meko in Ha Noi

We did a small hike on Maclehose Trail Part 2 (I guess there are 3
parts total), but the beach was beautiful! Who would have known you
have these amazing beaches with crystal blue water less than 1.5 hrs
from central HK.

Next a couple days of relaxing and food gluttony... I shall never be
rid of my food baby.

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more food...

Christmas Dinner was more extravagant than the dinner we had for
Christmas Eve, if that's even possible.

Started off with salad & veg, followed again by foie gras, then escargots, then the main dish of pork stew-West Indies style, then loads of delicious cheese, chocolate, and more poached pears!

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First night-- we indulged ourselves in Korean food. Normally I am not
a huge fan of oyster pancake, but there was something especially
delicious about this one!

Then the next day for lunch, we hit a handmade noodle place with
wontons-- so tasty!!

On Christmas Eve, we had quite the selection of food. We began with
an apertif of white wine with creme de cassis or figue then dug into a
pepper salad made by wls, followed with foie gras and leek soup (both
courtesy of Jordi), Steak with mashed potatoes (via me and wls),
cheese, and poached pears!

Good times and good food, which will continue tonight with a West Indies meal.

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The rest of the photos are from "The Lunch Lady"-- quite famous, she
changes her dish every day and she's been featured on TV shows. It
was a bit out of the way but the food was really delicious. You can
see her setup on the 4th and 5th picture. The 6th is the gigantic pot
of soup. We had a nice sour/spicy based soup-- a bit like Tom Yum,
with seafood and a pile of veg. Everyone should go and see her! The
dish was also only 13,000 VND (75 cents)!! 7th is the actual soup and
8th is of some tasty spring rolls.

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And the first thing I did was look up some good local eats, so I hit
46A Bahn Xeo (pancake). It was pretty tasty-- the spring rolls were
delish as was the gigantic pancake. However, it definitely was not
easy on the pocket. When I have Bahn Xeo in Hanoi, we pay 20K VND
(approx 1 USD), here it was 70K. I suppose I probably paid the
foreigner price since we were handed the Korean menu when we showed up
(I blame Tricia for that one), but it was worth it. Also across the
street was the church, which is an outrageous color of pink-- it
almost looks like something out of Disney movie.

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HCMC.zip (8.21 MB)

Scottish Anna did the impossible and managed to get a Christmas tree
along with all the ornaments and other fixings on a motorbike with
another person. An impressive feat! Anyway, I came home one day to
find a fully decorated Christmas tree, a very nice touch to have when
you are away from home for the holidays. So we had to take a picture
in front of it with our bottle of prosecco (thanks to Scottish Anna's
parents!).

I had to photoshop Cy into the picture as he's in France for the holidays.

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We did Secret Santa in my office. And I got some more flurry
slippers. I, personally, found the slippers to be kind of scary and
very angry eyes. But all of the women in my office thought they were
cute. Anyway, I am grateful as they'll keep my feet warm, I guess a
gal can't ever have enough slippers b/c it's damn cold in the house.
Some of the other Secret Santa presents included: a weird, creepy baby
bobble head, a lime green halter top, panty hose, chapstick,
noseplugs, and a bottle of Listerine. Never a dull moment in the
Hanoi office!

Yeah I had to get them.  They keep my feet warm!