HCM City’s Chilli Thai offers spicy kick that’s hard to beat
SUNDAY, JANUARY 29, 2023
For someone like me who loves Thai food and good old fried pork, Chilli Thai in HCM City’s District 1 was a delightful dining experience.
I wanted to try out its branch on Ly Tu Trong Street along with a friend, who also fancies Thai. Having gone there once before, she raved about the restaurant’s delicious tom yum soup and pad thai (stir-fried rice noodle), and also couldn’t wait to try more dishes.
When we arrived at the small restaurant, we were surprised to see a crowd of people waiting outside to be seated on a Tuesday evening, not exactly a peak day. The inside was also packed with customers, always a reliable indicator of quality.
But despite the crowd, it had a laidback vibe with some unobtrusive music playing in the background, groups of diners chatting and all the traditional statues and decorations you would expect in a Thai restaurant.
The Chili Thai branch in District 1’s Ly Tu Trọng Street. – VNS Photo Viet Dung
Chilli Thai has a variety of traditional dishes, including salads and street food, such as skewered meat and fried fish cakes. There are also “Chinatown-style” seafood dishes such as stir-fried squid and fish.
Once we ordered we did not have to wait too long to be served either (only around 15-20 minutes), which was a good thing since the menu with its colourful and mouth-watering pictures had us excited.
Our first dish was a soft-shell crab with salted egg yolk, which is rather popular. The crab, as we had expected, was delightfully soft inside and crispy on the outside and the rich, creamy salty egg yolk paired beautifully with the fried crab. While I would have personally preferred the crab to be a bit crispier, there was absolutely no reason to complain.
A plate of soft-shell crab with salted egg yolk. The creamy egg yolk pairs very well with the fried crab. – VNS Photo Viet Dung
While we were still scooping up the remaining egg yolk, our next dish arrived: Thai-style crispy deep-fried pork belly.
The first bite is with the eye, as the saying goes, and the juicy pork belly slices fried to an irresistible golden colour along with crispy pork skin and sprinkled with sesame certainly made an impression.
It was everything we had hoped for: delightfully crispy outer layer and tender and flavourful meat with tasty fat inside, dipped in savoury Thai sauce with a hint of sweet and sour taste. We gobbled up the dish in a flash, relishing every piece.
Our final dish was “moo ping”, or grilled pork skewer, one of Thailand’s many street foods that are adored by locals and tourists alike.
The soft and tender sliced pork was marinated well to get that sweet and savoury goodness, and, much like the deep-fried pork dish, it was impossible to put down once we started eating.
One cannot go wrong with a plate of Thai-style grilled pork skewer, a popular street food. – VNS Photo Viet Dung
Our bill came to just 400,000 dong (US$17), a reasonable price for a filling and satisfying meal. The soft shell crab cost 190,000 dong, and the pork belly and skewer cost 130,000 and 70,000 dong, respectively.
Chilli Thai has two other branches in the city: one at Vincom Dong Khoi in District 1 and another at Vincom Mega Mall Thao Dien in Thu Duc City.
Considering the popularity of Thai food among Vietnamese, HCM City has no shortage of excellent Thai restaurants, and you certainly cannot go wrong with Chilli Thai, though you may want to consider making a reservation in advance.
Chilli Thai
93 Ly Tu Trong Street, Ben Thanh Ward, District 1, HCM City
After West pledges tanks, Zelenskiy says Ukraine also needs long-range missiles
SUNDAY, JANUARY 29, 2023
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday said Ukraine wanted to preempt Russian attacks on Ukrainian urban areas and civilians with more firepower.
“Ukraine needs long-range missiles … to deprive the occupier of the opportunity to place its missile launchers somewhere far from the front line and destroy Ukrainian cities,” he said in an evening video address.
Zelenskiy said Ukraine needed the US-made ATACMS missile, which has a range of 185 miles (297km). Washington has so far declined to provide the weapon.
Ukraine has secured promises for hundreds of Western battle tanks and is seeking fighter jets to push back against Russian and pro-Moscow forces, which are slowly advancing along part of the front line.
Zelenskiy also said Kyiv would redouble its efforts to stop Russian athletes from participating in the 2024 Olympics, which will be held in Paris.
Ukraine, he said, had written to major international sports federations asking them to clarify their position on what he called the International Olympic Committee’s desire to “open up sports to the propaganda influence of the terrorist state”.
The IOC said on Wednesday (January 25) the Olympic Council of Asia had offered Russian and Belarusian athletes the chance to compete in Asia, giving them a qualification pathway for the 2024 Olympics. Ukraine says it could boycott the Games if Russian and Belarusian athletes take part.
Returning workers crowd China train stations, play down Covid concerns
SUNDAY, JANUARY 29, 2023
The railway station in China’s financial hub Shanghai was bustling with migrant workers and travellers on Sunday as they returned from their hometowns where they had spent the Lunar New Year holiday.
China abandoned its strict “zero Covid” policy in early December and many workers who had not been able to see family since the pandemic started, rushed to leave cities taking advantage of restriction-free travel.
After a week, many are returning to go back to work and concerns of a Covid-19 resurgence seem far from their minds.
“Personally I am not worried about the epidemic. I think it is over,” said Li Hongwei, who works as a welder in Shanghai.
Lunar New Year holiday trips inside China surged 74% from last year after authorities scrapped Covid-19 travel curbs, state media reported on Saturday, though the number of journeys was still only half of pre-pandemic levels.
According to official data, the number of Covid deaths a showed weekly decline, however. Between January 20-26, a week that overlapped with six days of the holiday period, China registered 6,364 Covid-linked deaths, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention said on Saturday, compared to 12,658 a week earlier.
Lunar New Year is the most important holiday of the year in China, when huge numbers of people working in prosperous coastal cities head to their hometowns and villages for family reunions.