Saigon: Eat it.
Ξ January 6th, 2010 | → | ∇ Food, Travels |
I spent a long weekend over New Year’s in Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon) with the fun and wonderful Kevin.
As I haven’t any photos from the trip*, I will attempt to paint you a word picture of some highlights and impressions of the trip. We arrived New Year’s Eve with reservations for dinner at the Lonely-Planet-recommended Temple Club restaurant. The meal started with wine and a sampling of salad rolls, spring rolls, fish sauce and peanut sauce. Keep it coming, waiter! Next up we ordered the steamed shrimp in coconut and a second dish I recall only by its mystery ingredient, later to be identified as a banana flower, or young banana. My first bite contained a couple of the little devils, and my mouth promptly went dry. I didn’t think I was allergic to any foods, but for a moment I paid a lot of attention to whether I was still breathing. Yes, yes I was. A moment after Kevin took a bite of the white-ish plant and had the same reaction, my fears of dying of allergic reaction to delicious food my first night in Saigon were allayed. Phew! More food, please!
Indeed, it was a food-filled adventure. We dined on street food prepared on rolling carts, we dined in quaint restaurants tucked away in alleys or in loft-style buildings. One restaurant, Huong Lai (38D Ly Tu Trong), employs children from disadvantaged families or former street children. They receive hospitality training, education and a place to stay. It was at Huong Lai that Kevin fell in love with the taro-potato soup. Fantastic purple, salty and a little sweet, with potato bits. Slurp! Lonely Planet has a dish-by-dish list of Saigon’s greatest (food) hits. We made our way through most of it. Though I think we disagree on the best pho (rice-noodle soup, pronounced like “fir”). Our hotel, Saigon Mini Hotel, served amazing pho beef for breakfast. We slurped down a bowl every morning. Pho 24, the guide’s top pho, wasn’t bad for what feels like a fast-food chain. Indeed, they are soon expanding to Hong Kong.
How could I forget Fanny ice cream? I couldn’t stop myself from ordering what was called something like Bliss or Genius or OMG That’s Amazing. Sort of a chocolate fondue with fresh fruits and 14 mini scoops of ice cream and sorbet. We had young coconut, pistachio, chocolate, dark chocolate, lime, vanilla, peanut, coffee, mocha, banana, sweet rice (?) and more. Not sure I can remember them all correctly, but you get the idea. Yu-um.
We had banh mi sandwiches on the street. Vietnam is home to the best bread in Asia, surely a leftover from the French occupation. But I sure heard more about the American invasion. During our visit to the War Remnants Museum and our tour to the Cu Chi (pronounced koo chee) tunnels, my jaw got sore from being tense and my stomach turned in circles as our tunnel guide let the propaganda fly like the wind. War is evil, yes, but it has more than one side. Enough of that, eh?
More on street food: I think we were outside the Ben Thanh Market when we “mmm’d” and “wow’d” our way through a plate of fried egg in doughy pancakey dreams. Hooray for grease! About those New Year’s resolutions…
Quan An Ngon is a must-visit for street-style food in a restaurant setting. Sit outside or under high ceilings and wander the food stalls surrounding the dining area. Try the molded rice cakes with fish sauce. And the funky dessert cakes and drinks. And I haven’t even mentioned Vietnamese coffee.
You can have a cup at the Highland Coffee chain, or you can sit in the kiddie chairs of street stalls and get the real deal. I think my favorite one was at a cafe with yin-yang sign down an alley near Quan An Ngon. Mind the skeeters though, this place is set in and around an old house with a garden tastefully (though almost overgrown) plantified. Old trees, tiny buddha baby statues. There’s a woman constantly sweeping up the steadily falling leaves. Vietnamese coffee, served black or white, hot or cold, is made sweet with condensed milk. It’s thick, drip coffee sometimes served while it’s brewing. I think it could turn anyone into a coffee drinker.
Other stops along the way: Reunification Palace (I recommend touring this in 20 minutes or less), water puppet theatre (no translation required if you have a vivid imagination. Fun and silly!), old post office (neat building. Stamps and post cards sold here), Notre Dame Cathedral (note the odd opening hours). And there’s a list of other sights and day tours we decided to skip in order to see what we did and eat what we did and sleep when we did. We like sleep.
Another highlight: I had an ao dai (pronounced Ow Yah-ee) tailor made in an afternoon. Photos coming soon. It’s pretty!
I haven’t even mentioned the motorbike culture. Maybe later. To sum it up: there are many, and the only accident we saw happened very close to 0 mph. Amazing how they navigate traffic circles.
Weather? 30-plus, humid and sunny. Pleasant at night.
* A note for travelers, experienced and not: Always be aware of thieves. A motorbike cowboy swooped by and stole our camera one night in an alley around the corner from our hotel. No one was hurt, but it does make for an eerie feeling. The camera strap was wrapped around the wrist instead of around the neck or messenger-bag style against the body. There was a slight jostling and the sound of the lens cap clinking on the pavement. Can’t help but wonder how long they’d been watching, whether we could’ve stopped them, etc. Oh well, huh? The unfortunate event cast a negative cloud over my thoughts of the broad smiles I saw on local people the next day. It didn’t ruin the trip — far from it. But it wasn’t too delicious either.
on February 14th, 2010 at 7:01 pm
And the Dec. 18 Weekend Journal Asia was at your side the whole time?
on March 21st, 2010 at 5:20 am
Love the design of this blog!