On the second to the last day of work for the Lunar New Year, I dragged myself to the office thinking that the whole office would be like a ghost town with everyone off to their Tet holiday. But… no. Our office was still 75% filled with people. In fact, we were still able to get together for some Traditional Tet Meal before everyone heads off to their hometown.

At a huge alley off Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, we went to Cua Dong. Seems like a popular place with it filled with so much people. On the first floor, you get to sit on regular seats made from bamboo materials but on the second floor, you have to remove your shoes and sit in an area on the floor. There was a small function room where tables and chairs were, and that’s where we ate.

They have the family set meals and yes, there’s the Tet Traditional Family Set Meal. Our admin manager changed it up a bit and ordered.

I was hoping she ordered the frog fried with butter and lemon grass. 😛 But no such luck.

We had spring rolls paired with sauteed morning glory.

Crispy rice pancake with field crab! Crunchy and yum!

Then we had some crispy field crab. And yes you eat em all!But this claw looked nasty. This is nothing compared to fish bones, so I passed on this one.

Then just when I thought we were done, the waiter served us the frozen meat with pickled vegetables. It actually tastes pretty good but the needle of my cholesterol meter was angling pretty close to the dangerous levels.

And it still didn’t end there. The boiled pork and innards were served. I love liver so I couldn’t say no to that.

And we still had hot pot and watermelon for dessert! Waaaah!

If this is just a slice of what a Tet family celebration looks like, I can’t imagine what it will be on the day itself!

Happy Tet everyone!

Cua Dong
18A/3/A3 Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai, Phường ĐaKao, Quận 1
8-8246825 – 0903834523