Having recently spent two weeks on a working holiday in Saigon, eating and drinking where I wanted, rather than at the behest of a tour guide, I realised I had accumulated an impressive range of culinary experiences, from the grand to the bland and everything in between.
So here is the first part of my guide to the dishes that made my stay even more memorable than it would otherwise have been. By the way, as a pescatarian (fish-eating vegetarian), finding a variety of food was a little more challenging than if I’d been up for pork, chicken or beef.
The food ranged from real Vietnamese street food to tourist tucker and even Mexican. Hey, I would eat Vietnamese in Mexico, so it all evens out.
And bear I mind that my heart was broken from the discovery that I would no longer be able to eat chilli snapper at the Ben Thanh night market barbecue as it has gone, never to return.
Everything else threatened to be a poor substitute… but in that, at least, I was wrong. Come with me on a culinary safari while I revisit some of the places you mustn’t miss and others to avoid like the plague.
Oc Oanh Singapore Seafood (Corner of Co Giang and Nguyen Kha Nhu)
First night in Saigon, I decided to get real and chose this corner noodle stall complete with tiny stools and cheap food. There is a university just up the road so there were plenty of students making a mess of their shared tables as they tucked in to their dinners.
Two disappointments – I couldn’t understand the menu and the waiters couldn’t understand me. Try asking if their seafood is cooked in meat stock, when the waiter doesn’t get why that would even be an issue and is more likely to say “of course” even if it isn’t.
The aquatic flesh I chose wasn’t any creature I recognised – which is okay – but the noodles were those crinkly dried ones you can buy in any supermarket over here. This was authentic street food, for sure. It just didn’t feel too real.
Vegetarian Banh Mi (Filthy Vegan on D. Co Bac)
It’s surprisingly hard to get a good vegetarian banh mi. The traditional version has liver pate and whatever meat you desire, embedded with salad and chilli sauce – and it’s so good it might turn you carnivore.
But there was a street stall a block away from my first billet, outside the oddly named Filthy Vegan cafe, that made me a banh mi with mushroom pate and omelette. I went back there at least twice more, lured partly by the iced coffee (ca phe deng da) with condensed milk from the shop across the road.
Seafood Noodle Soup (Ben Thanh Market)
My flat in the Soho serviced apartments was only a 10-minute walk from Ben Thanh market so it was inevitable that I would head there sooner or later.
With the night market no more, I consoled myself with a seafood noodle soup, complete with prawns and sliced fish cake. It was delicious, as was the iced coffee. What was in the soup stock? Don’t ask, don’t tell, but I did see a sign outside another café that said “we now have vegetarian pho” but underneath were the words “our soup is made with beef stock”.
Cha Ca (Vua Cha Ca, D Trang Hung Dao)
Now, this was probably as touristy as I got with food. I love Cha Ca – grilled fish fillets cooked at the table with fresh greens and rice noodles. There were a lot of well-dressed young Asians in the restaurant but I guessed they were either Korean or Chinese.
This is a large chain of Cha Ca restaurants that has spread southwards from the dish’s spiritual home in Hanoi. It was not as authentic as Cha Ca La Vong in the capital, but it was still very, very good.
Fish Tacos (Bandidos, Street Food market)
My quest for chilli snapper took me to the Ben Than street food market which wasn’t where I thought it would be, having moved from near the eponymous cho to a site behind the Presidential Palace. There is now a giant beer hall called District K where the market used to be.
This would turn out to be my night of shame. Why? Because my go-to comfort food is Fish Taco and there was a stall in there, surrounded by all these Vietnamese delicacies, selling what I consider to be the food of the gods (albeit Mayan deities). They were frickin delicious.
Fish fillet spring rolls, (Na Hang Rivia, D. Nguyen Cu Trinh)
Just down the road from Vua Cha Ca, Rivia seafood restaurant turned out to be pretty touristy too. It seemed this place was designed for large groups – or families, at least, and most of the dishes on the menu were whole fish, fresh from the tank, intended to be shared.
I made do with a seafood croquette and a fillet of something that I had to DIY into spring rolls. It was delicious and distracting – a combination of good food and crafting.
Green vegetarian curry (Chill Thai, D. Co Giang)
I had noticed Chill Thai across the road from the seafood stall on my first night in Saigon, so I decided to visit on my last night at the Soho apartments before moving on to the four-star Silverland Ben Thanh (my reward for working hard).
I ordered a green vegetable curry and tofu fried rice. The service was polite and efficient and the food was ok but I left feeling I could have gone somewhere more interesting.
Seafood Banh Xeo (Street food market)
The Silverland Ben Thanh is right next to the market and has stunningly renovated interiors inspired by Gaudi. I was going to spend my last three nights here as a reward for a solid week of work. Once I had checked in, and put in another couple of hours work I was looking for somewhere to refuel.
I generally don’t like eating in hotels and in any case there was a function in the top-floor Smiths restaurant (more on that later).
So it was back to the street food market, this time to eat authentic Vietnamese food. I went for a seafood Banh Xeo – a kind of crispy pancake that again required DIY skills – so much so that they give you an instruction leaflet.
It was fun and delicious (although not as good as the one I made for myself on my cooking course in Hanoi last year.) So I returned to the hotel but stopped en route at the Summer Experiment hidden cocktail bar run by Adelaide expat Jay Moir.
I had a couple of drinks and some shots with Jay then weaved my way back to the Silverland. Next morning, on my way out for my ca phe deng da, Jennifer, the facilities manager asked me if I had dined in the hotel the previous night.
“Ah, no,” I said. “There was a function …’
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Shame you missed it. It was a party for the Miss World and Miss Universe contestants.’
NEXT WEEK: Fishing in Little Tokyo, very veggie very Indian curry, authentic banh mi from a fake food truck and a terrifying scooter ride under the river.
