Who likes to eat snails and shellfish? I DO! I’m a big fan 😀 I love escargots, mussels, and other shellfish. In Vietnam, they have different style of cooking for snails and shellfishes. There are many seafood restaurants here, but I’ve just tried one of them. It’s Quan Oc Khanh. Located in a small alley in district 1, or to be exact in 25/5 Nguyen Binh Khiem, Ho Chi Minh City.
I’ve been here 2 times. I know this place from my language teacher in VLS. She also loves to eat 😀 First visit was at dinner time several weeks ago, and the second one was yesterday at lunch. Amazingly, this place always busy when we came. They are open from 11.30 am til 10.00 pm everyday. It’s a very local place, with small table and small chairs. I like it though.
Their menu has pictures, so you can see which kind of snail, shellfish, or other seafood you want to order. There are some pictures on the wall as well to help you order the food.
They serve the food with banh mi (or vietnamese bread). If you want to have banh mi, you need to order it first. And if you don’t eat it, they still charge you based on the order. For example, we ordered 3 banh mi last time, but ended up only ate 1 banh mi. And they charged us for 3 banh mi. So for banh mi, you pay what you order, even though you can’t finish it.
These are what we ordered yesterday. I forgot to take note of their names T.T
This one is cooked with garlic and onion. Really good! My friend told me that this clam when you eat it raw, it tastes like blood.
This one is another type of clam, grilled with cheese (or pho mai in Vietnamese). Eat it while hot/warm. I like the clam but I think it would be better if it cooked with onion or garlic.
This one scallop with cheese. The scallop is really juicy! Yummy~ My friend likes to eat cheese, so she ordered cheese as well for this one lol…
This one is some kind of sea snails, cooked in butter. It’s a bit spicy for me. One thing to be noted is the butter has sweet flavor, not the salty one.
Last one is this. I saw the picture on their wall, and I’ve been wanting to tried this kind of snails. This one cooked with coconut milk. Yummy~
For all of those and 3 banh mi + 3 ice tea, we paid for 377.000 vnd (about 17 usd).
Next time I will try another type of cooking and another type of seafood 😀 And of course I want to try other restaurant as well 😉
This is it, the day for touring has begun! I need to be a good host for my guest 😉 Many people and books said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. So let’s start this Ho Chi Minh City Tour with a good food 😀 We took off at 8 am and went to one of breakfast place in District 3. I knew about this place from another blog, who said that this is the best breakfast he had in Ho Chi Minh City, and been wanting to try it out. Eating alone is never fun (at least for me), so i was so happy i went there with my husband and my friend. The place name is Banh Mi Hoa Ma. A very small restaurant in the corner of the street which we almost missed it. They gave us a table inside but I chose the one outside, with small table and small chairs. Very local! (And I’ve been wanting to try this out lol).
I have no idea what their menu is, but i heard they serve op la here (and maybe only that). It’s one of traditional meal in Vietnam. It serves with a bread (banh mi), mayonnaise and liver pate.
This Op La is really good! Seasoned deliciously and also made us really full. Love it very much! I will recommend this to everyone, except for those who were not allowed to eat pork. My husband and my friend also love it. It was a very satisfying meal for us, despite of the hygiene condition when we were eating lol. There were many motorbikes and cars passing by. But we’ve survived until now, no stomachache. Total payment was 153.000 for 3 op la’s, 2 hot tea and 1 hot coffee with milk. We also like their tea, the delicious mysterious flavor tea which we don’t know (I thought it was lotus tea, but it wasn’t :(). Try them at 53 Cao Thang, District 3, Ho Chi Minh City. They are open from 7am.
It was 9 am when we finished. Time to go to Notredame Cathedral Church for English Mass at 9.30 am.
Before the mass begin
After the mass finished, we took our time to take some pictures around the church.
Next destination is Central Post Office. There are 2 souvenir shops inside the post office, on the right side and left side from entrance. There is a store in the middle of the hall as well. We went to the right side and looked around. My friend was looking for a postcard and they don’t sell it here. If you want to buy a postcard, it is better to buy from souvenir shop elsewhere or you can also buy from the center shop. They have postcards with range of price 5.000 vnd to 25.000 vnd.
Interior Central Post Office
Here you can also buy a stamp collection. The price range is 40.000 vnd – 300.000 vnd. Â I bought 2 stamp collection for my friend. I used to collect stamp as well long time ago, but i quit. Next destination is District 5! I’ve never been there so i was excited as well. We were going to see old churches and the market as well.
This is Jeanne D’arc church. We couldn’t go inside 😦 All the entrance are closed.
Lunch time~!
We went to Thuan Kieu Restaurant. They are famous with their broken rice and grilled pork ribs. They have many branches around the city. This one is one of them in District 5, and they were good as well. We tried one of their soup, Chanh Rau Ma. It wasn’t what i wanted. I tried to explain the type of soup i wanted but they seemed to not understand English very well, so i ordered this one. It was okay, although it’s not my favorite.
After lunch our driver took us to this church. St Francis Xavie Parish Church, or Nha Tho Cha Tam in Vietnamese. It’s a very nice church, don’t you think? Next destination is Binh Tay Market. We wanted to buy some snacks or any other thing that is interesting.
Binh Tay MarketBinh Tay Market
In the end we didn’t go in to the market because it was too crowded. I lost my interest to walk around. We moved to next location as soon as possible before evening came. We went to Metro, one of the biggest grocer supermarket. My friend bought some local snacks for souvenir, but couldn’t find some snacks. Therefor we went to Cantavil Mall after. After a long walk we felt really thirsty and wanted to sit in a cafe and just chill.
That was the view from our table. We got a table at second floor.
Nha Hang Ngon 138
We ordered several local food. I have to say I was not impressed with their food ( I didn’t smile at all when i tried it! Not even once). I think the other Ngon restaurant has better food. That was all for first day. What do you think of our adventure? 😀
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