Airport grill

If you're headed to the Tan Son Nhat airport to hop on a domestic flight and you're feeling an incey wincey bit peckish there're three options ahead of you.

• Hold out and suffer Vietnam Airlines domestic schedule spam sandwich in a box.
• Or you could stump up between 3 and 4 times the town price for sub-standard crap in the Airport SkyNet cafe. A 333 beer will set you back around 23,000VD. It costs 6,000VD at my corner shop.
• Or stop off somewhere en route and outside airport grounds

Bun Cha Van Anh is one of many restaurant options lining the main road to the airport, Truong Son Street. You'll find it at the corner with Song Day Street. If you're travelling light, like me, you could even walk to the airport from here. Regular noodlepie readers will know that Bun Cha is a northern dish. There seems to be a proliferation of northern restaurants the closer you get to the airport. I have a feeling it's something of a Hanoian's comfort zone away from home.

Within walking distance you'll find Hanoi style Pho shacks, there's an interesting looking Chao luon  specialist tucked just around the corner and I also spied a Banh cuon hole. But I've been meaning to try Van Anh's Bun Cha for donkeys and I only recently made time to stop off. The sixteen tables and plastic chairs were almost full when I arrived

Van Anh serves Bun cha Hanoi and Bun nem cua (Cha gio). Bun cha is everything you see above sans spring rolls (couple chopped up on your left). Bun nem cua is everything minus the bowl of minced pork and fish sauce directly above. If you're interested in knowing more - Google noodlepie - we've covered this dish three times previously.

The shot above and the one below (in my opinion) are the best photos to grace this blog ever. In the UK there's a newspaper called The Sun, every day it publishes a saucy pic of a tasty topless dish on Page 3. Noodlepie doesn't have a Page 3, but if it did, you wouldn't find anything better looking spread across this blog's table than that fine looking pair. The Bun cha above is filled with quality meat, not fatty at all, dunked in a corkin' nuoc mam (fish sauce) and charred faultlessly.

The crab filled Cha gio are better than any I ever had in Hanoi. I felt a bit of hog ordering two, but to be honest I could've stuffed a couple more in. Balls out rockin' topscoff.

The killer condiment is that vat of vinegar and garlic above. A spoon or two of that nectar will have your Bun cha singing soprano with a full backing band as opposed to warbling aimlessly at the rear of the Sunday school choir. There's also a jar of chilli sauce, nuoc mam and a tub of minced red chilli.

At the rear of this fabulous den are a bunch of chefs pounding meat, rolling rolls and washing herbs. That's one of the biggest plates of Cha gio you're ever likely to see and I'll admit for a few seconds I did consider swiping the lot and making a dash for the airport.

However, I fully intend to make a repeat visit here and thieves probably aren't tolerated upon a second visit. The barbie is hidden away in a hole in the wall in the middle of the restaurant. It might not look hot in the shot below, but believe me - there's some fierce heat emanating from that hole.

This is probably the best Bun cha I've found in Saigon so far and it's well worth the trip out for a fix even if you're not airport bound. They have better quality meat, better cha gio and a better sauce than the others. Although the shrubbery is lacking. It's hyper-popular. That little lot, with an iced tea, came to 20,000VD. If you can't be arsed heading in an airporterly direction, I suggest you scoff at 20B Tran Cao Van Street instead.

Comments

[Alberto]

Pieman, I loved those page 3 photos :-), make me feel like highjaking a plane to Saigon!

A bit short on the nipples though :-D.

[shiewie]

Ok - that does it. I have to start saving my pennies for my next trip to Vietnam. I would want to eat that the minute I arrive though ... don't think I'd be able to wait till the trip to the airport to go home ;)

[Hieu]

I have just decided not to read Noodle pie till I already have lunch, it seems too hard for me to continue working if I see all the text and images above. Thanks for sharing great writings about Vietnamese food, it really makes me miss VN, my home country ...

[Reid]

Hi Noodlepie,

OK that's it. I'm hopping a plane to Saigon now so that I can have some of this wonderful food. You're right about the pics, they are amazing!

[santos]

hey reid--mind coming through guam to pick me up? then we can swing over to fatman's seoul for dinner :-)

gorgeous photos pieman

[Mike]

Pieman,

Do you know of any good Lebanese restaurants in HCMC?

Thanks.

[pieman]

Sorry for making you all cough up the readies to hit the east (or west). It'll be worth it. Mike - in short, no? Talk about a gap in the market...

There is the Arab Kebab on Thai Van Lung street. Tries it once, but 'crap' about covers it.

[spots]

omigosh... we had bun cha in hanoi last yr, in one of them street stalls, and it looked exactly like your photographs. the experience was heightened by the environment we ate in - we were shuffled up 2 flights of narrow circular stairs to the top floor of a shophouse where everybody was cramped into long tabled, slurping down bun cha furiously...

it was truly an amazing dish...

however... it's really unhealthy!! full of MSG man!

[pieman]

To be fair Spots, not all Bun cha are filled with MSG and this one wasn't. It's a bit of a generalisation, but I do think they ladle it on more liberally the further north you travel in Vietnam.

That Bun cha in Hanoi sounds suspiciously like the 'famous' Hanh Manh Street. It's the only two storey Bun cha I know of. It's OK, but I believe there are far better in Hanoi. Actually, I'll correct that previous sentence - sometimes I can be way too diplomatic... I think Hang Manh Bun cha is utter, utter bollocks. Ly Thai Tho, Phung Hung and Pho Hue streets all yield better results. Just my opinion, like.

[MrsT]

Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmy..!!! i'm damn hungry now.. and it's the middle of the nite here..!!! Arrrghhhhhhh.....!!!
Must not read noodlepie blog.. in the middle of the nite.. must not read noodlepie blog in the middle of the nite..!! must not read noodlepie blog in the middle of the nite..!!
must not read noodlepie blog in the middle of the nite..!!

[pieman]

Head to the fridge Mrs. Tweety.

[Hieu]

You're right about Bun cha Hang Manh, Mr. Pieman :) As a Hanoian, I don't like "bun cha" there at all. It's more like they just put everything together, as much as they can ... a big meal but never that delicious.

[MrsT]

And I did..!! against all my will-power.. :P

[pieman]

Thx Hieu, I appreciate your Hanoian perspective and glad it confirms my thoughts. What I think can be frustrating for some folk visiting Hanoi is that when you ask someone, a local, where to eat such and such a dish, they generally don't tell you what they think is good themselves, but what they THINK you'll think is good, which is usually, in my experience very crap indeed. I used to question everyone I met in Hanoi about their fave haunts and discovered some real gems along the way.

[Hieu]

Again you're right about the way we used to think about what food visitors/foreigners think they like. I had the same thought few years ago. One of the biggest misbelieves we had is that all foreigners can't stand the smell of "nuoc mam" (fish sauce).

It only changed recently when I had to live abroad, when more visitors come to VN, when I read your "Noodlepie" :)

[pieman]

Interesting. I guess when we're talking 'foreigners' here we really mean, non-Asians, at the very least non-SE Asians. I can't speak for the entire western world, but in my UK-based circle you'd probably find a bottle of fish sauce in 50% of the kitchens and in 100% of my foodie friend's kitchens - although it probably comes form Thailand.

Tastes have certainly broadened in the UK, massively so really. Packet mix Vesta curry was considered exotic in the 70's. From such a sad base, things have improved, but you have to really work to find food that tastes of anything over there.

Here in Vietnam, esp. Saigon (sorry... Hanoi's a wee bit behind...) good food is everywhere with 'real' tastes from fresh ingredients. Something went very wrong in 'the west' regards food. I hope the same doesn't happen over here.

I was listening to this edition of the BBC Food Programme yesterday about the Slow Food Movement in Scotland. The local shopkeeper the presenter talked to legally could not sell the fresh mussels etc. harvested from the seas surrounding her island shop on Mull. Why? Because there was no date stamp, no EU quality control, no plastic bag etc... Regulation, saftey, hygiene and bureucracy are the enemies of taste in the UK, I'm telling ya... Sorry to go off on one... but it's true and it's the one thing I really dread about ever having to go back there and live. Crap nosh.

[boredouttawits]

I went to Hanoi on a tour, and they brought us to a hole-in-the-wall place for bun cha. It wasn't bad, but the place was tiny and filthy, and the nasty eel tank didnt help with our appetite.
I wish they brought us to this place...

[pieman]

Boredouttawits, I'd wager my liver, my kidney and right lung that you were taken to the Bun cha joint on Hang Manh street. As I have mentioned previously - it's bollocks. Why can't tour groups be more imaginative, inventive. Show tourists into their own lives, take them to their genuinely fave bun cha stall wherever it is. Let them explain why it's their fave, who the cook is, what's the story behind the business, the dish etc. Not just the same old tired crap that every tourist gets trawled around. If this blog does anything I hope it steers people to be more adventurous and to seek things out for themselves. For the record... again... try 20 Ta Hien street in the old quarter or near the corner of Lo Su and Ly Thai To streets. There be good Bun cha, IMO.

[Calum]

I am indeed one of those who found my way through the Observer article. Very glad i did too, i must say.

On the issue of MSG, there was an article a few months previous, explaining it could be the human minds interpretation of MSG. It obviously has an effect on flavour, but they asked about the claims it causes illness. Wondered what you though about it.

[pieman]

Dunno Calum. I do know that whenever I have something with a lot of MSG I get a very noticeable, and not totally unpleasant, buzz from the top of the back of my neck and then down my spine. I know people who get really bad headaches off it. I really don't think it's psychosomatic. There is a definite physical effect. I'm sure I eat loadsa food that uses just a wee bit MSG and I get no buzz and don't even notice. But if the chef overdoses, I know about it very quickly.

[penguin43]

Great blog Graham, love it.

When you say "There seems to be a proliferation of northern restaurants the closer you get to the airport. I have a feeling it's something of a Hanoian's comfort zone away from home," I think I can provide an answer.

I once rented a house in Thanh Binh right off the main circle by the airport, near the SuperMart (??) which wasn't there when I was. In any case the neighborhood was/is predominantly military and/or politically-connected. Why? Because the Hanoians took control of the American MACV and other installations there in 1975. And then they built their own neighborhoods.

I heard but have never confirmed that even the HCMC police weren't allowed in our little section of town without permission.