noodlepie

Saigon tipsters write in...

Here's something to argue over for any hangers on expecting further Vietnamese food posts :) Reader Hieu Trung Bui, who runs Cay Tre and the newly opened Viet Grill restaurants in London, emails to tell me about her favourites in Saigon. Got tips - Please send them - I love 'um. Plus, in theory at least, the comment box will filter out any crap suggestions. Here's Bui's (edited) faves,

Best Bun Bo Hue in Saigon: Believe it or not, the best place is a small stall at the corner of Ly Tu Trong and Le Anh Xuan, Quan 1. The shop is at the Le Anh Xuan side and only open between 5 - 6 pm. Very busy and a bit expensive (about £2 - surely not Bui??? That's around 60,000 dong...) They serve the best Bun Bo Hue in town because of the authenticity of the broth and the method of stewing beef and cooking the hock.

Best Mi Hoanh Thanh is down a small alley in Le Dai Hanh Street (Quan 11). At the corner of Le Dai Hanh Street and Hoa Hoa Street, you turn left into the first alley in the Le Dai Hanh Street. The noodle stall has been there for over 50 years, and it is the most popular in Chinatown, Saigon. Open from 7pm-2am

Best My thit bam (a noodle dish with minced pork and kidney) is on Truong Dinh Street, opposite a Pagoda, at the crossroads of Ly Tu Trong Street (Quan 1) and Truong Dinh Street. Fanstastic broth and noodles.

Best Hu Tieu Nam Vang in Nhat Tao street, right the corner of Nguyen Kim Street and Nhat Tao Street. Very special and being voted the best for many years. The shop is about 40 years old.

Best Lau De (Goat Steam Boat) is in Bach Dang Street, in San bay (near the airport). The restaurant is called “Cuong Tau”, serving only goat. It's very popular with drinkers.

Best Lau Ca (Fish in Stream Boat) at a big restaurant right the corner of Nguyen Trai Street and Chau Van Liem Street (Quan 5). The restaurant is on the Nguyen Trai side. This has a very mysterious stock and delicious fish. I can't forget the distinctive taste of this dish.

As for pho. Pho Phu Vuong on Le Van Sy Street, in Quan Phu Nhuan. This pho shop has been a phenomenon in the city lately. People tell me that the owner of the shop works for Phu Nhuan district environment health and safety department, and he inspects every butcher in the area. The beef he has for his shop is always the best on the market as he has many connections. Very delicious and a lot different from Pho 24.

I previously blogged some of my own Saigon faves. Plus there is the mega-Saigon Scoff document.

A little bit of Pyongyang in Saigon

There are precisely a zillion and one places I wish I'd had time to go to visit in Saigon. Actually, that's a total lie. I had time, I didn't make time or I got distracted by summit else. I was recently reminded of one of those I meant to sample by CrystalTime in the comments,

"Please check out this Taedonggang North Korean reastaurant at 30 Ho Tung Mau street, better go at 7pm to enjoy the North Korean show upstair :)"

If you're in Saigon, you like Korean food and you have a blog, please blog it for me. I've heard of the North Korean restaurant in Siem Reap and, according to Asia Times, there are more in Phnom Penh, Vladivstok, Shanghai and Beijing. But is the one in Saigon part of the same gang?

Mini-review/Tip off: Restaurant Tell

Having mushed the cardboard dough of every other pizzeria in Saigon with tears of mounting frustration, Italian was out tonight. Siding with the Germans, while not a traditional British pastime, was the only option left come the big match. As far as I know there are just three German outlets in this fair ville; Gartenstadt at 34 Dong Khoi street, Duc on Ngo Van Nam and Restaurant Tell at 5 Nguyen Binh Khiem street. Gartenstadt has the beerthing sorted, with white and wheat beer on offer. The scent on the street outside Duc betrays bratwurst leanings. And Restaurant Tell has the knuckle, raclette and fondue scene licked. Sadly, the photos were an utter abomination - really, shockingly bad - but the raclette above was not. The "Tell Raclette" comes with 400g of raclette cheese, five different cold cuts, pickled vegetables, potatoes heated atop the raclette itself and a mishmashmosh salad of beetroot, cabbage, lettuce, potato and apple. It costs 395,000 and is more than enough for two. Heavy stuff, hot stuff, great fun and jolly good. Restaurant Tell also has four fondue offerings, three of which are cheese, one is oil. There are outlets of Restaurant Tell in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. This joint comes recommended by a real live German person. Cheers :)

Tip off: Is this the best sandwich in Saigon?

I've ummed and arrggghhhhed about this award. 2006 was going to be HP Sauce year, Irn Bru or my favourite Scottish fish n chip shop. Toss as I might, I couldn't quite settle on a single winner. Being the decisive so and so I am, I decided to stick the award somewhere nearer home instead. The 2006 TasteEverything award goes to The Best Sandwich in Saigon and the stallholder at 37 Nguyen Trai street in District 1, Saigon, Vietnam. She serves weekdays only, from 5pm until the stall runs dry. I've tried many a sarnie in this mad megalopolis, but this particular specimen is undeniably the bread's bollocks. Enjoy. I did. Burp.

I received this in the comments some two months ago. "Another sarnie tip-off. A woman sets up (after 5:30pm) a "banh mi thit nuong" stand. The thit nuong are like little grilled sausages. Plus, she throws on some bbq sauce. Best sandwiches I've had in Saigon. A real gem of a find." Upon reading the suggestion I grabbed a camera, snatched the nearest notebook, powered out of fortress pie, hailed a passing chariot and headed out in search of this "gem". A mere 64 days later I alight at this pavement stall at 37 Nguyen Trai street in District 1. I'm hungry, but zen. I've arrived. I grab the plushest, fur lined, plastic stool I can find and order.

And here it is. Banh mi thit nuong translates vaguely as a meatball sub (kinda). It's 5,000VD. I'm a sucker for an electricity bill wrapped sarnie. Is it a internationally common cultural thing? Between the ages of 8 and 16 I was raised by bedouin tribes people who insisted on a strict intake of roughly 10% Fish n chips from the Hillmorton Fish Saloon on Featherbed Lane, Rugby in the UK. Used to have to queue down the street to get in there at dinner time. Fish n chips, like banh mi, come wrapped in paper. Normally newspaper; The Sun, The Mirror, maybe the local rag. Never The Telegraph, Times or Guardian. Why? It's an interesting intercultural phenomenon - this paper wrap business - what paper is used, where, is the crossword already completed? or soaked in vinegar?



One banh mi thit nuong takes less than a minute to assemble in the construction bay. Inside the baguette it's warm, snug and saucy. It's filled with wee charcoal grilled pork patties, pickled carrots, radish, fresh slices of cucumber, some chopped spring onion, fresh coriander and a dash of hot sauce. I've yet to install the sniffablog plug in on this blog, but when I do, you'll receive beams of steamy hot sweet, meat soaked vapours direct to your desktop. It's seductively warm, a harlot of a hoagie. It has a confident aroma. The smell of a successful sarnie.

I hope the satellite imagery above will help you navigate the terrain. Shame you can't do a Google Earth and zoom in, crashland in amongst that arty sprawl of scoff, just wallow in it for a bit... Oh well. Technology - marvellous innit - has it's limits though. And so for now, you're just going to have take my word for it. This is the best sandwich I have ever had in Saigon. Thank you NoStar Where. I may be slow. But you were not wrong. More snaps.

Tip off: Pig skin sarnies

This stall outside the barfsome - and then barfsomemore - Lotteria at the corner of Nam Ky Khoi Nghia and Nguyen Dinh Chieu streets in District 1 is famous. Well, that's what my taxi driver tells me. It 's a morning only deal and it serves Banh mi bi (pig skin/pork sarnies). Toan, my driver, isn't sure why this particular pig skin outlet is the 'famous' one, but it most definitely is yumadelic, he assures me. It's about as simple as a sarnie stall gets in Saigon - and we've tried a few... In the cabinet, on the left, we have chopped pork, on the right, shredded fried pig skin. And that is pretty much that.

Take one petite banh mi (yes - it's smaller than your average banh mi) Add the usual fixings; crinkle cut shredded pickled carrot and raddish, a dash of red chilli flake suspension sauce, a scratch of pepper and you're done. It comes wrapped in an old electricity bill, sealed with an elastic band and handed to you in a plastic bag. It costs a mighty 3,000VD. I've tried this twice now, once with chilli sauce, once without. I'm not massive on hot sauce, but for this specimen I'd advise you to go that way. Fire, pigskin, pickles and bread - it works way better than the straight version which I found too dry.

In the picture above - and in a first for the internets - you can clearly see the sandwich strata as it evolved from the bread base into pigskin, pork and pickled greens. This is a quality find, amazingly light and an excellent tip off. Definitely my new favourite "if I'm in the area and peckish at breakfast time" street score. Recommended. More pics.

Tip off: Hu Tieu

One Hanoian, One Saigonite. No consulting. Both agree. There be some quality Hu tieu there. Paper, pen, local knowledge. Marvellous.

Mini-review/Tip off: K Cafe, 74 A4 Hai Ba Trung street

K Cafe at 74 A4 Hai Ba Trung street is one of many, many Japanese restaurants in District 1. This is our first visit here since getting a tip off from Robyn at Eating Asia. It's a lot noisier and a bit more bonkers than any of the other Japanese joints I've visited in Saigon. Not the place for a quiet meal, but the menu is quite a bit different from Saigon's average Japanese resto. I suggest you read Robyn's post for the full spin. But the salmon skin maki (so good we ordered another) and deep fried crabs (Phwoarrr...) are total winners. The spicy tuna maki veered too far into the spice rack for my delicate puddinglike British tastebuds, but noodlegirl freaked over them. Unfortunately the oysters were way too plump and over decorated - like a bloody pantomime oyster - lacking any essence of ocean and were so dead - the coroner's report was in, autopsy done and dusted, leaving us bystanders at the funeral. Any decent wake deserves a snort of the hard stuff. The homemade plum wine gives the required jolt and the boiled squid, off tonight's chalked up specials board - which looks like total shit in my photo - in reality was a marvellous little nibble to gulp down the sweet vino with. Dinner for two cost around 500,000VD. I'd go back for the food, but if it's peaceful Japanese I want I'd probably go elsewhere. More (crap) cameraphone images.

Tip off: Snail city

This is Quan Oc (Snail house) at 393 Tran Hung Dao street down a small alley in District 1. One reader emailed this spot in a while back. Soon after a couple of Saigonite friends pinpointed the same joint. Finally I'm here. It's famous in Saigon for snails, shellfish, crabs, shrimp, frogs and duck eggs. It's one of those restaurants that has built up a stonkin' good rep. over the years. So much so, the brightspark neighbours muscle in leechlike with an array of six or seven 393-wannabes all within shell throwing distance of Quan Oc's front door. 393 is still the most popular but, what with all the imposters, this grubby back passage is snailed out.

The restaurant is a classic of its ilk. It's a shitpit. I wonder whether the owners of joints like this ever look around and think, "You know, it's probably about time we gave this place a good lick of paint." It's not as if they're not raking in the shillings. They're busy, busy, busy. The three b's. Quan Oc serves from 1pm, but snails and shellfish are big evening Saigon grub scores. Arriving at 7pm, we're here relatively early.

There's a wee stoop level, multi burner kitchen at the back of the restaurant in front of which are buckets brimfull with shellfish, snails and molluscs. Outside there's a single grill - presumably to keep the smoke factor inside low. I think you'll agree the g'riller in the picture above has a lovely looking handful on display. Tasty.

A closer look (at the food) reveals a plate of scallops - So diep nuong. I saw other diners ordering these with cheese and quail eggs fried on top. However, our order goes the sate route. Look gorgeous, don't they? They're well, well firey and unfortunately the scallops are well, well over done. Very firmly attached to the shell meaning the meat has to be eaten in strands -- and that's never good. However, this dish was the only weak link in what turned out to be a decent delve into the extensive shellend of Quan Oc's menu.

I won't prattle, but the tamarind soaked numbers above - So long xao me - (sorry don't know the name of the shellfish in English) were a sweet, sour sensation. Definitely the highlight along with the Oc len xao dua (Snails cooked in coconut milk) which come in a thick creamy coconutmungus sauce. I've blogged this dish before, but I'll wager this joint does them better. The So huyet xao toi (Blood cockles fried with garlic) were a decent enough score, but a wee bit "So what". Again - I've blogged these elsewhere. Quan Oc's version comes with lovely lumps of deep-fried lardy pork crackling. I almost felt homesick. Crunch. Lastly there's a very pleasant Chem chep nuong ( a kinda clam/mussel wannabe grilled with peanuts).  That lot, plus a couple of beers, cokes etc. cost 129,000VD. Sod all really, all considered.

Hic. More photos plus directions. UPDATE: NoStar Where recommends another joint on the same row.

Tip off: California Burrito

According to one of the seven underworked staff - not including that ever present feature of any building in Vietnam: a security guard - the eight tabled restaurant California Burritos at 17 Phan Van Dat street opened just six months ago. I like to think I've been around the culinary block at least once and then a little bit, but when it comes to burritos I'll come clean, I'm as innocent as a woodland elf playing a harp and humming an S Club 7 song. However, some time ago two readers suggested I drop by California Burritos to see if we're talking So Cal or so what.

I order an Adobe Beef Burrito, one of seven on offer, and wonder what makes a good burrito... The Burrito Blog leaves me hungry, but none the wiser, whereas the Burrito entry on wikipedia leads me to something called The San Franciso Burrito and that looks suspiciously like today's lunch pictured above. It comes wrapped up nice and snug. The Burritos at California Burritos come in three sizes handily depicted at the serving bay by three tasteful tinfoil models - small (not enough), large (hmm... getting there) - super (hehe - paydirt) - Sadly, Wednesday is diet day. I go for a large. Prices range from 25,000VD (Small Rambo's grilled vegetable) to 75,000VD (Super Ground beef). You can also make your own. The Adobe arrives within two minutes and is filled with stewed chilli beef, whole black beans, cheddar cheese, rice, lettuce, guacamole, salsa and some other stuff I can't make out from my sneaky cameraphone photo of the menu.

It's a wee bit spicy, a wee bit salty and not a little tasty. Not quite sure what the crisps, sorry - chips, are for. Are you supposed to utilise them as a primitive scoop mechanism to salvage parts of the burrito that free themselves from the mothership? Wasn't too keen on them anyhow, bit dry and uncrisplike - which is probably the point - Oh well. However, I was keen on the burrito itself. I'll be back. Here's the business card front and back. More useless snaps. And don't just take my word for it:

"We just tried a new burrito place and thought it was pretty good. Our favorites are Rambo's grilled vegetable burrito, grilled steak burrito, and cheese quesadilla. Give it a try if you're in the mood.  They deliver!," says noodlepie reader and blogger Cottontimer. 

"California Burrito, is quite nice too... especially for someone who spent most of 2003 living off of burritos in California," adds reader, blogger and statue watcher NoStar Where.

I can take you to the eel

Ever since I had eel last week I've been humming the song 'I can take you to the sun' by The Misunderstood. I don't own this record and I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I'm starting to worry about the subliminal effects of Vietnamese eel soup. Do certain dishes trigger off certain songs in your head? Hmmm? Maybe I've lost it.

A distinct possibility. I did dress the toad in a full length bumble bee costume this morning - 119,000VD from The Saigon Centre and selling like scorchin' hot cakes - Ostensibly this was for a Halloween bash, but let's be brutally honest here these costumes have only one selling point in the eyes of parents. Twisted amusement :)

The eel shed tips are slithering in - cheers...

• Chieu Hanoi, 98 Le Thanh Ton street sells Chao luon.
• Thanh Thao, 129 Nguyen Du street sells Mien luon. Open in the morning only.
• Tri Nhan, 3 Tan Vien street, Ward 2, Tan Binh district, near the airport serves Chao luon.
• No. 44, Hong Ha street, Ward 2, Tan Binh, near the airport serves Mien luon and Chao luon, but only in the mornings.

Bonus misunderstood, mind-melting, psychedelic MPfree links:

1. I can take you to the sun
2. Who do you love?
3. My mind
4. Children of the sun
5. I unseen
6. Find the hidden door
7. I'm not talking