Mr. Selfish and I took it easy in Saigon. We rented an apartment via airbnb, so we cooked and ate in mostly. We also worked out almost every day. It was glorious. Nevertheless, we had to eat out a few meals…

Our favorite restaurant in Saigon is Xu. We went there for our honeymoon in 2009 and couldn’t forget the coconut martinis. As it turns out, Xu had a buy-one-get-one-free happy hour from 5-7pm. Mr. Selfish and I went – twice.

The coconut martinis were as delicious as we remembered, but we also got the Xu Tini (with vodka, tea, vanilla, honey, and cream), which was phenomenal. We also sampled the “edible cocktails” which are made with liquid nitrogen. We tasted the coconut (vodka, fresh coconut juice, and liquid nitrogen) and strawberry glacier (rum, strawberries, and liquid nitrogen). Both were quite interesting and fun to eat/drink.

Aside from the fabulous cocktails, we also enjoyed a delicious Vietnamese dinner at Xu. For an appetizer, we had the three regions fresh spring rolls. For our entrees, we had coconut braised pork belly and Xu chicken rice. We also had morning glory as a side dish. It was all delicious!

 

As we have a tendency to do, we tried Cơm Niêu Sài Gòn because Anthony Bourdain recommended it. We had the signature baked rice (which is cooked in a clay pot and then smashed about with a mallet), fish rice balls (which Mr. Selfish devoured), morning glory (again – it’s my favorite!), and lemongrass ribs. Anthony doesn’t lie – it was all very tasty.

We also wanted something other than Viet food so we went to the highest rated Indian restaurant on Trip Advisor – Baba’s. It was not as good as Brick Lane, but it was still pretty good. We had samosas, okra, and jalfrezi chicken.

Finally, we visited Plan B, which is my cousins’ new champagne bar. The décor is lovely, and the food was very tasty. It was also great to see my cousins again (although one of them had to run off before we could take photos). Mr. Selfish and I actually stopped by Plan B twice. Good times.