Streetburger

America's beefiest blog - A Hamburger Today - hit Blogdom a few short weeks ago and is fast becoming a fave here at Pieman Towers. What it offers the burger-interested is a fascinating account of fast food exoticism from the land of lard. Beyond Mickey D's, Burger King and Wimpy I very much doubt I've ever experienced a truly authentic hamburger and after reading A Hamburger Today I'm more than a little keen to get my laughing gear round an all American pair of buns. During our last attempt in Saigon, the Lotteria came up with a bumper loada burger bollocks. Ever since I've been meaning to snout out better. The expatmungus Al Fresco's and Mogambo in District 1 have both been recommended to me, but I'm... you know... more street.

I find this silvery shack at 24 To Hien Thanh street. It's been here for just one year and seems to be part of a mini-chain of Saigon burger carts called HP.

I think we're talking family run franchise cart here. Dad flips the burgers at the rear and junior assembles the hamburger kerbside. In something of a first for me, I see that the meat is housed in a streetside fridge. No, not an icebox, but a real fridge, on the street, plugged in and working.

Big shame they don't grill their burgers. That's one lard heavy frying pan you've got parked at the rear of the stall there.

Burger girl keeps an impeccably clean stall and wears a HP embossed apron. There's a menu out front too. Inside the sesame bun we have sliced tomato, cucumber and a trio of sauces. I'm too busy snapping to tell her to hold off on the various sauces before I have the chance to inspect the bottles from whence they came. None of the three bottles have any decipherable words on, but from the taste alone I think we're talking crap mayo, crap chilli and crap ketchup. The three craps.

Don't let that put you off though. This is a lot better than you might expect. The burger tastes freshly made, the salad bar extras create a reassuringly healthy option feel. The bun is slightly, and oddly, a bit sweet and unfortunately the sauce trilogy does raise some serious taste bud issues. Any future purchase will get the condiment treatment at home.

Vietnam is quite the mishmashmosh of the food world, innit? It's quite odd eating something so un-Asian in a very Asian environment. But, surprisingly streetburger stalls like this are not that rare and seem to be quite popular. I've scored similar bites in Hanoi. The French left their baguettes, the Chinese dumped their dumplings and the US Armed Forces left the humble hamburger in their wake. Saigon style streetburgers. Not great, but definitely not total bollocks either.

Technorati Tags: hamburger, Saigon, streetfood, Vietnam

Comments

[FatMan Seoul]

Me thinks it would have turned out much much better if they hadn't deep-fried it like that .... just toss grilled or fried on a flat burner would suffice. Interestingly, it states there Hamburger THAI(land) .... in Vietnam no less.

[pieman]

Agreed Fats.

Yeah, I dunno what a Thai burger would be like... Hot at a guess. Perhaps I shoulda translated the menu I link to... among the menu is also a Hamburger Trung Quoc (Chinese). What the hell's that?

[OsloFoodie]

I think the Thai burger would be similar to the Malaysian burgers and hotdogs which were quite hot and prepared with some mayonnaise as well. Come to think of it, it's quite similar to this assembly in this post. But the Malaysian burger is grilled, not deep fried and the buns are nicely grilled with butter. I had quite a shock when I tasted my first Malaysian burger but I loved it after only the second bite. But I know some people who absolutely hated burgers prepared with chilli, it's a matter of taste, i guess.

[Nicky]

I find streetfood here (whilst interestingly delicious) doesn't really follow a western concept of sweet and savoury. Burgers are always in sugary sweet buns, hot dogs too. And the 'ketchup'? More like a raspberry coulis.....

[Lei/cottontimer]

Those sweet hamburger buns aren't for me either. They basically call anything sandwiched between those buns "hamburger." The last time I bought a "hamburger" from Nhu Lan, it had a hotdog on one side and a mince meat (pork?) pattie on the other. Way gross.

[Christine]

Sorry that I don't know any good burger places in Vietnam, but I know that you should not eat at California Burger. I'm not sure if it's closed now, but my dad said that it's yucky.

However, if you ever come to the state of California, In-N-Out is here in open arms. I guarantee, it'll have the BEST BURGERS you have ever eaten. mmmm

[FatMan Seoul]

Oslo, just be careful of what and where u eat those darn local burger patties ... if you do the maths you'd figure out that there's no way on this planet u can get pure beef crammed into them burger patties .... so it's gotta be either some other "road kill" or some other forms of fillers. Hmmmm .... yummy all the same!

[omih]

The burger market (entirely as I see it in western run places in Hanoi) seems largely dominated by the Aussies.

For some reason - more is always more for the Aussies - which means burgers crammed with bacon, fried eggs, cheese - etc. The new Culi Cafe at 40 Luong Ngoc Quyen is actually a very comfy hangout and advertises the "best burger in town". All in all not bad - but again its all a little too much. I have to say the KOTO burger arguably suffers this too - especially with that bizarre Aussie desire to put fecking beetroot in. Why?

Best burger for me in Hanoi is the R&R's (on Lo Su)far simpler, tidier burger. Complete with pickle and the option to go for local or Aussie beef. Its very edible without it falling apart on you. Less really is more.

Actually the spicy bean burger at Le Pub (25 Hang Be) is a pretty good option too.

I don't think we have any Vietnamese burger places unless I am missing something.

[Bottom Feeder]

They have little burger carts like this all over Brazil, too. They call it a X-burger (the letter "x" is pronounced like "sheeze" in portuguese). If you want it with lettuce, tomato, and onion on it, it's a X-Salada. The best.

[worldmatt]

If you ever make it to Phnom Penh, I highly suggest you try Lucky Burger, one of two (2!) home-grown fast-food chains there. Really quite yummy, and a bit reminiscent of New England burger-shack burgers. I had to limit myself to one a week...

[bodegadawg]

You know it kind of makes me think about hamburger patties made with fish sauce, coconut milk, shallots, and roasted, ground peanuts. They're really delicious.

[pieman]

Thx all - OMIH, there certainly used to be the odd burger stall in Hanoi. I had quite a decent one (no dodgy sauce) on a side street of the eastern seaboard of Hoa Kiem Lake. I know that doesn't narrow it any and it wasn't as good as J's at the R n R, but it was street and cheap.

WorldMatt, I didn't see any of that in the NYTimes story ;) Bodegadawg, now that sounds like an Asiatic winning fusion burger if ever there was one.

[omih]

I remember lucky burger from my time there. It's an exact McDonalds rip off as I recall. Almost identical in every detail apart from the Lucky Burger logo.

I seem to remember I always got a dodgy tummy afterwards but it wasn't enough to keep me away.

[Reid]

Hi Noodlepie,

Interesting how they cook that thing. I would have probably enjoyed the burger plain as well. Usually, I don't eat anything on it, except maybe a little mayo.

[Owen]

OK - that isn't a burger. You can tell thanks to your efficient photography. A burger should be thicker than a sheet of paper. It should be thicker than a paperback book ideally. It should be grilled. Let me repeat that. It should be grilled. Over wood flames if possible.

I second the In-n-Out burger nomination. With twenty people working flat out they stay cleaner than that lovely stall. Everything made fresh - even the buns. They only sell burgers. The potato that was used for your fries was put through a hand chipper minutes before it was fried.

But even those aren't real burgers. Real burgers are bigger, meatier and have personality. AHT has the hamburger groove down. My current faves are to charcoal grill the dry aged range-fed steak burgers from Trader Joes (grocery store chain here in the US). That's a burger...

[Pete]

Was poimted to this site because someone saw it on BBC clickonline and thought it was mine!!!

Best burger currently in Saigon by a mile is at Z's - 115 Bui Vien street - to die for!

[PetStarr]

I have to agree - Vietnamese condiments are utter crap. What do they DO to that tomato sauce (ketchup)? It takes like fruit. Nasty. Loving this blog, by the way.

[ann]

Sai gon now has the best authentic American hamburger. It is the best in south east Asia. (NEW YORK DINER)

They are also famous for their King Kong burger 1 1/2 pounder burger to die for.

Check it out
New York Diner
8A Le Thanh TOn
Ben Nghe ward
Ho CHi Minh City
Tel:829 7460
wwww.newyorkdinersaigon.com