noodlepie

Cooking banh xeo

Amy has a crack at cooking banh xeo. She calls it one of the 'simplest recipes' she gleaned from her trip through Vietnam. Not sure I'd wholly agree with that. While the recipe itself might be a piece of piss, getting it right requires a deft hand, a frying pan as hot as the sun and a nibble touch with the batter.

Here's a film of banh xeo cooking on Dinh Cong Trang street in Saigon. Also, the pic on the left shows banh xeo served with spring onions - this is very unusual. Amy says she had it served with rice paper, I've never seen it done that way. More often it comes with a mountain of mustard leaves, lettuce and herbs.

I just had a superb boeuf bouginon for dinner, but I do miss a good banh xeo. Go read Amy for the recipe.

Gimme fire

I've always liked this place, but this is the first time I've eaten from here. I like it because it's the only scoff-shed on Cach Mang Thang Tham Street I smell before I see. The eight Banh xeo wood burners and the two large Bo la lot barbecues belch out thick, perfumed, barbecue fumes across a one hundred metre radius. It's the heavily scented, charring, sweet, la lot leaf sticking it to my nose. It's a quality Saigon pong. One you'll find at the junction with 01 Bac Hai street, Phuong 15 in District 10.

Shedfront, and we really are talking shed, it's hot, very hot. The young female chef above was sweating like a Narwhal in Namibia, poor thing. But, Banh xeo and Bo la lot are dramatic dishes. Fire, fumes, meat, grease, sweaty chicks. Vietnamese food prep. doesn't get much better than this. Watch the cameraphone film (4.4MB) to see what I mean. I thought the photos were gonna be wicked from this, but they came out a bit blurry and unfocussed which is a shame. What is it with digitals and nightime? Maybe it's just me? More snaps here.

The Banh xeo are mini. More Ben Thanh night market-esque than the utterly gobtastic Dinh Cong Trang street number. Just the pancake batter, beansprouts and pork. No prawns included here. Bit greasy. And served with fresh lettuce, basil, riep ca (fish mint), cai be xanh (mustard leaf) and a very sweet, hot nuoc mam (fish sauce). The Bo la lot, pictured cooking here, consist of scraggy, fatty beef, la lot leaf and a sprinkling of chopped peanuts. It comes with slices of starfruit, cucumber, green banana, bun (cold vermicelli noodles), rice paper to wrap everything in and a sweet/sour mam nem (pongy fermented prawn sauce with pineapple). More on mam nem in these comments.

I won't prattle on about either dish too much, just to say sometimes the place is more impressive than the food. This is just such a place. The food is average. I did order a takeaway which maybe took some of the edge off, but even allowing for the non-street experience, I think this is a wee bit weak in comparison to the classic Banh xeo and their way good Bo la lot - hit the links to learn more about those and read the comments to find out more on the la lot leaf. Here's a pic of the Cach Mang Thang Tham Bo la lot spread.

Even though the food ain't stella, I would recommend tripping along to this joint. It's fun, firey and cheap. Three Banh xeo and two orders of Bo la lot cost 25,000VD (about 80 whole new pence). I cadged a Chao trang with pork strips for the toad on the way home bringing a family dinner for three in under a quid. Nice. Oh, and incase you didn't catch that - yes - the toad eats streetfood. He's mad for it. Now go watch the film again - yum.

Chinatown street selection

After the kimchi bug finally flushed its last, I was back on the streets last Friday and heading into Chinatown to Cho Lon post office again for another parcel pick-up. During my last visit this way, the post office staff suggested I hit their local pho joint. This time around I took matters into my own hands at a line of three stalls, huddled next to each other just over the road from the main entrance to the post office. There were three options, all of which I have blogged up before; Banh xeo, Mia da and Banh mi. The Banh mi stall is missing in the shot above as the rains arrived mid-mastication and she was first to jump ship and save her soggy bread.

Actually, I haven't blogged up this banh mi rendition before. This is Banh mi op la, it's as simple as it gets. Basically an egg sarnie (or baguette) nothing more, nothing less. It's solid breakfast grub. The seller, who speaks decent English, will give you the option of one or two fried eggs. I opted for the one egg number as my stomach was already rumbling at the sight of Mrs. Pancake's Banh xeo a couple of stalls up. Even with the ongoing bird flu paranoia in Vietnam, I find Vietnamese eggs are a mighty tasty feed. A couple of these sarnies could well sort you out at breakfast with little need for any additional tucker. But, one's enough today, however I'm still peckish and I have a blog to feed. So, moving on...

I swilled the egg butty down with a cool glass of Mia da. There's nothing much new to say about this that I haven't mentioned before - it's still an excellent sugarcane thirst quencher and I have it at least once a week. With the wind picking up, I was eager to sample the streetside Banh xeo before rain stopped play. It certainly looked like quality street nosh; clean leaves, attractive looking nuoc mam (fish sauce) with thin strips of carrot and chilli and then there's the large beansprout, pork and prawn filled wafer thin Banh xeo. This is a solid workmanlike rendition, way better than the one I had at Ben Thanh night market, but not up to the standard of Saigon's premier Banh xeo haunt. The main criticisms being this Chinatown chick chucks too much chili into her nuoc mam and edges her pancake a little too firmly into grease territory for my delicate waistline. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the Banh xeo banter that ensued at these stalls and I'll be back.

Despite the rain, this stall holder was doing a stonking takeaway/office delivery trade from her one burner stall. Above you can see a tray set for several diners just waiting on the pancakes to arrive piping fresh from the pavement level pan. She also sells Hu Tieu (Pork noodle soup). As for the bill, hold onto your hats: Banh mi op la - 3,000VD, Mia da - 2,000VD, Banh xeo - 6,000VD. That's an 11,000VD street stuffing or 70 US cents, 38 British pence or, for readers in Greenland, that's 4.3 Greenland Krone. Bargainsville Chinatown champs. Yum.

Pancake pushers come up trumps

After scoffing these pancakes a while back my request for top Saigon Banh xeo munch-house tips met with a stone cold serving of silence… That is until a couple of weeks back when I received 2 emailed hints (much appreciated) plus a location suggestion from a real live Saigonite in Saigon. Great – you’re thinking - that’s 3 banh xeo spots to check out. Wrong. All three had independently suggested the same joint – 46A Dinh Cong Trang Street in District 1. This many potty pancake lovers can’t be wrong, surely?

This saliva springing sight fizzin' away in the frying pan above is the reason why Saigonese flood to this 50 seater outdoor, alleyway eatery. Beansprouts, shrimps (or pork… hell… you can have both if you like to experiment) chucked in a thin batter. Fry that baby up, flip one side over and serve. I had a bit of a banter with the owner who told me the restaurant opened 50 years ago. It was the first of its kind and remains the most popular in the whole of Saigon. The chef told me her favourite frying pan (she has six permanently on the go on separate charcoal burners) is also 50 years old. Hmmm… maybe she said 5 years old, but I am sure I heard 50. Whatever, it was a mightily knackered pan she wielded at me.

Across the street at 49A there’s a much larger, more modern copycat banh xeo restaurant. Tellingly, it was entirely devoid of customers for the length of my lunch, which was over an hour. What I love about many of these ‘famous’ places in Vietnam is despite heaps of loyal customers, oodles of cash coming in, they never lift a finger to improve the aesthetics of their restaurant. You need to devour this prime pancake as soon as it hits the plate. Don’t hang around for any late dinner arrivals and leave the civilities at home, “Oh no, please, you start.” “Oh no please you should try it first.” Stop it right there. Dive in. Banh xeo pancakes should be crispy on the outside and ever so slightly moist on the inside. Leaving it hanging around too long and you’ve got a soggy savoury crepe on your hands and you don’t want that, believe me.

This dish comes with a plate of nine different leaves and herbs. The most important to my mind is this leaf – cai be xanh (mustard leaf) – which can be used to wrap combo-morsels of banh xeo and herb up before a quick dip in some nuoc mam (fish sauce) and down the hatch.

46A Dinh Cong Trang serves up a stormin’ banh xeo and I would highly recommend trotting along if you’re in town. 17,000VD a pancake.  Download banh_xeo_movie.mov. They also serve excellent Bi cuon – a herb packed, pig skin rice paper wrap number. View the business card and directions. More snaps from the Banh xeo restaurant can be seen at this photostream. Plus the menu is here; page 1, page 2, page 3.

Late night pancakes

Am I cheap? Or is it just the food I eat? If YOU are cheap and/or you like cheap food you could do worse than Ben Thanh night market. The central market shuts up shop around 5:30-6pm and the night market stalls spring up along the two minor side streets alongside the main building. In a city where waiters start shuffling their feet and hovering with "finish yer bloody coffee, grab yer coat and f*** off" looks from 9pm onwards Ben Thanh night market is a boon. You can stay and scoff your way round here until 2am(ish). And there's heaps to choose from. Sea snails, live crabs, chao long (offal porridge), spring rolls, pancakes and octopus.

The night market opened in 2002 and judging by the number of eager scoffers - it's a big hit. I've only ever pigged out on the Phan Boi Chau street side, but I liked the look of the fresh scallops I spotted on the other side of the market, so I'll be over there sharpish. On this night I stopped off at Huong Nam Binh Thuan's stall to grab some Banh xeo(8,000VD - a pancake filled with beansprouts, shrimp and pork) and 1 round of Banh Can (1,000VD - and egg flour savoury, not to be confused with Banh Canh which is a thick noodle soup - more of which soon).

Banh xeo - almost done...

The Banh Can are a pleasant enough snack food, heated in a small clay dish (see below) and dipped into a pretty bland sauce. Light and airy, nowt special but they do prepare the way for the main attraction. I have only tried maybe 7 or 8 different Banh xeo and I need more study time (recommendations please...) From my limited experience they seem to come in two different types; the slightly soft crepe brand and the crunchy, edging towards taco territory type. Banh xeo demand dipping sauce of the fish sauce variety which was passable on this occasion. they also come with shrubbery; basil and lettuce leaves tonight. At this spot, the bean sprouts were fresh (so far, so easy), but I'm a crunchy fan and these Banh xeo had crepe aspirations. They weren't bad, and they certainly weren't a grease-fest (which is truely a Banh xeo catastrophe in the making) I just wouldn't go out of my way for more of the same from here.

Foreground - Banh can. Background - Greasing down the Banh xeo hot plate with fatty pork strips.

It's well worth stopping by this night market, order a Saigon beer and enjoy a pleasant evening nibbling your way around. I haven't finished with this place yet.