Best noodle soup in Saigon

The 'Best Noodle Soup in Saigon' Taste Everything Award goes to a 7,000VD (US$0.45) bowl of Bun Mam and the lady chef who simply goes by the name of Ba Sau (Number 36). She's been serving this one noodle soup from her small six-seater stall in an alleyway market in District 10 for the last 25 years. Bun Mam is just one of a swarm of native vermicelli noodle soups on offer throughout Vietnam, but in my opinion, it is Vietnam's soup star and Ba Sau serves the best I've found in Saigon.

So what is it? Pictured above we have part of the assembly line; bun (vermicelli noodles), soup, aubergine and that green end of spring onion-alike on your right, which is not a spring onion at all, but something called he - a kind of garlic chive. Inside the table top glass cabinet are pre-cooked prawns and fatty, roasted pork complete with a crispy fat trim. Some Bun mam sellers also throw in squid and fish, but not here. The dish originates from Soc Trang Province in Vietnam's Mekong Delta.

The soup stock is the key. It's a pork bone/fish combo number rammed full of goodies. Ba Sau throws in a no nonsense, roughly chopped up bag of fresh lemon grass and there’s a healthy splosh or ten of Mam tom, that's the purple prawn paste monster pictured above and the one providing the punch and the pong here. Bun mam does whiff.

Next up is the shrubbery pictured above. It comes on a side plate or ready blanched in your soup - your choice, but for the record I keep my hedgerow raw, add a squeeze of lemon and go easy on the yellow chilli slivers. This amazing bush is peculiar to Bun mam. The wee green chap to the top right, rau dang (a variety of cress), has the strongest flavour and is often served with Chao ca (Rice porridge with fish). According to local food lore, rau dang is very useful if you're suffering from a stinking cold. The purple fella is bong sung (water lilly root). We also have raw beansprouts, raw rau muong (stripped morning glory) and the green leaf trio of rau thom (sorrel), rau que (basil) and one sprig of sour rau ca which is a powerful and unusual 'fish mint'.

Moving on to the taste. The soup is a slightly sweet, complex, muddy Mekong flood of fermented prawn paste and chilli lavered into a thick earthy stock. The aubergine has had time to soak the soup up and each velvet bite squeezes soup juice from the veggie core. It's an unlikely sounding hit, but a hit it undoubtedly is.

It tastes blinkin’ marvellous which is why I have given it, and Ba Sau, the 'Best Noodle Soup in Saigon' award for the 2005 Taste Everything Food Awards. NB: I must thank Noodlepie readers, Ecr and Vickie for helping me with hedgerow herb translation work. See full list of awards.

Comments

[pieman]

For the record, this Bun mam stall pipped HP Sauce, a Saigon Banh mi pate stall, Oban fish n chip restaurant, Canh chua ca at Ngu Vien Restaurant in Saigon, Irn Bru and Twiglets to the numero uno spot. Yes - this soup is THAT good. Such stiff competition and it still came out on top in '05.

Enjoy the festival, there's some great awards up there by the looks of things.

[Nguyen]

Are you sure her name is not "Ba` Sa'u" or Mrs. 6? :-D

[anhdai]

Hello, where is bu'n ma('m located, please give the address along with the hot photos !!hehe
!I am very interested in your web site!!!

[needles]

all I can say is Wow... all that food looks amazing... great pictures!

[Hieu]

haha bun rieu!!! i love it too bad they dont make it good as they did in vietnam... dad knows this lady i think... he was talking about this the last time we went to vietnam... and yea duck... i keep thinking chicken for some reason hot vit lon... love that stuff

[santos]

hey pieman--did you tell Ms.36 that's she's won? (laughing) i'm sure she'll be thrilled about the winner guidelines. bloody hell, she might get so famous she'll start accepting credit cards ;-D

[Reid]

Hi Noodlepie,

Bum man...never tried it before, but it looks so good. This woman's soup must be killer if she beat out all of those others.

[Jennifer]

What an amazing sounding bowl of utter goodness! Battling a severe upper respiratory infection right now is making me really crave a big bowl of Bun...perhaps We'll have to trek out for some tonight...of course it won't be near as great as this. Oh well. Great award and a wonderful description, Pieman!

[Ha]

I think her name should be Ba\ Sa/u (Mrs 6th). She (or her husband) could be the 6th child in the family

[pieman]

THx all:) I'm gonna check the name business and I'll get back to you. My blog doesn't handle Vietnamese heiroglyphics, sorry. That would mean changing the font and I'm too big a fan of Trebuchet for blogs, so it'll stay that way until I find a font that looks great and can cope with vina too.

[Khanh]

Mmmm!!! That looks so good. I'm missing "real" Vietnamese food. What I would give for a good cup of ice coffee. I would love some Pho Hanoi too.

[keiko]

Hi pieman - I've been enjoying reading your blog, it's fascinating! And this noodle soup just looks heavenly!

[FatMan Seoul]

Something new to me .... that purple "mam tom" thingy sure looks interesting. Does Mrs.6th deliver to Seoul?

[Karen]

I love vietnamese soup I had it every day when I did not know what else to order. I like bun ba hoa.

[sq]

I'm going to Saigon next week and would welcome all and any tips - food and otherwise.

[sally]

Just discover the world of blogies.
Yours is fascinating for a vietnamese food lovers.
Keep going and eating, man!

Wish I am in Saigon.
Instead I am in California,born in Malaysia, travel often to Bangkok, Penang, Kuala Lumper, Singapore, Suzhou & Japan. Been to Manila, HongKong, S'land.

I know I will love Saigon....place of good street eats...just like Malayia and Bangkok!

[pieman]

Sq, this whole blog is full of tips. Just cruise the categories and take your pick. Sally, thanks:)

[Silkyass]

Hey Ha and Nguyen,
Just to point out that actually, She is Mrs. Fifth, because Vietnamese starts counting from number 2 down when it comes to ranking in the family. So Ba Sau is actually the fifth child in the famliy or her husband is the fifth child in the famliy.

Hey Pieman, I find your blogs fascinating. Keep it up. I love Vietnamese soups especially Bun Mam. I have been to Saigon countless times. I was born in the Chinatown area (D6) and now live in the Washington area. I definitely need to track down Ba Sau. Her Bun Mam in the picture looks great and it makes me hungry already. Please give us the precise address of Ba Sau when you have a chance. Hey Pieman, one thing I notice is that there are a lot more territories that you have not ventured yet, particularly in Chinatown (D5, D6 and D11) where there are more and more excellent ethnic chinese food stalls and restaurants are located.

[pieman]

Thx for dropping by and for your comments. I'm only one person (with other committments) so it's difficult to get everywhere ;)

Having said that I will be in Chinatown next week for a rather special evening and I will blog what happens. So, stay tuned.

I am also aware that I have not blogged the exact address of this place. There are reasons why I've done, but if you email me off list I'll let you know. I will be blogging exact address in due course however.

[Tom Tranvan]

Hi, Pieman
I'm a recent reader of your site, courtesy of the New York Times. The pungent fermented shrimp paste that uplifts the taste of bun mam is used in Cambodia too. I wonder whether it's a Khmer ingredient adopted by the Vietnamese since Soc Trang where the lady who serves bun mam comes from is inhabited by ethnic Khmer and Muslim Cham
people. According to Jana Chan who wrote a travel article for the Sunday Telegraph (''Embers of Empire, http://travel.telegraph.co.uk/travel/main.jhtml?xml=/travel/2005/07/16/etvietnam16.xml) the national dish pho comes from the French word ''pot au feu'' (pho and feu are pronounced the same way). She's done some research and pho seems to have a French influence. As to nouc mam (fish sauce), it seems to be quintessentially Vietnamese. It's Vietnam's contribution to Asian cuisine. I'm surprised to watch Delia Smith's cooking lessons and hear that she recommends the best fish sauce as coming from Thailand, as said on the label. It could be that ethnic Chinese merchants in Thailand imported the stuff from Vietnam and marketed it under Thai brand name, just like o.e.m products (Original Equipment Manufacturer) are sourced from a maker and sold under a different brand name. The best fish sauce comes from Phu Quoc Island (off the South China Sea and near the Cambodian coast). The Vietnamese Government urges the local producer to patent the Phu Quoc brand name in the EU and over the world because some enterprising Thais tried to patent the Phu Quoc brand name in Thailand. A fish sauce cannot be called Phu Quoc nuoc mam if it does not come from Phu Quoc just like a bubbly cannot be called champagne if not made in the Champagne region of France or a cheese cannot be called Cheddar cheese if not made in the Cheddar region of England (appellation controllee). The best anchovies are only found around the waters of Phu Quoc. The Thais use a different type of anchovies to make their own fish sauce and therefore their fish sauce is regarded as inferior. The ingredients used in making Phu Quoc nuoc mam are a closely guarded secret. I read somewhere that some american Vietnam veterans got hooked on nuoc mam because it improves their sex lives. Are there some mysterious ingredients in there that have some Viagra effect? If so the Vietnamese's been having Viagra supplements with their everyday meal without knowing it. A British company Unilever has an interest in Phu Quoc nuoc mam. Their Research Department may be up to something, try to farm the best anchovies and try to analyse and remove components that have bad smell? It could be a tall task but it's not impossible. The Japanese did succeed in analysing the complex bouquet of Scotch whisky and duplicate the liqueur and put it on sale.

It's amusing to know that nuoc mam has some libido effect but it can only enhance the commercial value of the product if only somebody can manage to remove the bad fishy odour without reducing the beneficient qualities.

[madcook]

That green chive like herb is called Garlic Chives for it's slight garlic smell.

It can be used fresh in salads or cooked in stirfried dishes.

[vunguyen]

Hey pieman, great article.
BTW, dont know if you know this yet but you are only half-right here:"Just to point out that actually, She is Mrs. Fifth, because Vietnamese starts counting from number 2 down when it comes to ranking in the family. So Ba Sau is actually the fifth child in the famliy or her husband is the fifth child in the famliy."

It's true it the South, not North. In North, they start from Ca? (which mean big,...) So if she is from the North, she should be the 6th child ^^

[le van tri minh]

Thật xấu hổ khi mình đang ở Sài gòn mà không biết thông tin về món Bún mắm này. Sáng nay đọc báo Tuổi Trẻ thấy giới thiệu mới vào đây, thú vị quá.
Mình sẽ đi tìm để thử xem .

[Phuong Hang]

Hi everyone, as I know, you can find Bun mam of Ba Sau seller at Hoa Hung market ( Cach mang thang tam street - 10 District )

[pieman]

Not quite Phuong Hang. It's not on CMTT street. It's at Cho Hoa Hung, 45 Hoa Hung Street, P12 Q10. Ba Sau only serves on Sat/Sun. Best get there by 9:30am or she'll be sold out. She also sells by the lunar calendar i.e she doesn't sell it today because it's a new/full/whatever moon and because Bun mam has meat in. But, she will sell it tomorrow :)

[Helen]

Hi Pieman,

My favourite Bun Mam is in Nguyen Tri Phuong Market (located on Ba Hat Street, district 10). Although I haven't tried Ba Sau's bum mam yet but many other places already, I still prefer the one in Nguyen Tri Phuong market. It cost 10,000VND a bowl there and the broth is so good. It tastes "just right", not too thick, not too salty, not too flat, I don't know how to describe it to you but you will know the difference when you try it.

I notice that you haven't posted any blogs on "hot vit lon" (half-hatched duck eggs) yet. There are many places that sells fried "hot vit lon" and served with "nuoc mam me" (tamarind fish sauce). The most famous place is in an alley on Tran Hung Dao av. (district 5), next to Food Centre. They sell hot vit lon together with different kind of escagots, mussels and so on.

[hedgehog]

hi, i know it's an old post but just a bit of correction on the name of the vendor for you. Ba`Sau' normally means Mrs Sau' (six) while Ba Sau' means 36. I think in this context it'll be more likely that her name is Mrs 6. :D

[Win Nguyễn]

Oh,they got hot vit lon & nuoc mam too?
I didn't know them!My hus tried to show me what are these but i really didn't know them!