BiteBack; Just Sai what you want.

I KNOW from reading his column every week that Tam Cowan is a pudding ... a pudding man that is.

So I was totally dumbfounded to discover he paid a visit to Sai Gon and didn't even investigate our delicious desserts.

In fact, would I be wrong to suggest that perhaps Tam was a touch distracted during his entire visit to our restaurant?

He seemed obsessed by football and the hapless Robert's lack of skills with chopsticks. Come back anytime guys, for chopsticks lessons, not to mention a complimentary pudding. I guarantee it'll taste sweeter than a half- time Snickers bar.

Maybe it was pre-match nerves. After all, Aberdeen were on a winning streak at the time of Tam's visit and he left Sai Gon to see them thrash his team, Motherwell.

Since we opened Aberdeen's first ever Vietnamese restaurant almost five months ago, a lot of our new customers have asked about the difference between Chinese and Vietnamese food, because as Tam points out, there are definite similarities.

Tam asked me the night he dined with us about our menu being like Chinese food and my response was that Chinese and Vietnamese cultures are similar.

Once you get down to it though, the cooking methods and the ingredients are very different.

For example, the wrapping on our spring roll is very different and we tend to do cold starters, rather than hot. We use a lot of ginger and lemon grass and our food is spicier.

As with all new ventures, we are still refining and sourcing the correct produce locally. Watch this space.

In six weeks we will be changing the menu to reflect the true difference between Chinese and Vietnamese cuisine. I have also been sourcing Vietnamese beer as far afield as Francem which may be of interest to Tam.

That and the new puds on the menu ...