today we're in Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam and we're here to show you some of the
best street food we have got some hidden gems lined up for you we can't wait
to share them with you Ho Chi Minh City will fulfil your every
food fantasy the street food culture here is exciting and utterly delicious
this is our third video from Saigon and we're eating some of the city's tastiest
food watch out for a papaya salad which has to dodge traffic in order to be
eaten a unique crab soup which is a locals favorite and a hidden street
food gem serving up tasty Vietnamese pancakes in this Saigon series we'll
show you some of the city's best food from off the beaten path street food to
iconic Vietnamese dishes you don't want to miss this series get ready for
some mouth-watering food I'm Thomas and I'm Sheena and we're Chasing a Plate we
hope you're hungry let's eat
before we get eating we want to say a huge thank you to the sponsor of this
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Ho Chi Minh City Saigon is an electric city doesn't matter if you're in a
beautiful little neighborhood lane like this or on the ridiculously busy main
roads no matter where you are it is just full of life and that definitely
translates to the food there is so much street food here and our first stop is
just around this little laneway corner and it is a amazing looking crab noodle
soup
we always want to show you the best versions of local dishes in the city
that we visit and if that means we have to travel way outside of the city
center to do so that's what we'll do we love doing that
so that's exactly the case with this first street food the crab noodle soup
it's called bun riel and we've traveled maybe about 30 minutes outside of the main
center of Saigon to share this epic bowl of noodles with you let's go and order
there's a huge line already
this little stall is such a hive of action so we've put in our orders but I
thought we'd come out here and just have a bit of a nosy and see what the cooking
process is so there's big huge pots of crab broth you can see some of the
crab paste floating on top there's all sorts of things going on there's
veggies, bits of tofu everything that's going to go into the noodle
there's a huge line of a Grab drivers who are waiting to pick up orders for
takeaway it's all go
I love how busy this bun rieu stall is so the stall is just packed with people
there are so many people lining up and it's all go you can see these huge pots of
broth and the broth here looks so good so it's a tomato and crab broth so
you've got this bowl of soup noodle soup which is full of different contrasting
textures and colors and then you've got this stunning bowl of fresh herbs
and vegetables to which to add to the bowl of noodles so the bun rieu soup so what
is it made up of and why is it special why are we showing it to you so it is
all about this crab paste and the crabs are special because they only use rice
paddy crabs so really small crabs which they pound in the shell and create this
paste so this is the crab paste that you can see the sort of foamy looking thing
which is floating on the top of the bowl and then there's all sorts of other
things in here we've got some fried tofu this is the bun so the rice noodles
there's some spring onions or some garlic chives in there there's some
congealed blood cake there's a fish sausage there's pork sausage and then of
course it's swimming in this gorgeous looking broth so and tomato and crab
broth and then to go with it we've got this huge pile of fresh herbs and
vegetables so there's bean sprouts there's Vietnamese balm this one here
and underneath there's a whole lot of water spinach tendrils so you're
supposed to add all the fresh vegetables into your bowl but what I'm going to do
first is just taste it without adding the fresh veg first
so let's just give this broth a taste cause it's all in the broth
oh man it is so packed with flavor you can
really taste the crab in there that is epic
okay so let's just let's just get some of this crab paste too and also some of
those noodles oops I lost my crab paste okay
mmm that crab paste it's beautiful it's very subtle but has a very distinct
taste or flavor of crab okay it's time to ramp this baby up so we have got a
ton of condiments here this purple looking paste is actually fermented
shrimp paste so that's going to add quite a bit of depth to my bowl so I'm gonna
put a dollop of that in there and grab some chili for some spice all right
healthy dose of chilli and then also there's a ton of lime so add some
acidity okay this is gonna be good and all right some of these vegetables so I've
got those water spinach tendrils some of this Vietnamese balm so tons of
that make it super fresh and then these fresh bean sprouts okay I've got
herbs flying all over the place all right let's just give this a good old mix
up look at that purple green red orange it is sensational oh I can really
smell that shrimp paste wafting up okay I've got a ton of herbs let's get in
hmm amazing I love the spice the chilli adds the fermented shrimp paste
is quite strong so adds a real punchy depth the fresh herbs absolutely amazing
really lifts the bowl blood cake some noodles
more of that broth
hmm it's so good I'm not normally a fan of congealed blood cake I don't really like
the texture but that's really good it's very soft
has a lovely clean flavor oh this is unreal
we're on our way on foot to our next stop and we found a very interesting
shop front here so sugarcane is a very common drink here in Asia but we're
going to show you guys sugar cane we're going to take it a step further we've
actually found a little factory where they're preparing the sugar cane to go
to all the stalls all around the town it's a really neat little place so let's
go grab one
this is the sugar cane place so the sugar cane itself is getting
crushed here from these little sticks of sugar cane so this is the cane that
sugar gets refined down from here in Asia you just basically juice it but
what's really interesting is this which is the sugar cane actually getting
prepared so you can see out the back of the shop all the raw ones that have come
straight from the field and this guy's stripping them down here so you can see
all those skins being ripped right off them and then they get cut down to the
size of these ones to then get sent out actually right here so then they get cut
down to like this put on the back of scooters and sent out to shops all
around the city so you'll find little stands all over
the city this is really neat because it's fully the factory preparing it to
go around all over town come have a look at the machine actually they've just let
me into their shop a bit more this amazing machine so all this gearing
system this chain all this gearing system and this sort of pump is pushing
back and forth and it's got some two spinning wheels on it which is just
stripping off all of that skin and pushing through the big long piece of
sugarcane before it gets cut down into these little little spikes to drink
actually here is our drink here now so this is our sugar cane so you can see it's
sort of a watery texture
oh that is so good it's not too sweet cause it's not refined right down so it's
just the juice that is delicious and they generally put a little bit of
calamansi in it here this one's very light on that though so just a little
citrus kick as well super refreshing in the heat
something I find quite neat here in Ho Chi Minh City is it's very easy to get
off the main roads and get into these lovely quiet little lane ways and
communities and often they have a gate like that but they're not private you
can come in and our next street food is within one of these over there in the
corner because they've knocked down a building here you can see the little
green stools set up in someone's house really so this is where our next street
foods gonna be let's go get some
this is what we're after banh khot and we've heard
that this little home kitchen does a really great version so little mini
savory Vietnamese pancakes
how cool is this atmosphere so we're
sitting right outside this family's house the kitchen is right at the front
of the house and so they're making some spring rolls and also some of this
banh khot and then they've set up a few tables and chairs for their diners to
enjoy their food and then right in front of me is the construction site so we've got
builders hard at work it doesn't get more atmospheric than this so this is the banh khot
they are small savoury Vietnamese pancakes and the yellow comes from
turmeric so it's a rice flour and turmeric batter cooked in a special
little griddle pan and then topped with a prawn and then as is very common in
ahhh Cảm ơn ohhh so we've just been given some coconut milk sauce to go with the banh khot so as
I was saying what is great about Vietnamese cuisine is you often get a
basket of herbs and fresh vegetables so in this case we've got some lettuce
we've got some mustard greens some perilla leaves and also some Vietnamese
coriander and I think some Thai basil in there so I love Vietnamese food because
of this it's so interactive it's fun you've got to get involved you've gotta
assemble your food and so what I'm gonna do is do exactly that so I'm gonna get a
mustard leaf and then grab some herbs so I might get a perilla leaf add that on I
think this is a fish herb so named because it tastes a lot like fish and
then I've got a banh khot here and then I might just get a little scoop of this
coconut milk sauce and add that on top mmm oh yeah it's really creamy and then
all I'm gonna do is just wrap it up squish it down a bit and then dip it in
this dipping sauce so this is a very common dipping sauce in Vietnam it
comes with a fish sauce base and it's got vinegar and it's got sugar this
has got a little bit of pickled daikon and carrot so I'm gonna dunk that
in there
whoa that's good amazing the the pancake is really soft
and creamy and then the coconut milk sauce that he passed me
it's a beautiful almost sweet flavour I love the fresh vegetables they add a
real zing crunch just a cleaness and then the prawn really well cooked you saw
that I ate the prawn with the shell on the shell is very soft so it doesn't sort of
cut your mouth or anything I love this dipping sauce too it's very lively adds
a lot of sweetness a little bit of zing cause of the vinegar in there hmm
what a meal!
next up we have got an iconic Ho Chi Minh City street food to show you and that is
a papaya salad we have come to this little stall here because we've heard
that this lady does the best papaya salad in the city
let's order
what's really unique about this stall is that she's over on this side of the
street preparing her papaya salad but the seating area is actually over this
busy road and in the park so you put in your order and then they ferry your order
across the road to you she is doing a roaring trade so you can
see all the shaved green papaya in the window there's all sorts of things going
in I can see herbs there's beef liver jerky there's peanuts shrimp crackers and
then there's just motorbike after motorbike pulling up and grabbing up a papaya salad to
take away let's head over the road and grab a seat
we've just been handed our green papaya salad so we're now on the other side of
the road at the park actually I'll show you the sort of the situation here so
where we first ordered is over the other side of the road there where the big
buildings are they do final prep here with just some some of the sauce going
on top you come over to the park and there's people sitting all around and
there's little vinyl mats on the edges so you sit down so it's got a very nice
sort of picnic-y atmosphere going on over here it's but like a bit more quiet
you're away from that main road it's very nice and look at the salad so this
this is a papaya salad on steroids it looks very good so you've got the green
papaya shredded up these dark bits are jerky beef jerky but made with organs
so by the looks of it that's gonna be liver jerky so I'd say that will be a
burst of flavor it's all swimming in this sauce which is a very common sauce
here in Vietnam fish sauce vinegar bit of sweetness got some Thai basil we've got
a bunch of chilli on there so really it's all about mixing it up oh and
there's prawn crackers look how golden these prawn crackers look that are on
top let's just mix a good bit up coat it in that sauce so you can really see
how that sauce is coating that green papaya as I mix it through let's get
some jerky on top
this is unreal oh that is good the main big burst of flavour is
that jerky and then you've got that sauce that chilli look how that chilli so
it was a bit of a little collection of chilli in the corner here but as soon as
I mixed it in it really mixed through that sauce and has just coated
everything and that sauce just pulls it together so nicely the sweetness the
tanginess of the vinegar and then the sharpness of the fish sauce
mmm get some more jerky
flavour-wise it's incredible and texturally it's incredible
the papaya still crunchy the prawn crackers very crunchy the jerky is
obviously dried but it's it's taking on that sauce so it's just starting to
squish up a little and then the super freshness of that that basil on there
that Thai basil I love how it's all coated in that sauce it is a very good
papaya salad and the environment is unreal I love that you order across the
road there and they bring it across they fight their way through the traffic with
a big tray of the papaya salads and it's just a nice atmosphere everyone's sitting
around quietly enjoying their papaya salad it's such a nice place to sit under all
these trees really good environment and really good papaya salad