noodlepie

Fry up

Nothing new for regulars here, gallons of grease, meat - one slab of - and a sizzling egg. This is Bittet Thap Cam. There are four different bittet dishes on offer at Banh Mi Nam Son, located down a small alleyway at 200Bis Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street in District 1. It's mad big for the beer with breakfast crowd. It's ramming around 8-9am(ish). More sedate during daylight hours before kicking in again as the sun goes down. Don't touch the hot metal cowplate. I did, it hurts - a lot. The spread includes a couple of banh mi, cold khoai tay chien (chips), pickled veggies and a tomato and lettuce salad - although the term salad is perhaps a touch ambitious.

The thick catfood pate isn't working for me, neither is the slice of meat tucked under it - nah, nah, nah. But the "beefsteak" itself, the egg ond the offally good meatballl are solid. There are other dishes on offer - see the menu - but most folk are here for a bittet. To really appreciate this dish you need the grim chill of a Hanoi February, service with a snarl and a floor covered in copious amounts of crap. It's all a bit soft in the south. And clean. They'll be hiring a string quartet next, just you wait. Stickyrice, in Hanoi, has covered one outlet. Two faves of mine up there are 70 Hoa Ma street and the establishment opposite the Bun Cha shed at 61 Ly Thai Tho street, near the junction with Lo Su street. Here's Nam Son's business card. There is another branch at 188 Nam Ky Khoi Nghia Street, also in District 1. See more photos of this joint. This spread set me back 25,000VD with a Tra da.

Gutter grease

This is the junction of Le Thanh Ton and Hai Ba Trung Streets in District 1. It's a great place for deaf trafficspotters. It's a smidgen grubby, but at each of the four corners that make up this intersection there's something of interest to eat. In the morning there's a Pho, opposite there's Nam Phan restaurant, two steps and the peck of an Ostrich to the side is a Banh my stall, while a stoat's scuttle over the road will find you seated at a Bittet. It's the Bittet I'm here for today.

Beef, frankfurter, fried egg, some kinda pate stuff, chips and oodles of grease in a 3rd degree burn inflicting hot metal cow shaped plate served a la rue.

The main act is backed up by a baguette and onion/lettuce salad effort. 15,000VD a hit, that's a nat's pimple shy of a buck. Worth it? Freakin' yay. Distinctly unhealthy, decidedly marvellous.

The restaurant has that 'street chic' thing goin' on. You can't fake streetfood. That's a mug's game. Recommended. I'll be back.

Stall 1074 - Bo Bittet

I've been out of the UK for a few months now and I think the first signs of comfort food lust kicked in over the weekend. It's a sure sign when something approaching love is felt at the sound of eggs frying in litres of lard. The fact that I can't get me one of these means an oriental fat fix will have to suffice. I discovered my gastronomic methadone spitting hot oil and egg white at me from stall 1074 on the perimeter of the food hall at Ben Thanh market.

Bo Bittet is a northern Vietnamese fry-up. It's the greasiest dish in the east, but will it slake the fat thirst of a British breakfast junky? What we have here is a furiously hot, cow shaped metal plate sitting on a wooden frame. Inside there are thin strips of beef and finely diced tomatoes doused is a sweet marinade. Not sure quite what goes into the marinade, but the flavour is far from overpowering. Sling on a couple of onion slices and in with your eggs. Sizzle 'n' serve. There's a side salad of tomato, lettuce, carrot and raddish. And you'll find a couple of sliced red chillies shoved in a bowl of soy sauce. A banh my baguette rounds off your brekkie.

Wear your finest pressed white flannel shirt at your peril. This beast will spit and growl at you for a good few minutes before surrendering to your stomach. Vietnam's finest fat shower. Bo Bittet is a serious sizzler. The snap above doesn't do it justice. Bo Bittet the movie comes closer, but you really need to try this one yourself. Stall 1074 also sells two versions of Hu tieu 8-12,000VD and Op la (Fried eggs). Bo Bittet will set you back 12,000VD. As fat fixes go, this is one of the better ones.

Steak 'n' chips

We dropped by Thien An Restaurant at 6A Tu Xuong Street last week during the Saigon Moveable Feast hosted by Josh at The Food Section. I pulled a chair up again recently for a quick Bittet (Beefsteak). I've seen two Bittet speciality restaurants in town, but they have odd opening hours and I've never been in sync with them, thus far. Bittet is usually served still fizzing on a hot-metal cow shaped plate with a fried egg, some greens and chips. It's well greasey scoff. Thien An clean the dish up, stick it on a plate, sprig of coriander and a red chilli. It comes with a salt, pepper and lemon juice dip. I could hear the chef pounding the meat in the kitchen and it arrived flash-fried and tender, chunky grains of hand-pummelled peppercorn dotting the surface and crinkle cut chips. This'll set you back 30,000VD. As I said, this is normally a well-greasey dish. At least in Hanoi it is. I'll need a bit more research time down south to see if Thien An's low-fat option is the standard offering or a blip at the Bittet box office. View the business card.