Gastronomy Blog by Cathy Chaplin

Restaurant Review

16 Aug 2007

Bún Bò Huế Yên Đỗ – Ho Chi Minh City

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August 2 and 15, 2007
Cuisine: Vietnamese

252/68B Ly Chinh Thang Street
District 3, Ho Chi Minh City

Phone: 9312975
Website: none

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Banh Beo (12,000 VND)

Cha Gio (15,000 VND)

Bun Mam (15,000 VND)

My Quang (15,000 VND)

Bun Thit Nuong (15,000 VND)

UPDATE: Banh Bot Loc (12,000)

UPDATE II: Bun Bo Hue (16,000 VND)

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Bún Bò Huế – Yen Do is quickly becoming one of my favorite eateries in the city. A short walk from the East Meets West office, Yen Do serves up cuisine from the city of Huế, which is regarded as the culinary capital of Vietnam and also the birthplace of my ong ngoai (grandpa). The restaurant is named after Huế‘s most famous dish—Bún Bò, which The Astronomer and I have yet to sample during our two visits.

As per usual, we stumbled upon this restaurant hungrily during lunch time. On both my first and second visits, I ordered a bowl of My Quang. My Quang‘s broth is orangey, mild, a bit sweet, a little spicy, and used sparingly in this uncharacteristically dry noodle dish. The noodles are wide like fettuccine and yellow due to the employment of turmeric or saffron. The yellow noodle trend seems to be unique to Vietnam because the My Quang I’ve had in the states uses regular rice noodles. Banh trang (sesame crackers), pork slivers, spring onions, peanuts, braised shrimp, and cha (pork forcemeat) add a variety of tastes and textures to this complex and hearty dish. My Quang is served with a plate of fresh herbs; I like to add thin shavings of banana flower into my soup. I did not grow up eating My Quang and have probably had it twice in my life before coming to Vietnam, but I just can’t get enough of it these days.

On The Astronomer’ first visit he ordered a bowl of Bun Mam, which he declared the best noodle and broth combination he’d had so far. The dish’s dominant flavor is fermented fish, which is oftentimes too strong for the untrained palate, including some Vietnamese folks, so I was very impressed that The Astronomer enjoyed it so much! To supplement his noodles, he ordered a plate of banh beo, which are steamed rice and tapioca flour morsels topped with dried shrimp, mung bean paste, and eaten with sweetened fish sauce. Banh beo is definitely one of The Astronomer’s favorite dishes.

On his second visit, The Astronomer ordered bun thit nuong, which consists of vermicelli noodles topped with grilled pork, peanuts, bean sprouts, herbs, and fish sauce. The “chef” also added an eggroll for good measure. On these hot Saigon afternoons, bun thit nuong is a cool alternative to the regular broth and noodle dishes. Additionally, I ordered five eggrolls for us to share. The eggrolls were the best I’ve had thus far and the ratio of meat to wrapper was better than average. I have adopted the Vietnamese way of eating eggrolls, which involves wrapping them in lettuce leaves and dipping them in fish sauce. The flavors are really fabulous.

UPDATE: My aunt Phoung came to Saigon last week from San Diego and I took her to Yen Do for lunch one day. We ordered a plate of banh bot loc and they were awesome. I hate to admit it, but they were even better than my grandma’s! Most of the time, the overly-chewy texture of banh bot loc makes me choke, but these were pleasantly chewy.

UPDATE II: The restaurant’s signature dish was quite good. The gio heo tasted just like home.

Restaurant Review

15 Aug 2007

Hủ Tíu Mì

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July 30, 2007
Cuisine: Vietnamese, Noodles

62 Truong Dinh Street
District 1, Ho Chi Minh City

Phone: 8272108
Website: none

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Hu Tieu Mi (16,000 VND)

Sua Dau Nanh (2,000 VND)

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The Astronomer: As The Gastronomer noted earlier, our first few meals in Vietnam took place at pretty chain restaurants and were relatively low on the adventure scale. However, it was only our second full day in the city when hunger forced me to branch out. This is not surprising: hunger is the motivating factor behind a great many of my decisions.

My banh cuon portion at Banh Cuon La had been pitifully meager—a dish scarcely adequate as an appetizer for a growing American boy—so I wandered the streets in search of supplemental nutrients. Having already spent well over a dollar for my first course, I would settle for nothing less than a good deal.

For some reason, The Gastronomer and I were drawn to a plain-looking noodle shop located a block from our hotel. I lowered myself onto an 8-inch high stool, crouched over the foot-high table, and ordered a bowl of hu tieu mi—yellow noodles with slices of pork, ground pork, chives, and green onions in a savory pork broth. The noodles hit the spot; the broth was expertly seasoned and the pork added substance but was unspectacular. There were several ingredients in the soup that I could not identify—an experience that would be repeated often in the coming weeks.

Within 15 minutes or so, I had developed a back ache from bending over the small table. Fortunately, I have since learned to enjoy meals served on miniature furniture without experiencing discomfort. All-in-all, I found the dish quite satisfactory—future noodles would surpass the mi in terms of pure deliciousness, but my first experience was good enough to encourage me to delve further into the world of hole-in-the-wall restaurants and street food in Saigon.

The Gastronomer: As The Astronomer sweated his ahem-off eating a bowl of hot noodles on a balmy night, I sipped a cool glass of sua dau nanh—a sweetened soy milk popular in Vietnam. After soda chanh, sua dau nanh is my second favorite cooling drink.

Restaurant Review

14 Aug 2007

Thịt Gà – Vietnamese Chicken

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In America, I looked to websites like City Search and Chowhound for restaurant critiques and suggestions. However, in Vietnam, I’ve pretty much been on my own. While Saigon foodie websites exist, they’re mostly aimed at visitors and tend to recommend places near touristy areas that I’m far from. Without any sort of diner-driven guide through Saigon’s culinary landscape, The Astronomer and I more or less hungrily stumble into eateries that look semi-clean or ask random locals (i.e. mechanics) for recommendations. Thus far, our method has yet to lead us astray and stomachaches have been few and far between for The Astronomer and non-existent in my case. Woot.

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Whereas my favorite animal to eat is the pig, The Astronomer’s is the chicken. He was on cloud nine last week when we visited two restaurants specializing in the white meat.

The first chicken-centric restaurant was Quan An Dao Lan located at 92 Dien Bien Phu Street in District 1. We found Dao Lan after a visit to the pharmacy. The menu offers mien ga (chicken glass noodle soup), pho ga (chicken pho), bun ga (vermicelli noodles with chicken), xoi ga (sticky rice with chicken), and chao ga (chicken porridge) at three price points—10,000 VND, 20,000 VND, and 40,000 VND—depending on the quantity and cut of meat included. The Astronomer ordered a bowl of pho ga for 10,000 VND, while I had the 10,000 VND xoi ga.

The xoi ga was comprised of a bed of plain white sticky rice topped with pieces of shredded chicken and fried shallots. The xoi came with a small bowl of chicken broth sprinkled with onions and cilantro. Although the broth was meant for sipping, I preferred to dunk my sticky rice in it, while I dipped my chicken in a salt, pepper, and lime juice mixture made by a restaurant staffer. I was pleased with my selection and look forward to trying the 20K and 40K renditions in the future.

The Astronomer dug his pho too—the broth, noodles, and chicken were all delectable. He is curious to try a 40,000 VND bowl of pho, which is an exorbitant price for a bowl of noodles in Saigon.

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Our second chicken adventure of the week was at Su Su, a little shack located next to our office on Tu Xuong Street. Su Su makes a mean fried chicken using a drip method I’ve never seen before. Rather than deep frying a la KFC (which, by the way, is all the rage in Saigon), the restaurant uses a nifty concoction that rains hot oil on the meat. The chicken comes out crispy on the outside and moist and hot in the inside. Genius. The chicken is served on a platter with red fried rice (red due to tomato paste), fresh tomato slices, rau ram (Vietnamese coriander), and a vinaigrette made from chicken drippings. The wing platter (canh) goes for 19,000 VND, while the leg platter (dui) goes for 20,000 VND. Su Su was out of dui during our visit, so we both got canh. The only thing that would make this place tastier is if they served gizzards. Mmm, boy.