IF you love the fresh, light and natural flavors of authentic Vietnamese cuisine, you still have two days to catch the Vietnamese food festival at the Market Café of New World Manila Bay Hotel in Ermita, Manila.
Ongoing until Sunday, September 13, 2015, A Gastronomic Journey to Vietnam showcases the light and healthy cuisine of Vietnam, including its famous Beef Pho noodle soup and Goi Cuon Tom (traditional Vietnamese fresh spring rolls wrapped in rice paper). The two-week food promotion features quite a number of authentic Vietnamese dishes on the daily lunch and dinner buffets, with three live cooking stations for preparing the Beef Pho, wrapping of Goi Cuon Tom and cooking of Vietnamese Pancakes a la minute.
Held in partnership with New World Saigon Hotel, Vietnam Airlines and the Embassy of Vietnam, A Gastronomic Journey to Vietnam lays out spreads of Vietnamese dishes prepared by two Vietnamese guest chefs who “flew” in from New World Saigon Hotel in Vietnam, Chefs Tran Van Dong (Chef Dong) and Tran Thanh Thuy (Chef Ana). Together, they are manning the kitchen for the duration of the promotion to make sure diners get a taste of authentic Vietnamese dishes prepared the traditional way using the freshest herbs, produce, seafood and meats. These include a variety of fresh herbs and spices, including lemongrass, mint, coriander (also known as cilantro or wansuy), bird’s eye chili, lime, basil leaves, galangal and cinnamon.
Due to its use of fresh, natural herbs and spices to flavor its dishes and its strong leaning towards fresh vegetables and seafood, Vietnamese cuisine is considered as one of the healthiest cuisines in the world. So, health and fitness buffs, as well as those who enjoy their food light and fresh, take to Vietnamese cuisine like second nature. Vietnamese food boasts of just the right balance of flavors—sweet, sour, salty and tangy—and uses minimal oil in its cooking. Take the very popular Pho, which has protein in its thinly sliced beef, combined with beansprouts, onion, spring onion, bird’s eye chili, herbs and spices, in a flavorful clear soup that has been slow-cooked for hours. It is served with additional beansprouts, basil and mint leaves for dumping into the hot soup while dining.
Another must-try Vietnamese soup dish that is available on the buffet for the food fest is Pineapple Sour Soup with Prawns. Its clear soup is sweet and sour, and it’s filled with prawns, pineapple, okra and tomatoes. Unlike our sinigang, it leans more towards the sweet side because of the pineapple, but it’s just as interesting in its uniqueness.
Other interesting Vietnamese items on the buffet include Vietnamese Heart of Palm Salad (heart of palm or ubod with prawns, carrots, onion, coriander and peanuts), Pomelo and Squid Salad (which combines segments of peeled pomelo with freshly cooked squid and crispy dried squid), Chicken Cabbage Salad, Vietnamese Rice Pancake with Prawn and Pork, Vietnamese Chicken Glass Noodles with Bamboo Shoots, Vietnamese Caramelized Pork, Fried Prawn Skewer with Chili Salt, Fried Mackerel with Tomato Sauce, Braised Catfish in Clay Pot, Water Fern Cake with Prawn and Pork, and Garlic Roasted Chicken Leg with Honey and Soy Sauce.
Vietnamese desserts are interesting to try because there are familiar items and there are totally unfamiliar ones. There’s Corn and Coconut Sweet Soup, which is similar to the Filipino corn dessert with gata (coconut cream) called Guinataang Mais, and Sweet Banana and Tapioca Soup, which is pretty close to our Guinataang Halo-halo. The Sweet Mung Bean Soup with Seaweed is a curious combination, but it’s good.
Vietnamese desserts go well with Vietnamese coffee, which is strong, dark and bitter with a hint of almond flavor. It is brewed in a single-cup filter that sits on top of a coffee cup filled with a thin layer of condensed milk at the bottom. The brewing coffee then drips into the cup, forming a layer of strong coffee over the condensed milk. After the brewed coffee shall have finished dripping into the cup, the coffee and the condensed milk are stirred to blend and poured over a glass filled with ice cubes for a cold caffeine fix.
The tradition of Vietnamese coffee drinking, which traces its roots to its French heritage and Vietnam’s standing as the world’s fourth largest coffee exporter, can be enjoyed with the Vietnamese food festival at Market Café or ordered, hot (Ca Phe Sua Nuong) or cold (Ca Phe Sua Da), with a variety of Vietnamese delicacies for two at New World Manila Bay Hotel’s The Lounge.
In addition, the Vietnamese food festival at Market Café also gives diners a chance to win a Saigon getaway, which includes a two-night stay at New World Saigon Hotel and Manila-Saigon-Manila round-trip airfare tickets for 2 courtesy of Vietnam Airlines.
So if you like Vietnamese food and would like to enjoy an authentic Vietnamese dining experience, head for New World Manila Bay Hotel and catch the last two days of its A Gastronomic Journey to Vietnam.
(New World Manila Bay Hotel is located at 1588 Pedro Gil St. corner M.H. Del Pilar, Manila 1004; with telephone number 252-6888.)
