They say it’s better to be born lucky than rich, and I know fortune was definitely smiling on me as I wandered down Ha Noi’s Giang Vo Street with a rumble in my stomach last week. If I hadn’t been hungry I might never have chanced upon local eatery Nui Tan and would have missed out on a very tasty treat.

Nui Tan has simple decor – checked tablecloths and prints of romantic landscapes adorning the walls – so it doesn’t exactly stand out from the crowd. But it’s cosy enough to be inviting and although it didn’t lure me in with flashing signs and promises of exotic taste sensations, it looked comfortable enough for me and my friend to pop inside for a look.

Sensing our interest, a member of the restaurant staff immediately stepped out to meet us. She led us to a table and gave us a minute to peruse the menu. Among the more familiar dishes, the first thing that caught my attention was the ostrich and vegetables. This type of meat is a common feature in many Ha Noi restaurants but I had yet to try it. So I decided to jump on this opportune moment and order some. Fearing being left out, my partner did the same.

But the choice-making didn’t end there. The meat could be pan-fried or cooked on a hot plate. I couldn’t decide so chef Luong Thanh Hai came out to give us a hand.

“The difference between the two dishes is the texture of the meat,” he said.
“The hot plate comes to your table and the meat cooks right in front of you. It’s a really special flavour, infused with butter and a hint of seasoning. The texture is slightly crispy on the outside and soft in the middle, delicious.The pan-fried ostrich is cooked longer so it’s not so tender.”

We opted for the more dramatic choice, the hot plate, and decided on a VND105,000 (US$6.50) piece of meat. You can order any size, according to how many people want to eat it.

In the need of a little greenery but in the mood for something new, my eye was caught by a vegetable I hadn’t heard of before, known as bang, cultivated on Tan Vien Mountain in Ha Tay Province. The bright green plant is known as being good for the skin and blood. A plate of bang with garlic costs VND35,000 ($2.10). We also picked some seasonal vegetables, cucumber and papaya, to have sliced on the side.

“The best way to eat the bang is with a bowl of fish sauce blended with garlic and a hint of chilli,” Hai said.

As soon as the hot plate arrived, the smell of the meat freshly sizzling in the butter made our stomachs cry out with desire. Our risk-taking certainly paid off. The rich buttery meat of the ostrich balanced perfectly with the subtle flavour of the bang.

Soon our plates were empty, but I thought to myself, why stop if you’re on a roll? So I decided to order my friend’s favourite food, pork leg roasted in honey, at VND125,000 ($7.80).

Normally I’m pretty strict about my low-fat diet, but the smell of the roasted pork was too tempting to refuse. The skin was cooked to perfection, crisp enough to make a good crunching noise but not break your teeth. This we ate with pieces of our newly-discovered bang dipped in the special recommended sauce. It was more than enough and soon we had to admit defeat and stop eating.

On being handed the moderately priced bill, the two of us agreed that the only unfortunate thing about coming to Nui Tan was succumbing to that full feeling before the plate was empty. They even gave us a small gift of homemade mango jam as a keepsake.

It wasn’t until we’d been led to the highest mezzanine floor of the Opera Club that I realised what we had actually entered. At the heart of this low-lit venue was a cavernous theatre and at the centre of this theatre, a stage. And it wasn’t until leaving that I realised the stage could be seen from the multiple levels and hidden corners of the club floor.
The size of the interior – with its wood-panelled walls and art deco lead lighting – seemed to rival that of the Ha Noi Opera House, though this opulent decor was more a melting pot of Asian and European styles, business club meets romantic restaurant.

The club has been built by the same man who created such Hanoian superclubs as New Century, the Ha Le Club and Ho Guom Xanh (the one with the enormous graphic equaliser on the outside, opposite Hoan Kiem Lake.)

And he’s kept with the entertainer theme at the Opera Club. Musicians and singers offer polished performances from 9pm to 11pm nightly. On weeknights, the repertoire ranges from flamenco to Vietnamese love ballads and operatic renditions of Ave Maria. On weekends, the place becomes a jazz club. If you’re looking to have a decent conversation over dinner, it’s advisable to get there with time to spare before the music kicks off.

On the top mezzanine, we were offered the dining equivalent of a comfortable balcony seat; to one side we could see down to the “front-row” tables and stage, to the other, wall-length windows offered a view to the fairy-lit foliage outside. This seemed like a place where businessmen could retire for a quiet couple of drinks, a cigarillo and a dose of live song.

Though there is a Vietnamese specials menu on each table, we opted for the European a-la-carte option, on which the Opera Club is hoping to build its culinary name. Head chef Nguyen Quoc Dat has 10 years of experience working with European chefs in Ha Noi. Most recently he worked at the former President’s Garden (now New Window). His love of quality produce from around the world comes through in the Western-style offerings.

The club offers a breakfast menu from 7am to 10am (VND18,000), ranging from sticky rice and pho to omelette with chorizos, whereas the dining menus – both European and Vietnamese – are available for lunch and in the evening.

We began with drinks. As the house wines were the only ones served by the glass, I opted for the house red (VND55,000), a dry Chilean drop, nicely chilled, not remarkable but not unpleasant. Other wines available in bottles come from Chile, the US, France, Spain, Italy and Australia, ranging in price from VND300,000 to VND2,100,000. My friend chose a Becks (VND40,000) from the wide selection of imported beers. Cocktails and all manner of juices, coffees and teas are also available.

To start off, I went for the mussel soup (VND30,000), a local speciality with a European twist, and, to my mind, the most impressive dish of the night. It came with a perfectly baked, light pastry draped over the bowl. I broke through the pastry to discover a soup with a touch of spice, a touch of sweet, plenty of mussels and vegetables, and just enough cream to round it off. My friend and I shared the Opera salad (VND40,000), which I enjoyed – lettuce, boiled egg, potato and a tasty, freshly-made mayonnaise. We also went for an Italian Parma ham with melon salad (VND100,000), a nice mixture of flavours and textures.

Our mains of choice were all about meat. My Kiwi friend and I, an Australian, were offered a taste of home, as many of the meals on the European menu include meat imported from the Antipodes. I went for the Australian lamb ribs and vegetables (VND180,000). The lamb chops were nicely done to my medium-well preference, and simply topped by crispy grilled garlic, making the most of the succulent lamb. Th

e mash was buttery, tasty and formed into shell-shaped dollops. Sampling my friend’s Grilled New Zealand 200g beef tenderloin with gorgonzola sauce (VND180,000), I found the rich taste a little overwhelming. He, on the other hand, found it was the perfect antidote to a bout of homesickness that had been plaguing him in recent times.

We had just enough room for a taste of dessert. My friend’s cold cheesecake (VND50,000) was impressive, with that proper cream-cheese/lemon flavour and a consistency that you could really sink your… tongue into. My delicate Profiteroles (VND50,000) were nicely done, too. All this was washed down with a pot of Vietnamese tea.

To one who didn’t know better, this young club would seem like a well-established stalwart on Ha Noi bar-dining-entertainment scene. Our night there was enhanced by attention to detail: the cucumber and carrot sticks promptly delivered to our table with thousand island dressing, the flowers floating in pales throughout the club’s multiple levels, the soft, comfortable chairs. And the service, though still going through a slight teething stage, was attentive and eager, while the prices matched the style of the venue. All this was topped by quality music enriched by first-rate acoustics, in a setting that provides for a veritably out-of-the-ordinary dining experience.

Among the innumerable pho shops in Ha Noi, Pho Thin is in a league of its own. How do they make noodles and beef taste so good? Julie Ginsberg finds out.
I have a confession to make: for the first three months I lived in Ha Noi, I didn’t especially like pho.

I gave it a fair try – after all, Ha Noi pho is considered a culinary delicacy nationwide, so as a new Hanoian I was determined to appreciate it. But after sampling a handful of the thousands of pho joints scattered around Ha Noi, I still didn’t understand the appeal. Pho was just noodles and beef in broth, nothing to write home about.
But then I tried Pho Thin at 13 Lo Duc Street.

After my first bite (slurp?), I knew this was not just any pho. It tasted entirely different from any I’d ever tried: the beef was lean and tender, the broth flavourful and aromatic. I dived into my bowl and ate until not a noodle remained.

As I discovered on a subsequent visit to Pho Thin at 8.30am, I’m far from the only one who thinks this is the best pho around. When I first tried Pho Thin, I hadn’t realised I was sitting in the extra seating section, not the main restaurant. This time, the owner barked at me, “Money!” and sent me two doors down to the much larger main eatery, where a line of people was waiting to pay and receive their steaming bowls in return.

It was a veritable pho factory, the closest thing to Vietnamese fast food that I’ve yet experienced in Ha Noi. Pho Thin’s efficient method for handling as many as 2,000 customers per day would make McDonalds proud.

After paying VND13,000 (US$0.80) for a bowl of pho and some quay (crispy bread sticks for dipping), I squeezed into one of the long tables lined with diners. I added half a ladle of homemade vinegar and a touch of spicy sauce and dug in, marvelling at the subtle, simple goodness of this combination of basic ingredients.

A little investigation confirmed my suspicions that Pho Thin’s product is one of a kind. In 1980, Pho Thin became a fixture on the Ha Noi pho scene when owner Nguyen Trong Thin introduced his innovation on the classic dish: stir-frying the beef instead of boiling it, as is customary. Within six months, the taste had made waves, becoming so popular that in 1999 Thin purchased more space to expand the restaurant.

Copycat restaurants bearing the same name have since popped up, but don’t be fooled: there is but one true Pho Thin.

Twenty-seven years after its founding, the restaurant still has no trouble filling its seats without advertising. Fifty-six-year-old Thin, who can always be found outside overseeing the operation, chatting with regulars and helping people park, says that the quality of the product speaks for itself, and word of mouth helps too. He cited the Vietnamese saying, “If something has an aroma, people will smell it” – and come running.

According to Thin, the real secret to the restaurant’s success has more to do with a customer-oriented mindset than the novelty of pho with stir-fried beef.
“We do business with our hearts,” he said. “Our priority is pleasing our customers, not making money.”

After our first meeting, Thin insisted that I return at 8am the following day to have breakfast with him. Over hot bowls of Pho Thin’s one and only meal option, the boss told me that he’d come up with his signature innovation on the standard pho as a 16-year-old tinkering around in the kitchen.

Forty years later, Thin’s artist children have little interest in taking over the restaurant after he retires, but he says he may pass it on to his many nieces and nephews, who can be found scurrying around the restaurant carrying trays of brimming bowls or platters of noodles.

Once we’d finished our coffees, I finally begged off to get to work. Thin handed me the sketch he’d drawn of me earlier, shook my hand and invited me to come back anytime. I told him he could count on it.

Potatoes are an important product in Vietnam. It is estimated that more than half a million tons of potatoes are sold in the country per year.

The Vietnamese and German governments have launched a project of promoting the production of potatoes in Vietnam, with a commitment of four million euro by Germany and corresponding capital of EUR1.8mil from Vietnam for a projected ten year plan to raise potato production and consumption.

The project of promoting the production of potatoes in Vietnam began in 2000 in some northern provinces such as Son La, Lao Cai, Tuyen Quang, Ha Tay, Nam Dinh, Quang Ninh, Lang Son, Bac Ninh, Bac Giang and Hai Phong.

Under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s guidance, the project concentrates on introducing technology of increasing potato growth, speeding up seed germination, fostering progressive seed registration processes, hastening quarantine and recommending sector policy.

The target of the project is to increase income in small producing households as a result of better planning, and ensure efficient processing and updating of documents issued by the ministry.Texts and films will be presented at the Potato Days to help visitors understand the source of potatoes and to learn about the rural areas in Nam Dinh Province. Potato art and culture also will be stated.

Food from potatoes such as chopped and fried potatoes, boiled potatoes, ground potatoes and Nikugato will be served by famous restaurants in Hanoi.

Nha Trang is a destination for international holiday vacationers.Families, couples and groups travel from Russia, China, Japan, Europe, and the US to frequent the coastal resort town and visit its islands.

The city is the perfect place to relax because it caters to all tastes.The weather can pose a problem for a few months before January but once the Tet (Lunar New Year) begins, thousands of people are stretched out on their towels and deckchairs along the beach.Good weather also means water visibility improves on the islands’ coral reefs and guests from all over the world come specifically to scuba dive.

The popular tourist destination offers mixed reviews for surfing fans.The coastline certainly catches some decent-sized swell, but it is mainly dumping shore breaks on the main beach.These are a lot of fun for bodysurfers experienced with waves breaking in shallow water.

But for poor swimmers, the deep water and outward water pull can present a danger.The ocean deserves great respect and Nha Trang’s beach requires constant supervision for children and inexperienced swimmers.Seafood is the other big draw for Nha Trang.The range is impressive and cheap.Huge crayfish, the size of small cats, go for about US$15 each, with smaller ones costing some $6 apiece. It is good business for the locals.

Along the ocean strip there are countless street food vendors. Foreigners cannot resist a browse along their promenade because the oceanic delectables present such good value. The crayfish and shrimps are grilled over charcoal, sliced with scissors, and served with lime juice, salt, pepper and chili, dishing out a delicious feast. The footpaths are packed with noisy tables full of people drinking beer and gorging meals. It is an impressive operation for the improvisational vendors given that they attract more customers than many large restaurants in a night.

One of the beach side street stalls is a big family operation. There are about five sisters, cousins and many brothers who make sure the business runs smoothly. These sisters meet for coffee at about two in the afternoon to wait for the trolleys carrying seafood, stored about half a kilometer away, to be delivered by the brothers. One brother drives his motorbike and pushes the trolley along with his foot while the other steers in front. The view is reminiscent of a “seafood trolley-cattle-round-up” unfolding in the town’s main street. A second trolley is stacked high with little stools and tables, buckets of cutlery and plastic tubs crammed with bowls, and boxes and bags of seafood.

It takes an hour to set up the nomadic restaurant with customers straggling in at about 4 p.m. They run a wire for the lights and by 8 p.m. the team is pumping out grilled lobsters and clams nonstop. People guzzle beer and drinks with their crustaceans.

Some of the beautiful crowds from HCMC drop by in their Mercedes or BMWs.

The brothers are running around like mad; the sisters are selling, weighing, fanning coals, grilling, serving tables, writing bills, collecting cash and sweeping the flow of leftover shells into bins.Business does not stop until the customer inflow ends. At times, the family dishes out tasty portions until dawn. On most days, the operation ends by 1 a.m.

One brother goes and squats in the median road strip to count the stack of money brought in from the night.When everything is cleaned and packed up after about an hour, everybody is exhausted.They then go have a drink at the local sailing club or return home to collapse, satisfied with the knowledge that they have filled the bellies of the hungry hordes of Nha Trang tourists.

Obernai is charming, even among all its beautiful sisters.It was the birth place of Saint-Odile, daughter of Atticus, duke of Alsace. It has great fortificationsof the thirteen century. It ravishes the eye, the ear and the imagination. It posseses an elegant belfry and a Rennaissance well whose stone baldachin is sustained by three delicately ornamented corinthian columns. Its Hotel de Ville is a marvel (sixteenth century), where, as the other monuments of Obernai, the late Gothic and the early Renaissance harmonize in the most unexpected and delicious fashion. The projecting loggia of the facade is one of the finest to be seen in Alsace.

In Rosheim, a town located several kilometers north of Obernai, you will be able to admire the church which is considered to be characteristic of the Alsatian Roman architectural style.

Because of the caprices of its plan and the variety of its construction, the old Alsatian city is delightful. Everything here is irregular: not two houses show the same design or the same height; two squares obstinately avoid all symmetry; the streets wind about with singular detours all these salients, all this angles, all these curves produce unexpected and exquisite plays of light and shades.

Low gates with large arches, casements with delicate mullions, wooden galleris with elegant ballustrade, half effaced frescoes, sculptured consoles and beams, fine medallions garlanded with ciphers, towers and belfries, belvederes and bay-windows; here, we behold the whole decoration of the Renaissance which discloses a particular taste, peculiarly Alsatian.

The delicious Pfister House, rue des Marchands, is among the most typical sixteenth century houses, some preserving a touch of Gothic, others imitating the design of Venitian palaces, among the purely Alsatians mansions with uncovered beams, whose high step gables have the air of pagoda, with their redans decorated with crescents and little obelisks. In addition, there are noble french structures of the eighteenth century, with pilasters, pediments and garlands. And all this pell-mell is charming.

To taste all the charm of Colmar,it is necessary to wander at twilight through the southern quater which is traversed by the Launch and to find the bridge of Saint-Peter at the edge of the town. On the two banks, very ancient houses seem to rise on tiptoe to peek at the little river over the foliage of their tiny gardens. The overlapping roofs merge into each other in the twilight dominated by the tower of Saint Martin. Among this quarter lie the Tanner’s quarter, the Halle du Marché, and the Petite Venise.

The museum of Colmar is installed in the building of the ancient Dominican convent of Uterlinden. This monastery was rich and celebrated in the Middle-Age. Several of its nuns had visions and numerous miracles are reputed to have occurred there.

The Stanislas square, attributed to Héré de Corny, constitutes one of the rare architectural example of Rococo in France. The ironwork of the gates were masterly crafted by the talented Jean Lamour.

This Iron lace supplemented by the banister of the Hotel de Ville’s staircase and the fifty six balconies of the buildings that surround the place required several years of work (1751-1755). Despite the Rococo style which inspired that enormous wrought, the integrality of the work maintains an incomparable equilibrium and proportion.

The Stanislas square at night is the most elegant to be in Nancy. In summer, the access is prohibited to traffic and the square hosts several cultural shows of great quality.
On the west side of the square stands the musée des Beaux-Arts.
This museum hosts a particularly rich collection of classical Italian and French school, as well as some important modern masters. However it is somewhat deceiving that the connection with Lorraine artists such as Georges de Latour, Callot and le Lorrain is not stressed. Among several great paintings by Tintorreto, Rubens, Delacroix, Modigliani, Manet, Bonnard, Wlaminck, Vuillard, Signac, Dufy and Matisse; stands the wonderful Annunciation by Carravagio. A room is dedicated to some wonderful works from the Ecole de Nancy and Art Nouveau periods (Works from Gallé and Daum).
Walk under the Arch of Triumph, and you will reach the former Ducal Palace through the Place de la Carrière. There, spreads the Musée Historique Lorrain.

This museum deals with all aspect of Lorraine’s history: Paintings, archeology, sculptures, furniture, tapestries etc…
It has all that the musée des Beaux-Arts is missing concerning Lorraine’s past.

It contains several etchings and engravings from Jacques Callot (1592-1635), and Georges de Latour is well represented.
In the church of the Convent of the Cordeliers across the museum, you can visit the tomb of the Dukes of Lorraine and the ducal chapel.

The Old Quarter around the Cathedral Hosts several very picturesque old Renaissance houses such as theKamerzell house, the Chambre de Commerce ( Business Center) and in the rue Mercière, an old pharmacy, la pharmacie du Cerf dating back to the thirteenth century.
Southwest of the city la Petite France casts on the somewhat formalism of the exigent city an unsubstantial veil of easement, as you stroll along the river Ill, among the old houses of pure Alsatian architectural styles.

Two museums are worth seeing:

• Musée de l’oeuvre Notre-Dame: houses a magnificient collection of Medieval and Renaissance art from Strasbourg and Alsace that is extremely rich and varied.See the stunning head of Christ from the Abbey of Wissembourg, c.1050; one of the earliest known figurative works in stained glass.
• Musée des Arts Décoratifs: Contains one of the most important ceramic collection in France- Works from the Hannong factory (famous eighteenth century manufacturer of Strasbourg).