Vietnamese food in Ho Chi Minh

What comes to your mind on Vietnamese food? Rice paper spring rolls? Pho? During my trip to Ho Chi Minh recently, I've sampled various Vietnamese cuisines. They are more localised, and don't really suit my tastebuds, but it was a good experience trying out these dishes. 


Restaurant 1 (can't remember the name)

The ever so popular Vietnamese spring roll with prawns, but the herbs are a tad too overpowering. 

In the menu, it was written as "grilled hairy oyster with szechuan sauce". Oyster? more like clam instead. 

Fried frog legs with fish sauce and steamed asparagus. Frankly speaking, I was more interested in the asparagus than the frogs legs. 


Restaurant Mekong Rest Stop


After our tour of the Mekong Delta, we enroute to this restaurant called Mekong Rest Stop for lunch. 

This lady was making some omelette pancakes at one of the live cooking stations. 

In the menu, it is called mekong pancake stuffed with shrimps and pork. 

This is crispy fried "elephant ear" fish. Elephant ear fishes are found along the delta region, and hence is a specialty dish of that area. Deep fried with the scales on, the entire fish is edible, including the scales and the fins. You can also wrap it in the rice paper rolls which are provided on the side, to make your own elephant fish springrolls. 

Everybody was wondering what this big ball was, when we saw it at the restaurant. is it crispy? how do you eat it? is it sweet or savoury? 

The staff actually cuts it into bite size pieces served on a plate. It is actually quite oily though, as the whole ball is deep fried in oil. But this is delicious! Coated with sticky rice inside, it is slightly sweet and chewy. 


Restaurant Quan An Ngon 138


Our dinner in Ho Chi Minh during the last night was the best meal of all the other meals we had during our trip. Restaurant Ngon 138 is popular among locals and tourists, and maybe the reason why their food was more geared towards our tastebuds. 

Fried springrolls with seafood. Thank god it's not another rice paper fresh spring roll again, after having it at almost every meal. 

 Flowers of Banana salad with chicken. This dish is good! the banana flowers are crunchy and coupled with the chicken and peanuts, it's a good salad dish. I've tried a similar dish in Thailand before, and apparently this is also a popular dish in Vietnam.

When we read the menu before the food arrived, there was an item called "rice handle pot". hmmm what on earth is that? and when the food came, everything came to pieces... rice handle pot is actually claypot fried rice! 

And I spoke too soon about the spring roll... as usual, rice paper and a variety of herbs are provided, together with rice noodles to make your own fresh spring rolls. 

This is the steamed mudfish. The fish really has a muddy flavour to it... and I am a person who usually can take any kind of fish, no matter how fishy it tastes, but I can't even accept the overpowering muddy taste of the fish.

When we thought that Seafood hot pot as written in the menu was some sort of seafood soup, it is really an elaborate dish, with a hotpot soup, alongside vegetables and noodles. 

And how can a seafood hotpot be without seafood? a big plate of seafood was put into the piping hot soup. 


Pho 24

The last day in Ho Chi Minh was a last minute shopping day for us at Ben Thanh Market. As there happened to be a Pho24 restaurant just nearby, we decided to settle our lunch there.

Pho24 is a Vietnamese noodle restaurant chain, with 70 outlets opened as of June2012. They even have outlets overseas, such as in Jakarta, Manila, Phnom Penh, Macau, Hong Kong and even Tokyo.

The prices are quite affordable for a bowl of pho, ranging from 52,000VND (approx SGD3) for a simple bowl of pho with beef, to 69,000VND (approx SGD4) for the  "all in" bowl. 

I settled for the Pho Bo, which includes beef fillet, flank and brisket. All phos come with side plate of raw condiments of herbs and vegetables for you to add into your bowl of pho. The soup is very light, and I love the texture of the noodles when added with the crunchy beansprouts and onions together. Simple food is still the best. 


Lastly, how can we forget the famous Vietnamese beer - 333Beer or called "Ba Ba Ba" in Vietnamese. 

Originated in France in 1893, the production subsequently moved to Ho Chi Minh, where it continued to be produced using German ingredients and the best German technology. 


Mekong Rest Stop
60-62 Dong Du Street, Ben Nghe Ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City


Quan An Ngon 138
138 Nam Ky Khoi Nghia, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City


Pho24
located at various locations 
the one near Ben Thanh Market is located at:
134 Le Thanh Ton Street, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City