Wrap and Roll, Ho Chi Minh

Today was another day of route planning – specifically where we will head to in the Mekong Delta in a couple of days’ time.
All that planning warranted some good Vietnamese food, and we found just that at Wrap & Roll on Nguyen Hue Street in District 1 of Ho Chi Minh.

We tried three different variations of Vietnamese rolls – one already prepared and made with a sesame wrap, another wrapped in rice paper and filled with minced pork, and finally some pho beef which was wrapped in leaves, but which we had to roll ourselves, using rice paper.
We were given a variety of herbs and salad, along with veg, fruit and vermicelli noodles to include within our rolls.
Finally finished off with some powerful dips.
Really great food, with a few other branches throughout the country, and in Singapore.

Amazing Penang food

After a seven hour train journey, followed by a half hour wait for the fifteen minute ferry between Butterworth and Georgetown – we reached Penang.
To say Malaysian trains are slow is an understatement. But it was comfortable and there was some nice scenery out of the window before night fell. It also only cost £7 in total to travel the length of the country.

Penang is renowned for its street food and acclaimed by many international newspapers and magazines as not only having the best street food in Asia, but also up there globally.

Last time I sung the praises of street food on my blog I ended up having food poisoning (or a coincidental sickness bug) for the following four days. But without tempting fate, I’m going to say that what I ate today was amazing.

After a healthy lie-in (well into the afternoon) we popped over to get some hawker food lunch at the food court at New World Park:

There are so many options when it comes to Malaysian street food that we picked up a few leaflets to understand more about what each dish is:

I thought id start with what many consider to be the king of Penang street food – Char Kuey Teow (fried rice strip noodles):

Although I asked them to leave the prawns out of mine.

Having devoured that I followed it up with a visit to this chap:

For a Roti Canai:

It was amazing also. And both dishes combined cost about £1.50.

We left there and set off in search of Penang’s street art (post about that to follow tomorrow…).
Having covered a fair few miles on foot it was time to find somewhere for dinner.

There is so much choice in Penang, but given how popular it seemed, we settled for this place:

It was a good decision, as the Indian food was delicious. For little more than £2 each we got this:

I can’t describe how nice it was. This photo probably sums it up:

I was going to wash the spice down with this amusingly named drink:

But I’m at the point of bursting, so I’ll keep it for another day.
Having eaten myself to the point of sleeping I shall wish you goodnight.