Grilled Chicken Bun from Pho-losophy, Asia Square

Between sad desk lunches and quick wolf-downs, some lunches are actually very pleasant - like this grilled chicken bun from Pho-losophy. A bright vibrant bowl of vermicelli rice noodles, fresh herbs and finely chopped vegetables, bonded together by a puckerish fish sauce dressing. There was quite a generous portion of chicken too. That crispy pork and prawn spring roll was flat out tasty.

An An Vietnamese Street Kitchen, Pasarbella Suntec

This Spring Roll Vermicelli was absolutely delightful. The spring rolls were stuffed with minced chicken, carrots, mushrooms and glass noodles - super moreish. While it might look plain, I love refreshing and filling this dish is, especially when you toss in the sauce and condiments and create one festive mess.

Fat Pork Roll from Fat Saigon Boy Express

Got myself another banh mi from Fat Saigon Boy Express and this time round I had the Fat Pork Roll, which was stuffed with 24-hr BBQ pork. I really hope they keep up such generous portions. I don't know (and don't care) how authentic this is, but this is legit. Good stuff.

Flying Pig from Fat Saigon Boy (Telok Ayer St)

Now I rarely get excited over sandwiches. Literally as rare as seeing a Flying Pig. I do enjoy a good sandwich every now and then, but most times, they are reserved for last-minute-sad-meeting-lunch-fill-ins. So yeah, sandwiches are not something I rave about. 

But that is exactly what the Flying Pig sandwich from Fat Saigon Boy made me do! The hunkersarus sandwich left me raving about to my friends throughout the day.

The freshness of pickled vegetables and cilantro, alongside flavorbomb spicy pulled pork, stuffed within a soft but crisp baguette. On top of that, it is pretty darn filling. Look at the size of that badass... Can't wait to get my hands on this again.

Nam Nam, Raffles City

"I like big balls and I cannot lie..."

Kilo, Orchard Central

I can tell you for a fact that if not for my friends, namely Zee and Diana, I would not bother with hippity hip hip watering holes (though by the time, I do visit them, they aren't that new anymore). I would cower in my Sushi-Tei-and-Imperial-Treasure cave and wonder what Instagram is all about. Kidding. 

One fine Saturday morning, we perched ourselves on the wooden stools at Kilo, which is part of PACT, a three-in-onel concept store (www.visitpact.com/). I found the stuff at K.I.N laughably expensive, but then again, I had just returned from Bangkok where everything is laughably cheap.

The food at Kilo is surprisingly good. I use the word "surprisingly" as the food looks like spa cuisine but they taste nothing like bird food or something served after a colonic cleanse.

The flavour profiles lean towards Vietnamese, Japanese and Middle Eastern (boy, do I sound like a judge on Top Chef), resulting in flavors that were robust and refreshing.

I -swallows drool- loved the salmon avocado sushido. It was kinda like eating a sushi burrito lovechild and we all know mixed kids are the cutest right?

Served with soy flaxseed chips which made the meal 20 times healthier. Yay!

Though they had a brunch menu for the menu, only three items were available and one of them was the shakshuka. If you are hot about warm-your-belly breakfasts, this dish has your name written all over it. 

The honey pork bahn mi consisted of sweetish pork slices lovingly encased in a toasted soft bun; and the addition of daikon and carrots prevented it from becoming a post-lunch drawl.

If there were a dish that could get me started on eating lotus root, Kilo's lotus root salad would be it. Dressed in a pleasing roasted sesame sauce, the crunchy lotus roots, along with sugar snap peas and cherry tomatoes, made for a beautiful and satisfying green salad.

Planning my next visit soon! 

Phu Xuan, Ho Chi Minh City

The Hue of loveliness

I do miss Vietnamese food. Very much, in fact and it is all due to our lunch at Phu Xuan.

In Singapore, we have bankers/lawyers-turn-something but here in Ho Chi Minh City, or at least in Phu Xuan’s case, the owner cum chef Ho Thi Hoang Anh was an ex nuclear physics researcher, whose grandfather prepared royal banquets.

Nuclear = explosion? Sounds like lunch.

Phu Xuan, which means “wealth and joy,”was the original name for Hue, Vietnam’s first capital city. Phu Xuan’s forte is traditional Hue food and one Japanese tourist was reportedly so impressed, she opened up a branch in Tokyo. Hello, Singapore needs you too!

Like premium sushi, Hue food was disarmingly simple. Many items on the menu were bonded by two common dominators - rice cakes and fish sauce.



I was gobsmacked from the beginning. The bánh bèo (literally "water fern cake") was a small dish of steamed rice cake, topped with a pinch of shrimp and shallot sprinkle. A dash of minced shrimp and fish sauce was all it took to dispel my preconceived prejudice against bland steamed rice cakes.

Here’s how one should eat it: Mark a crisscross with your spoon, drizzle with fish sauce and scrap out each quarter to eat it.

These are crazily delicious especially when they are fresh out of the steamer.





Cuon Diep (lettuce rolls with shrimp, meat, and noodle) paired with peanut dipping sauce. These were ok, since I'm not the biggest fan of raw lettuces and plain boiled noodles.



The chao tom (grilled prawns on sugarcane) might be more familiar to us Singaporeans. Here, they splice off the prawnies and wrap them with lettuce, before dunking them into the ubiquitous peanut sauce.



Banh tom chay, which is similar to the Cantonese chee cheong fun, except that instead of light soya sauce, - yup you guess it - fish sauce is used. Diaphanous sheets that wield considerable chewy power, it was super and still-surprisingly tasty.



Vermicelli with shredded omelette, salted shredded shrimp, chicken, onion, shrimps paste, were served dry and a ladle of soup spooned over it. Very light and homely-tasting.





Before rounding up the meal with a light traditional dessert of lotus nuts and tapioca-like balls soup.

For me, when it came to Vietnamese food, Phu Xuan did what Christopher Bailey did for Burberry - made it absolutely desirable. I never used to think much of Vietnamese food but now, it’s “Phu better or worse” between me and chewy malleable rice cakes with fish sauce.

Phu Xuan Restaurant
128 Dinh Tien Hoang Street
Distrrict 1, Ho Chi Minh City
Tel: +84 8 820 0329

Song Ngu, Ho Chi Minh City

There are probably a few places to check our for seafood in Ho Chi Minh City but my parents swear by this place, and I think they would be morbidly disappointed if I didn’t check out Song Ngu.


Deep fried silverfish critters

I should have stopped after the twelth critter but it was impossible to -just one more- stop. And before I knew it, it was, Honey, I cleaned out the basket.



Spring rolls – our only non-fried dish of the meal.



Tas-tay with peanut dipping sauce.



Deep-fried soft shell crab with clumpy salted yolk.



“Song Ngu” Fried Mantis shrimp with garlic

Named as such as they resemble the praying mentis. Like a giant shrimp or mini crayfish, these crustaceans don’t make pretty pets but fried with garlic (and loads of garlic), I whispered a prayer to the crusta-heavens up above and tucked in with much gusto.


Fried salted crab

The fried salted crab is one of their signature dishes. Sweet flesh, crazy deliciously garlic-spring-onion-chili fry-up – in other words, another winner. I should tell you that if you scrap / finish up the fried bits from the shrimp and crab dish, chances are you will smell and burp garlic for the rest of the day. And they call me, Sex-ay.

Though popular with tourist, the food’s too good for Song Ngu to be a tourist trap. Do come with more people though; otherwise, with just two (like us), you end up overeating yet wishing you had tried out more dishes.

Song Ngu Seafood Restaurant
70 Suong Nguyet Anh Street
D1, Ho Chi Minh City
Tel: +84 8 832 5017

Pho 31

viet it out.

having watched tan kheng hua's 'table for 3' on channel 5, i was itching to try out pho31 as there weren't many notable vietnamese dineries in singapore.. though it was lunch hour, only one lone table occupied the staff.. but the surprisingly empty vicinity wasn't at all worrying and in fact, brought with it a welcome relief from crowd throngs over the past weekend.

the archetypal mango salad was more thai than viet. the contrast pairing of savoury peanuts with mangoes, chopped onions and chilis created a slightly sourish sweetish twang, which made it hard not to like this refreshing and delightful appetizer.

i say, "dip it!"

another de rigueur viet dish was the combination plate of fresh rice paper rolls and fried spring roll.

"viet calamari?" -you say.. "what's that???"
to cut the long story short: viet calamari is not sliced into rings. it is not dipped in batter and it has not been fried crisp. haha.. instead, the squid is sliced into mini shield shapes and stir-fried in sweet and sour sauce, then confettied with sesame seeds. i have a weird quirk that prevents me from enjoying squid that has been sliced this way but i must say that the brittle layer of crisp surrounding the calamari made it a real toothsome treat.

still hungry? the grilled lemongrass porkchop with rice and a fried egg is guranteed to fill you up.. just take a look at the portion! upon first bite, coconuty- aroma exuded from grilled pork chop displaced my fears of pork that tasted like pork (another quirk, don't ask!). the meat was rather tender and aggreably well- seasoned and darr actually liked the harder rice grains that came with it.

the sumptious spread that awaited us. i would made return trips to pho31 simply because of its homey delights and semi- convenient location. there are other interesting dishes such as sugarcane prawns and perhaps, i should give the pho a try. funny huh... how we didn't have pho at pho31 or at a vietnamese restaurant for that matter.