“Saigon people know how to enjoy their food”. My foreign friend does not hesitate to say that she is very surprised when seeing office girls with pretty clothes sitting at the stalls of girdle-cake sidewalk hawkers to buy food that she describes as a “must-eats”.
Saigon people seem addicted to enjoying an abundance of all kinds of tasty foods and crave to sit at the stalls and enjoy all the flavors from every region in Vietnam and all over the world. You only need a map or just follow a local food lover and you will soon know many ways and routes to find special cuisines from everywhere without ever leaving Saigon.
The Saigonese can eat in generous manners at any time of the day: in the morning, at lunch, when it is raining or in the heat. Expensive restaurants, bars, lounges as well as cheap sidewalk hawkers with all kinds of western and Chinese food are always open and serve hungry customers day and night.
In the morning, eat Hue beef rice noodles and then drink a glass of Ban Me coffee, at noon enjoy Hanoi spring rolls, and in the evening taste a dish of Saigon broken rice that is so ordinary, yet so delicious. In this city of the best sidewalk hawkers, you will wake up in the morning and feel the alluring smell from the start of the street to the end of the market. Many kinds of snacks like mixed rice paper, shellfish, beef jerky salad, raw fish and vegetable rolls, three-region sweet porridge, smoothies, milk tea… are always sold in a rush in the street and alleys.
It is said that Saigon does not have a particular cuisine, but instead it transforms all flavors into new and original foods. With a desire for good food, the imagination of Saigon’s citizen is unlimited. A paradise for foodies from all over the world who can quaintly enjoy a shisha lemon tea, cold milk tea with flan cake, mango shakes with salt and sugar, Vietnamese pizza created from girdle-cake, fried milk cakes or exotic roasted bread with salt and pepper.
In the nonstop flow of life, Saigon with its magnificent beauty is developing quickly, however, it has remained harmonious and you can wander on your own to discover new experiences, interesting little things every day. You only need to come, live and feel and Saigon will soon become a love you long for.
(Source: Wanderlust Magazine)
