Hủ Tiếu

Hủ Tiếu Saigon is a signature noodle dish from the south. In the north, it is more of a dry noodle dish, while in Saigon it is clearly a soup. It consists of a choice of egg or rice noodles, a rich porky broth and lots of fresh salad and herb content on the side to counter the meat in the dish. This is one of the dishes on the top of my list whenever I'm going to Ho Chi Minh City. I'm sure there are plenty of people there who make amazing Hủ Tiếu but I love my lady in Bùi
Viện street, who serves the best version I've had.





In the last 10 years or so, regardless of where I stay when I'm there, I always eat her noodles for breakfast. It's not just because it's cheap but also about how delicious the broth is: cooked with pork bones for a long time, with incredibly tender meat and the smile she greets me with.



She knows I like to eat fresh bean sprouts, soft knuckles of bone and some thinly sliced pork with not many noodles. I suppose you could say I'm a difficult customer - maybe that's why she recognises me! I enjoy her company and her staff seem to have been the same for years. So she must be a good employer, as well. All middle aged and very funny, sometimes it sounds like they are arguing but it is just a normal conversation. I enjoy being part of their conversation and laughing with it. She told me she doesn't care who her clients are or where they're from, they all human beings and she charges everyone with same price and I like that.

Saigon, July 2010

I'm in Saigon for a few days before taking some members of my family to Bangkok for a short vacation. The weather in Saigon is a bit different to Hanoi but I like Saigon as it always cool from 4pm which is much better. At the moment it's rainy season which helps keep temperatures down a bit.

Yesterday, when I wandering around the market in the afternnon when I realised my Iphone had gone. I'm very upset with myself for not being more careful with my bag. Normally in Hanoi I know exactly what's going an around me and where my phone is. I just lost concentration for a second and it was gone!

I'm trying not to let this incident ruin my holiday but it's hard. After trying to call the phone a few times I gave up and went back to the hotel. Later in the evening I went out for some snacks, including duck eggs and crabs with tamarind sauce. This made me feel better but I'm still thinking about the phone.

I was trying to take few photos of the food but I couldn't get them in focus, which I hate. There must have been something wrong with me at the time. I decided to walk back to the hotel for an early night. The next day I returned and had more success taking photos of the food. I really love eating from this old lady who has quite a striking face. She is quite a character, smoking, swearing and laughing with all of her customers. She rocks everybody who comes to her stall.

I also went to my favorite Hu Tiu vendor for breakfast. It was great to see she remembered me and what I normally order as extras such as fresh beanshoots, a bit more dried onion... The only thing that she doesn't know is that I don't eat lots of meat and noodles now because I am trying to loose some weight and workout on my belly. Anyway, I went back to her shop for every breakfast and the day I left early for Bangkok, I got up extra early for another serve of noodles.

A smile and a wave from her was a great start to my trip.

Saigon

It's pretty exciting for me when I'm able to get down to Saigon for a few days to see my dentist and visit my sister. It's nice to be in the sun and eat my favorite food from the south. Food in the south is getting dearer but it's well cooked, fresh and tasty and worth the money.

After I visited my dentist, my sister took me out for dinner with her family and our nephew by the river. We had a such a beautiful meal there, ordering coconut salad with chicken skin, stir fried duck eggs with tamarind sauce, fried rice with eggs and garlic, stir fried beef served with vegetables, pine apple and fresh noodles, and the last dish was Thai hopot. They're all really tasty and the bill came out amazingly cheap.

The next day, my niece's boyfriend invited everyone out for breakfast and we chose to go to Lam Son beef steak restaurant. It sounds funny to have a beef steak for breakfast but this is a common thing to do in the south. We had a mixed beef steak which includes fried egg, ham and french fries. It's surprisingly nice and the place is generally really crowded. Good to eat something different instead of chicken noodle soup - pho ga - all the time :).

In the evening, my nephew took everyone out to have Keo fish hotpot which is one of my local favorite even though I am not really into river fish. We ordered some grilled river prawns, grilled Keo fish, grilled squid and Keo hotpot. We were totally full after all and I couldn't even move. It's really nice being with family especially as I'm very close to my sister and my nephew. It's good to see them again and I will be back here briefly at Tet after my trip to Phu Quoc. Looking forward to that!

Coriander Restaurant

Do you like Thai restaurants? It's a bit hard to decide which Thai restaurant to go to in Ho Chi Minh as there are so many to choose from. My friends told me about the Coriander Restaurant in the back packer area in Bui Vien street. This is a small and simple restaurant like others in this area. When choosing where to sit, there are three options that you can choose: the second floor, the first floor or the back room. I love the back room because it's very simple, traditional seating on floor cushions and nice Thai paintings on the walls.

The menu highlight was Pad Thai, great Thai green papaya salad and you cannot miss the Thai green chicken curry. Take care though, as I was nearly crying when I finished the curry because I forgot to tell the waitress to make it mild.

Beside the Thai menu items, they also have some other Vietnamese and Western dishes and imported Thai drinks. The food is presented carefully and really tasty with big serves and quite cheap compared to other Thai restaurants in town that I've been to. I recommend this one!

Coriander restaurant
185 Bui Vien, District 1
Telephone 84.8.8371311
Mobile: 0909304814
Ho Chi Minh City

Christmas Holidays In Saigon

I have arrived in Saigon after over two hours flying from Hanoi with Pacific Airlines, a cheap airline joined with Qantas Airlines from Australia. The flight was delayed for 30 minutes but the journey was fine and I am now in Saigon for two weeks holiday for Christmas with my friends and my sister's family.

I love going down here because the weather is not cold during Christmas time while Hanoi is freezing and it's sunny today, great, I love it. The food in the south is great with lots of herbs and vegetables and also people understand my countryside accent because I'm from here. I also love being with my sister who is going to cook me good food and hang out with me in the shops and on the tennis courts.

I will try my best to update my blog as much as I can during the next two weeks. Hope everyone has a great holiday season.

Saigon Dec 2007 - Part I

I always wake up a bit late on my holidays and it's no different today as I woke up at 11 Am. After a few minutes washing up, I started my day with a bowl of Saigon hu tieu. There's nothing better than that and a beautiful sunny day. I wandered around for a few hours before stopping at Sasa Cafe in Bui Vien Street for lunch.Walking the whole morning is hard work. The food isn't bad here with the high light being the spanish fried rice with chicken, seafood, sausage and vegetable, fresh spring rolls and cold beer. What I always notice in Saigon is the friendly service, which is one of the differences between the north and the south. In Hanoi, sometimes the service in restaurants can be not very welcoming.

Later in the day, my sister and her friends invited me to Hoang Ty restaurant for dinner. This is my favorite place in Saigon which serves great steamed fish and deep fried fish with lots of different vegetables and herbs, rolled in special Trang Bang rice paper. We ordered these dishes plus Cu Chi beef which was recommended because it was very tender like western beef. We also ordered boiled pork, crab and prawn noodle and pig feet noodles. It was enough food for a whole army and we couldn't actually finish it all.

After dinner, we headed off to play tennis and we were all too full to play and not surprisingly, we couldn't move well to hit the ball!

To be continued.

Mua Rung Restaurant

Don't get confused between Mua Rung restaurant and Mua Rung Discoque. This is a real famous restaurant for southern Vietnamese dishes. When the locals talk about Mua Rung, they always mention Ca Keo hot pot which is the most popular dish at this place. I love this hot pot, too.

This restaurant is huge but it's busy all the time according to my sister. On the day of my visit earlier this year, it was packed. There is nothing special about the decoration and the set up but the friendly staff, great food and reasonable prices make it so popular. You can choose to sit on the first floor, second floor or on the third floor where they all have big fans spraying out a fine mist to cool the temperature down.

The ca keo hotpot contains Ca Keo fish, sour broth(canh chua) include dry onion, morning glory, Keo Neo vegetable, Dang vegetable, lots of herbs, bean shoots, lotus, celeri, water spinach, criander, banana, and other vegetables that I don't know how to translate(Bach Tang, Giang leaves, Keo Neo and a very special vegetable called Nhut which is only available in the south). They use pork bones cooked for a long time to make a natural sweet stock then add some Thai sate stuff and their own special Mua Rung ingredients to make a really yummy sweet and sour stock.

Beside the hotpot, they also serve a variety of Vietnamese food but for me, the highlights are the chicken feet salad, grilled Ca Keo fish, and grilled small river shrimps or sauted beef with onion and green pepper.

Check them out at Mua Rung restaurant
4 Su Thien Chieu
Ward 7 District 3
Tel: (84-8) 9307064 - 9307036
Ho Chi Minh city