Zev’s Top 10: Saigon

“Vietnam.  It grabs you and doesn’t let go.  Once you love it, you love it forever.” – Anthony Bourdain

Alright everyone, you all know the drill.  This is my sixth Top 10 of my short food blogging career.  This time around, I took my talents to Vietnam’s capital of Saigon – a hot, bustling metropolis bursting with food on every street corner.  Without any further hesitation, let’s see what Saigon has to offer.

(Again, this is a completely random order because it is.  A more accurate name for this post would be: Zev’s 10 Favorite Things he ate in Saigon, but that’s not as catchy.)

#1: Soursop Smoothie

Soursop – how to explain it?  It’s an odd-looking spiky fruit with a white flesh that is most commonly sweetened and made into a smoothie.

The taste is unlike anything else, rather floral and slightly citrus-y.  It absolutely hits the spot when seeking refuge from the brutally hot weather, and that’s really all that matters at the end of the day.

#2: Vietnamese Coffee

Introduced to them by the French who knows when, Vietnam has become the world’s second-largest coffee exporter, providing more than 10% of the world’s coffee.  With that said, Vietnamese coffee is absolutely unique.  Let me break down the photo below.

First, a generous serving of ultra-sweet condensed milk is poured into the glass.  After adding ice, a shot of super strong coffee is next, and the entire affair is stirred.  Finally, the drink is topped off with regular strength coffee.  The result is an ice-cold beverage that gets one amped up with a wallop of sugar and caffeine.  At a rest stop along the highway, I had one so strong that I started singing the intro to Scatman’s World (please click that link) and couldn’t close my eyes for forty-five minutes.  Yeah, they’re that good.

#3: Grilled Skewered Shrimp

In America, we have these dinky little bay shrimp that come in crappy shrimp cocktails.  But in Vietnam, the shrimp here are what we would call prawns.  These are thick, juicy shrimp that clock in at something like 8 inches long including head and tail.  With such an incredible product, it’s best to keep it simple and that’s what the Vietnamese have done.

I did not expect the seafood in Vietnam to be so plentiful and so cheap, but luckily it is.  These shrimp are simply skewered and grilled, and their beautiful natural flavor shines through with a hint of char.  They were so good, we had to get them at two different restaurants.

#4: Chili Crab

As many of you know, my beloved father (Doug) is a Maryland native, and enjoys crab more than the average man.  So when we sat down at our table and he spots plates of crab, Doug pointed and said “I want that”, with the air of a small child demanding a toy.  Nevertheless, we decided to indulge him and I’m so glad we did.

As with the shrimp from the same restaurant, this crab is simple.  A generous pile of crab legs and claws are fried in a humongous pot with enough chiles to strike fear into the heart of any experienced eater.  Our crab chef was also smoking a cigarette while cooking, which in my opinion amplified the authenticity of our meal.

#5: Pho

Pho – beef noodle soup – is by far Vietnam’s most famous dish.  Especially in Portland, pho restaurants are by no means in short supply.  So when we arrive in Saigon, we expect to be blown away by this soup and that we are at Pho Bac 30.

Pho Bac 30 is one of those magnificent restaurants where the menu is merely a formality.  As we sit down on our little metal stools, a passing man asks us “Small, medium, large?”  When we order four mediums, he shouts something in Vietnamese and continues his brisk pace to the kitchen.  Minutes later, four steaming bowls of soup arrive at our table.

The pho at Pho Bac 30 (and Vietnam at large to a greater extent) has simply more umami than the pho in America.  The flavor is just deeper and more complex – it’s difficult to explain beyond that.  The rich, savoriness of the beef swirled with the acidity of the lime and the fragrance of the herbs creates an intense broth that makes your head buzz.  It’s just a beautiful bowl of soup.

#6: Sugarcane Juice

After having sugarcane juice at a night market in Thailand sometime ago and not  enjoying it (it certainly did not make my Top 10 of Southeast Asia in 2016), I wasn’t really interested in it.  But it was part of the epic food tour we signed up for one night, so I decide to check it out.

To my surprise, it tastes like an earthy lemonade and I quite like it.  Our food guide informs us that it is blended with kumquat (some sort of citrus that’s about the size and shape of an olive) and a copious amount of sugar.  In hindsight, it is probably more kumquat than sugar cane but if it’s tasty, who really cares?

#7: Bahn Mi

Those who know me are well aware of the love that I have for banh mi.  For those who don’t know, banh mi is the beautiful lovechild of French and Vietnamese cuisine (perhaps the only positive results of a century of French occupation in Southeast Asia).

A crispy, French-style baguette is slathered with butter and pate and filled with sliced meat, pickled vegetables, cilantro, and chile.  Real G’s will remember that bahn mi’s were heavily featured at my Bar Mitzvah (thanks An Xuyen!), and they remain one of my favorite foods to date.

One can only begin to imagine my elation when I arrive here in Saigon and find a banh mi cart on literally every block in this sprawling Vietnamese metropolis.  I waste no time and jump right in.

Sandwiches are being slung at an incredible rate, and we don’t have to wait too long.

You thought that was the only bahn mi I ate that was worth blogging about?  You fool.

We stumble across this place after visiting yet another temple – guess which I was more interested in.  After some intense Google Translate activity, we manage to order four meatball banh mi.

Though the banh mi I had were solid, I honestly expected them to be better in their country of origin.  Who knew?

#8: Grilled clams with Oyster Sauce and Peanuts

As I mentioned above, Vietnam is apparently a haven for seafood and shellfish.  One delicacy we seem to see at every restaurant is clams grilled in their shell, topped with crushed peanuts and herbs.

#9: Lemongrass-Wrapped Beef

This was created in the same vein as sugarcane shrimp which we often get at dim sum- meat wrapped around a plant and then cooked in order to flavor the meat from the inside out.  Beef is wrapped around stalks of lemongrass, and then grilled over charcoal.

Props to whoever was tired of putting lemongrass on top of their beef and decided to do it the other way around – this is the true definition of innovation that excites the soul.

#10: Lunch Lady

There are celebrity chefs that we all know and love like David Chang, Gordon Ramsay, and Guy Fieri.  But what about the celebrity chefs that don’t have expensive restaurants in Las Vegas or their own TV shows?  Saigon has a celebrity chef of sorts and her name is the Lunch Lady – and she runs a food stall that is always packed as her food changes from day to day.  We eat lunch here our last two days in Saigon and curse ourselves for not eating here every day.

There is no menu – you sit down at a plastic table and a tiny plastic stool and one of her apprentices brings you an appetizer immediately.  Both days we get fresh salad rolls, accompanied by a viscous and spicy dipping sauce.

Not long after, the main course arrives… and it’s soup.  But it’s a soup that tantalizes the taste buds and makes you say “wow”, “omg” or “holy sh*t” after one slurp.  It’s a deeply spiritual experience.

Both days it is evident that the noodles are fresh and homemade.  They have the same al dente yet pliable texture that a homemade pasta has.