This blog is now retired...

I've decided to migrate my blog to http://cookingheals.wordpress.com/, I find the word press interface more appealing! Please visit there for new recipes and food photographs!

Warm regards,
CY Phang

Happy Valentine's Day 2009!

I thought I would have time to blog more this year...apparently I spoke too soon! After my trip from Saigon (which I couldn't find time at all to blog!) I have been seriously and crazily busy engaging in a food styling/photography shot for some marketing campaign for Unilever Malaysia. It's a lot of work I tell ya!

Anyway, just dropping a quick note to wish all of you Happy Valentine's Day 2009! Even though I do not have anyone to celebrate with, that doesn't mean I don't love myself as much! *click on the above photo for a larger view*

Grandma has been admitted to the hospital yesterday, she's in a coma and the doctor asked us to be mentally prepared...So we're gonna go back to my hometown tomorrow and spend time with her...

There will be not much time for me (again) to blog it seems....But hopefully the madness will reduce soon!

Once again, Happy Valentine's to everyone, whether you are celebrating with someone special or yourself!

Chinese New Year 2009 celebration

The past one week or so have been madness, though I could still find time to make cookies for Chinese New Year and photograph a few of them, but generally I have been busy with rushing all workload off before the Chinese New Year celebration started. Was even shooting some conceptual shots for Unilever Malaysia for their new recipe/marketing campaign before I left for Saigon this morning! (Just check out my flickr album to see my recent photos if you do not see me posting here...)

As I am typing now, I'm in my hotel room in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) at almost midnight, arriving today around 4 pm. I just thought I should kick my ass off to write something or I would keep procrastinating again!

I'll start by posting some photos of the cookies/goodies that I have made for Chinese New Year, some for myself, while others for clients and friends, to thank them for their friendship and support throughout the Rat year.

Here I have cream puffs filled with strawberries and cream, and another one filled with creamy corn custard. Really to die for!





On the day before Chinese New Year eve, I made some Ladies Kisses (made with ground almonds) and bought some flowers to decorate the house:


And the most important day for Chinese New Year - the reunion dinner on the eve, which I have decided to set up as a candlelight ambience...I made Hainanese Chicken Rice for lunch, and then followed by a simple menu for dinner: Steamed grouper; poached broccoli with crispy fried shallots and soy sauce; steamed Chinese sausages; braised pork ribs and mushrooms (not shown in picture); and radish, carrot & pork bones soup.



It's almost midnight and time to say good night! My friend and I are taking a Mekong River day trip tomorrow so I hope to post more on my Saigon holiday soon!

Wishing all of you a great,healthy and prosperous Chinese New Year, and the courage and strength to overcome any challenges in the year of the Ox!

I'll end with a family photo taken today (first day of Chinese New Year) with my parents and sister, my uncle, his wife, my aunt and my cousins and nephews/nieces...and my dog Sunnie of course!

Vanilla Poached Forelle Pear and Apricot Mini Tartlets

This is my favourite among the lot. I love the "fresh morning" look and the texture on the wood.



I figured I had to find a way to consume the pears and apricots aside from them eating raw. So here's what happened to them, inspired by the recipe from here. I modified the recipe to make it easier for me, and put in a small piece of dark chocolate under the pears before baking. Aesthetics results not as good as I wanted it to be...but taste wise is okay. The apricot on the tartlets turned out way too tart (and soggy), so they went all to Sunnie's (my dog) tummy. She loved them though! (She loves any fruits in the stoned fruits family)

This is quite a tedious recipe as I had to poached the pears and apricots first. Puff pastry was store bought. Even then, it was a chore rolling them!

All photos taken around 10 am with natural morning light coming from back of the tartlets. Styrofoam used as reflector on the bottom right of photo.

Food Photography: Mini Forelle Pears and Apricots - playing with textures

The apricots looked so beautiful that I couldn't resist buying them! I love the texture of everything in the photos, from the skin of the pears, the velvety soft skin of the reddish orange apricot skin, to the folds of the napkin and bowl, and the wood below the bowl.

Lighting info: Afternoon sun (shaded porch) at around 2 pm. Light coming from back of the bowl.

Garlic Pepper Grilled Lamb Cutlets

My itch for cooking and photographing seem to have bitten me fully today, I just HAD TO MAKE SOMETHING or I would go mad...:-S

I bought half a dozen lamb cutlets before Christmas and never got to them as I was away in Koh Samui, then troubled by my right leg and depressed. As I also newly bought a cast iron grill pan that's worth close to RM 150 (for the sake of food styling...sigh...), I figured today would be a good day to make and photograph the lamb cutlets.

I just wanted something really (and I mean REALLY REALLY) easy to make and taste good as well. So back to the basics...salt and pepper, and finely crushed garlic, to marinate the lamb cutlets for about 2 hours. Nothing else was really needed as I bought the lamb cutlets really fresh (from Mr Ho's Fine Foods in Bangsar Shopping Center), all I needed was to taste the TRUE flavour of the meat. Grilled with 3 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil.

Turned out quite good really, though I really didn't have time to style and photography properly, as I am still not that mobile yet due to my right foot still in pain...

Lighting details for above photo: Natural lighting through window from top of photo.





Lighting details for above photos: Tungsten softbox on left, reflected by gold foil on right.

Photography: Mini Forelle Pears

They looked so beautiful that I just had to bring them home to photograph! Inspired by this image taken by Tarlette.

I have not been inspired to cook anything lately. Still trying to recover from my post-holiday and troubled leg depression lol...But thought I'll just take a few photos to feel alive!

Lighting source: Natural afternoon light from left of photo through the window. Mirror used as reflector to lighten up the front parts of the pears.

Lighting effects: I wanted the lighting effects to be dramatic so I played with the shadows and texture, with natural light shining over the top of the pears, especially near the peduncle.

Subsequent visit to Chinese Orthopedist today...

...has made me more relieved....Today I was treated by another older Chinese Orthopedist...which told me that my problem will definitely heal, but just take longer time, at least 2 weeks or so....

Phew, it was a relief to hear, at least there is a time frame now! And he said I can also go traveling to Vietnam, just bring the herbal pills they prescribe to relieve tendon and ligament tightness/pain. I immediately lightened up after the visit. He also aligned my spine and neck by turning and "cracking" them, saying that they are too tight. Now my shoulder and neck feel a lot better and I feel less depressed almost immediately! (Which means I don't have to completely stop preparing and photographing food haha)

He changed the compress to cover my shin...as you can see below...The lower part of my leg is better but the upper part is still sore...

Highly recommended if you have muscle or bone injury/pain...their website is here.

Hot chocolate (and a troubled right leg)

I have had an injury from walking too much wearing improper shoes a few years back in Australia, didn't know I have flat feet problem then. The same injury was never treated when I first had it, and it went on for a few years. I've seen a couple of specialists in sports injury and orthopaedic but there was apparently no cure for it, physiotherapy and anti-inflammatory drugs didn't help much either. Finally, I've resorted to seeing a Chinese Orthopedist a couple of days back. He said my muscles in the entire right leg are very tensed, and I asked him if my condition will ever heal at all. He laughed and said "Yes it will, just very long time as this is a really old injury". He gave me some herbal compress (as seen in the picture above) and the only way to relieve the discomfort (I sort of pulled my muscle under the right foot a while back and the soreness has stretched up to the whole leg) is to rest and minimise walking...for the muscles to relax back and hopefully to heal...

This has gotten me into depression....which means, I can't move too much, and also means that I REALLY have to rest and minimise moving around, which means...sigh...minimal photography for a while, at least until the foot is settled down a little bit...And also no more travelling for a while! Well I've bought my air ticket and booked my hotels in Ho Chi Minh City during Chinese New Year (about 3 weeks away, January 26, 2009) so I guess I just have to spend most of the time in the hotel room and have to walk carefully in proper shoes!

Anyway....I have already bought all the ingredients to make hot chocolate to photograph so I thought would at least shoot it before I go into hiatus. This may be my last food photograhy series for the time being, until my foot and leg settle down, since I am not allowed to move around too much :-(

I know I would fidget and feel uneasy for not being able to prepare dishes and photograph them, and I have restrictions in my diet too, making it quite difficult for me to come up with fancy dishes to shoot. This is sooooooo depressing (as I'm also still feeling under the weather from the bug in Koh Samui), but what to do, I have to get better for me to continue my passion! What a way to start the new year!

But anyway, I hope I will be able to get back on my feet soon (literally! No pun intended!) and can't wait to prepare and photograph more food again! I'm going for a follow-up check up today and hopefully I will hear some good news!

Fennel, green apple and pomegranate salad

Here's one of my favourite salads...crunchy, sourish sweet, and bursting with flavours and garlicky taste. Easy to make, and every person who has tasted it simply love it!

Ingredients
1 small fennel bulb (if you are not sure what fennel is, check out here)
1 green apple
seeds from 1/4 pomegranate
1 clove garlic, crushed using a garlic crusher or chopped finely
1 tbsp chopped Italian parsley
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp white/red wine vinegar
1.5 tsp of honey
1 tbsp lemon juice
pinch of salt and pepper to taste
Serves: 2

Procedure:

1. Cut fennel bulb into half lengthwise, remove the green stalks and hard core, then slice the fennel bulb paper thin.
   
2. Peel green apple skin, cut half lengthwise and remove the core. Slice apple thinly, soak in a bowl of water with a pinch of salt to prevent browning. Put fennel and apple slices, and pomegranate seeds in a medium salad bowl.
3. Mix olive oil, white/red wine vinegar, crushed garlic, chopped parsley, honey, lemon juice, and salt and pepper thoroughly in a small bowl.
   
4. Add the vinaigrette mixture from (3) to (1) and mix thoroughly in the salad bowl.
5. Sprinkle with some toasted pine nuts before serving if wished.
   

Note:

• For KL folks, you can get fennel bulbs in Village Grocer in Bangsar Village or Cold Storage in Bangsar Shopping Centre. I prefer the imported Australian fennel for the bigger bulb and stronger "licorice like" flavour. The local fennel is smaller in size, and much more cheaper.
• As for the lighting, I was being lazy today, only used the camera flash with the ceiling fluorescent light, bounced with a styrofoam board on the left of the bowl and the wall.
  

A brand new year, and looking forward to more food-related activities!

It's the first day of the new year. I woke up at 11 am, skipped breakfast and walked my dog. Decided that I should write something today to commemorate the new year. My new year resolution? Travel to my dream destinations; more food, cooking and photography related activities; and hopefully a more relaxed and restful year, it's time to improve my social life lol!

Looking at the past year, I've achieved many things, particularly in food related areas, but I'm still always learning and practicing, and they are the only ways to be better and wiser!

Am still feeling under the weather from an evil bug I caught in Koh Samui (food poisoning and flu).

Though still lazy, tired and suffering from holiday hangover, I should still toast to a good end to 2008, and gear up for an even better 2009!

Say Hi to 2009, and Bye to 2008! (with the last lunch of the year...Organic Pumpkin Soup and Herbed Garlic Bread)

I'm not usually a big fan of pumpkin. Perhaps the only few ways I eat them are pumpkin pie, steamed custard in pumpkin (a traditional Thai dessert), roasted pumpkin (together with other vegetables) and of course, pumpkin soup.

I normally try to improvise pumpkin soup by blending with other ingredients, such as pumpkin carrot soup; pumpkin, sweet potato and onion; cream of pumpkin and carrot soup; etc. But yesterday, I just thought hmmm.....why not just a simple pumpkin soup?

I had a whole organic pumpkin left from making pumpkin, sweet potato and onion soup the other day, before I left for Samui for my Christmas break. It was a small one, so I thought I use it all up and add nothing else to make a pure pumpkin soup for the first time.

It turned out surprisingly delicious and dense, with a creamy and smooth texture, sweet and bursting with pumpkin flavour. I normally use imported pumpkins from Australia (as they are generally sweeter and creamier than the local varieties), but this time, I used a local organically grown one.

And I've never made pumpkin bread without garlic bread. They are a perfect combination for me - match made in heaven, simply to die for! The recipe is very easy, you will not go wrong! So here it is...my last lunch for year 2008...

Organic Pumpkin Soup
Ingredients
300 g of organic pumpkin
500 ml of water
Salt and pepper to taste
Serves: 2

Procedure:

Peel pumpkin skin and remove the pulp and seed. Cut pumpkin into large chunks and steam in a steamer for about 20 minutes or until soft and mushy. Leave to cool.

Pour in the steamed pumpkin flesh together with the liquid from steaming into a blender, add 300 ml of water and blend until smooth and creamy.

Pour pumpkin mixture into a medium pot, add the remaining 200 ml water and simmer with medium heat over the stove until boiling. Add salt and pepper to taste, and serve hot with garlic bread.

Herbed Garlic Bread
Ingredients
1 half baguette, cut diagonal into 2 cm thick pieces, makes about 5 - 6 pieces
1 tbsp of butter, melted
1 large clove of garlic, crushed using a garlic crusher or chopped finely
1 tbsp of fresh Italian parsley + 1 tsp of rosemary, chopped finely (you can substitute rosemary with other fresh herbs)
Serves: 2

Procedure:

Mix butter, crushed garlic and herbs together. Spread using a butter knife onto on side of the baguette pieces.

Grill garlic bread in oven for 4 - 5 minutes (150 C) or until the edge of the crust turns golden brown. Alternatively, you can also toast the garlic bread with a non-stick pan or grill pan on the stove (with the side spread with butter, garlic and herbs on the pan surface) for 5 minutes or until golden brown.

Back again, after more than a year...in memory of my beloved grandpa that passed away a year ago.

It has been more than a year since I last blogged from Bangkok. It was a long silence since then, perhaps some of you have wondered why I have just suddenly stopped and did not continue my story on my Bangkok holidays.

I just simply couldn't bear blogging since then. On the 3rd day of my Bangkok trip, I received bad news from my sister in Malaysia - my grandpa was admitted to hospital and was in a coma. We rushed back from Bangkok 2 days after, and the moment we touched down at the Kuala Lumpur airport, my sister called with the bad news....grandpa has left us.

It was a tragic experience for me, I felt so bad and miserable that I could not see him before he died. If only I decided to come back straightaway, I would at least have seen him before he left us.

Tonight, as I write, is the eve of my grandpa's death anniversary. I could still remember his laughter and smile vividly, and how much I loved him let me sit over his head and shoulder when I was a little girl. Today, all is gone and he's probably in a better place, just as happy as he was.

He lived almost a century, 95 when he passed away. Hailing from a small village in China, he has never gone back since he came to Malaysia on a boat with my great grandpa and grand uncle. But he was always happy, always with a big smile on his face, regardless good or bad times. Something that unluckily did not pass on to me haha...

This year, I went to Thailand (Koh Samui) again for my Christmas holidays. And it was on this island that I decided I should blog again.

In the past year, I've relatively achieved quite a bit in my food styling and photography journey. I've also managed to develop recipes for a multinational food company and styled and took photos for restaurants. This blog is going to continue with my journey in recipe development, food styling and photography.

I will however, take it easy, and post whenever I have the time and mood, as I've gotten busier with my new endeavours in food styling and photography. But cooking, will always remain a part of me, physically, mentally or spiritually.

Cooking...always heals.

Holidays in Bangkok - Day 1: Arrival

Today is my first day in Bangkok, and I'm using Blogspot in Thai language! God knows how to turn to English, I just can't see the button to change the language, so I am just clicking here and there, and by sheer chance...here I am.

Arrived at the new Bangkok airport at around 4.30 pm, when mom and I got the rented Honda Jazz from Avis, it was already about 5.30 and by the time we reached the hotel it was 8 pm (the internet said 45 mins to reach the area where we are staying for today)! Thanks to the massive traffic jam, and not very sure of which turnings to take to our hotel, we had to take a big detour, as instead of turning left at one junction, I decided to turn right, and hence took another 1.5 hours to turn back. The traffic police screamed at me as I couldn't tell which road to turn and which one not to. Too bad I didn't understand Thai and he couldn't speak a word of English...oh well.

We walked about 5 minutes from the hotel for dinner at a cafe called Cafe Nero, I ordered soft shelled crab served on rice and fried Thai basil and stir-fry vegetables in green peppercorns...yummy yummy. Mom has roast chicken leg served on rice and stir-fry veggies...Too bad I didn't bring my camera along with me.

I forgot to bring my power adapter and I have only 40% of battery life left on my Macbook...Oh well. I guess I just have to try to buy an adapter from the supermarket tomorrow.

The hotel we are staying tonight sucks...Run down and in bad shape...But oh well, we only paid 1100 baht a night so that's very cheap considering it's Christmas season and everywhere else that I saw on the internet were easily 2000 baht and above for one night...

Thank goodness we're just staying here for one night...and tomorrow morning we're driving off to Hua Hin and Cha-Am to stay at the beach...hopefully a nicer hotel!

Till I post again, it's time to shower and sleep, it's now at 10 pm as I type...Too tiring driving in the massively-jammed Bangkok...The car didn't move an inch for 20 mins when we were in somewhere near Westin Hotel in Sukhumvit...(please pardon my grammar as I am really lazy to read through haha...) No photos taken yet...hopefully will take some tomorrow!

Curry Chicken Rice and My Missing-In-Action

I have been really really busy and have not had time to update my blog since my last post on my Hanoi trip. Right now as I am writing, I am down with a bad flu and coughing badly. My throat hurts and I hope I don't lose my voice cuz I make a living by talking! (Interpreting rather...)

However, I have been still posting food photos to flickr diligently and from now onwards if there're no updates on my blog, you are most welcomed to view my photos here.

My latest creation was curry chicken rice, I made it just to shoot the photos! Too bad I couldn't eat much of it as it made me cough...

What do you think of my new pictures? I think I've improved a lot since I first taken photos with my Canon EOS 350D! This batch of photos were taken with my new toy, the Canon 50mm f1.4 lens...

My Hanoi Trip

Sorry guys. I didn't keep to my promise, wasn't able to blog from Hanoi as my trip schedule was very packed and I was away on the sea and off the coast for a few days, so didn't manage to use the computer much, even though there was free computer access at the hotel in Hanoi. And when I came back to KL, I had 1001 things to attend to and didn't have the time to blog at all (but I still managed to post photos to my flickr album :P). I'll briefly go through how my trip went in Hanoi, incorporating the food and dishes I've tried in Hanoi and Halong Bay. I went with mom and we were there for 5 days from September 21 - 25.

Day 1: Arrived in Hanoi.

Our flight left LCCT (Low Cost Carrier Terminal of Malaysia) at 6.35 am so mom and I had to leave the house at 4.30 am! Reached Hanoi about 9-ish am (Hanoi was one hour behind us). We didn't do much after we checked in at the hotel in the Old Quarters. We just walked around and looked for a place to have lunch. Nothing special, just some beef pho (rice noodle soup) and we went back to the hotel and crashed (lacked of sleep the night before!). Hanoi reminded me of Malaysia (particularly my home town Teluk Intan) in the 80's, with lots of people riding motorcycles (most without helmets) and bicycles. After a nap, we took a taxi to the West Lake area and walked around...went to visit the oldest Buddhist pagoda in Hanoi (Tran Quoc Pagoda) there, had coffee at Highland Coffee (I call it the Vietnamese Starbucks hehe) on the lake, walked around the Hoan Kiem lake area after that, had dinner and waited for the famous water puppet show to start.

Woman selling flowers on bicycle in the Old Quarters.

Another bicycle vendor and motorcycles in the background.

West Lake, Hanoi.

Oldest Pagoda in Hanoi, Tran Quoc Pagoda

Had coffee at Highlands Coffee at West Lake

The water puppet show was really amazing and worth watching. Even though the whole show was in Vietnamese but my mom and I totally enjoyed it. Went back to the hotel after the show and retired early as we had to get up at 6 am the next day to catch the tour to Halong Bay.

Water puppet show

Day 2: Halong Bay

We had breakfast at the hotel but it wasn't very good, I just had a bowl of beef noodle soup and some fruits. The tour van picked us up at 7.30 am and headed towards Halong Bay. It was a long road journey, took us about 3 hours to reach the jetty where we boarded our Imperial Junk boat. Tonight, we would spend the night in the cabin on the boat. The boat took us on a cruise passing thousands of islets. Halong Bay is recognized by UNESCO as a World Natural Heritage Area for its exceptional scenic beauty and outstanding geological and geomorphic values.

After lunch on the boat, we visited the amazing Sung Sot cave then went to an island (with man-made beach) for a swim and we walked up 400+ steps to the gazebo at the top to view the spectacular scenery of Halong Bay.

After we got back to the boat, we showered, had dinner on boat and crashed off for an early night in the cabin on the boat docked on the quiet and calm sea.

Our Imperial Junk Boat (the one in the middle)

Other junk boats, from the view of our boat

One of the dishes for our first lunch of the tour
Beautiful Halong Bay from a gazebo on top of an islet

The amazing Sung Sot Cave, really huge! (See the people walking? It's just a fraction of the huge cave)

Halong Bay from Sung Sot Cave.

Another view of Halong Bay from Sung Sot Cave.

Night scene from the window of our cabin.

Day 3: Cat Ba National Park, Viet Hai Village, Cat Ba Island

A day filled with exciting and challenging activities. We cycled for about 45 minutes from the jetty to Viet Hai village situated in Cat Ba National Park, stopped for a drink, then walked to an ancient house (built based on the ancient architecture of Vietnam) through the primitive rainforest and back to where we parked our bicyle to cycle back to the jetty. I was really amazed with my mom who insisted on cycling though one local Vietnamese guy kept riding his motorcycle next to her and tried to persuade her to take his motorcycle (with a fee of course! Cycling was free).

We went back to the boat for lunch and boy it tasted really good as we were really hungry after the cycling trip! The tour crew prepared 7 dishes for us and we finished almost everything!

Above two pictures were taken during my cycling trip in Cat Ba National Park.

The so-called ancient house, was originally meant to be a resort but the construction was abandoned.

Paddy fields en route on my cycling trip back from Viet Hai Village

BBQ prawns for lunch, fresh from the sea around us!

After lunch we were supposed to kayak for 2 hours to Monkey Island/Lan Ha Lagoon for a swim but it was so tiring that mom and I gave up after 45 minutes and kayakked back to the boat instead of heading towards the island.

After that the boat took us to the beach where the rest of the group was swimming and we headed to Cat Ba Island to check in to our resort. Boy, we were really tired and sore! The resort we stayed in had a beautiful beach and was very quiet. We had a 7 course dinner (again) to ourselves (the rest of the group stayed in a cheaper hotel in Cat Ba town) and slept early as we were really tired.

Mom kayakking, I was sitting in the front of the kayak.

Floating village near Cat Ba island.

Photos of Sunrise Resort, where we stayed in Cat Ba town.

My breakfast in Sunrise Resort: Bacon, sausages, pancake etc.

My breakfast in Sunrise Resort: Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup.

Day 4: Back to Hanoi

We woke up at 5.30 am and walked on the cement pavement to the other side of Cat Ba Island from Sunrise Resort, hoping to see the sunrise but we were disappointed. Came back to the hotel to have a great breakfast and met up with the rest of the tour group and headed back to Halong town (where we boarded the boat to Halong Bay), had lunch at a local restaurant, and back to Hanoi.

When we reached Hanoi and after checking in at the hotel, we went to a famous restaurant to try the Cha Ca La Vong, recommended by our tour guide, a restaurant that is famous for just one dish, grilled fish or cha ca. It was a very special dish, worth trying.

The condiments that came with the fried fish (cha ca).

The fish being fried with the herbs in oil on a small stove.

Cha ca ready to be eaten...served with peanuts, some "secret" sauce and rice noodles. Yummy yummy....

Day 5 (last day): Props hunting day

I did not forget one of the main reasons I came to Hanoi - to shop for props for my food photography! Managed to get to Hang Da market that sells lots of ceramics and crafts, besides the normal vegetables, fruits, fish and meat...Spent more than RM 300 just on props (who say Vietnam is cheap???) and souvenirs for my friends! I wish I could buy and carry more though...:-(

Props heaven in Hang Da market!

Mom standing in the background with the ceramics vendors (can you see her?)

These cute little Vietnamese pineapples were just slightly bigger than my fist!

After finished shopping, we walked back to the hotel to pack, checked out and went hunting for lunch. Found a "food court" that looked quite posh with lots of people sitting and queing up. And cheap too! We spent only about RM 25 for 5 dishes and 2 drinks! The "food court" (I found out later from the internet, called Quan An Ngon) is as follows: "Quan An Ngon got started in HCM City five years ago, and judging by the lunch and evening crowds, its new Ha Noi branch seems to be as popular as its southern predecessor. The concept was to assemble the ‘best of street food’ in a setting more conducive to enjoying smart lunches and sultry evening meals. Experienced food-vendors were transplanted from Ha Noi streetsides into a gentrified version of a bustling food market, dressed up in tunics, and stationed at rustic stalls around the perimeter of a large courtyard. Guests dine in the lush courtyard among potted trees under a large canvas marquis, or in one of the large dining rooms or on the balcony in the spacious adjoining villa," writes Johny Shaw in The Vietnam News.

All the above are pictures from Quan An Ngon.

After lunch, we went to our last stop, Museum of Etnology to look at the various different tribes (cultures and houses) in Vietnam. It rained very heavily so we didn't manage to check out all the real model houses (actual sizes) but it was worth visiting!

All pictures above were taken at the Museum of Etnology, Vietnam.

Rushed back to the hotel after that and time to leave Hanoi! Our flight was at 8.30 pm. All I can say is that Vietnam is worth visiting and I'll be back again to visit some other parts! It has so many unique attractions and cultures and so much character!

What I have also gained on the side is the time I spent travelling with my mom. This is the first time that I travelled overseas together with my mom. I normally travel alone. I think we're a lot closer now! (What I think anyway...)

(More photos of Halong Bay and Hanoi can be viewed on my flickr album.)