Vietnam, Saigon - Cathay Restaurant (Part 9)

Cathay Restaurant, 19 Bui Thi Xuan St., Ben Thanh Ward, Dist. 1, HCMC

Most good Vietnamese restaurant are packed during the dinner hours. It is like a market place. Loud and lively. There are so many to choose from. The exotic to the daily hawkers fare. I have eaten in a top restaurant where lively shrimps are unceremonious dump into a clay pot of hot wine and then covered with a lid till all movements ceased. They were once lively fishes. Thin silvery 4 inches long, dumped alive into a boiling pot of herbs and vegetables. A lid is used again here to prevent escape. Not that I like these but I was brought there as a guest. There are more beyond that which I refused to go into.

This time round we prefer less action and more talk so we went to a quiet Vietnamese restaurant. Three pax and three dishes at RM45. A queit and private place.

Seafood Vermicelli Salad with mint leaves. Refreshing.

Seafood in claypot. Spicy and hot. Check out the Vietnamese basil garnishings. Soaked up the sauces with a baquette.

Fried Fishballs, fresh, springy, tender, lots of fish to make the paste and dipped into chili sauce or spicy fish sauce.