Tonkatsu Saboten, Parco Marina Bay

Tonkatsu Saboten is Mr L and my favourite shop whenever we have craving for some nice juicy tonkatsu. It's not just their tonkatsu, they also serve very good miso soup and cabbage, coupled with the zen like restaurant design and  ambience. 

Saboten opened it's first doors in Shinjuku back in 1966. Saboten, meaning cactus in Japanese was selected to embody the founder's vision, to have a shop full of vitality and to survive even in the harshest conditions. Today, they are one of the largest tonkatsu chain in Japan, having more than 500 shops with overseas outlets in Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore.

All of their shops adopt a similar design, with Japanese influence of blond wood accented furnishing. 

Their signature tonkatsu sauce and two salad dressing for the cabbage. I love their sesame dressing, which is very smooth with a slight hint of sesame. I can finish bowls of cabbage with this dressing. The other yuzu dressing is also good, very light with a refreshing yuzu taste. 

Sesame seeds in the grinder is provided, so you can grind them to your preference. It's meant to go with the tonkatsu, but I prefer to sprinkle it on the rice instead. 

Every set menu you order comes with free flow of rice, miso soup and cabbage. It also comes with green tea ice cream as the dessert.

The cabbage was served first. Compared to Tonkichi or Tonkatsu Ma Maison, I like Saboten's best. The cabbage is very juicy but still crunchy and light. If you look at the prices, free flow of cabbage costs $3, compared to free flow of rice at $2 or miso soup at $1.50. Maybe the cabbage comes from Japan, which is why it tastes so good and hence the pricetag?

The loin Katsu (they call it rosu katsu in Japanese). Loin comes with a bit of fat, which makes the meat juicier. There is also the fillet katsu (or hire in Japanese) which consists of leaner meat, but that tends to be a bit drier. 

If you like variety, they also offer a mix katsu set, which consists of a fried ebi, loin, fillet and crab croquette. Good mix to let you try a little of everything. 

I also like to order this side order dish, which is a pork and onion kushi katsu. Kushi means skewer, hence kushi katsu means skewers which are deep fried. 

The pork is very tender and the onion soft and juicy. Makes a good combination when deep fried together. 

Besides free flow of cabbage, rice and miso soup is also free flow with the set ordered. Mr L is a big fan of their miso soup. The soup is always served piping hot with just the right portion of miso. I think I had 3 bowls of their miso soup!

And don't forget the dessert which comes with the set, a very cold green tea ice cream. I believe that they put the plate and the spoon into the freezer together with the ice cream as well, as Mr L's spoon was also frozen and stuck to the ice cream when his was served.  


Besides the great food, the staff also provides you good service as well, coming occasionally to check if you need any refill of cabbage or miso soup. The only thing which was overly done was that every time they served something, or came to clean the table, they would have to say "shitsureishimasu" meaning "excuse me" in English. I guess it is their standard procedure to say it, showing politeness when approaching your table. However, their pronunciation is inaccurate, and I must have heard more than 10 times of this word during my whole meal. 


So Mr L - when is our next visit to Saboten again?

Saboten, Parco Marina Bay

9 Raffles Boulevard, #P3-01 Parco Marina Bay,
Millenia Walk

Open daily: 1130am - 10pm

They also have an outlet at Changi Airport T1
#031-004 Departure Check-in Hall, Level 3

Open daily: 8am - 1030pm

Vietnamese food in Ho Chi Minh

What comes to your mind on Vietnamese food? Rice paper spring rolls? Pho? During my trip to Ho Chi Minh recently, I've sampled various Vietnamese cuisines. They are more localised, and don't really suit my tastebuds, but it was a good experience trying out these dishes. 


Restaurant 1 (can't remember the name)

The ever so popular Vietnamese spring roll with prawns, but the herbs are a tad too overpowering. 

In the menu, it was written as "grilled hairy oyster with szechuan sauce". Oyster? more like clam instead. 

Fried frog legs with fish sauce and steamed asparagus. Frankly speaking, I was more interested in the asparagus than the frogs legs. 


Restaurant Mekong Rest Stop


After our tour of the Mekong Delta, we enroute to this restaurant called Mekong Rest Stop for lunch. 

This lady was making some omelette pancakes at one of the live cooking stations. 

In the menu, it is called mekong pancake stuffed with shrimps and pork. 

This is crispy fried "elephant ear" fish. Elephant ear fishes are found along the delta region, and hence is a specialty dish of that area. Deep fried with the scales on, the entire fish is edible, including the scales and the fins. You can also wrap it in the rice paper rolls which are provided on the side, to make your own elephant fish springrolls. 

Everybody was wondering what this big ball was, when we saw it at the restaurant. is it crispy? how do you eat it? is it sweet or savoury? 

The staff actually cuts it into bite size pieces served on a plate. It is actually quite oily though, as the whole ball is deep fried in oil. But this is delicious! Coated with sticky rice inside, it is slightly sweet and chewy. 


Restaurant Quan An Ngon 138


Our dinner in Ho Chi Minh during the last night was the best meal of all the other meals we had during our trip. Restaurant Ngon 138 is popular among locals and tourists, and maybe the reason why their food was more geared towards our tastebuds. 

Fried springrolls with seafood. Thank god it's not another rice paper fresh spring roll again, after having it at almost every meal. 

 Flowers of Banana salad with chicken. This dish is good! the banana flowers are crunchy and coupled with the chicken and peanuts, it's a good salad dish. I've tried a similar dish in Thailand before, and apparently this is also a popular dish in Vietnam.

When we read the menu before the food arrived, there was an item called "rice handle pot". hmmm what on earth is that? and when the food came, everything came to pieces... rice handle pot is actually claypot fried rice! 

And I spoke too soon about the spring roll... as usual, rice paper and a variety of herbs are provided, together with rice noodles to make your own fresh spring rolls. 

This is the steamed mudfish. The fish really has a muddy flavour to it... and I am a person who usually can take any kind of fish, no matter how fishy it tastes, but I can't even accept the overpowering muddy taste of the fish.

When we thought that Seafood hot pot as written in the menu was some sort of seafood soup, it is really an elaborate dish, with a hotpot soup, alongside vegetables and noodles. 

And how can a seafood hotpot be without seafood? a big plate of seafood was put into the piping hot soup. 


Pho 24

The last day in Ho Chi Minh was a last minute shopping day for us at Ben Thanh Market. As there happened to be a Pho24 restaurant just nearby, we decided to settle our lunch there.

Pho24 is a Vietnamese noodle restaurant chain, with 70 outlets opened as of June2012. They even have outlets overseas, such as in Jakarta, Manila, Phnom Penh, Macau, Hong Kong and even Tokyo.

The prices are quite affordable for a bowl of pho, ranging from 52,000VND (approx SGD3) for a simple bowl of pho with beef, to 69,000VND (approx SGD4) for the  "all in" bowl. 

I settled for the Pho Bo, which includes beef fillet, flank and brisket. All phos come with side plate of raw condiments of herbs and vegetables for you to add into your bowl of pho. The soup is very light, and I love the texture of the noodles when added with the crunchy beansprouts and onions together. Simple food is still the best. 


Lastly, how can we forget the famous Vietnamese beer - 333Beer or called "Ba Ba Ba" in Vietnamese. 

Originated in France in 1893, the production subsequently moved to Ho Chi Minh, where it continued to be produced using German ingredients and the best German technology. 


Mekong Rest Stop
60-62 Dong Du Street, Ben Nghe Ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City


Quan An Ngon 138
138 Nam Ky Khoi Nghia, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City


Pho24
located at various locations 
the one near Ben Thanh Market is located at:
134 Le Thanh Ton Street, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City

Tour of the Mekong Delta

The Mekong Delta lies west of Ho Chi Minh city and is an hour and a half drive away. Life in the Mekong Delta revolves much around the river, and the villages are often accessible by rivers and canals rather than by road. 

While waiting to board the boat, I was intrigued by the shops selling these bottles of liquor. 

There are cobra scorpion liquor, huge cobra liquor, even Gekko and sea horse liquor! I wonder who would buy these... locals? or tourist? 

Besides liquor, they also sell cream with snake venom... ? why would anyone want to buy snake venom? wouldn't the venom kill someone? but apparently, the cobratoxan warms your muscles to give you a comfortable feeling. Due to the direct impact of venom, it reduces pains from inflammatory arthritis, myositis and acute neuralgia. Would you care to try some?

Time to board the boat. This boat brings you across the river into the local villages. 


We reached the village which produces various items, mainly from coconuts. These cutlery are made from coconut husks.


These cutlery are made from corals. 




Monkeys made from coconut - they even wear Vietnamese hats! 

How about some wood carvings? If you realise, they can be closed up to become a flat piece of wood. It takes quite a skill to be able to carve the wood.. hence the hefty price to it. Cost about SGD12 a piece, no bargaining allowed. 

Many of my colleagues were buying this coconut candy.

I was more interested in the candy making process. The coconuts are grated first, then mixed rapidly over hot charcoal to form a brown paste. After which the staff would line the coconut paste into long strips and left to dry, Lastly, they would cut the dried coconut paste into small bite size pieces to form the coconut candy. 

We took a short walk to another village. 

Not forgetting to take some shots of the beautiful scenery around. 

We arrived at another village which has a resting hut all made from wood and palm tree leaves.

Various fruits are served, while the villages perform some southern Vietnamese folk songs for you. 

Finally comes the most exciting part of the trip, to take a boat ride along the small canals. 

Each boat can take 4 persons, and have 2 rowers, one at front and the other at the back. 

It's a tough job rowing these boats, and the boat trip lasts for about half an hour. 

We arrived at another village which produce honey products. We were served a small glass of honey water with pollen. The pollen looked like peanuts on first glance, and we were actually wondering why they had to put peanuts into the honey water. Only after finishing the drink then we realised that it was actually pollen and not peanuts! So all of us helped ourselves for another round of honey pollen water!

These are the stuff the villagers are selling - honey, pollen and cream. Yes the packet which looks like peanuts is actually the most expensive item - the honey pollen!

We were also served some snacks, like dried banana, dried ginger, which were available for sale as well.  

And here's the source of the honey! 

The bees actually gives me the creeps from near!

On the way back, everyone was served a huge coconut to quench our thirst. The coconut had alot of juice, but they weren't very sweet. Well it's better than nothing... especially in the hot afternoon weather.


Although it is quite a long way to Mekong Delta from Ho Chi Minh city, and the weather was quite hot in the afternoon, it was quite a good experience to explore the villages of the Delta. If you are in Ho Chi Minh and have a day to spend, do include the Mekong Delta into your itinerary.