saigon sights

omg this is so embarassing. four months since my last post. 'busy' would be an understatement but 'lazy' would be a more correct one. well much has happened since that glorious post day in january, namely a work fiasco, loss of a precious life, visitors to shang and the (bird) flu. all blog-worthy but alas, ill spare you my venting and just brag about my newest accomplishment.

enter saigon.

hao and i traveled to ho chi minh city (better known as saigon) for qing ming weekend, right after my sister and the kims came to visit shanghai. it was a quick, three-day affair, with a lack of planning or research. i'm kind of into this new way of traveling. hao and i have been very found of this consistently okay pho restaurant near our apartment here in shang, and so we ventured off to the land of vietnam for some food ventures. we had heard that there wasn't much sightseeing to be had in saigon, more of the beauty was in the north. well we only had three days, so beauty was not in our plans. we came to eat.

day 1 we ventured around in the 100 degree heat, hit up a market, saw some city sights and then had our first taste of vietnam. we went to a small local restaurant, tucked away in a small alley, recommended by a fellow foodie friend of ours. we enjoyed spicy beef noodle soup, rice paper pork rolls and some vermicelli with grilled pork. tasty indeed but with the heat dripping down our back and my steretypical palette thinking banh mi and pho, not impressed. the pictures say otherwise i suppose.

after a dip in the pool, a cold shower and a nap, we hit up another recommended spot for dinner. on our walk over, a moto thief tried to steal hao's camera right from his hands. luckily hao is a manly macho man and held on tight to his camera. the thieves drove off into the night. i was left stunned and disturbed, hugging hao at every chance i could get and evily staring down any scooter-goers aka everyone. this is me finally at dinner, giving the finger to the thieves. 

but dinner did not disappoint! we had some tasty, robust flavors with unique ingredients. one of my faves was the homemade fried tofu topped with fried lemongrass + salt. mmmmmmm mmmm. 

the next day we did some light walking and hit up a really cool cafe. we did some light hipster shopping and had a nouveau banh mi. this is me after enjoying my banh mi :)

then in the evening did my favorite activity the whole trip - a foodie tour! two lovely local ladies picked us up on their scooters and we drove around the entire city, sighting sights and eating eats. what a blast! we saw the city through such a different perspective and our tour guides were awesome. we stopped at some popping local joints and a street food stall. everything we ate (except the balut blleeehhhh) was delicious and fresh and so much cooler than anything we would have discovered walking around ourselves. 

my faves: 

 fresh scallops topped with scallions and peanuts in hot pork belly fat. OMG

fresh grilled prawns

spicy beef noodle soup

success!

(just gotta end it with that pic...)

also check out http://houseofhaos.com/

india's where the heart is

india may be where the heart is, but it is also where the food is, the family is and the cows are. my extremely short stint was just enough time to party it up with my dad for his 60th bday, play party games with my 80+ yr old grandmoms and eat a lot of my favorite indian foods (and equal times using the bathroom).

my trip this time took me to the small city of nagpur where my dad's mom and two brothers live, smack dab in the middle of india. not much has changed since my last trip there over 6-7 years ago. the city has some significant significance for my family; my grandparents used to own a property right on the main street of nagpur as a summer house where my dad and his 3 brothers and 1 sister used to vacation growing up. it is also the house my grandmother lived in as she got older, and my immediately family used to visit as my sister and i grew up. not only was it centrally located, it had magical mazes of rooms and closets and rooftops for awesome games of hide and seek. it was also across the street from our fave "cream corner" where my cousins and i used to get a daily (if not doubly) mango ice cream treat. and as our reunions grew bigger, it was conveniently down the street from a host of nagpur's only hotels. several years ago, my grandmother sold the property to a big contractor who built a large complex on the land. and now there is coincidentally a family owned restaurant right where our living room used to be.

this trip, we stayed at my uncle's place, a few minutes outside the city proper. i got in super early on sunday morning, just in time to take a quick bucket bath and get ready for my dad's big birthday bash. aside from my one younger cousin studying in nagpur, i was the youngest attendee by about 30 years. which made it that much more fun and i got a lot of attention and love and first dibs on all buffet items :) one of the highlights was the pani puri and chaat stand which quickly became the crowd fave.

here's a pic of my parents having a special birthday dance and of course...the chaat corner

the coolest parents in the world doing a little dance

the chaat station - nom nom nom

after the party, we basically had a lot of time to hang out, walk around, eat, shop, eat, eat, eat, nap, have chai, etc. here are some snaps of the streets of nagpur

a cow

main street

here's also some pics of us shopping and my magnificent new year's eve with my grandmoms :)

the beautiful salesman modeling this beautiful sari that we did not purchase

the hats came out and bottles (of juice) were poppin! best new year's ever!

last but certainly not least, ended the trip with a spicy mcpaneer sammie. success!

overall a very short but heart-filled family reunion, from which i came back with mango candy, coconut biscuits, two rotis for the road and a load of mithai!

dubai dubai

this place is like no other. i mean, all of my favorites in one - cinnabon, pf changs, red lobster, cold stone, dean & deluca, magnolia's. haha ON TOP of that, there's clear blue sparkling waters, warm weather and middle eastern food. and a load of indian people. what is not to like...

hao and i went to dubai for his good college friend mahdi's wedding. we, along with a dozen other penn alum, attended their reception which boasted lots of rhythmic dancing, radiant faces and some sharply dressed sudanese men. aww yeah.

also two of my cousins and their wives happen to live in dubai so we had some built in tour guides. they graciously took hao, art and i around and showed us the must-sees of the city. most happened to be in or around a mall which pleased me for some reason. below is a snapshot of my short but sweet stay in dubai! will share hao's blog post when he's done to give you the full rundown!

ps. there are not many pics of food here because i was very ill the first two days in dubai and didnt eat much. but rest assured there was incredible food and it shall be captured by the wonders of hao's blog.

the quran and a prayer mat in our hotel room

almaz by momo moroccan restaurant hidden in harvey nichols in mall of emirates

hookah vendor at souk madinat

ski slopes at the mall of the emirates...nbd

a little camel racing to start the day

burj khalifa

delicious pine nut hummus, which i subsequently ordered at every meal following 

hao and i before the wedding

the handsome mahdi, beautiful iman and their fams

hao, the groom mahdi and art enjoying the dance floor

shikher, my cousin, and karam, his wife, on our first day of touring/eating

rohan and shilpy on my last day