Bến Thành market - Coconut worm rice noodle

Being Vietnamese, living in Sài gòn, but I rarely visit Bến Thành market, this place is more for tourist not locals.  The price here is really expensive, if you know - just one square meter (1m2) in this market could cost a real fortune - hundred thousand USD! And you may not believe it costs more than the same area in Ginza - Tokyo! Easy to understand because of two facts: best location and the brand name "Bến Thành market" as a big tourist symbol in Sài gòn! 

But I'm here to talk about the traditional food court inside this nearly hundred-year-old market (1914)! Before I didn't pay much attention, but this morning when I go there, I found almost all typical traditional dishes are here! I can't make a list but everything comes from everywhere: North, Central, Mekong Delta! 

I really want to do a small food tour for myself within this market, so I decide once a week I will try some dish, then write a review and post it here! 

Coconut worm rice noodle (bún suông) - the orange "worm" on the left-hand side! 

So for today's menu is "rice noodle with coconut worm" (bún suông)! No real worm, so don't worry! Just a name and that's a shrimp cake look-a-like coconut worm! It comes from Mekong Delta (Trà Vinh province), and why coconut worm? No one know! Except the shrimp cake closely resembles a coconut worm and by this "speciality" we name the dish!

For you to know how the real coconut worm (đuông dừa - a larva living on the top of coconut tree, eating only the best part of coconut tree, "speciality"at some restaurant) looks like, here is a short video from Youtube posted by davidnagOoyen. Thanks, David!

Food court corner inside Bến Thành market

The taste is fine, not superb, but it would be difficult to try due to strong smell from shrimp paste (mắm tôm) mixed into the soup. The soup is a bit sweet, but overall I may say "not bad!" about the taste, but about the price - 60,000 VND (around 3 USD), it's bad! it's expensive! (It's more expensive than good quality downtown beef noodle) The "coconut worm" is just a fried shrimp cake so it's ok! Anyway I enjoy my first day out to this historical market!
See you next week with something new! By the way, If you prefer some other place to try this "bún suông", please check "Bún suông Diệu" in downtown at 133 Nguyễn Thái Học street, Dist. 1. Heard it's good and price more reasonable!

 after adding some veggies!