Foot and Fire

French bread Vegetable Salad: cucumber, sliced sweet corn kernel carrots, grated sliced olive iceberg lettuce leaves Dressing: mayonnaise or sandwich spread yogurt (mango flavor) Mix all ingredients in a bowl, except the last two. In a separate bowl, mix the dressing and then, add to the vegetable. Can be eaten as sandwich to the french bread or as is with french bread on the side.  The Salad... *** The french bread ***

By GERLIE M. UY I tried one Chao Long (P45 for regular and P50 for with egg) and I wished to have tried other stalls selling the same to see to it I have had the representative Chao Long, a Vietnamese dish popular in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan. The taste is lightly sweet and it has no chili in it despite the red color. I cannot also get the taste of real meat stock in the soup....  But incidentally, I love the french bread which sells for ten pesos and can be ordered with meat sandwich at an extra cost.   This is the beef stew.  Chao Long with the condiments... Trying out Chao long with my travel buddy Cooky... eating the take home chao long... just passed by here and had my photo taken... We ate here and the signboard of the menu is below...

By GERLIE M. UY Eating worm is not that bad as I thought it would be. The texture of Tamilok is soft just like that of talaba or oyster. There is no strong fishy smell too when soaked in vinegar. Tamilok is taken from the dead wood of some mangrove trees. It sells a bit pricey because the process of extracting it from the deed wood is quite hard... Lato is a grape-like shape seaweeds. The green color is vibrant and it is just washed and served with vinegar. When eaten, Lato has a rhythmic crunch and the saltwater is evident in its taste. Chao long is a vietnamese influence to the delicacy of the Palawenos. However, it did not pass my taste test. It has some very sweet flavor when in fact I had a beef stew noodles. No chili taste despite its reddish color. I also don't like its coarse big strand of noodles... But I love the french bread that accompanies the noodles so much. They can also be ordered with some meat sandwich...

By GERLIE M. UY Eating is one of the highlights of every trip, next to photo shoots of course. And in vietnam, Pho is the mother of all meals...After a week of partaking Pho, we almost adapted to the no-salt taste and always-with-herbs mixture. In Tam Coc, a friend "luckily" picked a summer roll with lampunaya inside, we were all amused. My friends had their first taste of the abundant Dragon Fruit  there too. Meanwhile, I enjoyed their instant Pho on our last supper before heading to the airport; it tasted like the real thing. The instant hit among us was the deep fried dpring rolls and the beef/chicken with mushrooms and onions of Sa Pa Global hotel... Fried chicken with stir fried bamboo shoot. Unlike the way we cook it, they do not blanch the shoot so that it taste and smells so wrong. Fried chicken on top of fried rice. PHO BO, or beef noodle soup.. we were accustomed to its almost no-salt taste after a week of having it...LOL Condiments for the Pho... L_R Chili sauce w...