Early in January, Martin Sleegers of With Locals introduced me to their site.
With Locals is your go to site if you want to experience an immersion of sorts in your choice of destination. Right now, With Locals have hosts from Thailand, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Indonesia, Nepal, and Malaysia. Local hosts can either host your local tour, local activity or introduce you to authentic local cuisine via their home kitchen.

With Locals is such an interesting concept that I just had to have hubby on board. He chose to EAT WITH LOCALS and picked Tuan and Tu who live in District 1. Reservations is easy via the website and you’d only need to pay a minimal reservation fee through PayPAL.

So on Valentine’s Day (perfect day, eh?), we (together with our friends Soki and Ry) went to Tuan and Tu’s home. They lived on top of their own spa business. The place smelled of lemongrass. 🙂

Tuan and Tu are siblings from Hanoi who have found their home in Saigon some 15 years ago. They own two restaurants: Tuan Tu (28/38B Tran Cao Van St., District 3; 38297732) and Green Rice Com Xanh Restaurant (6 Thai Van Lung St., District 1; 38257376).

When we arrived, they ushered us to the kitchen, as I requested earlier through our email exchange. I wanted that we could at least see one dish prepared. Tu was preparing the Bamboo Shoot and Roasted Duck Salad.

The dressing is fish sauce with sugar and dried chili.

While Tu was preparing the salad, Tuan served us drinks. Soki (my pregnant friend) and I chose the apricot juice. Would you believe that they had to prepare this drink a year ago. The apricot had to have been sort of fermented for a year. It was delicious. Much like prune juice.

While chatting, we learned that we were their second group of guests.With the salad prepared, we head on up to their rooftop!The weather was perfect, the table beautifully set, and somewhere in the distance we could hear a Filipino band playing in some restaurant or bar nearby.

Tuan and Tu prepared a 6-course meal. And second in the menu was the Cabbage Rolls with Pork

The dishes were mostly from Hanoi which was a real treat because we haven’t been to Hanoi and do not know much about Hanoian cuisine save for cha ca la vong. 😛

After the salad and cabbage, I was already actually full (burp!). Then came in the Tofu with Onion Sauce.

Tuan and Tu were not formally trained in the art of cooking but they sat at the kitchen of their mentor since they were little, their grandmother. The prawn with garlic and oyster sauce was delish!

By the time the Steamed Fish with Lemongrass and Lime was served, we were convinced that the Tuan and Tu are gifted cooks. I loved the sauce of this dish!

The sixth and final dish was the Chicken and Mushroom Soup — much like the Filipino version of Tinola.

And for dessert, Fruit Salad! This was a combination of strawberries, jackfruit, chico, and banana in honey. Absolutely delightful!

Towards the end of the dinner, Tuan joined us. Tuan aside from their restaurants their spa business is busy with his own PR agency.

What a wonderful way to celebrate Valentine’s Day! I would definitely recommend choosing your own adventure through With Locals or if you want to be a host, you can sign up with them (I wish Filipinos would sign up for this!) If you’re considering trying local cuisine in Ho Chi Minh City, do book Tuan and Tu. They will not disappoint! 🙂