Food of Vietnam 3: Street Food

Not many people are brave enough to eat the street food when they are traveling but my friends and I are always keen on eating what the locals eat so we just go to the busiest stalls and join in, so far this method has worked well.

One of our favorite things was this noodle dish called Cao Lau, prepared by a husband and wife team in a tiny cubicle with 2 burners and a chest freezer, they feed about 20 or 30 people in a sitting and everything is perfect, we went there twice especially for the noodles in a meaty broth, topped with pork, lettuce and crispy fried wanton squares, I am going to try recreate this at home.

The husband suggested this whole baked fish topped with peanuts and chilli, perfectly cooked and balanced, we ended off with the best dessert of the trip, a banana and chunky coconut pancake, I loved the gooey texture with the huge chunks of fresh coconut.

This I drank or ate everywhere I could, it sounds a bit wierd being a bean drink, beans topped with sugar syrup, ice, coconut and some other varying ingredients like sago, sweet potato, jelly cubes and fruit. Very refreshing.

Their main starch is rice and they use rice and rice flour to create many different dumplings, desserts and textures, these taste a bit like rice pudding which has been baked, savoury and sweet.

Not really a street food as such but you will find their desserts are not very sweet, this above left is a moon cake, made of bean paste with an egg yolk in the centre has an addictive flavour and texture but this mango and sticky rice won my heart, so simple with a slightly salty flavour, sticky coconut rice along side sliced mango, topped with coconut milk and crispy rice found more in Thailand.

You will find the best crispy duck on the streets and I finally got to taste a real Bahn Mi sandwich which looks surprisingly plain but the spicy, crispness as with all the food I ate left me wanting more.

Article and Pictures Copyright by Tamsyn Wells

Food of Vietnam Part 1: Breakfast

Vietnam has always been high on my list of want to go to destinations so when my friends started planning a trip I did not even think twice about joining them. My dream to go there started after watching Anthony Bourdain and The Top Gear team filming shows there, the beauty, hustle and bustle of the place was always in my mind.

Asian food has always been my favorite, fresh crisp and always tasty but I had only ever had a South African version of their foods, I was amazed at the food I at on my travels possibly some of the very best meals I have ever had in my life so to try capture the memory and tastes still lingering, here are some of the delicious things I was lucky enough to try on my holiday in Vietnam, Bangkok and Hong Kong.

Starting with breakfast, their main dishes were Congee which is a rice porridge, I never really ate this as  it made me too full and I then had no space for all the other items available, their most popular being Pho their National soup, rice noodles in a light broth served with condiments on the side which you add to your liking, chilli, lime, soya sauce, bean sprouts, thai basil and spring onion, light and fresh I could eat this every morning myself.

My absolute favorite was the huge variety of dim sum, with a huge smile on my face I always headed straight for the dim sum station dipped in their chilli tomato sauce and soy sauce.

Steam buns filled with BBQ pork, the softest I have ever had, a huge variety of sushi and shrimp dishes, I will miss this the most.

Always a large variety of fruits on offer, dragon fruit, passion fruit, pineapple, watermelon and a few different ones, durian and jack fruit, I always ended my breakfast at the fruit station.

Hot dishes consisted of a noodle stir fry, sticky rice, pork dishes, omelette station, rosti's, fish dishes and vegetarian items similar to chickpea fritters but made with other beans.

Their quality of pastries is also vary high, very light and flakey filled with a not too sweet red bean paste which I hope to find here in Cape Town or nuts as well as freshly squeezed juices, the most thirst quenching watermelon, carrot and pineapple juice.

A great start to each morning, I can't believe after all this I still I still went on to eat lunch, dinner, street food and sometimes dessert... but I did! part 2 to follow, Lunch and Dinner.

Pictures and article copyright by Tamsyn Wells