Malee Thai: An authentic experience

Weekends can only mean one thing. Relaxing and hanging out with the husband. Well, its not that I don't relax during the weekdays, but it is just totally different when the husband is around. I was thinking about making Tom Yam soup with noodles during the weekend, but Ram insisted that we should have a proper Thai meal since he was craving for Thai cuisine. We headed out to Malee Thai, which is by far our favorite authentic Thai restaurant, situated at 37 Đông Du, District 1, Saigon.

The one thing that I love about eating at a restaurant besides the good food is the pretty interior. The amount of effort taken in decorating the place makes a lot of difference, and one would not mind paying a little bit extra just for the cozy experience. Malee Thai has done just that by bringing Thailand closer to you with their authentic and traditional settings.

first floor

a more traditional look on the second floor

We ordered our usual which was white rice with green curry chicken, Tom Yam Goong, stir fried mixed vegetables and fried omelette. We were very impressed with the service as the food came out quite fast despite the lunch hour crowd.

fragrant Thai white rice

green curry chicken

Tom Yam Goong

stir fried mixed vegetables

fried omelette

The food here is definitely worth the price. The green curry chicken is rich, creamy and yummy compared to a few other places that I've tried. As for the Tom Yam Goong, you may choose the level of spiciness. So, for those who don't prefer spicy food may opt for a non spicy version. The stir fried mixed vegetables includes a variety of vegetables in it, including cauliflower, baby corn, snow peas, carrot, cabbage, button mushroom, onion and spinach. You may also add minced pork or chicken into the fried omelette if you wish to add more flavor to it.

So if you are down in Ho Chi Minh City craving for an authentic Thai cuisine, head on over to Malee Thai for a scrumptious meal.

Chicken pot pie

I've never made any pie before so this was my first time making one. I wasn't too sure if it was going to turn out right, so I warned my husband before hand that he might not have any food for dinner that night. Knowing him, he had way more confident in me than I had in myself.

Since I didn't have any vegetable shortening, I decided to make butter pie crust. I was extremely worried about the crust not turning out well as it is the foundation of a great pie. Despite the worry, I was still having high hopes for it to at least look pretty at the end of the day. Well, I guess I didn't expect my dough to turn out dryer than I had expected it to be. It was kinda breaking as I rolled it out which is why my pie ended up looking like this.

Although my first pie looked ugly, it turned out pretty well. The crust was flaky and and not too dry or soggy but I think I overfilled my pie which resulted in the filling to overflow while it was being baked. The next time I bake a pie, I'll just have to make it look more presentable and of course avoid over filling the pie.

The recipe for this chicken pot pie was taken from landolakes.com. I shall post my version of the recipe once I've managed to get it to look perfect and pretty.

Honey teriyaki roasted chicken leg quarters

It's been a while since I roasted any other part of the chicken besides the breast. Roasting or baking chicken breasts can be tricky. If you leave it in the oven for too long, the meat turns out dry and chewy. Last night I decided to roast chicken leg quarters and it was the best roasted chicken meal I've had in months. The meat was juicy and tender unlike the roasted chicken breast I use to have before this. 

Its actually really simple to make this roasted chicken. All you have to do is marinate the meat in some teriyaki sauce, oyster sauce, a little mixture of chili-tomato sauce and some honey. I can't give a specific measurement but all I can say is, taste the mixture and if the flavors are balanced and tastes right for you then its done! If possible, let your chicken marinate for an hour or longer before you roast it. Set your oven to 190ºC / 375ºF and roast your chicken for 40 minutes or more (depending on the size of the chicken).

Roasting chicken can get your oven messy, so here's a tip. Line the oven's baking tray with foil paper and place it in the lowest part of the oven. The chicken parts should be on the oven's wire rack shelf placed in the center of the oven. While roasting the chicken, the juices/fats will fall onto the foil paper instead of the tray, making it easier to clean up after.

Back at home, when my mum makes roasted chicken, she usually serves it with some french fries and coleslaw. I decided to make a healthier version by making some roasted pumpkin instead. Its easier to make as well. Just slice the pumpkin into wedges, coat the sliced pumpkin wedges with some olive oil, sprinkle some black pepper on it and pop them into the oven at 180ºC / 356ºF for 20-30 minutes (depending on the size of the wedges). Simple isn't it?

Try it for yourself!

A taste of home

I was craving for Malaysian food last night, so me and my husband decided to head out for dinner at one of the Malaysian restaurant, D'Nyonya. They serve authentic Malaysian cuisine and you can find almost any food you want here. D'Nyonya restaurant currently has 3 branches located in Ho Chi Minh City, Pnom Penh and in Perth. According to their website, they'll be opening another branch in Perth soon. They used to have a branch back in Malaysia located in Ara Damansara but I'm not too sure if they are still in business since they have removed it from their website.

The interior of this restaurant pretty much reminds me of home. Huge posters of the Baba & Nyonya family and the olden days of Penang pretty much creates a cozy atmosphere.

I can assure you that the food here is awesome and almost anything you order would taste delicious. I've tried their Nasi Goreng Kampung, Char Kueh Teow, Nasi Lemak, Curry Laksa and Prawn Mee. I would consider myself a difficult customer when it comes to food, but I approve all of the dishes above. I decided to go with Prawn Mee this time but Ram felt like eating rice so he ordered white rice, with fried tofu telur (egg tofu) and stir fried kailan (Chinese Broccoli / Mustard Orchid) with garlic. The fried tofu telur was amazing. It was deep fried and served in a special sweet and sour sauce. As for the stir fried kailan, it was nothing much to be screamed about.

Prawn Mee

Fried Tofu Telur (Egg Tofu)

Stir fried Kailan (Chinese Broccoli / Mustard Orchid) with garlic

Sirap Bandung (Sugar syrup with milk)

The drinks here can be a little too sweet, but you may choose to reduce the sugar level. They also offer a variety of Malaysian desserts. I've tried their Ais Kacang / ABC once and I liked it.

Char Kueh Teow (Picture taken a while ago)

Ais Kacang / ABC (Picture taken a while ago)

Overall, I would rate D'Nyonya as the best Malaysia restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City and I would highly recommend this place if you want a taste of authentic halal Malaysian cuisine.

Hungry but lazy?

Have you ever felt hungry but lazy at the same time? Too lazy to cook or to get out of the comfort of your home? I'm sure most of us have felt this way. And at that point, we most definitely would have hoped that most of the eateries could deliver the food we want to us. Back in KL, it is possible, but the food delivery services are very much limited to only a certain fast food joints and restaurants.

Here in Ho Chi Minh City, almost all the eateries/restaurants/cafes offer delivery services to home, hotels and offices. When I first got to know about this, I was definitely surprised and excited. I'm a person who absolutely hate going out during the peak hours of the day just for a simple take away. Recently, I found a few websites that actually has a list of all the restaurants that delivers with their complete menu online. 

Vietnammm was the first online food delivery website which I came across while browsing. This website can be viewed in 4 different languages, English, Vietnamese, Japanese and Korean. These options makes it so much easier for most expats to place an order. Customers who are not confident enough to speak English or Vietnamese may place their orders online and pay upon delivery. Online support is available if customers have any inquiries or problems while placing an order.

Homepage for www.vietnammm.com

List of restaurants in the selected location

Information of the selected restaurant and their menu

Eat.vn is another food delivery website which can be viewed in 2 different languages, English and Vietnamese.Its pretty much similar to Vietnammm where you just have to select the restaurant available in your location, place an order and pay upon delivery. Online support is also available for inquiries purposes.

Homepage for www.eat.vn

List of restaurants in the selected location

Information of the selected restaurant and their menu

And last but not least would be hungrypanda! This website offers food delivery for 5 other countries as well. But in Malaysia, Singapore, India, Indonesia and Thailand, its called foodpanda. Again, the process is almost the same. Specify your location, select your restaurant, place an order and pay upon delivery. Online support is not available but customers may call the number given on the site if they have any inquiries.

Homepage for hungrypanda

List of restaurants in the selected location

Information of the selected restaurant and their menu

There's also another site called hungry.vn which is fully in Vietnamese language which I think the locals might be interested in. Not all restaurants are available in all these websites. So do browse through and see which of these four carries your favorite restaurant. If its not in any of these websites, do let them know and they might add it for you in the future!

So remember, if you're feeling hungry but lazy at the same time, your food is just a click away!

Ministry of Food

Ministry of Food Pte Ltd (MOF) is a Singapore brand restaurant chain specialising in Japanese food. MOF Japanese Sweets & Coffee is one of it and they currently have 6 branches in Ho Chi Minh City. We usually frequent the Crescent Mall branch for their desserts, especially the soft ice cream and their variety of sushi. But this time, we've decided to try out the one at Kumho Asian Plaza as it was a nearer option for us.

To my surprise, not all of their branches here carry the full menu. And as far as I know, the restaurant in Vincom and Kumho does not have sushi and also some other dishes such as Ebi Tempura on their menu. It would be pretty much disappointing for customers to walk into one of these branches only to find out that they don't serve a certain dish that you want. I hope that they will do something about this in the future.

Main Entrance

Interior

They also have some pretty nice cakes 

Since I was starving, I decided to order their Teriyaki Chicken Bento set lunch while the husband decided to go with Tori Karaage (fried chicken). The only reason he ordered this is because they didn't have Ebi Tempura or any sushi dishes on their menu. Oh well...

Teriyaki Chicken Bento Set

A healthy portion of japanese rice with some salad and kimchi

Juicy teriyaki chicken garnished with some fried garlic

And 2 fried potato balls

The husband's Tori Karaage (Fried Chicken)

My Iced Tea and his 'Orange Plus' (tasted like orange lassi to me)

And finally for some desserts! I ordered my usual Mango Kakigori while Ram went for the simple Hokkaido soft ice cream with mango sauce.

Hokkaido Soft Ice Cream with Mango Sauce

Mango Kakigori

Overall, we find the food at MOF satisfying and would definitely come back to try other dishes. We'll just have to find a proper MOF restaurant that carries a full menu first in order to avoid further disappointment.