Adam & Stephanie's Travel Blog: Mekong Delta and Eating in Ho Chi Minh City

Almost certainly our main reason for wanting to come to Vietnam was the food. We've tried a bit of it before, namely noodle soup (pho, above) and the fresh spring rolls that Steph loves, and have also enjoyed the episodes of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations that take place in Vietnam. So when we first arrived in Saigon, we dove right in. I had done a bit of research beforehand on what dishes I wanted to try, plus food is generally cheap enough that you can always try something new with not much risk. Our first night we visited a pho restaurant (yes, it is pronounced "pha" but actually more like "pha-a" because there is basically an accent on the "o"), and liked it so much that we ate there 4 of the 5 nights. For about $3 you'd get a huge bowl of delicious soup. Pho, for the uninitiated, is nothing more than a broth, usually beef-based but you can get chicken and sometimes pork, with rice noodles and meat of your choice in it. I like the beef roast and rare beef combo, but Steph discovered that you can get a meatless version for only $1.50. The broth itself is very important, but the key is in the customisation. Depending on the restaurant, you get a bunch of free stuff to add to your soup. We usually throw whatever they give us in there - bean sprouts, fresh herbs like thai basil, cilantro, and I think something called sawtooth herb, lime wedges, pickled garlic, fresh chillies, crushed chillies, chilli sauce (they like their food spicy), fish sauce, as well as some sort of brown sauce that is maybe hoisin. The noodles and the meat are really good (except when you order it with beef tendon like I mistakenly did), but the broth at the end is really amazing. Steph won't let me pick up the bowl and slurp it up like the locals, so I slowly spoon down the entire bowl. Every time.

Our favorite pho restaurant

Though the pho has been great, we've tried a lot more dishes and really haven't come up with a bad one yet. Actually we've had a tough time finding fresh spring rolls that are as good as the ones Steph used to get in Thailand - we like them loaded with veggies and herbs and with a solid peanut sauces. Probably our favorite "new" dish so far is called Bun Thit Nuong, which comes in a bowl with chopped up lettuce and herbs on the bottom, followed by some rice vermicilli noodles, and topped with some barbecued pork and deep fried spring rolls. You get a little bowl of a sauce that is invariably fish sauce-based, as pretty much every sauce here is (fish sauce may sound gross, but I promise it is good!), which you dump on top of everything. Mix it all up and dig in. I don't know who thought to add pieces of deep fried spring roll in there, but they are a genius. Banh mi is one of the foods I was most looking forward to, as I love the pork banh mi from Lee's Bakery on Buford Hwy back in Atlanta. I was surprised that the bahn mi here typically uses some strange-looking processed pork "luncheon" meats instead of grilled pork. It's a lot better than it looks, but I typically seek out the more touristy banh mi joints which use grilled pork. Banh mi sandwiches are served in a crusty French baguette (remember French colonization?) and typically have mayo, pate, some sort of meat, chili paste, and some veggies and herbs like cilantro, cucumber, picked carrots, and whatever else that "restaurant" throws in there. I say "restaurant" because banh mi is typically sold from little food carts on the sidewalk. I don't think we've paid more than $1 for one. There's so many more dishes to list. Bun cha - ground pork sliders served in a bowl of a sour soup with some noodles and greens on the side to add to the soup. Bo la lot - ground beef rolled into wild betel leaves and grilled over charcoal. Even after 5 days in Saigon, there were still many more dishes to get to on my list.

Ordering a Banh Mi Kebab - not traditional but good!

Bun Cha

Lady grilling up some pork sliders for her banh mi

Half-eaten traditional banh mi

Another popular tour out of Saigon is to the Mekong Delta. We were going to go for an overnight tour, but in the end were too worried about our accommodation in the Delta so chose the one-day trip. Overall it was a good day out, but we definitely don't feel like we got to see any of the "real" Mekong Delta - just a collection of tourist activities that make for good pictures. Let's see, we got to ride on a boat, visit a bee farm (with one bee hive), try some coconut candy (think we bought any?), ride in a little cart behind an emancipated horse, walk across a bamboo "monkey" bridge over a tiny little pond, ride in an even smaller boat while wearing a traditional cone-shaped hat, listen to some traditional music, and visit a giant fat buddha statue on the way home. Oh, and of course a handicap center. I'd say the highlight of the day was getting to try some snake liquor - literally a liquor with dead snakes marinating in it. The ingredients list was "Liquor, snake, ..." I tried a bit, Steph just laughed and shook her head. Our guide was, again, very entertaining and even sang for us as well. Maybe I should have been singing for people on my riversurfing trips. Steph says no.

Steph on the first boat

Don't worry, this is just honey tea

Lady making coconut candy

THIS is the snake liquor!

Ingredients are in there somewhere

My taste came out of this jar

Poor horse

Crossing the monkey bridge

Steph on the second boat - this one was very relaxing

Traditional music

Stop at the pagoda and giant Buddha on the way back to town

One of the best things about our stay in Saigon was Vy, the host at our guesthouse. She was very friendly and generous with us, giving us recommendations on places to go and things to eat. She even offered to go for a walk with us one night, and led us on a 4 mile trek across the city to a bridge over the Mekong with views back at the Saigon skyline. Afterwards she took us to get banh mi and drink fruit juices with the locals. Another day she took a couple hours of her time to take us to a traditional Chinese doctor to look at Steph's wrist, which has been suffering from tendonitis lately. He lathered some kind of mud paste on there and wrapped it up with an ace bandage, told her to leave it until morning and to take these pills he made from "the tree" with warm water not cold. Okay then. Steph did say that it felt a lot better the next day, but it wasn't the magical cure we were hoping for. He did give a disclaimer though that she waited too long with it bothering her for treatment and it would probably need a few doses. Our last night Vy took us to get a famous banh mi and sat in the park with us to eat them. She was like having a friend in Saigon. It was great.