Even with just a handful of meals remaining before this goal of 365 is reached, Vietnam is still revealing new culinary secrets bite by bite. I am beginning to think I have only scratched the surface here even after a year of delicious discoveries. Another twelve months would definitely be in order to even more […]
Xôi Mặn Unlike other sticky rice breakfasts in Saigon, this one is more savory than sweet. Cutting the sugar and adding spice created something I rather enjoyed quite nicely. This sidewalk delight bought off the back of a cart is a who’s who of everything possible out in the wild streets. Actually, let me back […]
Let me preface this by saying I did order the sticky rice with pork, but what arrived was only part of the complete dish I had formed in my mind. This xoi sticky rice stand on Yen Phu Street in Hanoi is definitely not a new stop on this food journey, but this particular version most […]
Yes, we’ve stopped along the way already to sample this broth and noodle dish popularly known as mì Quảng. One at Binh Thanh Market was passable; another attempt from a restaurant in town was truly deplorable. Much like my quest for bun cha, finding the perfect bowl of mì Quảng in Saigon has been quite […]
A busy crowd gathering around a couple of women tending to their sidewalk assembly line on District 3’s Pham Ngoc Thach Street near the ugly sculpture rising out of that dirty pond got my attention. A growing mass of black clouds down the street caught my attention even more though. This meal became a race against torrential rain […]
Lunch at Café 91 is never dull. The bounty inside those metal serving pans spans the spectrum from highly edible to quite interesting for western tastes. I dabbled in the more authentic side of Vietnamese cuisine and braced myself for what lay ahead. The fatty edged pork strips and hard boiled eggs have fascinated me […]
How could I not eat a mooncake after witnessing the Tết Trung Thu or Mid-Autumn Festival going on around me. About a week ago, the Vietnam Daily News ran an article that moon cake sales are down 40% over last year leading up to the festival, and many vendors had sunk thousands of dollars into […]
One of the best perks of living in Saigon is the never ending circus out in the streets. Walking around here never gets old and a very early morning walk took me deep into a part of Binh Thanh District I had yet to explore. Turning left onto a side street I had always assumed led […]
Sunrise and roosters stirred me out of bed at the crack of dawn much to my ire, and a refrigerator largely devoid of food greeted me. And yes, even living 14 floors up in a highly urbanized environment is no escape from the annoying daily barnyard alarm clock. I wish they would just eat those […]
Hanoi’s “cơm bình dân” joints are some of my favorite restaurants in the city. The name loosely means “common people’s rice” and, I don’t even know where to begin for a description. Imagine a bunch of well, common people, just like me clustered around a flimsy table groaning under the weight of pans, bowls, and […]
