China town - "crossing the street" saté beef noodle!

We say - Chinese can do everything! That's true!
I'm writing about street food, but I never think that the stall on one side of the street and we are eating on the other side. The waiter keep serving customers by crossing the street! And the parking lot is inside a garden of some Chinese pagoda!

That's famous saté beef noodle I tried last night with an old friend in China town! At 117 Triệu Quang Phục, district 5!

Saté beef noodle seems only popular in district 5 or Chinatown (Chợ Lớn), I don't see it in some other areas as district 1 (Sài gòn center) or  district 3 (considered as an upscale area!).

Here they serve yellow noodle or white noodle (hủ tiếu) with saté sauce and beef! We ordered both and together with beef meat balls! The later is just so so! But saté noodle is good!

           My yellow noodle in saté sauce soup with tender beef, cucumber, tomato, culantro (not cilantro!)


Whenever we say "saté" we always associate with oily, spicy, lemon grass, chili, garlic, dried shrimp, peanut...a mix of many strong flavors!
I from time to time prepare saté sauce at home as the original saté  from the shop - quite spicy (as we say in Vietnamese - spice that tore your tongue!). I prefer less!

Chinese steamed bun (bánh bao)

Super popular Chinese steamed bun filled with pork meat, mushroom, Chinese sausage, salted egg...or something else! Here we call bánh bao. This name should come from tai pao in Cantonese!

Super popular street food! Everywhere! In every province! Different recipes! Different colors - green (with pandan leaves flavor!), light violet (with taro flavor)!

Bánh bao always associated with two images in my childhood!

             Famous bánh bao Bà Cả Cần 

First.
For those who live in Asia and martial art fan - probably know a famous novelist Jin Yong (Kim Dung or his real name Louis Cha), in many of his novels - bánh bao has been described as no filling (không nhân) and only for the poors or good knights (hảo hán!). 
I love Jin Yong's martial art novels and remember bánh bao in his stories!

By the way I heard the origin of bánh bao related to famous Chinese historical character - Zhuge Liang (Khổng Minh Gia Cát Lượng), he created small steamed buns filled with horse meat in the shape of human head in order to save his soldiers from the sacrifice to some angered river's spirits!

Second.
After 1975, i.e after the liberation, bánh bao was so unaffordable to me! Especially those big ones from famous stalls, filled with ground pork, egg, Chinese sausage...it was a dream for me - a little kid at that time!

            Bánh bao in steamer at Bánh bao Bà Cả Cần, Nguyễn Tri Phương street!  

But then one evening - during a week-end stay in Vũng Tàu (a seaside town - 120 km away from Sài gòn) with our family friends, I got a bánh bao! After that night I never dare touching bánh bao again for long!

"Big" noodle or Vietnamese "udon"!

Bánh canh! literally soup cake!? I really have no idea why we call like this!
To me it's special because the size of the noodle!
Like sumo size compared to other our thin noodles! And chewy! I always prefer chewy texture!
Extremely popular for breakfast, lunch or dinner!
Different variations with different recipes: crab, shrimp, flower crab, pork knuckle, snakehead fish...

I love to use a word "udon" to describe our "big"noodle!
May be Japanese can't not find any similarity between the two noodles, but anyway for me simply to say "udon" and it sounds lovely!

Let's start with the most popular!

Vietnamese "udon" with crab and pork knuckle (bánh canh cua giò heo)

               Vietnamese "udon" with crab at 48 Ngô Đức Kế, dist 1!  

Actually this is a combination of two dishes: with crab (bánh canh cua) and with pork knuckle (bánh canh giò heo)! You can add pork knuckle to crab dish but not the other way around!
 
I do prefer noodle with crab. I love the color of the dish.
Dark orange or red thick soup with strong crab flavor! Don't forget to add a little bit of chopped fresh chili
and squeeze some lemon juice! Spicy and sour flavors make your crab "udon"much more tasty!

Depends on the place, they may add crab meat, deep fried fish cake, or pork ham (chả), cooked shrimp!
Big noodle with crab probably comes from central, or Huế (our former feudal capital)!
Here, they love to create noodle by own recipe and for that reason we can't find it anywhere else in the market!

Vietnamese "udon" with pork knuckle (bánh canh giò heo) 

                Vietnamese udon with pork knuckle at Bánh canh Trảng Bàng!   


 I have to say I don't like this dish served at "bánh xèo Đinh Công Tráng" where is famous only for their
 pancake, not other dishes! Not good! Not good and not good! Better try only their bánh xèo!

 Even we say pork knuckle, but you can select some slices of cooked pork or a whole big
 knuckle as at Bánh canh Trảng Bàng! Here, the "udon" or big noodle made from special rice flour,
 different from other "udon" in town!

Pork meat from Tây Ninh is famous for their freshness, a tiny tiny bowl of fish sauce with black pepper is always served together. Deep pork meat, either knuckle or slices in the sauce before eating!

Vietnamese pancake (bánh xèo)

Pancake is not really good translation for Bánh xèo!

I think - the word "xèo" comes from the sound when we prepare this special dish! Just my guess!

Bánh xèo is one of many Vietnamese traditional delicacies that tourists esp. from Japan, Korea, Taiwan want to try during their stay in Vietnam. 

Probably originated from Mekong Delta, I heard many good bánh xèo from this area!
But at the same time we have many variations in each area.
In north some other ingredients has been added or in central, bánh xèo is smaller, especially in Huế - bánh xèo has another name, much smaller and served with different dipping sauce!

Made from rice flour mixed with water and coconut cream sauce, the yellow comes from turmeric powder! We add  later, when it's fried, shrimp, pork, green bean, onion, bean sprouts and egg!  

We can replace shrimp, pork with clams, cuttle fish...or just mushroom for vegetarian!
I did try bánh xèo with clams, quite good! 

The most famous place, where they serve one of the best bánh xèo (at least to me!) is on Đinh Công Tráng street! Crispy, tasty but dipping sauce a bit too light!
Wrap in mustard leaf, dip in sauce! Superb!
Popular spot not only for locals but also for tourists from overseas! Very crowded in the evening!  

                           Vietnamese pancake in central style, smaller, a bowl size!   

Bánh xèo bà Mười Xiềm (literally means Mrs Muoi Xiem's pancake) relatively new restaurant chain in Sài gòn, where they serve bánh xèo as main dish. In fact this is a name of a lady in Cần Thơ, famous for her bánh xèo. She was invited to US in 2007 to demonstrate how to prepare this traditional speciality at some cultural culinary event! 

Inside the original bánh xèo stall of Bà Mười Xiềm in Cần Thơ 

Forbidden fruit

It's not about the apple from the Garden of Eden!
It's about the exotic fruit which is been forbidden from many places, hotels, office buildings, public transportation, airports...in many countries in South East Asia!

It's about durian or Sầu Riêng in Vietnamese!

                                                                                                                         dressed up for a dinner! 

Durian would be the only fruit that keep people arguing, fighting with each other either to "destroy"or to place this fruit on a throne!

But the road to the glory seems difficult, despite the huge popularity that the durian gain over hundred years!

                                                                                                                Durian in Mekong Delta market

I'm curious to learn how people think about durian! And to my big surprise, I found so many cruel comments but at the same time a flood of love and emotion from fans who crave this forbidden fruit!
Ok, let's see what people say!

"According to those who eat it, it has a rich custard like texture, and is often called by the people who love the fruit, it is the fruit of heaven. For others it is the fruit of hell!" 

"Its odor is best described as pig-shit, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock. It can be smelled from yards away."

"The taste is exactly the way I imagine fermented garbage custard or dead person jello would taste like. It was truly a horrifying experience!"

I wrap a veggie garden in my roll! Speciality from Tây Ninh

It's not an April Fool joke!
That would be the only one fresh spring roll in Vietnam that requires over 20 kinds of veggie to wrap & to roll!

I'm talking about the most green dish from Trảng Bàng (Tây Ninh) and with the longest explanation & translation!

"Freshly cooked pork meat wrapped in special rice paper which has been lightly grilled and left  overnight in the open air to get slightly wet with dew!" 

Or shortened version in Vietnamese "thịt luộc cuốn bánh tráng phơi sương"!
I would name this rice paper "Night's Dew"!

Few years ago, on the way to Tây Ninh, we stopped by a small stall, serving this unique food and
for the first time I learnt why we need so many veggie to make this roll!

The owner - an old lady explained to us: "You need to put all these leaves in your roll, otherwise missing even one - and what you eat is no longer our speciality!"
She helped us to wrap a roll with every single veggie on the table.
The roll she make was very nice, thick, tidy and full of veggie.

I dipped it in sauce - lightly sweet fish sauce mixed with black pepper, chopped mint.

To my surprise, every flavor from each leaf in my roll was so well harmonized with each other, creating the best fresh spring roll that I never ever forget!

Super freshly cooked pork meat! Served warm! 

Unique rice paper with special preparation process! Unlike any other rice papers, it's soft but chewy with nice savory taste! 

Dipping sweet fish sauce with black pepper! 

And the garden of fresh veggie! 

Market in Mekong Delta in the eye of a foodie!

As a promise from a previous post "Day trip to Western capital"
I'd love to share not feelings but some captures in this traditional market in Cần Thơ!

My parents house is very close, less than 5' minute walk, to Chợ Bàu Sen - a small market but probably
over 60 year old in Nguyễn Trải street. Right in the center of the busiest fashion street!
I grew up with this market!

I love to go there. Every market wherever I've been!
Bali, Phuket, Taipei...up to Tokyo or even Helsinki, down to Melbourne, Tasmania.
To feel lively atmosphere. To mingle myself with the colorful, smelly picture.
To see how people communicate with each others. Bargain. Shout. Laugh.
To find something new. And to buy a lot of never used stuffs!

Colorful edible flowers. 
From red agati (bông so đũa đỏ) to yellow pumpkin flower.
Representing speciality in many class restaurants in Sài gòn.

I wish to list down all names here, but the color, the shape blurred together and confused me.