Xin chao!: Saigon Food and Drink

Noodle and wonton soup of 70 Ky Con

Address: 70 Ky Con street (about 2 minutes by motorbike from Ben Thanh market)

Open: Everyday from 6:00AM to 9:00AM (Breakfast only)

Price: 26,000VND up (1.3USD)

Overview:

This small eatery has a history of more than 30 years. Its always crowded and full of "loyal" guests who are in 40s, 50s.

Offer noodle and wonton soup served with pork, fish. The soup is pure sweet. The bowl is quite small. Call one bowl and you want more.

Those who are Chinese/Singaporean/Hong Kong... Its a good place to enjoy Dim sum (Vietnamese: Xiu mai, ha cao...)

Pics: vietnamguidebook

Saigon classics: the stories behind Ho Chi Minh City's oldest eateries

Sunday, May 25, 2014 10:00

Some of Ho Chi Minh City's best food shops are still open, and busy, after more than 70 years.

One shop on an alley on Cao Thang Street -- a three minute motorbike ride from Ben Thanh Market--redefined “banh mi” (baguette) thusly:

It is not a fast food, no.

And it is definitely not takeaway.

Instead, customers queue up happily to sit and wait on their plastic stools, for a sizzling skillet loaded with a fried egg and an assortment of meats.

The eggs are usually served runny (unless one orders otherwise) allowing customers to mop up the near-orange yolks with a piece of bread, or scallions (white parts only).

A mixed dish with extra fried pork pie, ham, and pâté is available, just take your time.

Pickles are also served and tea is on the house.

The cooking is done in the small house facing the street at No.53, but customers sit in a row along one side of the adjacent alley.

Their motorbikes get parked along the other.

The shop opened in 1958 at a nearby location and moved to the current one two years later.

Its signboard “Hoa Ma” has faded significantly and the lady who owns the place is now more than 80 years old.

She still begins every day by slicing up hunks of pork pie; though the current boss is a chubby woman in her 50s with a boyish haircut.

Most of her regulars have come to think of the way she barks orders and shoves waiters toward hungry customers as part of the fun of eating there.

The shop is open from 6 to 10 in the morning. Each serving costs around US$2.

Meanwhile, on the other side of District 1, a family at 17 Dinh Tien Hoang Street has been serving their special banh cuon (rice paper roll) recipe since 1961.

“Banh cuon Tay Ho” was opened by Tran Thi Ca (1919-1996).

The dish basically consists of a steamed rice crepe rolled around a filling of minced pork, wood ear mushroom and onions.

It is traditionally served in the north with a meat soup; in the south, however, it's dunked or drowned in a sweet and spicy fish sauce blended by the diner.

Tay Ho takes its name from Hanoi’s famous West Lake and its loyal customers come back for the special blend of spices in the meat filling.

A bit southwest of Tay Ho, at the far end of Pasteur Street, sits one of the most famous Pho shops in town.

“Pho Hoa” was ranked 91 of the 1,276 Saigon restaurants listed on TripAdviser. Many consider it one of the best restaurants, worldwide, to serve the famous Vietnamese noodle soup, which just recently entered the pages of the Merriam-Webster dictionary.

Cao Thi Xiem said the shop bears the name of the old man who gave an old noodle cart (and his recipe) to her family after pushing it all through the war.

Xiem, now in her 60s, said her family kept the name as they admired the man, who pushed his cart nearly 20 kilometers from what's now Go Vap District to Pasteur street -- every day.

“Hoa had a special charm as his cart was always crowded despite dozens of competitors,” Xiem told Khoa Hoc Va Doi Song newspaper.

Pasteur was the city’s pho street during that time--more than ten carts lined it's handful of kilometers.

Her family has stayed true to Hoa’s recipe and has stayed busy since they opened.

She and her mother and stepfather pushed the cart out onto the street at around 4pm and closed near midnight, at the sound of the second police siren.

The first was a warning that the curfew was about to go into effect.

“There were nights when the second siren came and we still had a lot of customers waiting, so we and the customers just ran together. It’s lucky they were all regulars so they understood. Otherwise, given the conditions, people would never come back.”

The now two-story shop, at number 260C, has come recommended for its tender meat, tasty soup and good service ever since.

They receive a lot of foreign customers, mostly Japanese and Korean.

Some have complained about a perceived decline in quality and tidiness, but few argue the iconic shop isn't worth a visit.

While pho was traditionally considered a rich man’s dish, sticky rice (xoi) was known as a peasant staple.

The notions seems to still hold true, as the most famous sticky rice destination in the city remains a push cart, branded Tam Cau.

The cart has occupied the corner of Dien Bien Phu and Cao Thang streets in District 3 for more than 60 years now, serving as a lifesaver for students and office workers in need of a quick breakfast.

The sticky rice is cooked with coconut water and served with boiled pork, in addition to other ingredients like quail eggs, pork pie, pâté, aromatic leaves, and soy sauce.

Ha Thi Luong, the daughter of Tam Cau inherited her dad's sticky rice cart after a lifetime of helping him with his business.

That's how she knows how to find good pork at the early morning market, how to soak it in salt and garlic and how to boil it to perfection. She also says that's how she knows just when to add the coconut milk into her sticky rice.

“When he died, many regular customers still came by looking for his sticky rice, so I thought I'd take the job.”

Luong sells 15-20 kilograms of sticky rice a day, charging less than a dollar a serving. She earns enough to feed her family and keep two kids in college.

Still sweet

Chau Giang shop, has sold sweet, Chinese-style dessert cocktails (che) since a Chinese refugee and her adopted daughter moved to Cho Lon,dubbed as Chinatown, in the 1930s.

A Guangdong native who lost her entire family during the war adopted the little girl and decided to bring her up.

Ly Thanh Ha, the granddaughter of that adopted girl, now runs the sweet cart in Dong Khanh mall in District 5, the city’s Chinatown.

The shop opens at 4 pm and doesn't close until midnight.

Ha serves more than 20 types of che from chi ma phu (black sesame porridge) to che troi nuoc (sticky rice balls stuffed with mung bean or minced coconut flesh).

According to the family story, the Phung Hanh Phan (the Chinese refugee) and her adopted daughter (whom she named Ly Ai Quynh) spent several difficult years in the north before someone told them they'd have an easier time making a living in the south.

They went to Saigon but found it no better.

They lived on the sidewalks and worked for food.

After many days wandering by food shops, she suddenly determined to open one herself.

She put all her money into a pot of sweet mung bean porridge, using the formula passed down from her late mother and sold it at what is now the crossroads between Chau Van Liem and Nguyen Trai streets.

The porridge was an instant hit.

So she went on with the business until she saved up enough for a push cart and rented room.

When the colonial French government decided to clear out street vendors, she had to hide her cart during the day and continue selling at night with just a few seats.

She survived the harsh period and her push cart now has a registered location.

Ha said she took over the cart more than ten years ago.

Her mother has taught her to carefully choose her ingredients and prepare the desserts since she was a little girl.

She has expanded the original menu, which now includes unusual dessert porridges, such as her chicken egg and chestnut powder.

Ha said her recipes remain a family secret despite numerous generous offers.

The shop has become an important place for generations. Customers continue to arrive to tell Ha stories about the place that she never knew.

“And thanks to those emotions that have survived a long time, I have no intention of leaving this place, though I can afford to open a bigger shop in a better location.”

(http://thanhniennews.com/travel/saigon-classics-the-stories-behind-ho-chi-minh-citys-oldest-eateries-26613.html)

The famous food streets in Saigon

VietNamNet Bridge - Saigon has long been known as a city that never sleeps, with cafes, restaurants, and bars that are never closed.

Anytime, just stepping down the road, you can find for yourself a delicious dish. Whether it is a specialty of the central highlands or a rustic dish of the remote area in the central region, you can find them in Saigon.

Saigon also has many streets that are the home to restaurants which are known by not only locals but tourists.

1. Nguyen Tri Phuong Street - District 10

This road is known for delicious Che Thai (fruit cocktail). There are at least five restaurants selling this dish on this street, which are always crowded both day and night.

Che Thai is very attractive by the variety of colors and flavors of fruits, from durian to jackfruit, sapodilla, custard-apple, longan to coconut milk, gracilaria, etc.

From rush hours until the next morning, the restaurants on Nguyen Tri Phuong Street are always packed with customers. The sidewalks are also used. Photo: VNE

In addition to Che Thai, this road also attracts customers with many different delicious dishes. You can count not less than 10 noodle shops with many famous brands in Saigon here. Besides, there are restaurants selling hu tieu Nam Vang (Phnom Penh noodles soup), banh canh (crab soup), com tam (broken rice) and lau (broth with seafood, all kinds of meat, vegetable, noodle, etc).

2. Nguyen Huu Cau - District 1

Located at the side of the Tan Dinh Market, Nguyen Huu Cau Road is small but from early morning to late night, it is always packed with diners.

The most famous dishes here are the food from the ancient capital city of Hue. There are all famous dishes of Hue such as banh beo, banh loc (rice cakes with shrimp), Nam Pho rice cake, nem nuong (baked rolls), beef noodle...

You can also enjoy Thai food at relatively cheap prices here.

3. Hong Ha Street - Tan Binh District

This is the road for dishes of the northern region. In addition to pho (noodle), you could name more than 10 cuisines of the northern region sold at restaurants along this road, such as nem tai (pig’s ear spring rolls), vermicelli with fried soya curd and shrimp paste sauce, vermicelli with fried anabas, bun cha, chao suon (rice soup with pork ribs), crab rice cakes, snail noodles...

According to many diners, dishes offered at the restaurants here still maintain the special flavors of the North.

4. Phan Xich Long - Phu Nhuan District

Not only dubbed as “the road of coffee shops,” Phan Xich Long road is also home to many restaurants selling food of the North, the South and the Central Region.

Here, you can easily enjoy a bowl of bun bo (vermicelli with beef) of Hue or a bowl of bun ca (vermicelli with fish) of Da Nang, bun dau mam tom (vermicelli with soya curd and shrimp paste sauce) of the north.

After the afternoon rains or in the cool evening, boiled corn or roasted sweet potatoes sold by vendors are the choices of many people.

You also cannot ignore the restaurants selling snails, seafood or roasted chicken legs, which are always busy at night.

In addition to the above typical streets, Saigon has many other places for you to choose, for instance Tan Ky Tan Quy in Tan Phu District - the street for grilled snakehead, Tran Khac Chan in District 1 - the street for banh canh (crab soup), Tran Mai Ninh in Tan Binh District – the street for cuisines of the central region or Pham Van Hai in Tan Binh District – the street for northern food.

Pha Le

Shellfish: A rustic delicacy in Saigon

Tuoitrenews

Updated : 03/31/2014 19:40 GMT + 7

Shellfish has long been a well-loved snack and delicacy for Vietnamese, appealing to local gourmands and tourists alike.

On weekends, Can Thanh Town in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City's suburban Can Gio District, some 60km from the downtown area, is packed with shellfish collectors and dealers.

The area is home to such shellfish hot spots as Can Gio wholesale market, Hang Duong seafood market, Can Thanh fish port, and April 30 beach.

From rivers to markets

Can Gio District features a wide variety of shellfish from salt, brackish, and fresh waters. Apart from the businesses that cultivate shellfish at stationary sites on a large scale, most natural collectors are dependent on the rivers and tides.

One night on the April 30 beach, some thousand locals were seen raking for shellfish. The light of their torches glared in the night over a 2-3km stretch of water.

According to Kim Thanh, a shellfish dealer on the 30-4 beach, shellfish collectors/scavengers wait for the tides to retreat and then scour the beach for clams, oysters, mussels, and scallops during the five or six hours before the tides rise again.

"On good days I can purchase dozens of kilograms a day and up to 200kg at a time. With more than 10 dealers like me, the April 30 beach alone can yield many tons of shellfish a day," Thanh said.

Phan Van Hieu, owner of Tu Hieu shop in Can Thanh Town, said that a household of two or three laborers can collect 5-7kg of shellfish and earn VND100,000-200,000 (US$4.8-9.5) a day.

According to Chin Liem, head of the Hang Duong market management, the market houses over 40 seafood stalls, which mostly offer shellfish to tourists and sell them in bulk to shops in HCMC.

Within only a few hours, a large portion of the shellfish is brought to the Binh Dien wholesale market in HCMC's suburban Binh Chanh District, which sells aquatic products and seafood from other provinces.

The shellfish at the Binh Dien market fetch slightly higher prices than in Can Gio. ‘Ngheu’ (clams) are sold for VND25,000-35,000 ($1.2-1.7) per kg, ‘hau’ (mussels) for VND16,000-25,000 ($0.8-1.2) per kg, and ‘oc len’ and ‘oc mo’ (different kinds of snails) for VND100,000-150,000 ($4.8-7.1) per kg.

The market is home to 442 seafood stalls, which supply roughly 1,000 tons of produce, including some 200 tons of shellfish, to HCMC residents on average per day, Nguyen Dang Phu, vice director of Binh Dien, said.

At Binh Dien from midnight until 3:00 am, many sacks of shellfish weighing some 100-120kg are loaded onto trucks and transported to inner city markets.

The trucks are packed with saltwater and ice to ensure the shellfish stay as fresh as possible, for fresh mollusks make an aromatic, richly flavored snack that is perfectly textured, neither too hard nor too tender.

Into sidewalk stalls, eateries, restaurants

In the past decades, several HCMC eateries have become famous for their signature shellfish dishes.

These include ‘oc gao’ (‘rice’ snails) shops on Ky Dong Street in District 3, ‘chem chep’ (a type of mussel) stores on Ben Chuong Duong Street in District 1, ‘oc len xao dua’ (snails stirred with coconut sauce) eateries on Ho Hao Hon Street in District 1, and ‘oc dua bo cay’ (‘coconut’ snails served with spicy butter) shops on Le Van Sy Street in District 3.

The well-loved snack is also widely available at numerous sidewalk stalls, particularly at night, when clients relish the mollusks over beer.

A number of foreigners have gone from surprise to delight at the delicacy and soon become faithful patrons of the stalls.

The mollusks are boiled, steamed, baked, and stirred tastily, and awaken all the senses when eaten.

Essential to the taste and texture of the mollusks is the preliminary cleaning process, unique for each type of shellfish. Shellfish should be properly prepared, cleaned, and preserved as they may carry parasites, according to Bui Thi Suong, vice chair of the Saigon Professional Chef Association.

Due attention should be taken to make sure that baked ‘oc nhay’ (‘hopping’ snails) are cleansed of all sand particles, that "oc dua" (‘coconut’ snails) are intact and have part of their shells in their mouths, and that ‘so duong’ (a kind of scallop) do not smell unpleasant.

Skilled cooks have their own secrets to keep the snails' internal organs intact even when they have been pulled out of their shells.

On Thanh Thai, known as a “snail street” in District 10, several large shops boast tanks containing live mollusks.

Such shops can also be found on District 1's Tran Hung Dao Street, which used to be one of the city's hot spots for mollusks.

Some hundred mollusk shops line Vinh Khanh, Hoang Dieu, and Ton Dan Streets in District 4.

These roadside eateries greatly appeal to Western backpackers as well as tourists from other Asian countries.

Shops on the expanded section of D2 Street and Ung Van Khiem Street in Binh Thanh District have recently offered new services, including snail buffets.

Large coal stoves are placed at the front of the shops, luring in pedestrians with the pervasive and irresistible smell of the cooking mollusks.

In recent years, the rustic delicacy has also made its way to restaurants and shops frequented by office workers at lunchtime.

The mollusks there are mostly prepared with Western recipes, such as ‘ngao’ (a kind of clam) steamed with milk, ‘hau’ (oysters) baked with butter and garlic, and snails specially prepared with cheese or steamed with wine, offering novel and delectable tastes.

Mollusks are preferred by clients partly because they are relatively safe for human consumption and are beneficial to one’s health, as they contain a high concentration of calcium. There is also a wide variety of shellfish to choose from, including new types imported from Thailand, Taiwan, and Canada.

A dish of snails generally fetches some VND40,000-55,000 ($1.9-2.6).

Some are offered for VND30,000-120,000 ($1.4-5.7) apiece while more expensive ones sell for at least VND580,000 ($27.6) per kg.

Hunter of Vietnamese delicacies

(VietNamNet) In the Vietnamese cuisine circle, Chiem Thanh Long, Director of Binh Quoi Tourist Village, is known as the hunter of Vietnamese delicacies.

Chiem Thanh Long, Director of Binh Quoi Tourist Village (September, 2012).

Over the years, he has made great efforts to collect over 500 delicious traditional dishes and 50 kinds of liguor to promote and introduce the culinary art of the Vietnamese to the world.
Chiem Thanh Long inherited the passion love for cooking from his mother who was an expert in making delicious dishes on special occasions. Because she was a vegetarian, she often asked Long to taste the dishes each time she cooked. At that time, Long felt very excited with the task.

However, only when he worked at Binh Quoi Tourist Village and participated in preparing a buffet entitled “Am thuc khan hoang Nam bo” with traditional dishes in 1998 to celebrate the 300th founding anniversary of Sai Gon (present-day Ho Chi Minh City), did he start engaging in a food career.

To formulate the idea of making the buffet, he, the chefs and cuisine experts of Binh Quoi travelled to every corner of the country to collect delicious recipes. They even visited food stalls in localities and met locals to learn the secrets of making their special food.

They then returned to the tourist area to cook the dishes as they were originally prepared. If he failed, he returned to the localities several times to manage to successfully create the dishes.

He also directly tasted all the dishes cooked by chefs to check the quality and flavors. All made the buffet successful, making a contribution to promoting the trademark of the tourist area.

Since then he has wholeheartedly researched traditional folk dishes. After a long trip to the south’s western region, he collected over 30 folk dishes of the region to add to his menu. So far, he has collected about 110 traditional dishes of the north, the central region and the south.

Besides cooking, he has also collected about 50 kinds of liguor made by famous liguor-making villages nationwide such as Van Village (Bac Giang Province), Bo Nam (Bac Can), San Lung (Lao Cai), Kim Son (Ninh Binh), Bau Da (Binh Dinh), Hong Dao (Quang Ninh) and Tay Nguyen (the Central Highlands). At present, he is nursing the idea of looking for the most tasty liguor of Vietnamese people that may be recognized as the “National Wine”.

He said that finding unique products in business would create a difference so Binh Quoi has focused on Vietnamese cuisine. He added that Vietnamese traditional dishes have preserved typical tastes.

It depends on each region and locality where the dishes are processed with different spices. For instance, the mountainous area in the north and the Central Highlands are famous for grilled dishes, the south for delicate dishes with reasonable spices. The dishes of people in the central region are spicy and fussy in preparation. The south and the watery area is famous for grilled fish served with raw vegetables.

Having engaged in the food career over the years, he has had many memorable experiences. During the trip to promote Vietnamese cuisine in France in 2004, he felt very happy and proud when Vietnamese dishes totally satisfied the French.

In the coming years, he and a Vietnamese delegation will organize another programme to promote Vietnamese cuisine in this country.

Chiem Thanh Long is one of the persons who has great contribution to developing Binh Quoi Tourist Village. The village has now five member units with a total number of 760 cadres and employees. Although he is busy with managing the village as a director, he has still kept his passion of looking for Vietnamese traditional dishes.