Ngu Vien, Ho Chi Minh

We have tried quite a lot of Vietnamese cuisine thanks to you Jeffrey, we were thanking our good food guide..

Oh, no worries, you ladies have only tried about 60% of viet food..more to try..

Really? Gosh..Guess our 9 days in Vietnam is not sufficient after all..sigh..

And what are we having tonight? I liked the anticipation to some new food..hehe

Central cuisine, Jeffrey patiently replied, I figured he was used to me asking about food questions by now :p

The restaurant was rather quiet, plus the fact that we were quite late. I start to wonder if the food is good. Again, we passed the heavy responsibility of ordering food to Jeff..:)

We had some local drinks first..Ca phe sua da and beer to quench our thirst..

First up was Banh Beo (rice pancakes with grounded shrimp). This is a great starter, light and smooth rice pancakes, goes well with the salty, crunchy crushed shrimps..Pour a spoonful of sauce...Lovely

Banh La Cha Tom(Boiled rice paste with grounded shrimp served with shrimp paste) is a mixed platter of local fishcake and chee cheong fun..By now, I realised that central cuisine had lotsa steamed riceflour products. The fish cake was springy and flavourful; the chee cheong fun tasted good too; i felt healthy eating this..hehe

We had further wraps with Banh Uot Thit Nuong (Grilled pork wrapped with steam rice cakes) The grilled pork was warm when served; just heavenly; the pork was tender, but charred to the right bit, very well marinated..and the cool 'chee cheong fun' with the fresh vegs complements the meat beautifully. Dip in the thick sauce if you find it too bland.

Ram Hue or Imperial of Hue as named in the menu is lip smacking.. The sesame rice cake was filled with fish paste ; some what like the YTF foo chuk roll. The sesame rice cake was very crunchy and fragrant..while the filling was yummy with the meaty, juicy stuffing..

Mit Tron Tom Thit was a very delicious and interesting dish.. We get warm jackfruit cooked with meat, herbs, vegs and chopped prawns. Very addictive stuff, you can eat it on it's own..Else, heap it on the fried sesame cakes, which makes it equally scrumptious. Gosh, I'm drooling while thinking about it..

The Bun Thit Nuong served in HCM was different compared to those we had in hanoi..this was served with just grilled meat. The grilled pork was very well marinated, but some was a tad dry. The sauce served was similar to those served in Hanoi. Dunk it into the noodles, mix well and tuck in. Pretty yummy, but not as good as the rest.

Com Hen (Baby clams rice) was Dragongirl and my fave..Mix of baby clams, meat, veg, zhu yau zha (fried lard) and rice goes so well together. The texture, the flavours..so good..we were so sad that the bowl was so small :(

Total bill was about RM60 which we thought was very reasonable..

Ngu Vien is located at 40 Ky Dong, Quan 3, TP. HCM. DT:8437670.

NOTE: I was told that the shop has relocated/ close for good. Anyone knows what happened? (end 2008)