Chao Long, or innards rice porridge, is a Saigon street stalwart. One I've ingested, and blogged before
here and
here.
Tiet Canh, blood soup, is less common. It's normally made with duck's blood (
tiet canh vit) or sometimes with pig's blood (
tiet canh heo). In a previous life, I had a version with goat's blood in Hanoi (
tiet canh de??). The mindbend for many is that we're talking fresh blood, stuck in the fridge to gently conjeal. It's a Vietnamese dish designed for drinking booze and it's one that makes very little effort appeal to the taste buds of the non-Vietnamese diner. You will find a few chopped peanuts scattered a top your blood, maybe some
rau ram, but that's as far as it goes for fanciness. Blood soup has the oddest texture and tastes strangely metallic. Spotting this stall on a stroll yesterday reminded me of the dish. I'll never ever blog it in anger, as I'll never ever eat it again. I believe the popularity of the duck version has taken a bit of a dive since the onset of
bird flu. Here's
a restaurant review that covers the duck blood version. And here's a cracking photo of a table awash with
Tiet Canh.
As a sidenote to my post about Vietnam's tiet canh (blood soup). You might want to blast through loupiote's 9 photo Flickr slideshow of blood soup. Fanastic snaps. Really bloody appetizing. Photo on the left is brilliant and by loupiote not me.