touring Ho Chi Minh City with the group

Can I confess?  I wasn’t at my best on this day.  The day before - all three days before, in fact - had taken a lot out of me, and I found myself a little checked out, needing time to recharge more than I needed city touring.  No such luxury for me that day, alas.  Breakfast done, Starbucks sipped, and it was off in the shuttle bus around the city.

The first stop was the best stop.  The Ho Chi Minh History Museum had wonderful artifacts presented so well.  At a certain point I needed to break free from our group, though.  I thought our local guide, Anne, was fantastic, but I didn’t need her narrating at length.  I wanted to see things and read the accompanying text and move at my own speed.  So I did.  As did a few others.  And then I really enjoyed the museum.

Book Street came next, and I think we all would have liked at least fifteen more minutes to browse and shop.  Then we swung through the post office, which I hugely appreciated - postcard stamps!!  And on to lunch.

For all that I was checked out that day, you know I wasn’t that way about the food.  Lunch was at Hum, a vegetarian (and almost vegan) restaurant, and it was my favourite meal to that point.  We had all joked about the platter of steamed veggies at each dinner, one that evoked a bag of frozen mixed veggies and it fondly, and now here was a restaurant that was saying to us, “Vietnamese food offers so much better.”  It really came through, too.  The cocktail was only ok (fig and hibiscus but was there actually booze in it?), but the lotus chips were a hit when I passed them around, and I loved my young banana in a turmeric sauce/soup.  Really good, really what I wanted to experience.

After lunch came the war museum, and Conrad and I skipped that.  Not interested at all.  We had a vigorous walk over to a bank to get cash instead.  And that was the end of war memorial tourism for all of us, amen.

Anne and Shiv dropped us off at a market

and told us we could either meet up after a time for a shuttle back to the hotel, or we could walk back.  I think all of us may have opted for the latter.  The market was alright, and maybe on a different day I would have poked about.  We quickly left it and walked back, stopping at a Uniqlo (great prices, tiny - for me! - sizes, no cardigan I was looking for) and then a quilted goods shop Anne had recommended (some nice finds there).  In between that and dinner we had some time to ourselves, and although we did message everyone that they could join us, Conrad and I found ourselves alone at a bar for an hour and a half and too many drinks.

The Alley Cocktail Bar & Kitchen was in an alley pretty much next door to our hotel.  A very short walk.  We arrived shortly after it opened at 5:00, and the whole time were there, we were the only customers.  A later crowd for them usually.  The upshot is we had the undivided attention of all of the staff.  So delightful chatting with them, too.  And what great cocktails!  A well-stocked bar and a team who knew what they were doing.  Yay!  I had a Vesper.  Then another.  And then I idly asked if they had green chartreuse which led to them making us Last Words.  Three rounds of drinks before dinner.  Good thing they weren’t huge.  Even with a shared snack of tuna tataki, I was a bit loopy for dinner.

Dinner by the way?  Topped lunch.  A great day for dining and drinking!  We were at ST25 by KOTO, the same people whose place we had had lunch at in Hanoi.  This, though?  Very elevated.  And not inexpensive for Vietnam, base as it was in the Sofitel.  I loved the eggplant man prik, and I loved the lamb (first lamb of the trip that I can recall), but every dish was a winner.  

We had such a good time there all of us together, and we were excited for the group excursion the next day.

So yes, not at my best that day, but I rallied by the end and had a good day all in all.

date night in South Pas

Hey, that was a pretty good run of posts to start off July, right?  Not sustainable - life just doesn't offer that much to blog about every single day, but it was good while it lasted.  But after a very quiet week at work and at home, I'm back!

Van and I moved our standing weekly television date night to Thursday this week and dropped the television component.  Instead, we headed over into South Pasadena to grab dinner and drinks.  Nice evening for it.  We've had a hot midweek here - the temperatures out at work got up to 101 on Wednesday - but it was just good and warm by 6 or so yesterday.  We also don't have the air quality issue that is plaguing a lot of the country and Canada.  Yikes!  Those poor folks.

Anyway, it wasn't too far to drive over and park near where South Pasadena sets up its Thursday farmers market.  Good market.  I need to get to it.  It wasn't our actual objective last night although Van did buy himself some flowers. 

Instead we ordered at the window at South Pas Smash (and sorry, they don't have a website fully up and running to link to).  A smash burger for Van, a fried chicken sandwich for me. 

Good, simple.  I still don't get smash burgers as a thing (why smush the patty and force the juices out when you can have a nice, thick burger?)(I know it's to get more of a crust to interior ratio, but I still don't get it), but oh well.  I'd be fine going back and doing that again.

After the food and a brief wander through the market, we popped into Sid's Bar.  We hadn't know it was a live music night, and we were relieved we got in and got a table and drinks before so many others showed up.  Nice bar, not too lounge-y, not too hip (but definitely hip).  A dive bar for cool kids and older cool kids, if you will.  But they made Last Words, and that was good. 

The folks at the next table were curious, so I let them try mine, and they ended up ordering one for themselves.  Nice place.  Very loud!  Not a Conrad bar.

The evening was drawing in as we left,

and it had cooled off nicely.  We headed back to the car, drove the short distance home, and got Olive fed.  Once she was done eating and Van's flowers were in vases, I was fading, and as had been the case so often this week and last, I was lights out before ten.  Not our usual television date night, but a lovely little date night in any case. 

Tiki-Ti

It's almost two weeks since we went to Tiki-Ti, so yeah, that sounds about right to blog about it.  I don't start work until later today - I close up things tonight - so I may as well take a little time to FINALLY get a blog post written.  Sad, Peter, very sad.

Enough of that, though.  Let's dive in.

Disneyland was Marie's birthday present, but the next day, when we were back in town, was her actual birthday.  Very early that evening we found ourselves in the Silverlake neighbourhood of Los Angeles, having dinner at Bacari.  We did not want empty stomachs for tiki night.  Shockingly, I did not take photos of the food - we shared everything, and I do not like making others wait for food that we are sharing.  It was great food, though.  We also primed our pumps, so to speak, with a drink with dinner.  A Last Word for me, something familiar to enjoy. 

It was a nice evening, mildly cool.  We sat out in an outside area - covered but open air.  And all of us looked great in Hawaiian prints of one sort or another.

Yes, Hawaiian prints.  This just after I post about Disney and comment on all the people there in their Disney gear.  And then here we are, tiki drag to go to a tiki bar.  So, yeah, I'm eating my own words as I sip my decaf here.  But come on, we looked great!  And, it turned out, we weren't the only ones to show up like that.

Tiki-Ti is an institution.  

Owned by one family for decades.  It's a small place, a hole-in-the-wall kind of place.  Not many seats, crowded,

and a queue at times to get in.  In fact, we had to wait perhaps ten minutes despite being there early in the evening,

beating out a bachelorette party of sorts for a place in line.  It was hardly hardship having to wait, though, and we were soon inside, standing behind the row of patrons seated at the bar before Marie seized on a table just vacated.  The one bartender was a little gruff, kind of a seen-it-all kind of guy. 

We had a round of drinks.

Honestly?  My drinks were fine.  I had the Ray's Mistake first. 

I then tried the Chief Lapu Lapu. 

And if you had poured them into identical glasses, I might not have know they were different drinks.  Fruity rum drinks, both of them.  Absolutely no complaints!  Each of us had two rounds save for Van,

and Marie

and Conrad

had very different drinks from one round to the next.  We admired the setting,

gabbed happily, then headed home, making space for others.

I discovered in Hawaii that Marie likes amari, and so when we got home, I got her to taste a few with me to wind down the evening. 

That was kind of fun, and vindication.  You see, Van had had the Rucolino on his first night on Ischia without knowing what it was.  It was warm and perhaps a bit cooked from being stored on a high shelf in the restaurant.  He swears he hates it.  That night with Marie, though, it was her favourite.  Bless the birthday girl.

Off to bed, and in the morning, she flew home.  I feel certain, though, that her short visit was a great success.