill came up to 660,000 dong, or about $41sgd. I wouldnt call it cheap, but it was totally worth the money (the crab alone was 330,000dong).

If you intend to go, take down the address and grab a taxi there. It's a bit of a walk, from the centre of town and we almost gave up along the way. So glad we trundled on. 

Restaurant Hong Hai

236 Pasteur, 6, Q3

+84 8 3820 4136

We walked soooo much not only to find the restaurant, but also because Mr Kwek was determined to buy an oil painting. 

Some forum online said that Tran Phu was a street that we should check out and it was just next to our hotel so we took a walk. We walked all the way to Chinatown (which is a really long way) and saw about 20 painting shops. But the quality was poor and we were very disappointed. 

On the bright side, we got to see the local parts of Saigon, outside of District 1, and we made it to Chinatown.

At least I was dressed appropriately in shorts (a gift), my holiday tank top (from Phuket) and my shades from Bonn, so I did not die from the heat.

at 7:57 AM