I'm a not that trendy to follow all new "eating trends" among the youth in Saigon! What to eat, where to eat out...but sometime I pass by certain streets and I realized ...yeah it should be something new there.
Groups of young people sitting behind small table, eating something, drinking beer or soft drink, shouting "Dzo!" for joy and toasting!
As some other "eating-out" trends, snails stalls are very down-to-earth street food and always crowded, mostly in the evening or late at night! There are some streets in Sài Gòn famous for this specialities. Vĩnh Khánh in district 4 is one of them! If you go there around 7-8 PM, you see on both sides of this street, occupied by dozen and dozen street stalls selling only snails! Most famous here are Ốc Oanh and Ốc Sáu Nở.
Groups of young people sitting behind small table, eating something, drinking beer or soft drink, shouting "Dzo!" for joy and toasting!
Sò huyết (blood cockle) stirred in tamarind sauce at Sáu Nở!
I don't know since when this snail trend starts? Several years ago?
No fancy place, just on the sidewalk, widely open to the public! Snails, many kinds of sea snail, some I know, some I've never seen ...but now they are so popular, I would even say the most popular street snack food these days. Snack because this's a dish that you better eat between meals. I try only 2-3 times at different places, either before or after dinner!
The most popular since long time is "ốc len xào dừa"(Obtuse Horn shell or Mud Creeper stirred in coconut sauce, mixed with lemon grass, chili and topped with traditional Vietnamese mint (rau răm). The sauce is very tasty, a bit sweet, a bit spicy and flavorful with "rau răm", the snail meat is a bit lubricating! To eat this snail is quite funny, you blow from the broken tail, and suck from the head, the meat automatically comes to your mouth!
