Street Food

Let me be clear: If you come to Saigon and don't try any of the street food, you're an idiot. Street food is a vital part of the culture here, as evidenced by the hundreds - possibly thousands - of street vendors that line sidewalks and streets throughout the city. The array is just as dazzling as the diversity of the city's full-blown restaurants - you can get breakfast or a midnight snack as you stagger home from the bar. Of course, if it's late enough, it would just be drunk breakfast. There really isn't a time of the day where you can't find someone selling something - I'm not even sure what all of the dishes served are, but you can easily find all kinds of pho, banh mi (sandwiches packed with different fillings depending on the time of day), traditional dumplings, fresh spring rolls, noodle dishes, meat cut up like a kebab and grilled on an open flame, etc. etc. You can also find fresh fruits and vegetables at the dozens of street markets located around the city, as well on carts that people push down the streets. A favorite sight of mine is seeing carts loaded down with bananas heading my way. There are also little ice cream carts that people push around, a bell ringing alongside to announce their approach. The people who run these carts are usually old women in conical hats, who probably learned the craft from her mother, who learned from her mother, and so on. This generational commitment is reflected in the quality of the food.

Clearly, you could eat three full meals a day on the street and be totally satisfied - and save a lot of money. Many of these places are mind-blowlingly cheap. I haven't even put the beginning of a dent in the street food scene, but here's where I've been so far. Obviously these carts or stands don't have names, but we come up with nicknames for all them, and I'll just give the street they are on. District 1 is actually a little lacking in street food, at least in the big touristy areas. There is some in Pham Ngu Lao, but you'll find that the majority of street stalls are in the more normal Vietnamese neighborhoods.

1) Banana Lady, District 3 - Head down Vo Van Tan towards Cao Thang. This stall is built into the corner of a building at the entrance to an alley two blocks before Cao Thang, on the right. Open all day until around 10 at night, this stall serves nothing but...bananas, cooked inside a banana leaf on a huge grill. You can get just the grilled banana for 6,000, or get a bag of coconut milk for dipping for an additional 2,000. The milk is totally worth it, as it adds a lot of flavor to the dish. A filling, delicious snack for less than 50 cents. Can't beat that. 5/5

2) Crack Sandwich Lady, District 3- If you're going down Vo Van Tan with the flow of traffic, go one block past the War Remnants Museum and take a right on Tran Quoc Thao. You'll see the cart about 20 feet from the corner on the right. I discovered this amazing woman during training at the LanguageCorps office, and I became immediately addicted (hence the crack-related nickname) to her heavenly egg banh mi. She's only there in the morning, and the sandwhich comes with a fried egg, pate, fresh vegetables and some sort of sauce - for 6,000 dong. When I found out it was that cheap I almost dropped the sandwich. Anyways, she doesn't really speak English, so I just walked up and held up one finger, and she knew what I wanted. After a couple days all I had to do was stand in the general area of the cart and she would whip up a sandwhich for me in seconds. A must-try if you're doing a street food tour of the city. 5/5

3) Spicy Banh Mi Dude, District 3 - Head down Vo Van Tan (can you tell that I eat on this street a lot yet?)  to the intersection with Cao Thang. Take a right, and this cart is at the entrance to the very first alley on your right. He only sets up in the evening, probably around 6, but stays open very late. This banh mi is filled with pork, pate, cucumbers, cilantro, yellow peppers, and sauce. The peppers add a healthy kick to this sandwich, which is quite delicious. A new regular dinner of mine may be a banana from the Banana Lady and a spicy banh mi - the total for both comes to just 18,000, since the sandwiches cost just 10,000. Amazing. 4/5

4) Fresh Spring Roll Lady, District 3 - Let's play "Guess what street she's on." Answer is: Vo Van Tan. I promise I'll branch out eventually. Head down Vo Van Tan towards Cao Thang - she's on the right, kind of in the middle of a block somewhere between Nguyen Thuong Hien and Cao Thang. Serves up delicious fresh spring rolls of delicate rice paper wrapped around two shrimp, a few pork slices, carrots, and various greens, as well as a bag of dipping sauce. Highly affordable, as expected - 8 sizeable rolls cost 22,000. 4/5

I thought I had eaten at more places than this, but that's all I can think of at the moment. I'm sure I'll be adding more soon as I try to cut back on spending a bit.