HCMC - day 3

 

we now know how small HCMC is so we lazed in hotel room after breakfast until it's lunch time before we decided to venture out for food. :P
with the recommendation from gb, we headed to quan ngon 138 for some good o' Vietnam cuisine!
I like the food here especially the shrimps cooked while wrapped around sugar cane!
the unadventurous husband had his pho as usual but it was really good. :D

@ quan ngon 138!

 

after lunch, we headed to vicom centre which is the biggest shopping mall in HCMC.

nothing too different from the malls in SG but I felt weirdly at home in it. haha!

we had yummy fanny's ice cream which is really tasty and creamy!

 

very affordable ice cream

wide variety - saw that they have chili flavor but I was not brave enough to try...

 

after shopping time at vicom and parkson mall next to it, we walked over to the opera house.

this area reminded hubbi and me of the opera house and surroundings at paris!

really french colonial style.

 

@/around opera house

 

 

by then, it was almost 5 and the ng family was feeling tired and sleepy again..

we found refuge at café bene - a Korean franchise café  which we were very fond of when we were at seoul last june - and proceeded to laze there with yummy bubble tea for the next hour.

 

finally, we made our way to the last stop for the day - ciao bella for dinner!

a Italian restaurant known for its good food near opera house area.

 

I like the food here second best for all the meals at HCMC (we had the best meal as last dinner in HCMC - more on that later).

I ordered sea bass thinking its the usual thick slice but was most surprised when I saw the whole fish!
and the chef has removed all the bones and baked it with lemon slices between the fish!

how well-executed! and it's only like US$20?

 

hubbi had squid ink seafood pasta and the man loved it too. they boys' cabonara was good too - not overwhelmingly saltish.

I like the touches from the restaurant like free house wine for us and sprite for the kids AND limoncello after desserts! YUM.

 

the whole meal only costs us like US$50+ for 4 of us? what a steal!

 



check out the sea bass!

 

it was drizzling when we left the restaurant so on we hopped to a cab and back in warm dry hotel room in no time. yeah!