Food

Another early morning, interestingly … firstly, the rooster at 5am. The 10 minutes later a glass smashing on the title floor as some little girl went to the bathroom … Back to sleep for an hour, then up for the days highlight. Saigon Street Eats with Vu.

Into a taxi at 8.30 and off to breakfast at Pho Phu Huong. This is a local breakfast joint that Vu often comes to, and man was it good! Pho is essentially noodles with beef and is the traditional breakfast. SO good. Also good was the Café Su Da, cold coffee with condensed milk and ice. Wow!

The out and onto the street. First stop, the bakery. Now this seems weird, until you understand the French influence, but they have the most amazing, and elaborate, bakeries here. So good, and pretty cheap. Beautiful small cakes for around $1.50, baguettes etc, just so cheap. And then we carried on walking, stopping frequently to buy something of interest, as at the end of the tour we have a picnic in the grounds of a local temple. So many interesting street side stalls and he gave us tips to look out for. Firstly, are the locals there? Secondly, is the ground dirty i.e they are cooking a lot, same with the walls. Also try to eat before rush hour, so before 11.30 or before 6, as the food will be just freshly cooked and you’ll get more attention.

Lots of other tips, How to walk across in the street. Walk confidently and I a line horizontally so that the traffic “flows” around you. It does! Also, keep a hold of your gear. Motorbike thieves can rip handbags away, so keep straps around your shoulders and ideally in front. And use only one taxi company, Vinasun, look for well-dressed drivers, ID tags, and meters that have stamps on them. Apparently many rouge companies. A 20 minute journey is around 100 000 dong, $5.50.

Anyway, back to the food. Then into the market. First stop, a juice stall selling sugar cane juice that was pressed in front of you. 5 000 dong, 25 cents. Wow! And then across and into the indoor market. Rice, dried fish, vegetables, all just simply amazing. Vu bought so many things, fresh fruits, mango, Rambutan, Durian (King fruit), Mangosteen (Queen fruit), pork ribs, kumara, cooked banana, caramelized baby crabs, yummy Vietnamese rolls (pate and many other meats in a baguette) and actually so much else. All of it interesting at least, much of it just delicious!

The market as expected was divided into sections Dried grains etc, vegetables, meats, and seafood. The seafood I found most interesting … squid, octopus, live eels, live frogs, prawns dead and alive, live catfish and so much more.

The finally our picnic in the temple, all delicious and a final visit to the temple to tell our fortune. Which to be honest was a little confusing, shacking sticks out, throwing dice type things to say yes or no, and finally the fortunate telling.

In the taxi and back to the hotel, where I have to admit we have spent the afternoon chilling out, figuratively and literally. Off out soon to explore so more …