Chow time: With and without doggy friends

After getting Nadi (my dog) her haircut I decided to take her out on the town a bit to showcase my skills and her cuteness and well, even with the haircut she is getting way too hot way too fast and that is just the name of the game from around July to September here in Da Nang.

We first went to a place called Hahn and Ken's that is a kind of touristy Vietnamese restaurant. I don't really know if it is good or not because other than the staples, I haven't really ventured that far into Vietnamese food despite being here for years. The main reason for this is that I lived in Thailand for over a decade and that food kind of spoils you. After you have had Thai food in Thailand the other Asian countries' food just seems a bit "meh."

But still, Nadi is welcome here and upon arriving in the place she almost immediately splooted on the floor.

Splooting is a term from internet slang describing a posture where a dog (or other four-legged animal) lies flat on its belly with one or both hind legs stretched straight out behind them.

Most of the staff here had never met Nadi and they went up to say hello and Nadi returned their interest with her usual disinterest. In her old age and for the most part when she was young Nadi just doesn't get all that excited about people approaching her. It's not that she isn't friendly, she is, I actually kind of prefer her being like this because friends of mine have dogs that go absolutely mental when approached by a person and that isn't better in my opinion.

So she just chilled here because it was brutally hot outside. I ended up not keeping her out very long and we went home where the air con rules the rooms. Then we ordered something that I have really been enjoying lately and I know it is terrible for me.

I don't really rate most of the Italian food here in Da Nang. Mostly I feel like it is just kind of a garbage representation of Italian food in other countries because they can't really get the ingredients here in Vietnam. However, there is this one place called Gordon's that kind of has a US style approach to their dishes and these things are called garlic knots. There is nothing special about them as they are just pizza crust rolled up and brushed with butter product and garlic. The real treat is the marinara and Gordon has that nailed. To me this is an important part of overseas Italian food and while it is simply bread, both me and Nadi get very excited about it. I don't even want to know how many calories are in this. It is most likely a lot.

The next day I decided to go out for breakfast without Nadi. It's just too damn hot.

One other thing that I believe is rather mediocre here in Da Nang is anyone's eggs Benedict. For whatever reason the places just can't seem to get the eggs poached properly but at this particular place that is called Good Folk I had never tried it before.

Because I know that all bacon in this city is substandard I went for the Florentine instead of the Benedict.

I have to say that this was actually pretty OK. It wasn't perfect but at least the had something approaching an English muffin and the eggs were poached perfectly. The only issue I had with it was that there wasn't more of it.

My partner in crime for this meal was not a dog but an actual real live person! What is the world coming to?

She ordered whatever and eggs Benedict is called when it has salmon instead of bacon or ham and according to her, it was one of the best she has ever had in Vietnam. So this is good news.

I don't want to split hairs but each of these plates were around 150k VND which is about $6. This might seem like how much everything costs in the west but here in Da Nang this is actually one of the more expensive breakfast options available. I guess that is the price we pay for quality and while I will not rush back here, it was better than any of the others I have had in this city.

Both of these places are located in the part of town that you are very likely to end up staying in even if you didn't mean to. Walk around a bit and you will likely encounter both of them because they are in high profile areas of the An Thuong area.

You can do a lot worse than these two places in my 6 years of experience.

Do was happy to see me when I got home, as she tends to be and now I am in the process of cooking a whole mess of chicken breast for her treats. I have to be a bit more careful with the portions this time because the last batch ended up spoiling, smelling something awful, and had bits of blue spots on them. This can't be good for anyone's stomach even a dog's so I just threw them out.