Big snail with tasty filling (Ốc bươu nhồi thịt)

Snail filled with pork ground meat, or probably something else - usually one of favorite entrée at classy restaurant, esp. in a Northern style, but here where I had this dish is just a simple popular street stall. To my curious question "Why here you serve only this "ốc bươu nhồi thịt", nothing else?", the young lady said "it's our signature dish and family business, we are selling for over 20 years!"

              A plate of dozen snails served with a basket of herbs, a bowl of spicy fish sauce! 

Wow, only one simple dish and over 20 years! Snail filled with a combination of ground pork meat , snail meat, wood ear mushroom...well seasoned with some lemon grass, chili, herbs.... Dip sauce is sweet spicy fish sauce and a basket of different fresh herbs...and people keep coming to enjoy and as I noticed many orders to take home, one dozen, two, three dozens...! One snail costs 5,000 VND!  

             Better to eat when it's still hot! Don't hesitate, seeing a big snail's shell... 

Especially this is just a normal snail which is probably not listed in many people's favorite list, due to its name "bươu" or because the local media always considered it as the bad sign for the agriculture...
I really have no idea the snail we tried to day is the same "yellow snail" that our farmers always try to clean up! Maybe the same!

The Rice noodles.The Bamboo shoot and the Duck!

This is not a title of the popular Vietnamese movie "blah blah.blah...and the Duck!" (*). This's a famous dish with rice noodles and bamboo shoot cooked with duck! We simply call "bún măng vịt"!
One of our national symbols is Lotus, but by some how I prefer Bamboo than Lotus. I always have special feeling to this tree, when seeing its color, shape and its strength in the windy days!
That's special feeling in me like the confidence, the proudness...China, Japan has a lot of bamboos. Taller. Stronger (!?). So maybe our highly ranking people don't like the idea to vote bamboo as another national symbol !
Anyway not about the symbol today but about our fabulous dish "bún-rice noodles-măng-bamboo shoot-vịt-duck"!

            Rice noodles with bamboo shot and duck! 

             Different from other noodles, bún măng vịt should be topped by Vietnamese mint (rau răm)!

How we have this bowl of bún măng vịt...it started from week ago, when I and my friend's family went to Trị An for second time...just to kill a boring weekend in the city, to get a fresh air near to the lake...On the way there I told them that I would love to visit the local market ...not only me but my friends wife, his mother-in-law as well! I got something for my mom and we all found very fresh bamboo shoots there! And the idea to cook "bún măng vịt" came to our mind!

Vietnamese udon in Hue style!

It's funny when I realize a combination of three facts in the name of this post: Vietnamese, udon (Japanese) and Hue style (central Vietnam)!
I always call bánh canh - Vietnamese udon, I tried different bánh canh in Sài gòn but few days ago for the first time I tried bánh canh in Huế style! Quite different from the others, esp. the soup and bánh canh itself.

Bánh canh in Huế style here - the noodles are very glutinous, quite sticky but tasty! Usually we have other bánh canh with crab, flower crab or pork knuckle, even famous bánh canh with snakehead - the noodles are different, softer and not that glutinous! I quite like it when chewy it my mouth! The glutinous texture reminds me of another famous traditional savory cake from Huế "bánh bột lọc"!

Here bánh canh is served with crab meat ball that you see in the above photo, some cooked shrimps (they are quite tiny so I missed to take photos!) and pork knuckle! The soup is spicy, but not very so don't worry if you are not chili lover! Tasty but to me a bit salty for the early morning! Usually we say later in the day the soup may be saltier but we went there around 8:30 in the morning! But anyway good soup!

I also like the crab ball, but the shrimps - a bit disappointed as they are so tiny! I may prefer one big shrimp than few of little ones! My friend is from Huế that's why whenever we go for breakfast he always suggests to have bún bò Huế - beef noodles in a Huế style! I didn't try bún bò here, so no comments, but seeing my friend adding a lot of fresh chilies to his bowl, I knew that the dish is not spicy enough for him!
If you want to try something different, this could be the one, far from downtown, located in a quiet and nice corner of new town - Phú Mỹ Hưng! O Tem seems a good choice for Huế dish lovers in this upscale neighborhood!


O Tem, R1, 96 Hưng Phước 3, Phú Mỹ Hưng, dist.7 Tel: 54102655 - 54103651 

Rice cracker (bánh tráng)

Rice paper is different from rice cracker!
Rice paper is those we use to wrap & roll our famous deep fried or fresh spring roll! But rice cracker is a kind of snack, made from rice and other ingredients, we grill it on fire and eat as chips! Sometime we fry, very tasty but too oily!

          Grilling rice paper in the countryside shop for tourist!  

Rice cracker is fragile and very crispy, crunchy!

I love the sound when we break, bite and chewy!

I've been to Japan several times. I love their rice crackers. But these days it seems that young Japanese don't love rice crackers! It's mostly for the olds! Tradition is fading away!

              Ready for sale! 

Hot pot with pink tilapia in a northern style!

We have so many hot pots!
Fish hot pot, fish head hot pot, goat hot pot, sour spicy hot pot, mushroom hot pot, prawn hot pot, crab hot pot, flower crab hot pot, seafood hot pot.. it's never end as our imagination in eating seems have no limit!
Vietnamese love hot pot very much!
On the street, at home or in a classy restaurant - everywhere! As usual hot pot is always served at the end of every meal just before the desserts! we simply love veggie and veggie is a must for any hot pot! Depend on what kind of hot pot, we have a proper combination of various veggies!

             Hot pot with pink tilapia in a northern style! 

Besides that, we still have rice noodles or yellow noodles to go with hot pot...even instant noodles, like at Ashima - a famous and expensive mushroom hot pot place!
Today hot pot is not expensive, just a homemade in a northern style - lẩu cá diêu hồng nấu riêu!

         Usually we dip veggie into the soup or leave it there for a while then we eat! 

It's a simple one but very popular fish hot pot in a Northern style - hot pot with pink tilapia (lẩu cá điêu hồng nấu riêu), served with my favorite herb - dill (thì là) and parsley (rau cần).

Noodles House - Minh Ký Mì Gia!

I think I have not only one post about my favorite noodles - egg noodles or we still call yellow noodles, in this blog. So many places in Sài gòn where we can have good noodles and probably everyone has their own place!

This morning my friend took me to a new place - not in Chinatown where is very popular for this kind of dish but to a house in the new area - exactly newly expanded and next to the Canal. Usually I don't like the surroundings there due to the smell from the canal, but luckily this morning I don't feel it or at least in the noodles house "Minh Ký Mì Gia" at 36 Hoàng Sa street!

Sunday morning so it's quite crowded but it's good that they have 2nd floor! We go upstairs!
Here they serve yellow and white noodles (hủ tiếu) with chicken, pork, prawn, pig kidney, fish or maybe something else that I can't remember when I asked the owner - a middle-aged man in big glasses!
I order yellow noodles with chicken and my friend - everything, i.e little of everything or we say in Vietnamese "thập cẩm"!

Mỳ thập cẩm - noodles with prawn, chicken, char siu, pig kidney..., according to my friend, what he likes the most here is the freshness of those toppings: prawn, kidney, fish...when he tastes!

Porridge with pig's internal organs!

Porridge with pig's internal organs or just "cháo lòng" in Vietnamese is one of rare offerings in our street food culture! As beef noodles, or some other dishes cháo lòng can be our breakfast, lunch or dinner! 24 hours service!

         A bowl of cháo lòng of our only gal in the toys biz team - a chili lover!   

It's almost everything from the pig we can find in this hearty rice porridge: bones, skin, heart, blood,
liver, intestines...! Strange? Yeah but it's true!

To make cháo lòng tasty, first thing we need to cook pig's bones, then other innards! One thing, if you notice, the color of the porridge is darker compared to other porridges, that color comes from the pig's blood! So literally we have bloody porridge!

            Cháo lòng with cube of congealed pig's blood, liver, heart, skin...and chak way!

Cháo lòng is one of my favorites, together with real but more simple blood porridge (cháo huyết) that I already mentioned in some previous post!

Rice noodles "Mọc" (bún Mọc)

Not far from Bến Thành market there is one store selling Northern rice noodles called "bún Mọc" - very crowded, especially between 8-10 AM. And the stall opens only until noon!
I've been there few times and it's good! But I don't like when it's crowded, so my best advise better go there early in the morning - around 6-7 or 11 but don't be too late otherwise you may stuck in the new crowd for lunch!

            Two "Mọc" in the noodles - one deep fried , another one - probably cooked! 

What's "bún Mọc"? 

Originated from a Northern village called "Nhân Mục" near to Hà Nội, the name "mọc" come from two pieces of pounded pork paste - one deep-fried, one cooked, in this noodles. Both are good, very tasty! 

I didn't have a chance to try bún mọc in Hà Nội, esp. in the original village so I have no idea how to compare the taste, but I heard from my acquaintance who is from Hà Nội and a good cook, he said "bún mọc" here at this store is good but not the same (authentic!) as the one in Hà Nội! 

           Two pieces of ham : cinnamon ham (chả quế) and silk ham (chả lụa)! 

Vietnamese kebab!

My last time to try kebab was few years ago!
I don't know much about this specific bread, where it comes from, what does it mean "kebab"...
but I love it. There was time when I traveled, kebab was my breakfast, lunch and dinner!
Now in Sài gòn I can have doner kebab in a Vietnamese style!
The first kebab stall could be in the popular and famous backpack area in Phạm Ngũ Lão street, but I never try it there. I tried it near to my office place!

I can't compare Vietnamese kebab with the original as I already have enough time to forget how does it taste - the last original kebab that I had in Queenstown, New Zealand in 2009! I think the taste is different, from the bread to the meat! By the way here we mostly don't eat lamb!   

The first street food in my childhood!

I was born in Sài gòn, our family's first house in Phan Đình Phùng street (now Nguyễn Đình Chiểu). I lived there until 7 year old and in that first seven years of life - there were many things that I still remember until today!
My first childhood friend. My first school. My first dog. My first bicycle and of course my first street food! No, there is one more thing I still remember. My street barber - an old man, in his 60s, always in traditional clothes bà ba, in white color, with his ivory color panama hat! He used to cut my hair until my mother bought her first hair clippers for our family!

Not talking about my childhood friend that I didn't meet for over 30 years, not about my sadness when my parents gave my puppy to a French father... but about my feelings when I first tried a traditional glutinous rice cake consisting of two pieces and filled with traditional ham between them! Bánh dầy!
My mother bought it  from a small stall at the corner, opposite my first school - Aurore!

         Bánh dầy made from glutinous rice, simply filled with ham in between. 

That traditional cake, originated from North, it's not a simple cake, it's a symbol of our Heavens (while the other sticky rice cake - bánh chưng symbolizing the Earth), our love for parents...There was a legend telling us how this cake has been created as a special gift to the first Vietnamese King - Vua Hùng, when the King was considering to select among his 22 sons who will succeed him on the throne. The youngest son has been advised by some fairy, he used the glutinous rice to create this cake. Rice for Vietnamese as the air, the water, the spirit of life! So with this cake he won his father's heart and the throne!

           Bánh dầy with chả lụa (left) and chả quế (right) 

Specialities from my mother homeland!

Quảng Ngải - my mother homeland! Central area of Vietnam and nearly 900 km from Sài gòn!
Far away!
As many others, my mother has left Quảng Ngải for Sài gòn in 1950s! She was the first one in the family who migrated to Sài gòn and her first house became a shelter for other members in our big family later!
From time to time my mother went back there, her last visit was probably more than 10 years ago! Now in her late 80s she already forgot many things but Quảng Ngải is always in her mind!
And my last return to Quảng Ngải was in 2005 when I did a trip by car to Phong Nha cave!

The images of Quảng Ngải in my mind, mostly came from my childhood, when our family used to go back there for Tết celebration, until my grand mother passed away in early 70s!
To me, those old images, memories are still very clear, I have the feelings that I just saw it yesterday!
Our family's big house, a huge garden with coconut trees in front of the bathroom, the two separated restrooms at the end of the garden, next to the fence, every time I need, I have to run fast across the backyard! I still remember a big well near to the kitchen! And the kitchen! A big one in a countryside style, full of black soot and gray smoke, and its unusual smell that I love and really miss it!

And surely I miss some specialities from my mother homeland! Especially the special water fern cake (bánh bèo) which is special in their own style, and the tiny but very crispy spring roll that we call "ram"! Many good things!

         In Quảng Ngải they serve bánh bèo in big tray, over twenty small bowls and count how many left!

Nowadays not easy but we can find some places where we can have Quảng Ngải's specialities, not in the fancy restaurant as Huế's delicacies, usually in small, simple stalls either in district 10 or Tân Bình! Month ago, my nephew, a quite picky eater, found a stall in Lý Thường Kiệt street and we went there!

           Ram - a tiny spring roll filled with a shrimp and pork, wrapped in special rice paper, very crispy! 

The stall is so simple, just few low tables in a deserted house and some on the sidewalk, in front of the house! But they serve very authentic Quảng Ngải foods!  Simply because the owner is a famous "chef" in Quảng Ngải, she just moved to Sài gòn to establish a new "eating" business!