Sheraton Saigon Hotel & Towers, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

June 04, 2010

I mentioned previously that the weather in Ho Chi Minh City was terribly hot, so the BF and I stayed indoors and ordered lots of room service instead. (Yes yes, CC, Mr J and The Professor have already given me grief for "throwing good money away" by ordering room service in a city full of cheap and good food) But, believe it or not, the BF and I had tons of fun in Ho Chi Minh City, even if we spent a lot of quality time holed up in the hotel room and ordering room service.

The first thing on the room service menu we ordered was the 'Hue' Style Vietnamese Fried Spring Rolls (US$9). Hue was the capital of the Nguyen dynasty from 18th century to mid 19th century and some consider to be the culinary capital of old. Hue cuisine is often refined, small in portion and spicy. Sheraton's version of the spring rolls was much larger than the one at Pho24. I love the combination of diced shrimp, shredded crabmeat, minced pork, crunchy black fungus and glass noodles. This was accompanied by a sweetish watery chili sauce, similar to the Thai-style sweet chili sauce.

We also ordered some Fish & Chips (US$11.50), beer battered cod with chips and tartare sauce. I liked the fact that they used fatty cod instead of the usual sole or dory.

The Wok-Fried Glass Noodles (US$9.50) with crabmeat, bean shoots, chili and ginger was very good as well. The freshly shredded crabmeat was sweet and plentiful, the beansprouts were crunchy and the glass noodles were well-flavoured and still moist without being soggy.

The BF particularly loved the Beef Luc Lac (US$13.50). The tender diced beef cubes were sauteed in a black pepper, brandy and oyster sauce. This was very similar to our black pepper beef dish served at most cze char joints in Singapore. The dish was heady, robust and thoroughly enjoyable for the meat-lover in him.

The Three-Egg Omelette (US$8), with mushrooms and ham, was one of our breakfast choices, indulgently served in bed of course. This was served with bacon, hashbrowns and chipolata sausages. Classic and yummy.

The other breakfast-in-bed option we had was the Sheraton Club Sandwich (US$10.50), toasted sandwich bread with bacon, chicken, lettuce, tomato, fried egg, chicken breast and cheese. Simple, classic and delicious.

The Barbeque Spicy Chicken Wings (US$9.50), with hickory bbq sauce and served with steamed baby potatoes, was one of our post-clubbing meals. We'd gone to the club on the top floor of the hotel with Beeps, Phys and Mr Harvest-The-Crops for drinks and some dancing. There's a live band (from the States or Canada, I think) there that was amazing! The best part of the night was that CC and An joined us to pick up our drinks tab! How cool was that! We really do have the best senior partners huh?

We also ordered the Vietnamese Pho (US$8.50) with tender sliced beef. The BF needed something soupy after imbuing copious amounts of alcohol. The soup was richer than the one at Pho24 but it was still good.