Lunch - Traditional Vietnam Homecooked Food @ Hanoi

Ready ingredients and sauces to cook

Look at the amount of veges.. no wonder I think that Vietnam food are healthy

What is this??

This is the meat of field crab. This taste very nice. I eat and eat and can't get enough of it. This is not yet put into the soup.

I was told that it is very difficult and troublesome to prepare this, so really glad that I get to try it as the host willing to prepare this dish for us :) The crab need to be shelled out first, then go through a processor or something like that to crush the meat and shell, then needa pick out the shell... This is told verbally to me, so I didn't see it for myself :)

The pickles and sauce to eat the soup with. I just find it okay ... prefer the soup by itself hahaha

The vege taste a bit like spinach, and that are the crab meat :) :) I love it. I eat this till so full...

The other dishes, boiled lala, stir fry beef with brocolli

Fried shrimps and the wasabi sauce with fish sauce.

A really good lunch!

Have you noticed that I haven't get to eat any meat like chicken, pork etc .... ?

Dessert - Coconut Drink @ Thiny Ta Cafe

Went to have a refreshing drink of coconut after walking and feeling hot and dehydrated. We stop by this cafe.

Interior

Seating

The coconut drink.

This place is relatively expensive, maybe coz of the location or view. The coconut costs VN 40,000 whereas, other place, might be only VN25,000, even the one I eat near the airport is only VN 35,000 -_-"

Breakfast - Pho 24 @ Hanoi

Went to this pho chain in Hanoi. The outlets in Singapore seemed to have disappeared..

Interior of the place

Lemon Soda drink

Orange Juice

Other drinks we ordered

Fried fritters, to dunk in the soup to eat :)

Side veges and seasoning. Can request to boil the bean sprout too :)

Spring roll, mostly pork in the roll, with the fish sauce dip.

The different pho, slice beef, beef brisket, beef flank, beef ball

The chicken pho version :)

The beef pho version with meatballs

I forgot to take picture of the caramel pudding, it's nice also :)

Price per bowl are only about ~SGD4 I think :)

Dinner - Homecooked Snail Soup @ Hanoi

This is the soup still in the pot, heating up to be served :)

The accompanying veges (don't ask me what are those greens). I know the long spiral one is the "Banana heart" :)

End product of the snail soup. It have tomate, bee hoon, taupok, snail and the veges mentioned above. It also have bits of field crab, which I will elaborate later :)

It's good :)

Dinner - Hanoi Airport @ Hanoi

Had dinner at this small eatery in one corner upon arrival in Hanoi Airport. Here is the chili sauce, a bit vinegar-ish taste

Instant noodle, pho style. There are added spring onions, bean sprouts and beef slices.

Thoughts - Did You Marry the Right Person?

I come across this article and finds it useful, so I decided to put it over here so that I can read it as and when I want :)

How Do You Know If You Married The Right Person

By Mort Fertel

How to Save a Marriage:

Disclaimer: Picture is taken from Flickr (Not taken by me)



During one of my seminars, a woman asked me a question. She said, "How do I know if I married the right person?"

I noticed that there was a large man sitting next to her so I said, "It depends. Is that your husband?"

In all seriousness, how do you know if you married the right person?

Here's the answer.

Every relationship has a cycle. In the beginning, you fell in love with your spouse. You anticipated their call, wanted their touch, and liked their idiosyncrasies. Falling in love with your spouse wasn't hard. In fact, it was a completely spontaneous experience.

You didn't have to do anything. That's why it's called "falling" in love...because it's happening to you.

People in love sometimes say, "I was swept off my feet." Think about the imagery of that expression. It implies that you were just standing there; doing nothing, and then something came along and happened to you. Falling in love is easy. It's a passive and spontaneous experience.

But after a few years of marriage, the euphoria of love fades. It's the natural cycle of every relationship.

Slowly but surely, phone calls become a bother (if they come at all), touch is not always welcome (when it happens), and your spouse's idiosyncrasies, instead of being cute, drive you nuts.

The symptoms of this stage vary with every relationship, but if you think about your marriage, you will notice a dramatic difference between the initial stage when you were in love and a much duller or even angry subsequent stage.

At this point, you and/or your spouse might start asking, "Did I marry the right person?"

And as you and your spouse reflect on the euphoria of the love you once had, you may begin to desire that experience with someone else. This is when marriages breakdown.

People blame their spouse for their unhappiness and look outside their marriage for fulfillment. Extramarital fulfillment comes in all shapes and sizes. Infidelity is the most obvious. But sometimes people turn to work, church, a hobby, a friendship, excessive TV, or abusive substances.

But the answer to this dilemma does not lie outside your marriage. It lies within it.

I'm not saying that you couldn't fall in love with someone else.

You could. And temporarily you'd feel better. But you'd be in the same situation a few years later.

Because (listen carefully) THE KEY TO SUCCEEDING IN MARRIAGE IS NOT FINDING THE RIGHT PERSON; IT'S LEARNING TO LOVE THE PERSON YOU FOUND.

Sustaining love is not a passive or spontaneous experience. It'll never just happen to you. You can't "find" lasting love. You have to "make" it day in and day out.

That's why we have the expression "the labor of love."

Because it takes time, effort, and energy. And most importantly, it takes wisdom. You have to know what to do to make your marriage work.

Make no mistake about it. Love is NOT a mystery. There are specific things you can do (with or without your spouse) to save a marriage.

Just as there are physical laws of the universe (such as gravity), there are also laws for relationships.

Just as the right diet and exercise program makes you physically stronger, certain habits in your relationship will make your marriage stronger.

It's a direct cause and effect.

If you know and apply the laws, the results are predictable-you can "make" love.

- Mort Fertel, Author & Founder of Marriage Fitness

Love in marriage is indeed a “decision"; Not just a feeling.
No one falls in love by choice, it is by chance.
No one stays in love by chance, it is by work.
And no one falls out of love by chance, it is by choice.

Homecooked - Buffalo Wings, Old Cucumber Soup and Omelette

Making Sprite with Lemon.
- Cut a few slice of lemon
- Squeeze a bit of lemon juice into the bottle of sprite
- Stir everything
and serve
Enjoy the drink

Chai Poh Omelette

Pork Rib with old cucumber soup.

Method:

- Boil water and put raw pork rib into a sieve like container

- Scald pork rib with boiled water a few times. It will look slightly cooked on the outer side.
- Put in the pork rib into the pot of boiling water

- Put dried scallop or ikan bilis or dried squid into the pot and boil together

- Cut the old cucumber

- After boiling about half hour, put in the old cucmber, wolfberry and red dates

- Continue to simmer till soft.

- Serve

Buffalo Lollipop wings:

Method:

- Use the method described in the previous post to make the chicken lollipop.
- I trying to use instant mix and see how it turns out so, I put all the raw lollipop into a container

- Put the seasoning powder for buffalo wings and tobasco sauce

- Shake the container so the sasoning is well mixed

- Cook in the oven. We took about 20 minutes to cook the chicken.

- Serve.

The seasoning better penetrate by using this lollipop as the meat is exposed to the spice, as compared to normally, only the skin :)

Good lunch and cooking session! :)