That’s because it didn’t make its way up to the capital from HCM City until a year and a half ago, when friends Nguyen Anh Tuyet and Hoang Bich Huong first opened their restaurant Ut Coi.

The broth of Ut Coi’s signature banh canh ghe (crab thick rice noodle soup) is thicker than you’d expect from a Vietnamese noodle soup. It’s clear and thickened with tapioca, creating a texture similar to the classic American-Chinese sweet and sour soup. It’s made with banh canh noodles, which are round like bun but nearly as thick as your finger. They’re fun to try, but a bit unwieldy and less likely to pick up herbs and flavours in a spoonful.

Ut Coi has moved around, but its current location is 2B Quang Trung, just southwest of Hoan Kiem Lake. The décor is simple: a bamboo-lined storefront, white interior walls, bamboo tables and squat little bamboo chairs not unlike the seating at street food stalls.

“We loved bánh canh at first sight,” said co-owner Tuyet. She and Huong are from Hanoi, but they studied how to make the intensely popular soup when they were visiting the south. “Pho is so popular in the south, but we don’t have banh canh here (in the north). It’s one of these really special traditional soups.”

Phois a lot easier to make than banh canh, Tuyet said. The thickness has to be just right. There are more steps involved, and careful control is required in the heating and addition of ingredients. Most of Ut Coi’s seafood is sourced from the northern shore, but the crab comes from down south — it’s best there, Tuyet said.

The broth’s sweetness — more evidence of its southern origins — comes from the fresh crab, as well as a little sugar. It’s also made with pork bone, garlic, dried shrimp and squid. Floating in the broth are fresh herbs, green onion, sliced pork, a shrimp and a quail egg. It comes with more fresh herbs on the side — a big plus in my book.

The small morsels of fresh crab I scooped up in each spoonful were extremely satisfying to someone used to the field crab crumbles of bun rieu cua (field crab noodle soup). The bits of crab shell were quite distracting at times, but not a deal-breaker. The broth was so tangy I forgot to add the extra essentials sitting on the table – lime and fresh chilli.

My friend and I also ordered the goi cuon tom thit (shrimp and pork spring rolls). They weren’t much to look at and the rice paper was quite sticky, but the dip was divine, made with pork, peanuts and black sauce. They also offer banh bot loc cay (bamboo shoot dumplings with tapioca starch), which have a strong black pepper flavour and are worth a try if you enjoy the pungent bamboo.

Út Còi’s prices are affordable — VND55,000 for a bowl of seafood-laden soup. If you’re craving a bowl of noodles and seeking out a sweet southern alternative to your regular bún or phở, it’s worth a try.

Tuyet and Huong want to show diners a bit of traditional culture without the grimy reputation of street food, Tuyet said. Their establishment is reminiscent of a street food stall in terms of decor, but they are looking to divorce themselves from that image when it comes to hygiene. They see Ut Coi as a growing brand.

“We plan to expand, but not too many,” Tuyet added. “We want to do it in a very traditional way, not like a fast food restaurant, so we do it step-by-step, not so quickly.”

Over the past two weeks, three home-grown bakeries have launched their versions of the tart, together with multiple flavour permutations that range from matcha to salted caramel to tiramisu.

Prima Deli and The Icing Room launched their cheese tarts on April 8. Last week, French patisserie Antoinette started selling them in five flavours, such as grand gru chocolate and matcha.

The tarts have been selling so well that bakeries recommend customers pre-order them.

Prima Deli sells more than 7,000 of its lava cheese tarts across its 40 outlets daily. The Icing Room, with branches in nex mall and Jurong Point, has sold more than 10,000 tarts over the past two weeks. Antoinette sold 250 tarts in the first two days of launching them.

This comes with news that popular Japanese cheese tart bakery, Bake, will open its first outlet here on Friday at Ion Orchard. The 319 sq ft takeaway shop will be the chain’s biggest overseas outlet and its flagship store in South-east Asia.

Another big name in Japan, Pablo, which is from Osaka and famed for its large cheese tarts with a gooey core, will also be opening here, although the date and location have not been confirmed.

Baked cheese tarts were made popular by bakeries in Japan such as Bake and Pablo. They have since expanded across Asia, sparking long queues in cities such as Bangkok, Hong Kong and Seoul.

Cheese tarts are not new here, as Japanese bakeries such as Patisserie Glace, which has five outlets in malls such as Icon Village, and Flor Patisserie, which has four outlets including in Siglap Drive, have been offering chilled versions here for more than five years.

Mr Lewis Cheng, 45, executive director of Prima Limited, says its team noticed the cheese tart craze in Hong Kong, which started in August last year, when Bake opened an outlet there. The team started working in its version in January this year.

He says: “With salted egg yolk croissants and cheese tarts trending in the region, we decided to marry the two products, given that cheese and salted egg yolk are compatible in taste and texture.”

Demand for the lava cheese tarts is two to three times more than what Prima Deli can produce and the chain has run low on some key ingredients. To deal with this, the bakery has been rationing its distribution of tarts to outlets and looking into air-freighting some of the ingredients from Europe.

At The Icing Room, which is run by the BreadTalk group, response to its cheese tarts has been “overwhelming”, with two to three batches sold out within two hours every day. A BreadTalk spokesman says the cheese tarts are an extension of its tart series, launched in August 2014 at its Toast Box chain.

The tarts include golden lava egg tarts filled with salted egg yolk custard and coconut egg tarts. He says: “We started developing baked cheese tarts early last year as cheesecakes. Cheese-related products are loved as desserts by diners here.”

Besides Italian mascarpone cheese, The Icing Room uses cream cheese from New Zealand as it has a “refreshing sour tanginess” and fresh Hokkaido milk in its filling.

To stand out from the rest, Antoinette uses puff pastry instead of shortcrust or cookie-based pastry for the tart shell. Chef-owner Pang Kok Keong, 40, uses a reverse lamination method, in which butter is wrapped around the dough to create a flakier texture when baked. He says: “I want to focus on creating a contrast between having a crispy shell and a creamy filling.”

The filling is made with cream and mascarpone cheeses.

Despite competition heating up, Bake’s president and chief executive, Mr Shintaro Naganuma, 30, is not worried. He says: “It is difficult to replicate the richness and softness of our mousse as our cheeses come from Hokkaido and the secret in creating a light mousse lies in mixing the cream cheese and eggs by hand.”

His tarts are filled with mousse made with three types of cream cheese – two from Hokkaido and one from France – and the cookie pastry is baked twice.

Bake sold 10 million tarts in Japan last year. It will open new outlets in Taiwan and Shanghai in June.

Despite having a hit product, Mr Naganuma says the recipe changes every six months. His team plans to make the cheese flavour stronger and ensure that the pastry remains crisp in Singapore’s humid climate.

Customers are lapping it all up. Undergraduate Shermaine Lau, 24, is keen to relive her “heavenly experience” of trying Bake’s cheese tarts here after she had them in Tokyo last year. “The cheese mousse was so light and airy, it felt like biting into cheese-flavoured snow.”

Personal assistant Hazel Lam, 31, says her interest in salted egg yolk croissants spilled over to cheese tarts with salted egg yolk filling from The Icing Room. “I prefer baked cheese tarts to chilled ones as the cheese filling is melt-in-the-mouth. I cannot stop having them.”

In addition to authentic Thai favourites like tom yum, prawn salad with sweet chilli paste and lemongrass, and deep-fried catfish with mango salad, the restaurant offers some fusion items that will surely whet your appetite.

As soon as I stepped through the door, I was impressed with the sophisticated design, with a background colour of dark brown and black. The vintage style of the restaurant was reflected in the wood and iron decor, from the table and chairs to the stair handrails and sturdy doors.

Completing the Thai atmosphere were mirrors with classic frames and paintings on grey walls, wooden and stone Buddhas, handcrafted wooden elephants, handicrafts on wall shelves, and even large plants.

The a la carte menu features a range of Thai dishes, from traditional street food to modern fusion, and Thai drinks and teas, and other items with both Thai and Vietnamese flavours.

A total of 80 items are on offer, from appetizers, starters, soups to main courses, curries, noodles and hot pots, included sour, spicy, sweet and salty flavours, with influences from surrounding countries including India, China and Malaysia.

“However, half of these flavours are prepared to suit the locals’ palate and tastes,” said Truong Nu Huong Duyen, the restaurant’s marketing manager.

“We have made some changes in our recipes such as reducing hot spices or blending Thai traditions and Vietnamese flavours. So it’s not surprising to see a whole family including adults and children and others eating here.”

As fans of the sweet-sour Thai salad, my sister and I decided to warm up our taste buds with two flavourful appetisers – deep fried, fluffy and crispy catfish with mango and stir-fried shrimp with satay.

The succulent shrimp had garnishes of red cabbage, fried red onions and mint leaves, while the fish was finely matched with a sweet and sour fish sauce, mango, fried red onions and herbs.

The sour mango paired with a sweet-sour sauce helped balance the richness of the deep-fried crispy fish.”No one should miss this salad when they visit. It is our stand-out dish,” said Huong Duyen.

We also shared a small bowl of tofu and minced pork soup with coconut milk and red chilli; and a hot & sour chicken/prawn soup, which combined mushrooms, tomato, ginger, lemongrass and cilantro at the same price of 80,000 dong (US$3.60) per portion.

It was a harmonious combination, with smooth tofu as well as minced pork, fatty and aromatic coconut milk paired with a red chilli, lime leaf and lemongrass.

The two richly flavoured soups were not too hot or spicy, and would be good for children to try.

I preferred the soup with coconut milk as I was born and grew up in the south where coconut is an important addition to many kinds of foods and sweets.

Huong said that more than 10 new choices had been added to the menu and more would be created next month.

Among the new choices include stir-fried rice noodle with pork; pork BBQ Thai style with sweet & sour sauce, and prawn salad with spicy papaya and salted lime sauce.

We also tried fried rice, an adaptation of Thai fried rice which combines green chilli, red onions, bacon and salted eggs, and a pork skewer, a traditional Thai street food.

Both were so tasty that I was eager to finish the entire pork skewer and fried rice.

However, I had to save room for a traditional Thai sweet as recommended.

I enjoyed the typical Thai durian ice cream with water chestnut tapioca pearls and coconut, while my sister was taken with the coconut ice cream served in a whole coconut.

It was memorable to experience dining in a luxurious but cosy atmosphere in the city’s heart at an inviting price. We then left for shopping, knowing we would return for a second round.

Chilli Thai RestaurantAddress: 38 Mac Thi Buoi Street, District 1, HCM CityPhone: 08 3823-7727www.chillithai.com.vnwww.facebook.com/chillithaivnOpening hours: 10am-10pmComment: good location, fantastic food, inviting prices, impressive decor and cosy ambiance

A recently opened one is The Sapling, which is run by hospitality institute Shatec. It was formerly known as Recipes Bistro and was located in the Treasury Building in High Street. Last November, it re-opened with a new name in Enabling Village, a community space in Lengkok Bahru that is dedicated to integrating disabled people into society.

While it is no longer in town, the 80-seat restaurant is a convenient seven-minute walk from Redhill MRT station.

It is run by a team of about 15 students, who cook, bake and serve customers. But I would not have known that if not for a bunch of freshly minted trainee chefs crowding around a live churros station in the dessert buffet line.

The Sapling serves Western and Asian-fusion food. Its compact lunch menu has 11 dishes, comprising meat dishes, pasta and stews priced between $11.90 and $15.90. The dinner menu is slightly more expensive.

The dishes give bang for the buck, as the main courses are packed with side dishes. This can seem like an overzealous way of showcasing the students’ culinary skills, but I do not get bored of what is on my plate.

The wait staff greet customers with earnest smiles and top up glasses of water without being asked. Some of them seem wet behind the ears and do not know the popular dishes offhand, but that can be forgiven, given that they are still learning.

The Sapling Imperial Chicken ($11.90) comes with three curled- up deep-fried chicken fillets perched on toasted ciabatta. Taking a leaf from the popular Chinese dish, Imperial pork ribs, the glazed chicken is coated in a piquant, sweet and sour sauce. It cuts through the butteriness of the toast, which is topped with pineapple salsa.

There is also a sunny-side-up egg. I crack the yolk and slather it over the toast and chicken for a velvety mouthfeel. As if that is not enough, there are also sweet potato fries with plum-infused mayonnaise.

I also like the pan-seared kelong sea bass ($12.90), a thick slab of deep-fried seabass on a bed of smooth potato puree, encircled by a vine tomato sauce and crowned with spicy mango salsa. The cubes of mango accentuate the sweetness of the fish and biting into the crispy fish skin with the creamy puree gives a delightful textural contrast. But the tomato sauce is too tart.

If you are still feeling peckish, an add-on of $4.50 (or $5.50 for dinner) should stave off hunger pangs. That gives you access to a buffet of salad, soups and desserts such as churros, cakes and fruit.

But if you have room for only one dessert, save it for the Verrine Criollo ($8.80). The parfait is one of the most value-for-money desserts I have come across.

Good for sharing between two people, the palm-sized jar is a creamy dream. Start from the bottom by scooping up the luscious chocolate ganache and salted butter caramel studded with crunchy crumble, and move on to the lush chantilly cream that is topped with macadamia nut ice cream. And there are still strawberries and chocolate bits to nibble on.

We decided to start our breakfast at 49 Bat Dan, a bustling street in Hanoi’s Old Quarter.

As soon as we entered the street, we smelled the aromatic fragrance of pho from the shop, rousing our appetites. Although many years have had passed by, the shop maintained its same shape, doors, old tables and tools – particularly a long queue of diners patiently waiting for their turn, said Phong.

We joined the queue and heard curt words from the shop owner, Trinh Van Hieu, loudly asking guests about their orders and whether they wanted more or less rice noodles, or thick or light broth.

There was the familiar sound of a knife regularly chopping meat against a cutting board. Steam from big bowls of pho spiralled upward.

When our turn came, I ordered pho tai bap lan (stir-fried beef muscle), while Phong ordered tai lăn (half done stir-fried beef).

The shop owner skillfully cut the beef and put it into a bowl with sliced fresh onions before scooping broth on top.

The shop is so crowded that we had to struggle to find a seat before joining the queue. After receiving our dishes, we returned to our seats in a corner of the shop.

Phong said the quality of the broth has remained the same for 20 years, when he returned to Hanoi the first time.

Whether pho is tasty or not depends on the broth and rice noodle, and here, the combination was just right.

Hieu said he makes made the broth by simmering beef bone and organic spices such as ginger, cinnamon and sa sung (sand worms) from the northwestern province of Yen Bai and the port city of Hai Phong.

“My rice noodle is made from the VN10 species of rice grown in the northern provinces of Thai Bình and Nam Dịnh,” Hieu said. “The rice yields more powder, which makes our rice noodles whiter, softer and thinner, and helps it remain firm when it is dipped into hot water, compared with others.”

We enjoy enjoyed the pho very much, although each bowl is was rather expensive at 50,000 dong-70,000 dong (US$2-$3).

Despite this, locals and foreigners continue continued patiently queuing for their turn to enjoy an aromatic and tasty phO.

Phong told me that he would like to enjoy more phO at other famous shops such as Pho Thin at 13 Lo Duc Street and Pho at 10 Ly Quoc Su Street.

The next day we arrived at Pho Thin early in the morning.

We asked for two bowls of tai lan for 50,000 dong each. We did not have to wait long because there were not so many diners compared with Bat Dan.

A server brought us two big bowls of pho, which was also full of rice noodles and stir-fried beef that was very fragrant. Although the servers were not so friendly, the service was quick and the quality of the food pleased us.

The dish is fragrant and tasty because of the broth, which is greasy and quite sweet, while the tái lăn is soft and sweet, too, mixed with ginger and garlic.

This helps shop owner Nguyen Trong Thin keep his trademark, which spread far and wide so that customers would never forget it.Thìn set up his shop nearly 40 years ago.

From the onset, he tried pho at many other famous shops in the city and thought of special spices to create a unique recipe of his own.

After a year, he decided to serve pho tai aăn, in which the beef is quickly stir-fried over a big fire in a large pan with fat in it. After that, the thin beef pieces are put into the pan and stirred quickly. Ginger and garlic are added to the pan before it is scooped into the bowl.In 2009, after 30 years of business, Thin was invited to Seoul to teach phở cooking techniques to a number of Koreans and Vietnamese working and living in South Korea who wished to open a pho shop there.

“In Seoul, I made rice noodles, and chose beef and spices to cook more than 100 bowls of pho,” Thin said. “The food was so well loved that all the bowls were left empty.”

A Korean general director of a large company told him he had never eaten such delicious food. He asked Thìn to sell his secret for making pho. Thin agreed.

After three months of training, several pho restaurants opened in Seoul, including Tang Restaurant, a popular place for Vietnamese and foreigners alike to come and enjoy “pho Thin”.

The next day, we tasted pho at 10 Ly Quoc Su Street. When we reached the shop, a crowd of locals and foreigners had already gathered.

With prices between 40,000 dong and 50,000 dong per bowl, Phong said he could eat two bowls because the rice noodles seemed to be in smaller quantity compared with the other two shops, but the beef and broth were both excellent.

CNN has named Hanoi’s pho as one of the top 10 most delicious dishes in the world.

But at the fringes of Pasar Besar Ipoh, the central market in Ipoh, right smack in the middle of town, that familiar scent lingers in the air, too. Now limited to just a clutch of stalls, coffee sellers continue to ply a trade that seems to be losing its footing in this fast-paced world – once upon a time, there was an entire row of them.

Phan Yoke, who runs the Yee Hoi Coffee Manufacturer stall, might seem like a victim of progress, but she’s in fact, a survivor of it. I recall accompanying my mum to this row of coffee stalls back in the good old 1980s, when Pasar Basar Ipoh housed Super Kinta, a departmental store, which, when it opened its doors in 1984, was the biggest in Southeast Asia.

Super Kinta was an institution, but with the advent of malls and specialist stores, the shopping institution fell on hard times at the turn of the millennium and eventually closed down after a 20-year run, but now, it is at least put to good use with the Urban Transformation Centre (UTC) taking up house there.

However, UTC’s presence there simply doesn’t restore the lustre of what was once a bustling shopping haven, and 59-year-old Phan’s dwindling sales attests to the area’s fall from grace. But she greets customers with a customary smile and is ever-willing to serve, despite the obvious setback.

According to Phan, she got into the coffee business as a means to an end. “Back then, we were from a lower class … our salary was very low, so, after I got married, my grandmother suggested I do this for a living.”

Phan watched the coffee industry boom when she began in 1989, working for a family and enjoying the business’ peak years then. In 2000, she took over from the family and has since operated the stall on her own.

Her beans, which come from Johor and Indonesia, are processed in a factory in Jelapang, an industrial town in the outskirts of Ipoh. At her stall, she grinds and sells raw beans for both white and black coffee.

And what is the difference between the Hainanese white and black coffee she sells? “White coffee comes from raw roasted beans while black coffee is made from beans that are roasted with sugar,” she explained, much to this no-longer-coffee drinker’s relief of finally knowing conclusively.

As a town, Ipoh is divided by its beverage of choice. “People in old town like to drink white coffee and people in new town prefer black coffee,” revealed the genial saleswoman, who also took time to advise me to get hitched.

Her clientele includes both the older and younger generation. She has noted that the two have different preferences, too. “The younger people have their own grinding machines at home, and they prefer white coffee,” she said. Of course, there are those who sit on the fence and enjoy blending both white and black coffee, as well.

Customers have come from as far as Australia and China. Apparently, many Malaysians who have migrated, come to her shop whenever they return to visit Malaysia, unable to leave a taste of their past completely behind.

According to the Tapah, Perak-born Phan, the best way to enjoy white coffee is with condensed milk. But unlike the de rigueur 3-in-1 beverages available today, freshly ground coffee of this nature needs to be sieved, which, she feels, adds to the charm of its enjoyment.

While she states that business is down compared to the trade’s heyday, she is grateful that UTC’s presence has at least maintained a trickling clientele. In an attempt to retain her customer base, she has retained her pricing from two years ago.

“Doing this business is what I know best. When I’m at home, I watch TV,” she said with a grin, knowing full well that regardless of economic stature, she is clued in on how to enjoy life in her given capacity.

So, the next time you’re headed for a cuppa in Ipoh, give Pasar Besar Ipoh a shot, and buy a bag of white or black coffee. It’s an experience unto itself. As endorsement, and looking at the logo of her packed coffee, I realised it was the exact brand my mother used to buy when I was a young boy … the Seal brand.

Bunga Rampai

Built in a newly renovated Dutch house, Bunga Rampai takes you back to historical Batavia during the colonial period. Adorned with richly elegant interior features, the restaurant has three floors with different atmospheres – the third level is particularly unique with its green house-themed interior.

As for the menu, expect to devour a vast array of Indonesian cuisine such as tum ayam (minced chicken with vegetables) and nasi Bali (Balinese mixed rice) served with three different sambal (chili sauces). The prices of the dishes start at Rp 30,000 (US$2.25).

Location: Jl. Teuku Cik Ditiro No. 35, Menteng, Central Jakarta

Plataran Dharmawangsa

Indulge in serenity as you enter as this place offering traditional architecture and a calming atmosphere. Plataran Dharmawangsa also has an outdoor seating area to bring patrons closer to its beautiful garden.

As the design suggests, local dishes are provided with signatures including dendeng saus madu (beef jerky with honey sauce) and bebek geal-geol (a duck dish) with prices starting at Rp 35,000. Those staying healthy can also opt for brown rice instead of white.

Location: Jl. Dharmawangsa Raya No. 6, Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta

Tugu Kunsktring Paleis

Prepare to feast like a king as you enter this restaurant, which resembles a luxurious palace. The building itself has a long history related to the arts, as it was built for the Fine Arts Circle of the Dutch East Indies when it opened in 1914. Many nostalgic items are kept here including Chinese-influenced decorations that provide the ambiance.

Dishes from all over the archipelago are the restaurant’s main attraction, with some twists here and there to make the taste the house’s own. For first-timers, try the tender Sesatee Zoetelief of Pak Paheeng Solo (grilled tenderloin satays) and the seasoned Rundvlees Kleine Aardappelen Rendang (tender beef slow-cooked in coconut milk). A bar and wine list are available. Prices start at Rp 35,000 per dish.

Location: Jl. Teuku Umar No. 1, Menteng, Central Jakarta

Seribu Rasa

An ethnic feel and homey wooden furniture are ready to warmly welcome you at this restaurant. Specializing in local cuisine and seafood dishes with prices starting at Rp 40,000, Seribu Rasa offers both Indonesian and Southeast Asian recipes.

Spend time to try the crispy yet tender Black Pepper Squid Malioboro and the spicy Gulai Fish-head Tasik.

Location: Jl. Haji Agus Salim 128, Menteng, Central Jakarta

Lara Djonggrang

From the outside, this restaurant may seem like a spooky house – complete with very large trees at the front. But venture inside and let the mystical and dark ambiance surprise you, particularly when you see a large statue of Lara Djonggrang, the famous female legend (read the menu’s description if you are not familiar with her).

While you are ogling the interesting surroundings, taste authentic Indonesian dishes such as Sate Ayam Warok Pamanku (chicken satay) and the selections included in Nasi Campur Kepulauan (mixed rice). The dishes start at Rp 35,000.

Location: Jl. Teuku Cik Ditiro No. 4, Menteng, Central Jakarta