During our time living in Hanoi, some of our best summer weekends were spent BBQ-ing with our friends at our rooftop apartment. We would shift from swimming in our rooftop pool, eating bellini popsicles, to sitting around the little balcony waiting for Loic’s famous yogurt chicken and Greek burger, and eventually moving inside for some drinking games or random Youtube session. With such great memories, we decided to invest in a nice BBQ the moment summer began. What is summer without nice pool BBQ parties after all, right?

Loic chose a custom-made Texan BBQ from a company in Saigon, and as you can guess from the name, it is huge! The BBQ also doubles as a smoker, which makes us immediately dream of smoked salmon and smoked sausages and smoked everything. We were so eager to try out the big boy that the moment we met David and his family who were hugely into food and having a good time, we had to ask if they would like to let us test out the BBQ and prepare them a special meal.

You can tell Loic was dying to get back on track with his passion of cooking the moment he started brainstorming the menu. After going through what we could pick up at the local market and big supermarket in Danang, we settled on pita with hummus and tzaziki to start, continuing with Loic’s famous watermelon haloumi with tahini honey walnut sauce, and finishing with a grand finale of big coconut-smoked platter: beef tenderloin, red snappers, potato with sour cream, and fresh vegetables from the organic garden (more recipes to come on the blog soon!).

The whole meal was such a big hit, and the conversations that carried on the night were even better. There was so much laughter around the table. David, Arlene, Mel and Alex were another group of guests that turned into our friends. We were even invited to visit their beautiful Airbnb castle near London (yes, we have friends who own a castle!). This new adventure has certainly taken us to places that we never thought of before.

Thank you everyone for such a good night and we hope to see you again in the near future!