December 2023

During my travels in Vietnam, I got to see that Vietnamese cuisine is more than just Phở and Bánh mì. I had the chance of trying so many kinds of dishes, as the foods were generally cheap and delicious! What helps is that Vietnamese cuisine is considered one to be one of the healthiest cuisines in the world due to its reliance on fresh herbs, vegetable and meats. You can see below how each dish is not too heavy and utilizes lots of fresh ingredients. Here is my list of my top 5 eats in Vietnam!

Bún Mắm. 9/10

I was able to find this delicious noodle salad dish in Bún Mắm Bà Đông in the city of Da Nang, so make sure to head here if you are in the area! This pungent dish is made with rice noodles topped with roast pork, Vietnamese herbs, cucumbers, peanuts, and topped with a flavourful anchovy sauce. There’s so many flavours and textures going at once, from the fishy anchovy sauce, crunch of the herbs, and the soft tender roast pork. For only 25,000 VND ($1.43 CAD), you can definitely get another bowl!

Bánh mì. 9/10

Vietnam’s favourite street food, you can find vendors all over Vietnam selling these. I have tried a lot of bánh mì in Vietnam and trust me that the quality in these sandwiches really vary in the place that you go to. The best one I’ve had is at Bánh Mì̀ Bà Lan in Da Nang. They serve pork sausage, cold cuts, pâté, Vietnamese herbs, cucumber in a French baguette. They also add salt and pepper and warm in an oven before they serve it to you! Sandwich heaven can be had for only 20,000 VND ($1.14 CAD). If you can’t make it here, I also recommend these places

• Bánh Mì Phượng in Hoi An
• Madam Khanh – The Banh Mi Queen in Hoi An
• Bánh Mì 25 in Hanoi

Stuffed Squid with Pork (Muc Nhoi Tom Thit). 8.5/10

Hoi An’s Morning Glory Restaurant serves an array of Vietnamese food in a more upscale setting (compared to plastic stools). This restaurant was recommended by many of my friends and fellow travellers. I got the stuffed squid with pork (Muc Nhoi Tom Thit), which is squid is stuffed with a mixture of shrimp, pork mince, wood ear mushrooms, mung bean vermicelli, and chili sauce. This restaurant is more of a splurge as this dish came to 175,000 VND ($10.02 CAD).

Bun thit nuong. 8.5/10

This is my favourite Vietnamese dish back in Canada, so it had to be in my top 5 list. This cold rice-vermicelli noodle dish is topped with grilled pork, fresh herbs like basil and mint, fresh salad, bean sprouts, and might come with spring rolls. Then its dressed with fish sauce, which gives the dish its flavour. When you are tired of soups and looking for something or refreshing, definitely get this! They can be found all over Vietnam and is pretty cheap starting at 20,000 VND ($1.14 CAD).

Hanoi’s Pho Thin. 8.5/10

Arguably the national dish of Vietnam. If you only knew one Vietnamese dish, it is probably this one! Vietnamese refugees brought this dish to all over the world.

My favourite bowl was from Hanoi’s Pho Thin. This place is a game changer because they use stir-fried beef instead of raw beef. This makes the meat so flavorful and adds more flavour to the already delicious broth. While a little more expensive at 60,000 VND ($3.43 CAD), it is worth it!

Now when you are in Vietnam, you have to try phở in the north and the south. They differ by noodle width, sweetness of broth, and choice of herbs. Northern phở uses wider rice noodles compared to the south and the broth is usually less sweet than the ones in the south. The one we commonly eat in the West is the southern version, where we add bean sprouts, fresh herbs, and hoisin sauce. The northern version lacks these garnishes as most of it (lots of green onions) is already added to the soup and is served with quẩy (fried bread).

Saigon’s Pho Hung. 8/10

• Bún chả
• Bún bò Huế
• Bánh canh
• Bún Ốc
• Bánh cuốn
• Cơm tấm
• Cơm dia
• Cao lầu
• Mì Quảng
• Bánh xèo
• Bánh căn
• Bò né
• Fresh rolls (Gỏi cuốn)
• Fried pork spring rolls (Nem ran)
• Vietnamese Pizza (Bánh tráng Dalat)
• Bánh tôm
• Grilled banana in sticky rice (Xoi chuoi nuong)
• Vietnamese curry
• Vietnamese fried rice
• Chè
• Avocado coconut ice cream(Kem bo)
• Banana pancakes
• Vietnamese coffee (Cà phê sữa đá)
• Egg coffee (Cà phê trứng)
• Coconut coffee

3 Days 28 places eaten

For Labour Day weekend, I found a great deal on a flight to New York. I invited my girlfriend and my good friend who was a big foodie. We had one thing in mind there and that was to EAT! I will take show you what we ate in our 2017 New York City food tour!

Day 1

We started with Katz’s Delicatessen on the Lower East Side which has been serving up pastrami sandwiches for over a century. This popular spot can get pretty crowded so try to beat the rush by hitting the off peak hours. Their pastrami sandwich was absolutely delicious, with the meat being so juicy and flavourful. Just keep in mind that this is a pretty expensive sandwich at $21.45 USD but the portion size is humongous.

Pastrami Sandwich. 8.5/10

This treat from Taiyaki NYC is popular all over instagram. We decided to see if it was worth the hype. At $7 USD per taiyaki, they load up flavoured ice cream onto a taiyaki (Japanese fish shaped cake). It definitely is a treat where you can show off to all your friends in social media. The taste itself is nothing special. Basically, Do it for the gram, not for your taste buds.

Soft Serve in a Taiyaki. 6.5/10  Joe’s Pizza is your spot for a classing and cheap New York slice. They serve hot, cheesy slices of foldable pizza until into the night. They run about $3-4 USD a slice. To be honest, New York style pizza is not my favourite. I actually prefer Chicago deep dish. Slice of Pepperoni pizza. 7/10

I have always been fascinated in the culture of northwestern region of China, where there is a large influence of Turkish and Muslim cultures. The cuisine also reflect this influence as they use a lot of spices such as cumin, and meats such as lamb. My first exposure was eating the Spicy Cumin Lamb Hand-Ripped Noodles in Soup at Xi’an Famous Foods. The noodles were good, the lamb was tender, however the flavour of the soup was just ok. Maybe, I had too high of an expectation for this place. At about $12 USD, I think its a steep price for a bowl of Chinese noodle soup.

Spicy Cumin Lamb Hand-Ripped Noodles in Soup. 6.5/10

Day 2

For the iconic New York bagels, we headed to Russ & Daughters in the morning. This shop has been serving bagels and lox to locals for over 100 years. I got the bialy sandwich with cream cheese and lox.  The lox was mild and melt in your mouth buttery. Along with the flavour of the raw onions, the rich cream cheese and the juicy tomatoes, it made for a glorious breakfast. Just to note, it is a pretty expensive sandwich at around $15 USD depending on what you get.

Bialy with cream cheese and lox. 8.5/10

My friend really wanted to go to HARBS as he saw it in an Eater blog. It is a Western style Japanese cafe, mixing French techniques with Japanese flavours such as red bean and matcha. I tried the Strawberry Mille cake which was super light and airy. The icing was just the right amount of sweetness and complimented well with the fresh strawberries. I also ordered the royal milk tea which was very delicious and creamy. You will have to good money for the service, ambience, and quality of food as each cake is  around $8 to $12 USD and a small pot of tea is around $7 to $9 USD.

Strawberry Mille Cake with Royal Milk Tea. 7.5/10

The quintessential burger of New York, the famous Shake Shack is a definite must if you are in New York. This is easily worth the hype. The patty is juicy, and the buns are so soft. The fries are crispy outside and tender inside. Their frozen custards are rich and creamy. It was so good, that we went twice to Shake Shack on this trip! All this costs around $16 USD. Make sure you go here on off peak hours to avoid the long lines.

A Shack Burger, crinkle-cut cheese fries, and frozen custard. 8.5/10

Day 3

We trekked to this area in Brooklyn which seemed like to be in the middle of nowhere for Ichiran, a Japanese restaurant specialized in Tonkotsu Ramen. You can customize your own ramen from the firmness of the noodles to the richness of the broth to the amount of spice and garnish in your soup. The concept is unique as it’s a no talking experience. You’re seated individually with dividers and have minimal interaction with the staff. The ramen has an incredibly strong, rich broth, perfectly cooked noodles, and delicious fatty pork. I also highly recommend the additional side of pork belly as it absolutely melts in your mouth. Be ready to shell out money, as my bill came to $31 USD.

Tonkotsu Ramen with a side of pork belly. 8/10

Instead of a traditional New York steakhouse, we decided to go to Ikinari Steak. This is Japan-based standing steak restaurant chain has made its way to New York. At around $30 USD depending on the cut and size, the steak was delicious, tender and juicy! It comes with numerous garnishes and sides that they have such as corn, onions, garlic pepper rice. There is also an array of sauces and dressings to choose from to add to your meat.

Assorted Steak with Garlic and Onions. 7/10

This 24-hour East Village mainstay, Veselka has been serving up traditional Ukrainian food since 1954. It has a great ambience and is a great place to hang out and eat. They have different kinds of pierogis, from the usual cheese to other unique fillings such as short rib and buffalo chicken. They also give you an option of boiled or deep fried. The pierogis are pretty good but kinda pricey at $11 USD for 7 pieces.

Cheese and buffalo chicken pierogi. 7/10

We also tried

• Morgenstern’s Finest Ice Cream
• Bubble tea from Boba Guys
• Korean Fried Chicken from Bon Chon chicken
• Takoyaki from Otafuku x Medetai
• Clam Chowder from Cull and Pistol
• Shisha at Cloister Cafe
• Mandoos from Mandoo Bar
• An enormous soup dumpling from the Drunken Dumpling
• Cheesecake tarts from Eileen’s Special Cheesecake
• 375° Thrice Cooked Fries

And things we did in between eating:

Bonus vlog footage:

The three day trip cost each person $ 862.25 CAD. As you can see below, we did not hold back spending on food, as food made up the largest chunk of the whole trip’s budget. What was nice for a group of three is that we were able to share the food that we bought and split the cost of the AirBnB. New York is an expensive city to visit, but its an amazing place to visit regardless!

In September 2018, I embarked on my long term travel to South East Asia. I quit my cushy corporate job and decided to pursue what I love the most, to travel! I booked a one way ticket to Singapore and I don’t know exactly when I will be back. In this post, I will show you what to pack for long term travel in South East Asia!

Clothing

• 1 long sleeve button shirt
• 1 short sleeve button shirt
• 8 t-shirts
• 1 thin hoodie sweater
• 1 pants
• 1 pair of jeans (South East Asia is too hot for jeans)
• 2 shorts
• 1 pair of gym shorts
• 1 pair of swimming shorts
• 1 North Face rain jacket
• 7 pairs of underwear
  • 3 pairs of MEC T1 Classic Boxer Briefs
  • 4 pairs from Uniqlo
• 1 hat
• 3 pairs of athletic socks
• 1 pair of dress socks
• 1 pair of Nike sneakers
• 1 pair of sandals

Toiletries

• 1 microfibre travel towel
• 2 bottles of sunscreen (sunscreen is expensive in South East Asia)
• Toothbrush and toothpaste
• Comb
• Coconut oil
• Travel size shampoo and soap
• Medicine
  • Pepto Bismol
  • Imodium
  • Allergy medicine
  • Advil
• Baby wipes
• Deodorant
• Emergency toilet paper
• Shaver and charger
• Nail clipper

Electronics

Other

• Passport
• Wallet
• A MEC fold-able day bag
• 2 large and 1 medium MEC Travel Light Packing Cubes
• Toiletry bag
• Small combination padlock
• School locker lock
• 1 pen (very convenient for those immigration forms)
• Ear plugs
• 2 Sleeping masks
• 1 umbrella
• 1 pair of sunglasses
• laundry bag
• 2 paper clips (for opening SIM card slot)

Didn’t end up bringing the guidebook

My Bag

I strongly recommend a travel backpack for your travels in South East Asia. It is so much more convenient than lugging around luggage around in beaches, dirt roads and other rough terrains.

After much research, I chose the black Osprey Porter 46 as my main travel bag. The main reason I chose this was because it was one of the biggest bags that you can bring as carry on as I did not want to pay for additional baggage fees. There are also compression straps to help your bag look smaller to help you get by those carry on checks at the airport.

Other reasons why this bag is awesome:

• There is a massive U-zip opening which makes it easy to pack and unload like a suitcase
• Lockable zippers keep your gear/clothes safe
• There is a protected laptop/tablet sleeve in the rear which makes it safer place to put your valuables. So convenient when you need to get out your laptop at airport security
• And if you are checking in your bag, you can store the harness and hipbelt into the backpanel for safe keeping

After taking this to Mexico and two months in South East Asia, I am pretty satisfied with the bag.

In the end, I weighed my bag and it was around 10 kg, which is more than the weight limit for most carry ons for budget airlines in Asia. Fortunately, I have yet to be caught as the compression straps helps my bag look like a lot smaller and lighter than what it actually is. Hopefully by showing you what I packed, you will know what to pack for long term travel in South East Asia!

Update:

It has been around two months travelling, and I

• Brought too many socks, most of the time I wear sandals and have never worn all my socks
• Added another shirt from Uniqlo
• Bought a coin purse to put my left over money from different countries
• Should have brought a backup pair of glasses, as I already lost my first pair. I had to learn how to use contacts for the first time and have had to buy a pair of glasses on the road
• Got one sunscreen bottle stolen by a monkey. So its good I brought two!
• bought a power bank (20,000 mAh capacity) – much needed!

For those that have been following my blog or Instagram, you might know that I have been travelling around Southeast Asia. Within the 5 months, I was deciding on where to go after Southeast Asia, and I came across this opportunity with Aeroplan. By redeeming my Aeroplan points, I turned my Southeast Asia trip to a mini round the world trip!

Before we start,

For those that do not know, Aeroplan is a loyalty program created by Air Canada as an incentive program for its frequent flyer customers. You earn Aeroplan points by flying Air Canada flights and its Star Alliance partners. Buying in their retail partners such as Home Hardware and Amazon will also earn you points. In 2002, the airline sold the program to another company, Aimia and in 2017 Air Canada announced it plans to launch a new loyalty program to replace the Aeroplan program in 2020. More recently Air Canada, along with TD Bank, CIBC and VISA, agreed to acquire Aeroplan back from Aimia. They plan on to transition the existing Aeroplan points to Air Canada’s new loyalty program launching in 2020. There is still a lot of uncertainty of what will happen to your Aeroplan points when they get transitioned to the new loyalty program in 2020. I made the decision to redeem all my Aeroplan points for this trip in anticipation that Air Canada will devalue the $1.9 billion worth of unused Aeroplan points.

Each of the three global airline alliances (Star Alliance, OneWorld, and SkyTeam) sells special tickets called round the world tickets where you can fly around to multiple destinations around the world with their member airlines. These tickets are not cheap as they start around $4000 CAD. Aeroplan also sells these RTW tickets starting at 200,000 points.

The great thing about booking with Aeroplan is that it allows you to stop in three destinations and along with its liberal routing rules, you can fly “round the world” for the price of a round trip flight.

I wont go on about how to book the Mini RTW as there are other websites that do a better job such as the article from Prince of Travel.

One of the rule of an Aeroplan itinerary is that it must fall under the “maximum permitted mileage” (MPM) between your origin and destination. This is set so that you can’t have layovers or stopovers in Asia even though you’re starting in Canada and only flying to Europe. Aeroplan calculates the MPM between two cities using their formula, but basically cities that are farther apart will have a higher MPM. As I am travelling for over a year, it would also be nice to visit home, and as I’m currently in Southeast Asia, I chose to start in Perth, Australia and chose Toronto, Canada as my destination so I would have a high MPM. This would allow me to have a longer itinerary.

My main goal for this trip was to use my points to travel new continents, South American and Africa. I decided to give myself 3 months in South America and 2 months in Africa. I narrowed down the regions to explore to Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, in South America and South Africa, Namibia, and Victoria Falls in Africa.

The added bonus of this 32,057 miles itinerary I chose is that it allows me to have long layovers in the rest of the cities I am going to (except for Warsaw). I originally wanted a longer layover in Warsaw, and a layover in Nairobi, Kenya, but couldn’t make it fit into my itinerary.

In determining whether a reward flight is of good value, you need to figure out how much you’re saving by calculating the “cents per point” or “CPP” of your reward. This is something to brag about in the award travel community. The higher the CPP, the better your reward!

CPP = 100 x (Cost of buying a ticket – Aeroplan taxes & fees)/(cost of Aeroplan ticket in points)

My mini round the world trip with Aeroplan cost me 110,000 Aeroplan points, $346.20 CAD in taxes, and $30 CAD in booking fee. The $30 booking fee is mandatory when you book a reward flight over the phone, which you will need to with such a complicated itinerary.

After doing research on flight prices, I have came up with a conservative estimate of how much this itinerary is worth.

The tickets above are four one way flight tickets that I think this is the closest thing I can come up with that matches with my itinerary. For $4,276 CAD, they cover the same destinations (Sao Paulo, Johannesburg, Toronto) and with some of the layovers I am going to. Considering my itinerary covers more layovers, my journey could be considered more value than this one. So the CPP for my mini round the world trip with Aeroplan would be:

CPP = 100 x ($4,276 – ($346.20 + $30))/(110,000)

The above calculates to 3.89 cents per point, which is a great redemption!

In general, you should aim for a CPP of at least 1.5. When people say that Aeroplan is not worth it, usually they redeemed their miles at a very low CPP. If you can redeem your miles at a value of 2 CPP, this means that you got $500 worth of value out of 25,000 points

As I will only have less 24 hours in each of the layovers, here is my rough guide for each city

• Check out the Panama Canal in Panama City
• Eat tacos in Mexico City
• Pig out on Texas BBQ in Houston
• Explore and eat cakes in one of my favourite cities in the world, Vienna
• See the largest parliament building in the world in Bucharest
• Check out the Parthenon in Athens
• Wonder at the Pyramids of Giza in Cairo
• Learn about Ethiopian culture and history at Addis Ababa’s many museums

I will be making a blog post on each layover destination. Make sure to subscribe here to keep up to date!

Texas BBQ in Houston Cake in Vienna Parthenon in Athens Pyramids of Giza

Well that has to be a separate blog post in the future. Make sure to subscribe here if you want to read it as soon it comes out!

Due to its proximity to the ocean, Atlantic Canada is home to the most delicious seafood, wild fruits and fresh vegetables in the country. But this doesn’t mean there aren’t other things to eat. Game meat, such as moose and deer, are also commonly consumed. Cities like Halifax, St. John’s, and Moncton see a wide variety of international cuisines including Thai, Indian and Middle Eastern. I was able to get a taste of the delicious cuisine during my road trip in June 2019. Here is my list of my Top 5 Eats in Atlantic Canada.

As their name suggests, their main specialty is Mussels. This restaurant in St. John’s, Newfoundland offers great assortment of mussel flavors.

We tried the Oh la la Mussels which are steamed and topped with white wine, roast garlic, dijon and heavy cream. This combination makes the mussels one of the best I ever had. The price is also quite reasonable, with one pound coming to $15 CAD.

Also get the shoestring fries, they are BOMB!

Oh La La Mussels. 9/10

Rusty Anchor Restaurant in Pleasant Bay, Cape Breton Island serves Lobster Poutine. For those that do not know what poutine is, it is french fries and cheese curds topped with a brown gravy. Well-beloved all over the country, this is the national dish of Canada. This variation combines a touch of the Atlantic Coast to a Canadian classic. It was such a large portion of fries with good chunks of lobster, topped with hollandaise sauce instead of gravy. The dish is not cheap (you know, it’s lobster) at $24.99 CAD.

The restaurant also offers a great view of the ocean. It is especially beautiful with the sunset.

Lobster Poutine. 9/10

This popular brunch spot in Halifax gets busy, and since it is a pretty small restaurant, so don’t be surprised when you see a line.

I got The Dirty Burd, which was two fried eggs, buffalo chicken, bacon ranch, guacamole, and havarti in a bun with a side of potatoes and salad. The chicken was well seasoned and the addition of the cheese, bacon and guac makes for an awesome sandwich.

The Dirty Burd. 8.5/10

The other choices on the menu were also spectacular. Their Huevos Rancheros was probably the best version of this dish I have tried in a non- Mexican restaurant. Their take on french toast with spiced orange yogurt, warm honey dates, toasted nuts makes for a great choice for those looking for a sweet start to their day. All the dishes start around $12 CAD, a bit pricey but worth the quality that you are getting.

This hidden gem is probably not on the radar of most tourists. Hideaway Campground and Oyster Market is tucked away on the Cabot Trail in Cape Breton Island. Primarily a RV park and campground, they also serve farmed oysters that are plump and delicious. This place is a simple mom and pop shop and has no extra flair when it comes to their food. Therefore their fresh oysters were the cheapest I encountered on my trip at $22 CAD for a dozen or $1.83 for each oyster!

Fresh Raw Oysters. 8.5/10

We had our fair share of fish and chips, and in my opinion the best one I had was at Rick’s Fish & Chips. I like my fish to be on the batter-heavy side and this place did a great job meeting that expectation. The fish was flaky and tender. The golden brown chips were also pretty good. Rick’s is a bit on the expensive end of fish and chips, with a one piece platter starting at $11.95 CAD.

Fish & Chips. 8/10