Yes everyone, I’m bringing you another post laden with scrumptious, fish sauce covered dishes that seek to oversaturate those wonderful taste buds lining that gaping maw of a mouth. I swear I do things other than eat and drink in this city…

So here’s a list of some quintessential Vietnamese dishes that are absolutely worth a try if you’re in the country. I’d like to give you a friendly reminder that these restaurants were picked since they have the best price-to-quality ratio that I could find. This makes the restaurants very popular among the locals, and therefore well worth your while.

Before you start chowing down, let’ have….

A quick side note

GET THE AVACADO SMOOTHIES

Sorry, I didn’t mean to yell, but you should seriously DO THIS. Smoothies (sinh tố) here are insanely cheap around town. In a typical to-go stall, smoothies will average around 15k – 20k VND ($0.65 – $0.86) depending on the type of smoothie. Sitting down in a nicer café will add a relaxation and ambiance tax to that price, bringing it up to 30k – 50k ($1.30 – $2.15). If the prices vary too much from that, then it’s either a super fancy store or someone is taking advantage of tourists.

So why the avocado smoothies in particular?

Firstly, avocado prices out here are pretty damn cheap. An avocado smoothie at a to-go stall will cost on the higher price range at 20k – 30k ($0.86 – $1.30). That’s still a great deal even if it is one of the more expensive items.

Secondly, have you ever wondered why the coffee tastes so good out here? If you don’t already know, Vietnam uses a darker blend of coffee so it can be mixed with sweetened condensed milk. This groundbreaking mixture is what gives Vietnamese coffee that unique strong potent flavor but with the sweetness, softness and creaminess of the sweetened condensed milk.

Well that same condensed milk gets put into almost every single smoothie in this country. Best of all, it gets put into the avocado smoothie. If avocados are already god’s gift to man, then condensed milk mixed with avocados is how man will achieve apotheosis. I have it on good authority that the three wise men gave Jesus for his birthday a piece of avocado toast, guacamole and a condensed milk avocado smoothie.

The condensed milk somehow accentuates and compliments the creamy, buttery avocado flavor so well. I’ve been drinking two of these a week for over a year now so that means I’ve caused an avocado genocide of well over a hundred avocados last year alone.

So go do yourself a favor, drink an avocado smoothie. Do it for yourself. Do it for your health. Do it for Jesus.

P.S. I should warn you that the quality can vary vendor to vendor. Some are too skimpy on the avocado and others are too heavy handed on the sweetened condensed milk or sugar. It takes a true craftsmen to bring forth the divine perfection of the avocado smoothie. If you’re unsure where to go and desire holy perfection then I have included one possible vendor in Saigon that is fairly easy to find.

Sinh tố 142

142 Lý Chính Thắng, Phường 14, Quận 3, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam

Anyhow, back to the food at hand.

Spring Roll (Gỏi Cuốn)

Banh Trang Deli and Xien Que

730/7/5 Lê Đức Thọ, Phường 15, Gò Vấp, Hồ Chí Minh 700000, Vietnam

Let’s start with one of the biggest signature dishes from Vietnam, the spring roll. The innards of the roll are crammed with rice noodles, shrimp, pork, lettuce, bean sprouts and mint and wrapped with a piece of rice paper. This fresh roll is dunked into a peanut / hoison sauce concoction to create a refreshing roll.

This is easy to make, requiring only fresh vegetables and a good sauce, so you can find a decent roll at any nice restaurant. If you want some cheaper rolls, street vendors will sell each one for as low as 5k VND ($0.22) but their freshness and quality can vary greatly.

So what I’m going to recommend is for you to try Banh Trang Deli. This neat little place has taken a modern approach to spring rolls. The flavors are still very much Vietnamese but instead of using the traditional ingredients, they stuff it with dried and seasoned beef, quail eggs, mango and a variety of herbs. A very unique and still quintessentially Vietnamese spring roll.

Savory Vietnamese Pancake (Bánh Xèo)

Bánh xèo miền Tây 335

335 Điện Biên Phủ, Phường 4, Quận 3, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam

Once of my favorite dish names. This literally translates to “sizzling pancake” due to the sizzling sound it makes when adding the rice batter to the skillet.  It’s quite amazing how many ways the Vietnamese have used rice to create such a variety of different dishes.

Turmeric powder is added to the rice batter, and it’s topped with pork, shrimp, bean sprouts and green onion to make a bulging crepe. When it’s served to you, you’re given a vast array of veggies like basil, lettuce, mint and fish mint to make mini-wraps. And to no surprise, the whole thing is dipped into fish sauce to add that extra layer of flavor to it.

Of course it’s a crepe so they’re always made to order. Any place that doesn’t do so is breaking the 11^th commandment. Many stores have large stoves in the front so you can watch them craft those magical dishes before your eyes. Give the bánh xèo a shot! After all, when’s the last time you had any dish with the word ‘crepe’ in it and didn’t enjoy it?

Waterfern cakes (Bánh Bèo)

Nguyen Van Troi Market

Đường Lê Văn Sỹ, Phường 13, Quận 3, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam

Boy did this one take me a while to find a good vendor. From my experience, it seems that Saigon does sells bánh bèo mostly as a to-go dish and many of stores were not of an amazing quality. But I finally dug one up, this tiny little street vendor in the local market.

Bánh bèo gets its name from the shape of the leaf of a waterfern. It’s an actual logical name so it’s just not as cool as bánh xèo to me. It is another dish that uses… yep, rice. Rice powder is mixed with tapioca to make these slightly chewy round rice cakes. They’re topped with powdered and dried shrimp, crispy pork skin, scallion oil, Vietnamese ham and drenched with fish sauce. It’s in a similar style to the bánh ướt and it makes for a tasty snack.

The nice part is that bánh bèo rarely costs more than 20k VND ($0.86) at most stores and this vendor is no exception. Unfortunately, this vendor does not have an address. To make matters worse, it’s open only in the early evening, roughly from 1500 – 1800. That’s it. Here’s how to find the stall:

If you’re facing the market from the main road (Lê Văn Sỹ street), the vendor is located on the right side of the actual market building. This means that it’s on the west side of the market. Walk down the road into the market for about 30 feet, and look along the left for the bánh bèo sign. That’s the best directions I can give you. Here’s some figures to help your search.

Follow that arrow and where it ends should be the rough spot of the vendor

Vietnamese Styled Quang Noodles? (Mì Quảng)

Mì Quảng Sâm

8 Ca Văn Thỉnh, Phường 11, Tân Bình, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam

Yeah there’s no good direct translation for this dish.

I mentioned previously that the Hue region and its service to the kings created an impressive number of culinary delights. Well mì quảng is another one of those masterpieces and it includes quite the medley of ingredients.

It’s a bowl of larger, flat rice noodles and a small layer of broth. The broth has a strong flavor since its pork bone stewed with water so you only get enough broth to slake the noodles with its juicy flavor. Add all that with any combination of pork, beef, chicken, fish and shrimp and then throw in some of the usual fresh veggies including mint, lettuce, basil, shallots, and garlic.

Take all of this and serve with a side of grilled rice paper which gives a nice crunch to each bite as well as giving the equivalent of bread sticks to dip in and soak up the rest of that salty broth. Now you got yourself another delicious Vietnamese meal that you can’t miss out on.

Mì Quảng Sam is nestled among a little alley in a very central Vietnamese neighborhood which is probably why they maintain the more traditional style of mì quảng. Bowls here with an entire side of grilled rice paper go for a total of 40k VND ($1.72).

Grilled Beef Wrapped in Betal Leaf (Bò Lá Lốt)

Quán Ăn Cô Liêng

321 Võ Văn Tần, Phường 5, Quận 3, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam

Let’s get straight to the food on this one. The beef is wrapped in a betal leaf and grilled over charcoal. It can be wrapped up in rice paper with veggies, or put into a rice noodle and veggie bowl. Of course it goes without saying, everything is served with fish sauce.

This dish is similar to bún thịt nướng, the only difference is the meat used. The style of meat, in this case, minced beef with betal leaf, gives it a very unique flavor. There’s also a slightly different style where you’re served rectangular paddies of interwoven rice noodles called bánh hỏi. These paddies are topped with chopped green chives and scallion oil. It’s still very similar to the bowl of rice noodles and veggies.

A bowl at this restaurant will cost between 40k – 50k VND ($1.72 – $2.15), depending on the dish.

Beef steak (Bò Bít Tết or Bò Né)

Bò Né Hai Chị Em

12 Xuân Diệu, Phường 4, Tân Bình, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam

If bánh xèo is one of my more favorite names, then bo ne is another one of them. “Né” translates to dodge, so I guess the literal translation would be “beef dodge”? It gets its name from the cooking process: when the beef is thrown on a blazing hot skillet with oil, the oil sizzles and flies everywhere, causing the chef to have to ‘dodge’ the oil. Gotta love the creativity of that one.

Oh, and I must say that I love the evolution of language. To be able to track the evolution of words to their modern day use can be an amusing process. Bít tết is taken from the French word “bifteck,” no doubt sometime during the French colonization of Indochina. The word “bifteck” originally comes from the English word “beefsteak”.

So from “beefsteak”, we get “bít tết”. That’s globalization 1, traditionalists 0.

Regardless of the name you decide to call the good ol’ beefsteak, the Vietnamese took the beefsteak and made it very much their own. The beefsteak itself is smaller, usually no more than 150g (5.30 oz), served with a side of pate and egg and topped off with some green onion and cilantro. All of this is served on a sizzling plate to keep everything warm.

It’s a dish with pretty simple flavors when you compare it with other Vietnamese cuisine. I recommend trying it, but be warned: that portion is fairly small. Be prepared to get two if you’re an American, or at the very least, find some side dishes to get full. I’ve found this to be a straightforward dish that many places have made fairly well, so you won’t go wrong trying it elsewhere. The listed vendor is one that I frequent the most, so it’s a safe bet in case you’d like the assurance.

Bo Kho (Braised Beef Stew)

Bò Kho nước Thốt Nốt by LÊ TRIỆU

14/57 Tô Hiến Thành, Phường 13, Quận 10, Hồ Chí Minh

This is a lovely stew simply made of beef simmered and seasoned with lemongrass, onions, green onions, chili and more. Top it off with some carrots, sweet potatoes and some dipping baguettes (or noodles if preferred), and it all combines to make a fragrant and spicy stew that will appeal across many cultures and taste buds. It’s definitely one of the foods that won’t drift too far from the average westerner’s palate, and makes for a great introduction to Vietnamese cuisine.

This dish is usually one that’s most commonly made as comfort food from mom’s to their loved ones. There are are plenty of vendors selling this beef stew but their quality can vary quite a ways since it seems hard to replicate this dish while still being on the cheap. The best vendor I could find outside of knowing a loving mom is listed above. Average bowl goes for 30,000 VND ($1.29) and 4,000 VND ($0.17) for any additional bread.

Shit Vietnamese Carry on Their Motorbikes: Part 3

The giant loads never end.

 Enjoy…

Until next time.