Paul talked me into taking the XO Foodie Tour, OK it didn't take much, and it was a lot of fun. Highly recommended if you come to Ho Chi Minh City. Here we are with our guides Hanh and Haung. The tour had an organizer who gave information about the five districts outside of District 1 in which most tourist don't venture out of. Our guides speak English and also answered questions and basically looked after us to make sure we were satisfied. You get to experience HCMC from the back of a scooter and take in the sights. I also got to try a lot of food that I had never had before, despite the fact that this is my fifth visit to Vietnam and my fourth visit to HCMC.
First stop for Bun Bo Hue, a beef noodle soup.
The next stop was at a BBQ restaurant that specializes in goat meat.
Goat on the grill.
Banana wine.
Two types of frog-(l) with skin (r) without skin. It tastes like chicken.
One of the non food stops in District 7, which is just 20 years old and was planned by a Taiwanese urban developers with wide streets, high rise condos, and buried electric wires and telephone lines. Housing is out of reach for most Vietnamese-mostly foreigners live there and the 1%.
At the next venue we started with quail.
Followed by scallops.
Crab legs, which were easy work since our guides did all the work in extracting the meat.
The crab legs went well with the chilis and pepper.
Deep fried vegetarian rice cakes wrapped in lettuce.
Clams marinated in a sauce with a host of spices like lemongrass, tamarind, garlic, and other spices. My guide talked me into trying a chicken embryo commonly known as ballat, but I forgot to take a picture (I may to get one from Paul). But basically I told her I didn't want to see it or I would not be able to eat it. She had me eat the yolk first then scooped out a part of the bird carcass and covered it with a leaf. It wasn't half bad (the type I had was marinated with a flavorful sauce, but I won't make a habit of eating it.
Coconut jelly for dessert.
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