VietNam Travel

Friday, November 26, 2010

Grilled fish wrapped in new lotus leaves

Grilled fish served with new lotus leaves is a specialty in Dong Thap Province - Photo: Son Lam

Dong Thap Province in the Mekong Delta has many dishes made with lotus such as steamed lotus seeds, steamed rice with lotus leaves, lotus sprout salads and grilled loc fish rolled with new lotus.

Dong Thap is a lowland province with areas in flood all year round - great conditions for growing lotus. Locals grow water flower in immense fields. When the lotus blossoms, Dong Thap is at its most beautiful and locals use it a lot for cooking.

The loc fish is cleaned carefully and skewered longwise with bamboo. Then it is covered with a layer of straw, clay or banana leaves and grilled over charcoal.

Once the fish is done, the outside layer is peeled off to see the yellow color of fish skin.

In cities, people often wrap small portions of the cooked fish meat in rice paper rolls, but in Gao Giong in Dong Thap, people use new lotus leaves instead of rice paper to make the wraps containing fish, noodles, aromatic herbs and fish sauce.

Thanksgiving Thursday

What would Thanksgiving in HCMC be without a roast turkey?

Thanksgiving Day, as celebrated in North America, is a time to gather with family and friends to give thanks for the many blessings in life.

To make a memorable Thanksgiving on Thursday, Nov. 25, hotels are preparing traditional lunch and dinners.

At Legend Hotel Saigon, the Atrium Café serves a wide buffet spread that includes roast turkey and gammon ham with cranberry sauce, duck liver pate with melba toast, grilled pork tenderloin with orange marmalade glaze. Get festive with free flowing beer, soft drinks, coffee and tea for lunch; and wines, beer, soft drinks, coffee and tea for dinner.

At Sofitel Saigon Plaza, Café Rivoli’s culinary team will prepare the roast turkey with the finest ingredients and condiments, including free flowing house wines, beers, and soft drinks and a tempting Thanksgiving dessert buffet and delicious apple pies. For delivery, the hotel offers a flying roast turkey with condiments to be ordered at the Gourmand Shop. Orders are available now.

Caravelle Hotel will serve roast turkey and smoked salmon at its Nineteen Restaurant alongside buffet lunch and dinner delicacies like oysters, salmon, caviar and fish roe.

Sheraton Saigon Hotel & Towers serves Thanksgiving evening at Saigon Café with a buffet of traditional fare including imported US butterball turkey, baked gammon, hickory smoked rump steak, double loin chops and pumpkin pie.

Windsor Plaza Hotel Saigon will offer oven-roasted turkey for pick-up or delivery from November 25. Turkey is available with a number of traditional trimmings, including tender Brussels sprouts, homemade chestnut stuffing, delectable glazed pumpkin, tangy cranberry sauce and classic giblet gravy. Available in two sizes, small turkeys are perfect for family feasts and large turkeys are suitable for larger celebrations of up to 20 people. Turkey without trimmings is priced at VND220,000+/kg and turkey with trimmings is priced at VND300,000+/kg. Prices are subject toVAT.

Pair drive from London to Saigon to clear landmines

Rebecca Harris (3rd, L) and Max Levell (2nd, R) pose for photos with the Rex Hotel Saigon’s staff after driving their Porsche overland from London - Photo: Courtesy of the Rex Hotel Saigon

Max Levell and Rebecca Harris from the UK-based humanitarian organization Mines Advisory Group (MAG) arrived at the Rex Hotel in HCMC’s District 1 on Saturday after a 60-day car journey through 17 countries.

The overland charity-jaunt raised funds for people in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam who are victims of unexploded ordnance.

Levell, 31, sells and restores classic Porsches while Harris, 26, trains horses. The couple from Windsor in the UK drove most of the 18,000 kilometers from London to HCMC in Levell’s 1966 Porsche 912, which he got for his 18th birthday.

“Neither of us can believe that we’ve actually driven here from London, crazy!” Levell said on their blogspot, londontosaigon.blogspot.com.

They crossed into Vietnam through the Lao Bao border gate in Quang Tri Province and were waylaid for a few days by floods in the Central, before passing through Hue, Hoi An, Danang, Nha Trang, Muine and HCMC.

They told the Daily a few minutes after they arrived at the Rex that they were thrilled to have completed the trip and very pleased the car made it without any mechanical problems.

They said they hoped their journey would encourage people to donate money to help clear landmines and unexploded ordnance in former conflict zones in Vietnam and everywhere.

The important work would free up land for agriculture and community development and educate the local population about the dangers of unexploded bombs. People can donate money directly to MAG via the online donations site: www.justgiving.com/londontosaigon2010

Since operations commenced in 1999, MAG Vietnam has conducted mobile clearance operations in more than 1,300 villages, cleared more than seven million square meters of land for agriculture and community development, and removed and destroyed close to 150,000 landmines / UXO

More information on the charity and MAG Vietnam, can be found at www.maginternational.org/vietnam.

Vietnam Airlines opens new route to Japan

Vietnam Airlines opens new route to Japan
Vietnam Airlines will launch a new route from Da Nang City to the Japanese city of Narita, roughly 60 kilometers east of central Tokyo, on December 15, Da Nang City’s Foreign Affairs Department said Monday.

Seven flights per week are scheduled for the Narita – Da Nang – HCMC – Narita route, the department said.

The flights will depart from the central city of Da Nang at 2:55 a.m. and arrive in Narita at 1:20 p.m. (local time).

The national flag carrier will maintain the route until March 31 next year. After that date, it will fly between Da Nang and Narita directly without transiting Ho Chi Minh City.

The national carrier will also open a direct route between Da Nang and Hong Kong on November 26, according to the Da Nang People’s Committee.

On Monday, it launched a second direct route to Yangon, Myanmar's southern trade hub and former capital city.

There will be three flights a week between Yangon and HCMC, the airline said.

The carrier had begun flying from Hanoi to Yangon four times a week in March.

A member of the SkyTeam airline alliance that includes Air France and America's Delta Airlines, Vietnam Airlines has set out to become one of Southeast Asia's leading carriers.

It aims to transport 12 million passengers this year and boost its fleet from 70 to 115 aircraft by 2015.

Thursday, November 25, 2010