What’s up, everybody? Phil here!
I’m in Saigon, Vietnam right now for a few days eating some delicious foods.
Here are the Top 10 Vietnamese dishes you need to try!
Let’s go!!!
Now one of the first and most obvious things you wanna try when you’re in Vietnam is
bánh mì, which is basically a sandwich with a whole bunch of different meats and veggies
in it.
You’re probably familiar with this and have had it at some point before, but these are
gonna be all over the place no matter where you go in Vietnam.
Now there are many different kinds of bánh mì and there’s all different kinds of ingredients
you can have in it, but this is a pretty standard one here with meats and cucumber, cilantro,
pâté, and a lot of pepper, too!
Crunchy and fresh here.
We got this from a bánh mì place in Saigon called “Huỳnh Hoa,” now again, these
are all over the place so you don’t need to go to this specific place obviously, but
be sure to try it while you’re in Vietnam, it’s a must!
Stopping in for breakfast now at this random stall that we came to here at Chợ Bến
Thành, the Ben Thanh Market.
I got a bún riêu, which is actually a crab soup and there’s all kinds of stuff in here,
there’s little bits of tofu, there’s some tomato, there’s also little bits of crab,
noodles are really, really good here, too.
Overall, it’s a really nice, warm, and hearty bowl of soup.
Even on a hot day, it’s really, really good and it’s just so rich and full of that seafood
flavor.
One of the foods we’re gonna try here now is called chuối nướng nếp.
What this is is basically a really popular snack that is made up of some grilled banana
with some coconut milk on it, some sesame and surprisingly it’s not too sweet.
It’s grilled banana but somehow when you grill it, the flavor comes out where it’s
a tiny bit savory so it’s not overwhelmingly sweet and it’s just really delicious.
Another great food to try when you’re in Saigon is bún bò Huế.
“Bún” is the round noodle, “bò” is the beef, and “Huế” is the city in
Central Vietnam where it originated from.
Basically, people think it’s similar to phở in that it kinda looks similar kinda,
but it’s really very different.
Instead of the flat noodles that you have with phở, you have round noodles.
It’s a really spicy and herby soup with some really strong lemongrass flavor.
Bún bò Huế is delicious and you’ve gotta try it when you come here because it’s very,
very common.
We’re sitting here with these tiny little stools hunched over a little table and this
is one of the best little snacks we’ve had here so far.
These little pieces of beef have lemongrass within them and they’re really, really flavorful,
really juicy, really tender, and just easy to bite into.
There’s also morning glory with also some chili sauce and some tamarind sauce on the
side with some garlic in it.
Another must-try while you’re in Saigon is bánh xèo, it’s a Vietnamese crepe.
Looks like egg, but it’s actually basically a pancake with turmeric on it, so it gets
that egg-looking golden-ish color.
You got this giant crispy pancake with some bean sprouts, some shrimp, and then what you
do is you take that, you fold it, basically chop it up so you can serve it onto the lettuce
and the wasabi leaf, put it all together, wrap it up, and then when you eat it, you
dip it in to the fish sauce and it’s very flavorful, very fragrant and super crunchy.
Really satisfying to eat!
And bánh xèo is honestly pretty commonly found all over the place so it shouldn’t
be hard for you to find.
Sitting on a tiny plastic stool hunched over a tiny plastic table, getting another one
of the essential things to get when you’re in Saigon, this is cơm tấm, this is broken
rice.
And it comes served with pork and egg and also some fish sauce on the side.
You pour just a little bit because it’s spicy and because the flavor can be pretty
strong.
Mmm!
So simple, but it’s so good!
A fun food that’s gonna be a pretty unique experience to eat is actually snail!
So we got here a plate of snails that are stir-fried with garlic and what you do is
you basically take the little fork, you pick the meat out, you pick the snail out of the
shell, you dip it into this little saucer that they have of the salt and pepper and
some chili and lemon and they also have this spicy green sauce.
Not exactly sure what it is, but it’s really, really good!
It’s a little bit meaty and chewy, but it goes really well with that little spiciness
from this green sauce here.
Because the snail takes a while to pick out and because it’s very salty and tasty, it’s
really, really good to go with some beer.
It’s honestly not something that I eat terribly often, snails, but it’s definitely a unique
experience to do while you’re in Vietnam.
Now it’s breakfast time and this is an obvious one, but while you’re in Saigon, you definitely
need to try some phở.
So what we got here is this is a phở đặc biệt, which is basically just a combo phở
soup.
I’m sure you’ve all had phở before, but it’s gonna be so much better when you’re
here with all the herbs and delicious meat and really, really rich broth.
And in addition to the phở being really good, they also served it here with some dầu
chéo quẩy, which is like a fried breadstick.
It’s just another thing to eat and it’s really, really good when you dip it in the
broth and just soak up all that flavor.
And the last thing to try on our list is bánh cuốn, it’s a steamed rice roll that’s
stuffed with shrimp and meat and some shallots on here, too.
We’re dipping it in this fish sauce with some chili in it.
And one thing to note when you’re eating this is that when you take that first bite,
you’re gonna mostly just have the rice roll on it so you’re not gonna get that much
flavor, but once you bite into, all of that spiciness and the meat comes through.
And the restaurant we’re trying out right now is a place called Bánh Cuốn Hải Nam,
super delicious and I really recommend trying this if you trying to really have some authentic
Vietnamese cuisine!
So those are just 10 of our recommendations for things you should eat when you come to
Saigon, but there are so many delicious foods in this city, we really recommend for you
to get out and try something new because there’s so much amazing stuff to eat.
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See ya next time!