Flying Rice @ Com Nieu Sai Gon

Location: 59, Ho Xuan Huong St, District 3, HCMC

Though I've been to another restaurant with the same theme, "flying rice", I think this is more authentic. We just finished our workshop where I asked my customer for direction to the restaurant. Not sure whether the taxi driver brought us to the intended restaurant or not, but still we able to see this special culinary in HCMC.

Waiter will smash the claypot and throw the rice across from one end to another end in the restaurant. Don't be surprised or shocked whenever the waiter start to smash the claypot. Once the waiter at the other end able to catch the rice, it will be served to the customer. Before it is served, the rice will be cut into quarters. The rice is topped with sesame seeds and vegetable. It is crispy as need to make the rice solid before the waiter able to throw it. It's just an ordinary rice, but special due to the process of serving the food.


Besides that, we also ordered other dishes. However, we feels that it's just an ordinary dish. We've ordered pork knuckle. Another dish should be crab stuffed with some vegetable, couldn't remember what was it actually.

One should try out at this restaurant to see yourself on how the rice is served, which is quite unique in HCMC.

Food around Ben Thanh Market

Location: Food stalls beside Ben Thanh Market at night.

We just dropped by at one of the stall available along the street. Today we try to get something different, as we have came to this stall before this. As there is limited photo available in the menu, we just ordered according to our instinct.

We ordered "turned egg roasted with salt tamarind". We thought this is just another egg with some local cooking style. When the food came, it was to our surprise. Actually this is the "balut" version of Philippine, where the egg has embryo in it served with gravy. Though the egg is tasteless, the gravy taste sweet. At first we hesitate to eat, but since Serene decided not to eat it, I've decided to finish it all rather than wasting it. Wow.... I just couldn't believe I've finish the whole thing. Speechless...... OMG!!!

Besides that, we also ordered "rice omlette with bean antiger". I've tried to order this many times, but I just couldn't order the correct dish except whenever I'm with my local friend. This time around, I just make sure to remember the name and can order it in future. It taste good for this. One can try with the sauce available.

This is BBQ pork. Sweet in taste. Simple and tasty, that's what I can describe it.

Thanh Binh Restaurant

Location: At the junction besides Ben Thanh Market. Easily spotted.

I've been here during my first business trip to HCMC, where my customer brought me to try out the noodle. I try to find again this spot after that, but I couldn't recognise it since it was quite some time after my last visit. However, still manage to get to this restaurant after few tries, and furthermore has promised Serene to try something different.

We ordered the pork stick to the sugar cane, and together with other vegetables such as cucumber, star fruits etc to make the spring roll ourselves. Typical Vietnamese food, but it taste really good. One need to smash the meat to small pieces and start to roll it. Dip the food onto the peanut sauce. This size of dish should be enough for 3-4 persons as we still ordering other stuff to eat.

We also order the shrimp spring roll (ready rolled). Another local foods which I like a lot. If look at the shrimp, it is very fresh as still reddish in color. This should be dip to another sauce, a clear color sauce. Another yummy stuff that should try out.

Finally, we ordered the shrimp and crab meat nooddle. This very much to our delight. The size just suitable for us, and not that oily.

Last but not least, we ordered our favourite juice. I've ordered the sapodilla fruit juice, which I think is famous in HCMC. Hard to find this juice at other SEA countries. I love this juice very much which I make it a must have list everytime for my HCMC trip. Another juice is strawberry juice.

Overall, this is a must try restaurant whenever in HCMC. It is very easy to find restaurant and one can try lot of local cuisine over here, not to mention the reasonable price.

Broga Hill... nice place to watch sunrise

Location: Semenyih, Selangor
Coordinates: 2°56′14″N 101°54′40″E

We organised this trip quite late or indeed it was a last minute trip. We went in 3 cars, where we met in Cheras toll at about 5.00am in the morning. Indeed, I guess this was the earliest day we woke up this year. Though a bit blur blur at first, but thinking about the photo taking session and hiking hill, we have to forgo our sweetdream.

From the Cheras toll plaza, it took us about 45 minutes to reach Broga Hill. By the time we reach the foothill, it was full of people. Hence, it was a bit hard to find parking at dark. We decided to park in the palm oil estate, where we need to pay for parking fees.

We quickly change our gear for hiking. Though it was dark, but we could see light shining through the dark. There are lot of people already start hiking up the hill before us. Some in small group and some in big group. Some has setup the stall selling stall on the way up, which really amazed me. Is this what we call economic crisis badly hit people?

When we start hiking up, we need to follow those people walking in front of us. What came into our mind was some people is considerate, and some is without their civic mind. Why? One would find out when hiking up to the hill nowadays. There is a Chinese saying, "people mountain people sea".

It took us about 40 minutes to reach the first lookout point. By the time we reached there, we hardly find any place to rest and to setup our tripod for photo shooting. We continue our journey to the second lookout point. Over here, we found a nice spot to rest. We brought some coffee all the way up, and starting to enjoying the breathtaking scenary from hilltop. When we look back at the first lookup point, wow... it really packed with people.

After enjoying the view, we start photoshooting. Since it is almost sunrise, we could see the midst at the Broga town. It was really nice to enjoy the fresh air on the hilltop while do some photoshooting. After staying on top for a while, we descent at about 8.30am. We decided to have a quick breakfast in Broga Hill before heading back to our home.