Nhà hàng Madame Lân

Steamed crab in tamarind sauce.

Went to Madame Lân Restaurant for the man to overdose on seafood. It's a huge restaurant, but a venue that the locals go to, if they want proper seats instead of low stools by the roadside eateries. Something a little more formal, but doesn't offer air-conditioning. This time of the year, it's cool in the evenings.

The man loves crabs, but I watch his crab intake quite zealously. He can easily polish off a whole crab on his own any time. That's bad. LDL Cholesterol. Tsk. I make exceptions while on holiday. So this meal held the one and only crab he ate for the whole trip, and the second in the past three months. Hahahaha. Had to dissuade him from taking oyster porridge and grilled bloody cockles with garlic. He already has a minor upset stomach for two days from ingesting dunno-what. We ate the same food, but I've a cast-iron stomach. He doesn't.

Ordered so much food. Grilled squid, prawns and kangkong. Had a pan-fried cá dìa, which the menu translated into 'rabbitfish'. But I thought it looked more like a discus fish, unless it's an interchangeable term to mean both types. Erm...I thought they both belonged to saltwater aquariums... Anyway. Made the man eat a bowl of bún bò Huế because he didn't want rice. But he needed to line the stomach with some carbs. Rice vermicelli it was, with beef. He merrily slurped it up. He liked it.

Nothing at this restaurant was particularly outstanding. But there wasn't anything terrible either. It measured up fine overall- fresh seafood cooked well. All good. Seafood steamboat was also available, but perhaps another night. Stomachs were too stuffed. Needed a long walk by the river after just to burp. Heh. In time to see the Dragon Bridge lit, alive and breathing fire.

Bún bò Huế. The noodles are rounder than and perhaps thicker than phở.