Saigon Street Eats

We are always interested in maximizing our food experiences on our trips through Asia.   While doing some internet research to prep for our HCMC trip,  I found an interesting street food tour called Saigon Street Eats.   Their morning tour started with pho and coffee and was advertised as being suitable for families so we decided to go for it.

Vu and Barbara are the husband-wife partnership that run Saigon Street Eats.  He was born and raised in Saigon, while she is a native Australian.   Vu picked us up at our hotel and took us to a neighborhood restaurant at a non-touristy (Binh Tranh) district in HCMC.   There we met Barbara and their daughter,  Poppy for some pho and some Vietnamese coffee.   The pho was actually pretty similar to our favorite restaurants in Minneapolis - maybe more cinnamon/anise/sugar in the broth than what we are used to?

Another wonderful rich, mocha-y Vietnamese coffee!

After breakfast we hit the street to get some neighborhood charm.   

 These kinds of street food trucks were everywhere.   Co'm Ta'm is a broken rice plate - basically a plate of rice and you get to point to whatever meats and vegetables you want to accompany it.   

Here's where we got our banh mi for our picnic lunch.  Banh mi is vietnamese ingredients on a french baguette.  The meat can be pork, chicken,  or pate. 

 15000 dong for a sandwich sounds like a lot,  but it's less than an a dollar.

 Picking up some bananas for our picnic lunch.

Our next stop was a brief stop at a private estate/compound just off the main street.   It was meant to give us a look into a traditional, affluent residence within the city.   This is an open-air kitchen,  near the front gate.

The compound is like a small gated community - generally owned by a single family,  with most, if not all of the residents being members of the family.   The compound also serves as a memorial to the (decorated/rich/famous) ancestors.

 This is a small Buddhist shrine within the compound.

 This is a picture of the entrance to the compound,  on our way out.  

Next stop was the local market.   The facade looks a bit like the French train station/main post office I showed in my previous post.

Here's a video of traffic near the market.

Time to start shopping.   Vu is buying me some betel for later.    

The Vietnamese also have adopted the Chinese practice of burning decorated paper as an offering to the deceased.   The set that Barbara is showing here is a bit more utilitarian,  providing cheap paper representations of a flashlight,  cigarettes,  a lighter, sandals, and other goodies to the afterlife.

More food for the picnic - mildly flavored dumpling-type snacks made of rice flour.

Now we're in the bowels of the market.

The fresh seafood section of the market - with a drive-thru!

We're supposed to be walking through this?

Vu is loaded up for the picnic!

 Our final stop of the tour was a picnic lunch in a nearby park.   Here's a cute picture of Poppy and Esme riding a cannon.

This is only a small part of the spread.   We ate like kings.  

 This is me right after I put the betel in my mouth.   It was disgustingly bitter,  but even though I could only keep it in for about 30 seconds, it did have the desired effect - I had a mild buzz and numbing sensation on my lips. 

 I can't end the post with that picture of me,  so I'll end with one more cute picture of the kids...