Traditional Vietnamese Desserts in Loc Tai House @ Hanoi

Many buildings in Vietnam looked about the same; tightly packed, with narrow nondescript shop fronts! Loc Tai House is a refreshing one that stands out with a brick facade and a traditional portrayal of ancient shophouses. 

Queue can be long but we were lucky to be served in less than ten minutes! Do note that you have to order first before you are allowed to step into the shop. And it's stressful to decide what to have with about 26 items on the menu!

Making payment and proceeding to the upper levels since there wasn't any available tables and seats on the ground floor. Climbing up can be a challenge for the elderly as some staircases can be so steep.

Interior on the second floor; it did have the historical feel with lacquered bamboo furniture, numerous artifacts on display and even a traditional ao dai for men! Not forgetting the modern necessity of Wi-Fi username and password. 

Six persons, six bowls of desserts! 

I am just going to review two. 

Lotus Seed with Dried Longan - said to be the recommended dish, I would say this would be similar to iced cheng tng, my favorite dessert in Singapore! Blessed with a generous serving of lotus seeds which was unfortunately a bit hard, the inclusion of grass jelly totally uprooted the goodness of the sweet soup. Saving grace was the dried longans; delicious they were although they mostly were. 

Sticky Rice Balls - literally tang yuan for us, the ginger soup was simply a tasty stomach warmer in the cool, winter Hanoi climate and I love the crunchy peanuts! Stars came in the form of the balls of goodness, which are generally known as glutinous rice balls in our beloved lion city.

Soft, sticky rice skin that protected the thick, luxurious filling within! Strangely, it wasn't as sweet as expected and I would very much prefer the sticky rice ball that had the mung bean filling. 

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Guess my family members loved what they had! Compared to most Vietnamese traditional dessert eateries, I thought Loc Tai House provided a great variety. However, I think providing small size serving of each dessert, similar to the offerings at Khánh Vy Sweets @ Ho Chi Minh City, would be beneficial for tourists! 

Address

76 Hàng Điếu, Cửa Đông, 

Hoàn Kiếm, Hà Nội, Vietnam

Map

As above.

Menu

As above.

Pricing

Lotus Seed with Dried Longan - 35,000 dong

Sticky Rice Balls - 25,000 dong

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summarized itinerary 

of my 3 Days trip to Sapa!

Coffee Lounge @ i Hotel Batam

I was waiting for my family and decided to do so at the coffee lounge of I Hotel Batam, our choice of accommodation in this popular Indonesian island so near to our little red dot.

It was a classic, cozy lounge with zilch customers, and a baby grand piano where I can work on playing the nursery Chinese song, two little tigers; latter of which didn't happen as I am not keen to embarrass myself.

Bintang Beer - having a beer simple because it's for one for one for happy hours! Nothing beats ice cold beer to cool the body; no wonder some people claimed that beer is literally cooling tea! 

Fried Banana -  sprinkled with cheese and chocolate sauce, I can't resist not ordering given how much I love bananas! Sadly, the batter was too limp for my liking and the bananas didn't taste sweet. I can only thank the chocolate sauce and the saltiness cheesiness from the cheese to make this slightly more palatable. 

Gado Gado - I decided to go with a dish that appeared to be less sinful but even I was surprised to find the ingredients so visually unappealing; guessing I would likely go for the crackers and the boiled egg only. 

Fret not, the peanut sauce was the secret weapon! Nutty and spicy, it perfectly complemented the boiled ingredients and so addictive was the combination; my hands couldn't help moving to the plate and I was somewhat sad when I was down to my last piece! 

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In case you are wondering, I shared the food with my family; always beneficial to distribute the calories! Let's load on the calories together! 

Address

Ground Floor, I Hotel Batam, Jl. Teuku Umar, 

Lubuk Baja Kota, Kec. Lubuk Baja, 

Kota Batam, Kepulauan Riau 29432, Indonesia

Map

As above.

Drink Menu

As above.

Pricing

Bintang Beer - 45,000 Rupiah

Fried Banana - 55,000 Rupiah

Gado Gado - 55,000 Rupiah 

(Subject to Taxes)

I Love Banh Mi 아이러브반미 Eatery @ Da Nang in Vietnam

With a name like I Love Banh Mi, I must trust that the owner loves banh mi as much as I did. I came upon the eatery while searching for banh mi on my last day in Da Nang! 

Aside from the catchy name; its review score of 4.4 on Google Maps captured my attention, enticing me to give it a try. I bet customers can't miss the shop with its dark pink facade.

Inside of the shop, on level two as level one was full. Yes, there's a line of customers even before it was opened for business! Quite a number of them were Korean, which was one major tourist market for Da Nang.

Simple wall murals for photo-taking. I am just thinking if they were aware that the Doraemon character is trademarked and the company, based in Japan, can sue for infringement. 

Totoro too! 

Pinkness continued with the staircase, and a blurred photograph of level one of the eatery. More pinkness on level one than level two; even the staff uniform was in pink.

Number tent that was given after ordering. 

Food came after a 10-minute wait! 

 

Banh Mi Thit Nuong - the vietnamese grilled pork banh mi is what I always order from the menu, if it is available and to be honest; the presentation really impressed, and I can't wait to dig in! 

Visualization only helps if the taste is good; and sadly, this banh mi didn't meet the expectation! Bread was chewy, the grilled pork was hard, and why were there fresh onions, tomatoes and cucumbers in it?

It was like eating a sandwich from Subway! And that's absolutely unexpected, and totally unacceptable of a banh mi eatery in Vietnam! I can imagine a foreigner stepping in and thinking "oh, the banh mi tasted like Subway; cheaper it sure was, but Subway is better".

Banh Mi Trung - again, the presentation for this egg banh mi was a hit and while it was better than the Banh Mi Thit Nuong; it still reminded me of Subway sandwich, and I bet you egg mayo would be way tastier! 

Yellow Mango - I saw mango on the menu and thought it's quite interesting. Furthermore, I love fruits and mangoes were said to be a "great source of various vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants".

I can't imagine me typing this but the mangoes were the best thing I tried that day at I Love Banh Mi. Served cold, itr was juicy, sweet and not overly fibrous! Yummy.

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Alex was so disappointed with his Banh Mi Trung; he just whacked the egg and literally left the rest of the ingredients untouched. I tried to help but not with the bread for sure. 

Address

100 Trần Phú, Hải Châu 1, 

Hải Châu, Đà Nẵng 550000, 

Vietnam

Map

As above.

Operating Hours

From 8.30am till 8.30pm (Daily)

Menu

As above.

Pricing

Banh Mi Thit Nuong - 70,000 Dong

Banh Mi Trung - 50,000 Dong

Yellow Mango (M) - 60,000 Dong

Click here for my 8 Days' Itinerary to Danang (The City of Bridges) & Hoi An (The City of Lanterns) in Vietnam

Salon 3 Man - 70,000 Vietnamese Dong Haircut @ Da Nang

While walking aimlessly after the boring Da Nang Fresco Village, we strolled past a hair salon when Alex suddenly declared he wanted to have a haircut.

Now, it might sound strange to some people but for me, this is normal as Alex has the tendency to go for haircuts whenever he is overseas! Not for me though as my hairstyle requires fuss-free arrangement and many hair stylists / barbers have the tendency to cut off my fringe! 

I have no idea how Alex communicated with the hairstylist since he doesn't speak Vietnamese and the English spoken in the hair salon didn't quite sense to us. It appeared to be a lot of body language, hand gestures and the use of translation app.

The sensation of a blade running against the scalp behind your ears can be an extremely scary yet therapeutic experience! Would the ladies be given such a treatment when they have haircuts?

At this point, I thought we were done. 

And Alex would wash his hair back at the hotel.

Nope, he was brought to another section, where he laid supine. Okay great, a hair wash was included and that's good for Alex since we wouldn't need to go back to the hotel so quickly. 

Wait, why was she washing Alex's face?! 

A shave?! Damn, this would have meant extra charges in Singapore! And given our poor grasp of Vietnamese, I asked Alex if he has unknowingly added chargeable components! Honestly, we were prepared to be "scammed".

Finally, the hair wash! 

45 minutes had passed and I guess this would be the final product, of which Alex was actually quite pleased with, and definitely wouldn't mind paying for, using Singapore price rate. Maybe S$30 to S$50?

Not done yet; there was still the styling! 

Boy was Alex pleased with the final outcome!

Look at that radiant smile and the clean, smart look.

When we heard the prices, our jaws dropped. For all the hard work and effort put in, it only cost a mere 70,000 dong, which was only about S$4.00! Would Alex go back for a haircut again in May 2025 when we would be visiting Da Nang again? High chance he would. 

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Address

03 Chu Văn An, Bình Hiên, 

Hải Châu, Đà Nẵng 550000, Vietnam

Map

As above.

Pricing

If you understand Vietnamese, the above would be helpful although I am not sure what does combo comprise of. Even the most expensive one cost just 500,000 dong (about S$30)! 

Click here for my 8 Days' Itinerary to Danang (The City of Bridges) & Hoi An (The City of Lanterns) in Vietnam