Ho Chi Minh City 4

I was determined to be very selective of the kind of food I was going to eat.



But, being fussy in a city full of food options is counter-productive. After passing restaurants after cafes, we ducked into a little shop that served broken rice to what looked like office people. I had grilled mackerel because it had been days since I last had fish. It was dry, but probably because I am accustomed to having rice with gravy.



During our walk, it rained again. With uncannily movie-like timing, we happened to chance upon a museum at the very same time. I found the building of the museum (Ho Chi Minh City museum) to be of more interest than the exhibits.





I had a milk cream bun from Tous Les Jours and a green tea puff pastry in the food court of Diamond Plaza.



And then we found a french bakery (Pat à Chou) and I had a chocolate dessert with chocolate cream and bananas.




And for dinner we had pho along the rue de Pasteur. My pho was meatballs-only, the way I like it. This was my third pho in HCMC, and I was getting sick of it. There is so much more to Vietnamese food than the pho.



A friend brought us to the massage street near Ben Thanh market, but I didn't want a foot massage because I have this completely bogus theory without any scientific backing that once I get a massage I would become dependent on it. So I hung around for the two hours that they were in the parlour. It was night time so I did not push my luck exploring the streets. I went into a smoothies shop right next door called Fruitique, and they had only just had their opening. The shop was co-founded by a twenty-three year old Trang Le, to whom I made the completely bogus declaration that I was a blogger and I would feature her shop here. And so I have.

I finished the strawmango smoothies that I got.



On my last day I was really sad because I wasted my last meal on this Vietnamese chicken curry in Window's Cafe. I only went there because my father who was in HCMC three years ago was completely blown away by the futuristic decor of this cafe, and kept pestering us to go. So all right, I went. But compared to all the new cafes that have sprung up in the years since my father's last visit, this one really annoyed me. Decor was yes, ok, great. Smoking was allowed in the non-smoking section. Food was expensive compared to the other cafes around the area. My curry was not so great. My dad's outdated.



I bought some Tintin wall plates from this man over here. His shop has prices on all the items <insert thumbs up here>.