Saigon Food Blog: White People Like This

After more than a month of driving, busing, training, and merry-making my way through Vietnam and Laos, I had finally arrived in the southern capital of Ho Chi Minh City, previously known as Saigon. My former travel partner Dan, of NorthernVietnam and Laos fame, had been living and teaching in Saigon for some time, and was only in Hanoi for the summer program, much like myself. So when I got in to town and met up with Dan he asked me what I wanted to do with my 3 days in Saigon, and my answer was simple: Eat.
(...and the award for Paragraph With the Most Blog Links Ever goes toooo: That one!! Congratulations, you earned it.)

Food in Southern Vietnam is not quite the same as in the North, where for much of its history, food was regulated by the communist government, and there was not much of it to go around, much less to get creative with. But Southern cuisine is widely regarded as the more diverse and flavorful of the two, with a bit more pizazz and a bit more heat to it. I was ready to dive in and get as much of that Southern flavor as I could before leaving the country for good.

The One. The Only.

Saigon is crazy crowded, and where there are a lot of hungry people there are a lot of restaurants to feed them. But my top priority was a local lunch spot I had been hearing about before I even knew I'd be moving to Vietnam: a street side vendor run by a woman know to foreigners simply as The Lunch Lady. This woman has probably featured in just about every Vietnamese/Southeast Asia food blog you can find, and with good reason. Every day at lunch time she serves a different dish, rotating weekly through local favorites and regional adaptations. Her food is rich, the servings hearty, and her reputation widespread throughout the expat/backpacker scene.

Read on to hear how awesome the Lunch Lady is

The first day we went, it was already 1 pm and the crowd at the shop was thinning. The Lunch Lady was offering a dish that I can't remember the name of, but will never ever forget the taste of: a seafood soup with thick rice noodles, shrimp, squid, fish, and even some crispy pork thrown in for good measure. To accompany the main dish, we ordered some fresh shrimp summer rolls, and avocado smoothies, to which I added lime, and could drink endlessly for the rest of my life. I devoured it all with the joy of a child on his first visit to Chuck-E-Cheese's.

I can practically taste that sweet peanut chili sauce right now.

If you've never had an avocado smoothie, you've made a huge mistake. But when you DO try it, don't forget the lime.

The main event. How one bowl could contain so much goodness I still don't know

The ingredients were fantastically fresh, which is not all that common when arriving at the end of a shop's opening hours. The cost came to about $5 each, and I was completely satisfied with my first Lunch Lady adventure. We came back the next day for Bun Bo Hue, a beef noodle soup that originated in the city of Hue but can now be found all over the country. The meal was amazing and huge just as it had been the day before, though, to be honest, I enjoyed the Bun Bo Hue in Hue more than the Lunch Lady's version... sorry babe, can't win 'em all...

Look at all that beeeeeeeeef! Love it.

Though I spent most of my time in Saigon with Dan, I stayed with a friend that had CouchSurfed at our house in Chiang Mai, named Siok Wan (Siok Wan was working during the day, and Dan wasn't, so I wasn't being rude, don't worry). Siok Wan and I had our fair share of awesome food together as well, beginning the first night with an awesome seafood dinner: curried crab legs, along with steamed clams tossed in an oh-so-flavourful chili-garlic sauce, all accompanied by a big fresh baguette. (Why did I choose to live in Hanoi rather than Saigon again?..) Our last meal together was at Siok Wan's favorite breakfast spot in Saigon, which is actually an American style bistro called Elbow Room. We shared the Lumberjack Special (had to save room for Lunch Lady), which might not look exciting to all you Americans in Americaland, but to me me it was a lovely taste of home. The bacon was real, the home fries were crispy, and the pancakes were probably the most legit I've had since leaving The States.

You'd never guess this meal was made in Vietnam

Saigon is a true food playground. From the dirt cheap roadside stalls to the modern restaurants, there is something for everyone. I could've kept eating for a week and never had the same thing twice, but my time in Vietnam was up. Before I went to the airport I had one last bowl of pho, which I unfortunately got from a pho restaurant chain called “Pho 24”. I thought it would be good. It sucked. I was pissed. Win some lose some. I had one last meal at the Airport, which was super authentic, as airport food always is:

When you've been away from home for as long as I have, sometimes you just have to have it your way. Especially when there's a buy 1 get 1 free deal on burgers!

Burger in stomach, I hoped on the plane and was whisked away to Jakarta to begin my Indonesian adventure. The End.

Thanks for everything Vietnam, it was great. Especially the food.