Tuesday 2 September 2008

Dinner @ BenThan Market

We had night out, adventuring out for dinner @ the big market in the middle of the city - Ben Thanh market.

We used the universal guide to choosing food place - crowded with locals eating - which seems to almost never fail (hygiene optional). Well, this place seems akin to Seafood food stall @ old Newton, complete with touts and lots of types of seafood (see pix on right).





But what really caught our attention was this! 3 little frogs, still alive and strung up - for sale.

I must say that they didn't look all that happy, besides the top frog having the smell the b*tts of the bottom 2, their attempts to jump to freedom seemed a little futile.






[Right Pix] Here are my kids (happily smiling) posing with the frogs (not so happy), and other seafood for sale - all kinds of shell fish, snails, prawns... etc.



We don't eat the food raw.... it's grilled out in front [left]


The stuff is really fresh - the fish is wriggling on the grill. And very reasonable, we ordered Red Snapper, which was gutted live, seasoned and then grilled - which costs about S$8.

Definitely repeatable.

There was something interesting, which we only saw later, a deep fried sticky rice ball. A must try, the next time.



Oh, but recommended not to sit next to the "slaughter" table... bit noisy (with squeeling frogs, jumping fish being smashed), bits of stuff flying all over ... messy....

2 comments:

island said...

oh man, those frogs look gross! actually they look like those cane toads that i often get in my back yard or front yard! hubby killed 3 cane toads in one night some time back. they are poisonous and are pests to our garden...

sorry to hear abt your medivac/appendicitis experience. sounds 'exciting'... was a bit surprised tho, that there is no medical expertise there to operate on appendix which is not a big operation. in public hospitals, almost any houseman can operate...

SooSing said...

I'm sure those frogs taste better than your Cane Toads.... aren't they really huge?
How on earth does your hubby kill them - just whack them? ergh... messy.

haha.. u don't know Vietnam, and I just didn't want to risk it. It isn't just the op, its the standard of medical care, and what happens if there's any complication.