Saigon is a paradise of street food. Your adventure to Saigon isn't complete until you try the street foods here. Throughout the morning until night there are always some street food sellers in the footway. During my visit to Saigon I always buy some street food. I love to buy street food there. It's tasty and cheap. The price is about 20000-40000 VND. equivalent to US$1-2. Below is some street foods I've bought there.
Banh Cam
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| Banh Cam is the one with sesame seeds |
I found this near Ben Thanh bus station. In my country, we called it Onde-onde. But, imho, Banh Cam is crispier although it sill chewy. It was made from glutinous rice powder. Ban Cam at Ben Thanh is plain. No filling. But according to various sources can also be varied with different filling such as chocolate or nuts or mung beans
Bot chien
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| Bot Chien... |
Well this is one of my favorite street food. Made from eggs mixed with fried tapioca, and then mixed together with fish sauce and chili sauce. The taste is good and for moslem people, this street food is 100% halal! I found this food in the afternoon on a sidewalk not far from Notre Dame Cathedral area. With a short plastic chairs, I enjoy this snack accompanied by the smell of mire. Hmmm .... delicious!!!!!
Muc Chien Nuoc Mam and Nang Muc Nuong Muo Ot
Two snacks I have met in a sidewalk cart in the night between Ben Thanh Market and Pham Ngu Lao. That is Muc Chien Nuoc Mam and Muc Nung Nang.
Muc Chien Nuoc Mam, is fried calamari . It was savory spicy. But, at that time I was more interested in trying Muc Nang Nuong. What is it??? Hihi ... it's squid, marinated and then baked / roasted then sliced (with a rolling pin.). After that you could eat them with chili sauce. Nice??? I say them: very delicious!!!
Banh Trang Nuong
Commonly referred as the Rice Paper Tachos because these snack has similar form with tachos. The ingridients usually are: mixture of pork, dried shrimp, shelled corn, onions, peppers, and a variety of other ingredients. They cooked and mixed with chili sauce and wrapped in a kind of spring roll skin (commonly called rice paper) and formed a semi-circle and baked it. So it makes Banh Trang Nuong crispy. What about the taste?? Sour spicy and slightly sweet. Since I don't eat pork, I ordered a special tachos without using pork.
Sugar Cane Ice
Made from Sugar Cane that has been pressed and mix with lemon and ice. Combined with hot Saigon's weather. Perfect!
Milo Ice
When I decided to buy ice milo on the way to Ben Tanh from War Remnants Museum, I imagine that it would be an ordinary milo ice like in my country. But I was wrong. Milo Ice in Saigon was really ice literally. Here is the recipee. Milo powder mixed with a little water to make it liquid (perhaps less appropriately called liquid. Imagine just chocolate jam.). After that, the seller put some ice cubes and .... voila!!!! Milo ice is ready to be enjoyed.
Actually there are many other street food that littered the roadside. There waffles (no ice cream of course) that can be purchased at the outside of central post office, fried bananas, chicken satay with sesame seeds , durian sticky rice porridge, and many more. And the price is cheap. It's about US$ 1-2.
So don't forget to buy some street food while you were in Saigon...okay?
PS: For moslem traveler, always ask if it contains pork or not ....
