My apologies for the long break. It turns out that living in one spot brings about these things called ‘responsibilities’ and ‘jobs’. What a bore. Well I have some free time again and I’ll try to keep to the bi-weekly posts I promised.

In the past I’ve posted some of my favorite comfort foods as well as a selection of local delights. But I have a feeling the majority of people who visit Vietnam are there to well… eat Vietnamese food. So I’ll save my favorite sushi spot for another time and instead share you my other great finds in this food packed city.

But once again…

 

A Quick Side Note

The purpose of the “Eat Like a Local” series isn’t just finding a great restaurant. These can easily be found by hopping Yelp or Google Maps. The challenge in Vietnam is finding a quality restaurant that matches the local price and still retains the correct Vietnamese flavors.

Many of those top-rated restaurants are reviewed by foreigners who enjoy their dishes to be more of a fusion style. There’s nothing wrong with that palate, but it doesn’t quite represent the true Vietnamese flavors many people are here to taste.

The second issue is the pricing. Most tourists rarely venture beyond District 1, where the majority of authentic restaurants are subject to inflated tourist pricing. While this isn’t an issue for most people since the inflated prices are still cheap by western standards, why not save some money and end up in an environment more representative of a local Saigon?

While we’re talking about money, I’d like to point out that the prices in this series are for a standard, middle class restaurant. You can absolutely find cheaper food at the many food stands littered around the city. Those food stands are arguably better than 90% of Vietnamese restaurants you’ll find back at home but here, most are mediocre food whose sole purpose is to get you full.

What I advocate is spending a little more (usually $2-4 a meal) to get the most value out of your dollar. Now granted, you can always shell out and get the high dollar meals and really find some scrumptious food, but I believe you can get a true taste of quality Vietnamese cuisine in this middle price range.

With that being said, I’d like to emphasize that I am definitely not a food critic. I hold no illusions that my taste buds rival that of an undeveloped dung beetle.

So without further ado, here are my other recommendations.

 

Phở Anh

8 Kỳ Đồng, Phường 9, Quận 3, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam

The tastes and flavor of phở are absolutely incredible, so it’s no surprise it’s Vietnam’s greatest cultural export. I don’t have any additional insight about this wonderful dish that you can’t find plastered all over the internet. Anyone whose tried it knows the bowl was sent to humanity by the Gods. And those who haven’t been graced by a warm bowl of phở have lived a terrible and unfulfilling life.

I am painfully well aware that my first food post in Vietnam did not list a Phở restaurant. I formally apologize for my transgression. Talking about Vietnam without mentioning Phở is like talking Game of Thrones without mentioning dragons. Or talking about Bill Clinton without mentioning blowjobs. You get the point.

The fact of the matter is that you can find a phở restaurant on every block and most aren’t bad. There’s a few great ones, but most are pretty overpriced. Phở Anh in my humble opinion, holds the best combination of taste and price. Expect a standard bowl here to go for 45k ($2).

Legend has is that Prometheus stole a bowl of phở from the Gods and gifted it to men

 

Sadec Quan

154 Nguyễn Đình Chiểu, Phường 6, Quận 3, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam

167 Nguyễn Đình Chiểu, Phường 6, Quận 3, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam

This restaurant specialies in another Vietnamese soup, hu tieu. hu tieu is a lighter noodle soup made from a pork base. In comparison to bún bò huế and phở, I feel the flavor is a little bland and not as stimulating. Don’t get me wrong: it’s still a great dish, but it’s just hard to compare to God’s gift to man.

The great part about Sadec Quan is that they have two options of hu tieu. Not only do they make the standard hu tieu noodle soup, but they make the Mekong styled variant. In this alternate style, the noodles are served dry with some sauces for flavoring and the broth is given in a separate bowl. It’s a great way to try the immensely popular hu tieu or try a regional specialty.

Top it off with some homemade soybean milk and some of the best chè (Vietnamese dessert/pudding with a coconut milk base) to make a fantastic full meal. A bowl of hu tieu goes for roughly 50k VND ($2.21), soybean milk for roughly 15k VND ($0.66) and the desserts another 18k ($0.79).

Yep, that’s a bowl of deliciousness

 

Bún chả Hà Nội

135 Võ Văn Tần, Phường 6, Quận 3, Hồ Chí Minh 700000, Vietnam

Bún chả is a northern styled dish that’s gained some popularity here in Saigon. This dish gained notoriety when featured on Parts Unknown. Anthony Bourdain treated President Obama to a bún chả restaurant in Hanoi, complete with plastic chairs and grimy floors.

Bún chả is a side of grilled fatty pork with white rice noodles, the usual selection of herbs, and a side of dipping broth. The broth has a base of vinegar, sugar, fat, and fish sauce. This combination makes bún chả very greasy and heart attack-inducing, but that’s probably why it’s so good.

A side of bún chả and an appetizer should cost two people around 100k ($4.50).

That’s some fatty meal swimming in that bowl

 

Quán Lẩu Dê 45

45 Ngô Thời Nhiệm, Phường 6, Quận 3, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam

Hotpot (Lẩu) is a serious pastime here in Vietnam. It compliments wonderfully with the family styled, long drawn-out evening meals. It’s so popular that Vietnam has gleefully adopted Thai, Japanese and Korean flavors as well. Shifting through the glut of hotpot restaurants in Saigon is a daunting task.

Thanks to the help of my family, Quán Lẩu Dê 45 is a very traditional style of Vietnamese hotpot that I can happily recommend. Dê means lamb for the record. So this restaurant specializes in lamb dishes, but they also seem to have quite a variety of beef items.

To start with, you can get a sliced beef dish marinated in limes for a lovely citrus flavor. Then, if your group is sufficiently big, you can request your own tiny coal grill on the table to grill marinated lamb cuts. The best part is their dipping sauce, chao. This is made from fermented bean curd or tofu. Before you gag, I promise this is amazing dip that brings together the meal. And I find it quite compatible with a western palate. It’s light but still flavorful and compliments grilled lamb wonderfully.

Finally, you can order the large bowl of hotpot filled with broth, veggies, toppings and a variety of lamb parts. Each of these dishes will cost roughly 120k ($5.30). Expect to make an evening of this, have a few beers, talk and hang out as you fritter the night away.

Lime beef and charcoal grill with marinated lamb slices

 

Sườn Cây

3 Hồ Biểu Chánh, Phường 12, Phú Nhuận, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam

I was debating adding this little item since it’s technically not traditional Vietnamese cuisine. In recent years, Korean styled barbeque where you cook your own food on a grill has skyrocketed in popularity. This isn’t much of a surprise since it shares a similar atmosphere to hotpot. Plus, barbequed meats compliment drinking nice and boy do a lot of locals here love to get trashed over these long dinners.

Since it’s been so heavily adopted and has become a quintessential part of Vietnamese culture, I did decide to add barbeque to the list and Sườn Cây is one of the best barbeque restaurants here. They have Vietnamese and Korean styled marinades. This means you’ll get some authentic as well as some fun fusion flavors.

Depending on how much you eat and drink, it’s pricier than most restaurants, but it’s well worth the price. Expect to spend around 250k – 300k ($11.04 – $13.24) per person here including your drinks.

I gained a few pounds just looking at this picture

 

Phá Lấu

~20 Kỳ Đồng, Phường 9, Quận 3, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam

I always like to add a unique dish that pushes the envelope for the average person. Phá lấu is of a southern Chinese origin, but has long since been adopted and Vietnamese-fied. It’s a combination of pork (or sometimes beef) tongue, liver or intestines simmered in a variety of unique spices (akin to curry spices), tamarind and coconut milk. It’s served with a small baguette and, of course, fish sauce or nước mắm.

I’m well aware the taste and texture of organs and tongue aren’t exactly favorites in the Western world, but I encourage giving this one a shot. The sauce flavors really tone down the intense organ flavors that many of us find off-putting.

And if you’re wondering why the weird address? It’s because it’s a street vendor that posts shop on the sidewalk. Phá lấu is not a full meal and is most commonly a snack, so you’ll rarely find this dish in any restaurant. You can find a few of these street vendors scattered around town but try checking out this lady. The phá lấu there has a very agreeable palate and is always extremely busy with the locals.

Talk about busy

 

Vietnam Superstitions

Rather than end on some random stray observations, I’ve decided to explore another aspect of Vietnamese culture. I grew up with immigrant parents and I got my fair taste of Vietnamese superstitions. What I didn’t realize was how Americanized my parents had become and how little I scratched the surface.

I thank my Vietnamese friends and their western spouses who had to firsthand endure some of these superstitions.

• If you just gave birth to a baby, you’re not supposed to shower for a month. The mom’s body is considered weak and the water from the shower can absorb into her and make her sick.
• If you get hot and sweaty (which is all the time here), you can’t take a shower immediately. The contrast of hot and cold will make you sick.
• Stealing towels from a hotel will bring you an immeasurable amount of bad luck. You must burn the towels to atone for this.
• Can’t take a picture of the baby during the first year.
• Shopkeepers believe that the first customer of the day is an omen of the whole day. If a customer buys something, it will be a prosperous day and if they don’t, it’ll be a slow day.
• On that note, a pregnant woman shopping will bring bad luck if she goes to your store. This is especially true if she’s the first customer of the day.

 

Until next time.