ALL ABOUT HO CHI MINH CITY (SAIGON) (continued)

Well, it takes me too long to write this post because it's quiet busy these days.

Here we are, the next parts of eating in Saigon...

Lunch in Ho Chi Minh: 

For the lunch, it's not many options because Saigonese doesn't have much time to enjoy their lunch. We mostly have Rice. There are many kinds of rice we can choose. Rice with other foods like soup, fish, port, beef, chicken... or Cơm tấm (that I mentioned last post). 

We also have a very famous rice called Cơm niêu Saigon (also name of a restaurant). The rice is cooked in a soil pot by wood (this is a traditional method of rice cooking in Vietnam), therefore the rice will be burnt at the bottom of the pot making a thin crust of hard rice (called Cơm cháy). This will be a strange flavor and good taste. And the most interesting thing here maybe the performance of waiters. So what do they perform? They will do a performance in front of customers' eyes by throwing the rice form this waiter to another waiter. One waiter will broke the soil pot and throw the rice and another waiter will catch it by a plate (it looks like they are doing circus :)). However, it's the best thing you should enjoy in the restaurant. The price for a pot of rice like that is not too expensive about $2 (only rice). 

Aside from rice, you can also have beefsteak, hotpot, coconut milk-flavored crepes (bánh xèo), rice noodle (hủ tiếu), thick noodle (bánh canh), thin rice paper (bánh tráng). 

Talk a little about hotpot. Hotpot is good to eat with friends. There are so many kind of hotpot we have in Saigon. Such as Thai hotpot, mushroom hotpot, hotpot with sauce of macerated fish, beef hotpot, goat hotpot... it's so good to have hotpot in a raining day :).

 

A little about thick noodle and rice paper. These are traditional special foods in Tayninh province, there is no other places have this special food. Saigon is the unique place where these food are brought to. Although it's not totally delicious as the same flavor in Tayninh, it's also a countable food. There are a restaurant named Hoang Ty where I think it's the most successful restaurant for these food. However, the price is rather expensive (around $2.5 for bánh canh, $5 for bánh tráng). That's why there are many fake restaurants with the same name but the food is not delicious like the original restaurant. The Hoang Ty restaurant has only two address (Hoàng Ty 1 - 74 Trương Quốc Dung, P.10, Q.Phú Nhuận, Tp. HCM, Hoàng Ty 2 - Số 01 Nguyễn Hữu Cầu, P. Tân Định, Q. 1, Tp. HCM), so don't be confused.

Some of restaurants I prefer for those foods: Bò né 3 ngon, Hai chị em (beefsteak $1-$2), (Mười Xiềm, Ăn là ghiền (bánh xèo $3-$4), Nhân quán (hủ tiếu $3), Bánh canh Hoàng Ty (bánh canh, bánh tráng $2-$5), Lẩu mắm nam bộ (hotpot with sauce of macerated fish $10/ 4 people).

Bánh tráng at Hoang Ty