Lan Lan 1 Hotel's Breakfast

Being the usual scaredy cat, I usually shy away from roadside eats...as much as I love the idea of sitting by the roadside, squatting and tucking into the tasty. Thankfully most of the Vietnamese eats were featured in the daily buffet spread that the hotel provided.

lan lan 1 hotel breakfast area

Simple layout of a buffet line not longer than 5m...there was both western and vietnamese options.

by the plants

Window seat view.

napkins

I somehow like the napkins being folded so nicely..random thought.

There was an informal "Egg Station" located in the kitchen and they did a few variations of the morning perk me up - scrambled, omelette, sunny side up and boiled.

omelette x sticky rice

Omelet

Nothing to shriek eureka about but a dash of ketchup would have been better.

Xoi Dau Den (Black Bean Sticky Rice)

Pretty bland overall with chewy rice grains.

hamburger

Hamburger


The colour of the ketchup puts me off...looks like jam eh? It looked like a bleeding burger from certain angles. Their version of hamburger includes a mushy corned beef patty with cheese and lettuce. I figure if I ate it with my eyes closed it would have been less of a visual scare.

bread

Always safe with bread and pastries. Custard bun with a custard puff behind..the white custard filling had a gooey starchy texture which I did not hugely love or hate.

more bread

Coconut pastry with dessicated coconut within...despite being a fan of coconut, this was way too much for me to handle.

DSC_0278

Baguette! Nowhere near the French style of baking it, this was alot more like what our local confectioneries would churn out.

Ca Ri Ga (Chicken Curry)
Bo Kho (Beef Curry)

Barely spicy renditions of the hot and fiery. These came across more like stews, infact.


noodles

This was pho with spicy crab..crabmeat was clearly missing but replacing it was darkened bits of what tasted like crab. I wish not to know what went into those bits.

spicy beef pho

Pho Tai Nam (Rare Beef Noodle Soup)

Still the same soft smooth noodle with tender beef. 

spicy beef vermicilli

Bun Bo Hue (Beef and Vermicilli in Spicy Soup)

I prefer the spicy vermicilli over pho, the former retained some bite but it is certainly not as firm as  beehoon. A pity this only appeared once throughout the 3 breakfasts I had.

fried rice

Banh Khot Vung Tau (Fried Rice Cake with Shrimps)

Looked the part but tasted bland.

Mi Xao Rau (Stir Fried Noodle with Vegetable)

Similar to our economic noodles eaten at breakfast.


Mien Xao Cua (Stir Fried Vermicilli with Crab Meat)
Bun Xao Rau Va Trung (Stir Fried Vermicilli with Vegetable and Eggs)

Different variations of the same thing tasted the same. No surprises!


breakfast1

Com Cha (Broken Rice with Grilled Pork)


Sweet pork meets chewy rice.



Soi Bap (Sticky Rice with Corn)

White corn kernels..needed some seasoning seriously!


Banh Chung (Northern Sticky Rice Cake)

Like our bak chang, this had a lot less seasoning. Loved the bean paste 

dumplings

Ha Cao (Ground Pork Dumpling)

Tasted just like soon kueh.

viet appetizers

Banh Beo (Thin cake)

Like dense chwee kueh, the shrimp and spring onion savoury toppings made this decent.

Com Chien Trung (Fried Rice with Eggs)

Nothing spectacular.

Cha Gio Thit Ben (Pork Spring Rolls)

Taken off a buffetline's regular dishes - fried springroll. Those that I have tasted locally are stuffed with yam or minced pork. The vietnamese version came with minced pork and black fungus. Tons away from the other Vietnamese favourite - fried with beancurd skin.

fried mantou

Banh Bao Chien (Fried Dumpling)

Simply mantou, in all its crustiness and fluffy bread texture. Where's the Chilli Crab gravy to go with this?



Chuoi Chien (Fried Banana)


Unlike our goreng pisang, the bananas used are not sweet and very mashed up so it had a mushy consistency within. Best eaten hot.


fruits


Fruits

Sweet pineapples meets raw papaya that reeked of a peculiar vomit smell. No stranger to these actually, the Malaysian papayas tend to have the same smell as opposed to Hawaiian breeds.



roadside mangoes

Just one of the many roadside hawkers that tempted us on a daily basis. I caved in and bought two mangoes which we had over breakfast. Raw and fibrous, these are mildly sweet at best and are usually dipped in chilli sauce if eaten the Vietnamese way.

The hotel buffet was obviously not the best way to try most of what Vietnam had to offer but I did not dare take risks.

Lan Lan 1 Hotel

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