Monday, November 10, 2008

Chain of Foods

While KFC and Lotteria are quite common (Pizza Hut just moved in), they only make up a tiny percentage of restaurants in Vietnam.

Vietnam's two major contributions to the world of chain restaurants have yet to spread to other countries as yet. They are:

Highlands Coffee


Essentially a slightly-expanded version of Starbucks, offering meals and fruit juice in addition to the usual coffees, mochas, etc. A pleasant and elegant place to while away the afternoon, though the prices are (by local standards) sky-high. What you're really paying for is the ambiance.

Pho 24


The guidebooks invariably refer to Pho 24 as 'clean', and that it certainly is, making it ideal for squeamish tourists who can't stomach the idea of eating pho on the street. The bowls and utensils are clean of course, but so are the herbs, onions, scallions, and lemons that come with it, and the sauces are exactly the same proportions every time. A little creepy, if you ask me. Why '24'? because Vietnamese people usually eat pho for breakfast - this tried to make it an all-day thing.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What do you do with fresh vegetables these days. Originally, you said you threw away the herbs and stuff from the street pho .