Going Merrily

Kelvin and I went to Nha Trang, Vietnam for a short 3D2N stay in October.

Bascially our itinerary for Vietnam trip is:
Day 1: Chill at beach bar, eat at Good Morning Vietnam
Day 2: Three Island Tour, Chill at Beach, eat at The Greeks and
Day 3: Mud Bath, Fly to Ho Chi Minh

Background of Nha Trang
Nha Trang is Vietnam’s most famous seaside resort-town, and it has a longest stretch of beach (6km) I've ever seen. Tourist at Nha Trang are mostly Russians and Vietnamese from other areas.

Weather in October
Bascially it is the monsoon season at Nha Trang from September to December and the weather forcast for our trip looks like this. We packed our ponchos and umbrellas, ready to brace the storms...

Only to be greeted by the perfect weather in Nha Trang for all 3 days! So I hereby declare that October is the best time to visit as the sky is still blue but the sun isn't as scorching hot and the temperature is nice and cooling.

Day 1

We took Jetstar from Singapore to Ho Chi Minh, and transferred flight from Ho Chi Minh to Nha Trang. As our flight got delayed we only managed to reach Nha Trang at 5pm.

We had our dinner at a Italian restaurant, Good Morning Vietnam (Full review of the food here.)

The sun was down after we reached our hotel, Dendro, so all we could do was to hit the night beach, enjoy the acoustic and Mango Margarita at this little bar on the beach called Sandals.

Day 2

We woke up to the stunning sea view from our hotel room in Dendro at only USD$50 a night! (Full review here)

The hotel rooftop pool was pretty amazing too, but I preferred swimming in the cooling ocean much more since we were at the beach.

Our itinerary for the day is Three Island Tour (300,000 Dong per person, 9am to 4pm). Quick Tip: Avoid going for the Four Island Tour as the forth island is just an aquarium with no one inside, a waste of time and money. The Three Island Tour package on the other hand, allow you to spend more time at the fun islands and comes with BBQ seafood lunch.

The boat ride for Three Island Tour is very spacious as most of the people are crowding on the Four Island Tour boat. The sea is in such a nice shade of blue here.

The water was crystal clear at the first island and its perfect to snorkel to look at colorful fishes swimming around you. We also got to snorkel at the deeper part of the ocean where there are some corals, the corals are not very impressive though.

The second island is where we had our BBQ seafood lunch.The seafood was really fresh and overall it was a decent meal on a floating platform on the sea.

After lunch, we had a live music performance by the tour band on the boat. Quite a interesting arrangement, the musicians were of professional standards and they sang a few Vietnamese, English and Cantonese songs.

The boat ride was pretty comfortable itself with the sea breeze blowing you. And off we go to the third and last island.

The forth island has a huge floating playground on the water and it was free to play! Despite me getting trapped inside the structure for 10 mins, after I go out, Kelvin and I really enjoyed ourselves on the bouncing and climbing thing.

And Kelvin convinced me to do para-sailing. He said it's like flying and a little scary. I say it's like fly freaking awesome and not scary at all! We got to fly together for about 10mins for 1,000,000 Dong/ USD$50 (pretty decent price).

When we came back at 4pm, all we did was lie on the beach and chill as the weather was cooling and the sun was hidden nicely away behind the clouds.

We had dinner at The Greeks, as we never tried greek food before (full review to come soon!)

And as there are way too many awesome and cheap restaurants in Nha Trang, we had our second dinner at French restaurant, les bouchons (full review to come soon too!).

Day 3
After all the sun damage on our skin, we went for mud bath package at I-Resort (full review soon) to renew our skin for $300,000 dong each.

The mud was thick and thankfully scentless, it almost felt like I was bathing in very thick chocolate milk and it was so fun to swim around in our personal tub.

After the mud bath, we got to enjoy the various hot springs and cold springs in the resort (about 10 pools all together). The waterfalls were really great for massaging backs.

Alternating between the hot and cold pools of mineral water was really how comfortable. Life should be like this everyday.

And then we flew off the to continue our Vietnam adventure at Ho Chi Minh

Kelvin and I had a nice Italian dinner at Good Morning Vietnam on our first night in Nha Trang. Don't be fooled by the name - Good Morning Vietnam is only open for lunch and dinner (no breakfast!)

As we will be spamming Vietnam food in Ho Chi Minh, we decided to try out the western food at Nha Trang instead. Btw, prices of food in Vietnam is generally about 40% cheaper than Singapore's :)

We started off with Mango Ice Blend (45,000 Dong) and Bruschetta Tosacana Classica & Al Sapore Di Pesto (53,000 Dong). The Mango Ice Blend was a refreshing delight, while the Bruschetta tasted just normal bread with toppings to us.

For our main course, we ordered Pazza Pizza (150,000 Dong) - cheese, tomato, ham, olives, mushroom and corn. And it was the best pizza I ever had! The whole pizza was crispy and cheesy to the crust, best eaten warm when it just got out of the stove - 10/10

We also got the Seafood Pasta (75,000 Dong). The pasta was quite flavorful and the prawns were very fresh. But overall, it was quite a normal tasting pasta - 7/10

Request to go up to the second floor as it is more spacious and air-conditioned!

The whole restaurant's setting is very Italian.You get a free flow of olive oil and black pepper.

Luckily, the menu comes in English so we knew what we were ordering. The place is a bit hard to spot from outside as the words "Good Morning Vietnam" are not very obvious. Kelvin actually went across the street to ask for directions and got pointed to the restaurant that's right before our eyes.

Good Morning Vietnam
19b Biet Thu Str.
Tel. 058 3522071
http://www.goodmorningviet.com/about_us.html

Bought 2 groupons for all-you-can-eat Australian Beef Buffet at Barossa Bar for $35 each. As you know, Kelvin and I are super beef junkies, there's no way we'd miss an all beef buffet. Quick tip: Stick to the Wagyu D Rump and spam! Overall score - 8.5/10

The most important thing about any buffet is the menu~ Given that it is a beef buffet, the menu choices are pretty limited, but I'm overall impressed with the food quality.

The waitress suggested that since it's our first time, she will order 1 of everything for us to try it out. We happily obliged :D

First came the sauces: Blue Cheese Sauce, Truffle Bearnaise, Wild Mushroom Cream, Red Wine Sauce. We love love love all the sauces, my favorite is the yellow truffle bearnaise tasted like truffles mixed wth awesome nacho cheese. Kelvin loved his red wine sauce - like red wine stained BBQ sauce, prefect for beef.

Then came the appetizers/sides: Braised Beef Cheek, Creamed Spinach, Roasted Tomato with Cheese, Sautee Mushroom, Mashed Potatoes, Barossa Salad. Out of these, I love the creamed spinach as it came with crispy toasted layer of cheese. Kelvin likes the juicy roasted tomato. The mash potato tasted good with the sauces, however I suspect it's their plan to give such a big serving of potato to make you full on the cheap stuff - evil!

We both love the braised beef cheek, which comes in a super thick and delicious broth and big fat chucky beef.

I like how they served it in a nice photogenic arrangement - total instagram material.

Finally, the beef arrived: Wagyu D Rump, Australian Prime Rib, Australian Ribeye, Roast Beef. This first plate of beef was rather disappointing as they were hard to cut, tough to chew and dry despite the promising names - a waste of stomach space.

Nevertheless, we were still persistent on eating our money worth, we ordered another set of Wagyu D Rump only.

It was heavenly. If you are coming to Barossa for their beef buffet, just spam the Wagyu D Rump. Its definitely the best beef out of the other choices, easy to cut, thick. juicy and chewy.

I love that the medium rare wagyu is reddish on the inside. The beef tastes really good with the sauces too! Our final buffet scores: Kelvin 2.5 wagyu vs Me 4.5 wagyu steaks. I win :)

Btw, Barossa at Esplanade is outdoor sitting, lunch is out of question - try to visit at night for dinner when it's more cooling. Their western menu for burgers and steaks looks good too!

Barossa Bar

http://barossa.com.sg/

Esplanade Mall

8 Raffles Avenue, #01-11

Singapore 039802

Tel: 6534 5188

Holland Village

22 Lorong Mambong

Singapore 277681

Tel: 6468 4688

Fu Lin Tou Fu Yuen (福林豆腐园）is where you go to for the best Yong Tau Foo (酿豆腐） in Singapore, opened since 1994.

Their Yong Tau Foo (YTF) is best eaten dry - you can select your own ingredients and I recommend a mix of fried and cooked food. 4 of us ordered this big plate of dry YTF for only $21 - including rice and noodles.

I've never liked yong tau foo - only ate if when I was dieting - because it's mostly plain soup and tasteless. But Foo Lin's ytf stands out from the rest as it comes with their secret recipe - minced chicken and mushroom broth that generously cover over the tou fu, veggies, rice and noodles. The fried stuff are placed safely away from the sauce to keep their crispiness intact - 10/10

Minced Chicken and Mushroom Broth noodles

The meat sauce is literally filled with minced mean and super delicious to eat with the noodles/rice.

My dad had a sudden craving for Fu Lin and that's how we ended up there on a Saturday night. Look at how happy he is when the food came.

I maintain my belief that yong tau foo is healthy as it comes with so much veggies and tou fu - the fried crispy thingy can be overlooked please.

Mum also ordered a plate of Otak-Otak from Ipoh, Malaysia $6 (怡保烏打). Its fishy, smooth and spicy to all the right extent, definitely worth the $6 - 9/10

Only bad thing is that the main branch is only accessible by car. The rest are mainly in the city area and are great for office hour lunch - note that the queue will be long but it moves pretty quickly and the food is worth the wait.

Fu Lin Tou Fu Yuen (福林豆腐园）Branches
27 Telok Ayer St (Main Branch)
16 Raffles Quay, B1-20, Hong Leong Building
Food Republic 112Katong
Food Republic Parkway Parade
Food Republic Suntec City

Nickeldime Drafthouse Brewery is a trending restaurant at Novena Garden. Besides selling beer, it offers exotic beer-infused cuisines such as beer pizzas and drunken burgers.

The menu has quite a wide range of selections, where main courses are mostly beer related. There's also 1-for-1 promotions on weekdays. Too bad we visited on a weekend.

Kelvin and I got the 510 burger (beef burger is our obvious choice) and I wanna hold your ham pizza (recommended by the staff).

510 Burger $15 - Handmade buns, beef patty, IPA cheese, gauda, mozzarella, beer candied bacon, sunny side up egg, crispy onion, beer barbecue sauce, lettuce, fresh tomato

510 definitely makes it into my top beef burger's list. The patty was 100% shiokness at medium rare. The sunny side up egg is also cooked to the correct rawness such that the yolk was still runny. One thing though, you can't really taste the beer, except for a bit of bitterness in the meat that might be due to the beer - 9/10

I Wanna Hold Your Ham $19 - Tomato sauce, mozzarella, cooked ham, triple mushrooom, parma ham made with Beer Dough.The pizza totally didn't live up to our expectations. The beer dough doesn't have any beer taste at all, except it's a little bitter lor. Overall the pizza tastes dry, not enough cheese and ingredients to make up for the taste. Mushrooms were probably the only nice part about the pizza, should have gotten two 510 - 6/10