Ho Chi Minh City Restaurant Tips by bpacker Top 5 Page for this destination

Eat & Drink like the locals: How to make delicious Pho / Cookery School Eat & Drink like the locals Review

Thanks to Shrimp56, I've decided to list out delicious recipes collected from all over the world. Here's my own recipe for good Vietnamese Beef Pho. Hopefully, it taste just as good as one found in Pho Hua. However, this looks like Greek to you, you're better off enrolling in the Vietnam Cookery School. It's situated in town and it cost roughly USD30 to learn how to cook good Viet food. Click on my link below for more details.

Favorite Dish: Pho Bo Recipe - Get the ingredients from a Thai or Chinese supermart. If you're living in Singapore, you can get all these ingredients from the Thai Supermart in GoldenMile Shopping centre.

Ingredients
Soup
1/4 cup thinly sliced peeled fresh ginger
1 medium onion, sliced
3 1/2 pounds oxtail, cut into 2-inch pieces
One cinnamon stick
6 star anise ( this is a spice )
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
One 1-inch piece Chinese yellow rock sugar
+
12 ounces, sukiyaki beef
+
Garnish
A basketful of Thai Sweet / Holy Basil, Saw Pine Leaves, Mint Leaves, Sprouts, Sliced Bird's Eye Chilli and Thai Lime Wedges
+
Dried Pho

Now, I just love preparing the Soup the night before in my slow cooker, so that it'll be full of flavour the next day. To start, sautee the onion and ginger till onion turns transluscent. Brown the ox tail next . Transfer the ox tail to a slow cooker and pour 3.5quarts of water. Stir in the spices, salt and sugar. Cook overnight.
To serve, soak noodles in hot water till its soft. Blanch it later with hot soup. Dry it. Arrange beef slices on top and pour searing hot soup on it. Garnish and serve.

Rating: 0

Theme: Local

ABC Restaurant: Eating Chinese Food in Vietnam Eat & Drink like the locals Review

Don't bother eating Chinese food the next time you're here in Vietnam, it just doesn't taste the same. I made this conclusion after I ate three Chinese restaurants here, one mid-priced eatery, the other near the War Remnants Musuem and yet another at a haute cuisine joint that came complete with a violinist..all were forgettable.

To see more delicious picture of Vietnamese food, click on b'packer's hcmc page

Address: 73 - 75 Thai Ha

Rating: 0

Theme: Chinese/Dim Sum

An upscale restaurant somewhere in Dist 1: Haute Cuisine - Chinese Food

I just had to attach this picture as I liked the presentation of the fried rice very much. Can you see the yam butterflies surrounding the fried rice set in a flower of petals?
Well, that's the only nice thing I can say about this dish. Chinese food here sucks big time, whether it is eaten in a pricey restaurant or in a mid-priced joint.

To see more delicious picture of Vietnamese food, click on b'packer's hcmc page

Rating: 0

Theme: Chinese/Dim Sum

Lemongrass: Rice Paper Rolls - Lemongrass Rest. Lemongrass Review

I've deliberately put this picture here so that you can see in contrast the styles in which the spring roll is served. This yummy roll was taken at Lemongrass, a fine-dining establishment whereas the previous one was served street-style. Anyway, the one at lemongrass cost me less than US$4. Cheap and good !

To see more delicious picture of Vietnamese food, click on b'packer's hcmc page

Favorite Dish: Haha, you're definitely in luck if you're reading this. In my sneaky ol' bpacker style, I've autopsied the roll at Lemongrass and figured out what makes it so good. Here's what I found out and since I've tried this at home. Let me assure you it's bloody good.

Leomongrass Rice Paper Rolls

Ingredients
1)Rice Paper
2)Asian Lettuce.Wash and seperate leaves
3)Tiger Prawns, boiled, de-shelled and sliced into two. Save water after boiling
4)Roasted peanuts, ground
5)Hoisin Sauce
6)Peanut Butter
7)Garlic Chilli Sauce ( optional)
8) A plate of lukewarm water
9)Finest grade Vermicelli, boiled in prawn water ( see #3 )
10) Carrots and Cucumber, sliced jullienne
11) Fermented Fish Sauce
12) Asian mint , spring onion or basil

Begin sadistically by boiling the prawns alive and filleting them. If this horrible to you or if you're living somewhere near the Arctic circle make do with with the small boiled ones. Of course, don't be daft and sliced the small buggers for gdness' sake. Use them whole. Save the briny prawn water after this and boil your vermicelli.

While your noodles are cookin', slice your carrots and cucumber into toothpicks and make your magically delicious sauce. Here's how..mix hoisin sauce together with a dash of garlicky chilli sauce and stinky fish sauce. Of course, the sauce will stink to high heavens but that is what makes the sauce gd! After that, sprinkle the ground peanuts on the sauce.

Now, your noodles should be ready. Drain it really dry.

Now for the real thing! Dip the rice paper quickly unto the lukewarm water. After that, put 3 chunky slices of prawn on the paper and slap a lettuce leaf on it. Pluck some vermicelli, mint, basil leaves carrot and cucumber and put it on top of the leaf. Fold the papery sides next and the bottom. Roll the thing like a scroll next till it's tight. There you go. Voila!

To eat, dunk it in the fish sauce and bite into the juicy goodness.

Address: 4 Nguyen Thiep

Comparison: about average

Directions: District 1

Phone: (84-8) 822 0496

Price: less than US$10

Rating: 5

Theme: Local

Stall beside Benh Tan Market: Rice Paper Rolls Eat & Drink like the locals Review

If you have not eaten Goi Cuon, or the steamed spring roll, you have not been to Vietnam! What is it? Well, yummy pieces of pork, prawns, vemicelli are tightly wrapped around a delicate white skin known as 'rice paper'.

Favorite Dish: Spring rolls make an excellent light, late-night snack. Just pop over to Ben Tanh in the evening ( yes you read that correctly) , go to the right side of the market where you'll see a long row of stalls and order the rolls from anyone. It should cost less than a dollar.

To see more delicious picture of Vietnamese food, click on b'packer's hcmc page

Comparison: less expensive than average

Directions: The right side of Ben Tanh Market

Price: less than US$10

Rating: 4

Theme: Local

Pho Hoa: The Best Pho in HCMC Pho Hao Review

Well before you wonder what the hell pho is(say "fur") , it is a thin and white long thing, the most delicious noodle in the whole of Vietnam. This place is listed in Patricia Schultz's "1000 places to see before you die" so it's practically an instituition.

In all my 4D in HCMC, I've tried pho from street stalls to fine-dining establishments. The best, IMHO, is found at PHO HOA (say 'fur hua' ). The shop is tucked away quietly in Pasteur St and it can be quite difficult to find unless you hijack a cab (well,hunger drives you crazy sometimes ). Upon reaching, you should see a shop crammed with locals eating at all hours of the day ( see photo ) .

Favorite Dish: Choose a table and order PHO BO (say fur boar) or beef noodles. This is their specialty and it's way better than their chicken noodles (pho ga).

What makes their PHO BO good? Well for one , the beef is tender and the soup naturally flavourful unlike the msg-laden crap you find elsewhere. No names here but sometimes you shouldn't believe in celebrity endorsement.

To see more delicious picture of Vietnamese food, click on b'packer's hcmc page

Address: 260C Pasteur

Comparison: least expensive

Directions: Write down the address and show it to your cab driver. No point trying to say Pasteur in a Vietnamese accent.

Price: less than US$10

Rating: 5

Theme: Local

"333" or BA BA BA: Try the local beer Eat & Drink like the locals Review

The next you want beer in VN, try saying ba ba ba. It's not a booze for sheep but a local white beer ( pilsner ) that is commonly enjoyed by all. My new found French friend also commented that this beer can also be found in gay Paree but it's an abbreviated "33" over there. If any of you Parisians are reading this, could you let me know if this is true? I sure didn't see no "33" when I was there.

To see more delicious pictures of Vietnamese food, click on b'packer's hcmc page

Rating: 0

Theme: Local

Pho 2000: Bill Clinton ate here Eat & Drink like the locals Review

Believe it not, Bill Clinton once made an impromptu stop in one of the Pho shops in HCMC. Kinda like how he would make a pit stop at Mac's in the US. Well, since this wasn't the US, I'm quite sure that he gave all his agents instant cardiac arrests. Along with that, he also made the owner of the shop very, very happy. Snapshotos of the former United States president shaking hands with the owners take the pride of place on a wall, along with more than 7 press reviews.

Favorite Dish: I popped in here more out of curiousity. The pho here pales in comparison to Pho Hao. Not only was the soup msg-laden, the herb serving was paltry and the beef nonedescript. Maybe they should have called this place "MacPho" in honour of Clinton.
I staggered out of the shop after I finished my meal as my heart went hippity-hop, post-msg . So much for celebrity endorsement !

To see more delicious picture of Vietnamese food, click on b'packer's hcmc page

Address: 1-3 Phan Chu Trinh

Comparison: less expensive than average

Directions: Just beside Benh Tan Market

Price: less than US$10

Rating: 2

Theme: Local

Restaurant, Pheonix Island.: A Mekong Delta Specialty Eat & Drink like the locals Review

The best thing about those trips out of HCMC is the opportunity to savour really fresh food from the rural areas. Well, thanks to really helpful tip from a VTer, I went to a Mekong Delta excursion organised by Sinh Cafe and had the opportunity to try a fish with a strange name.

Favorite Dish: It's called the "Fried Elephant Ear Fish" . Sounds really out of this world right? Well, before you expect a fish with two gigantic ear lobes, let me just say it's actually a normal fish with lots of protruding, spiky scales .

Well, this spiky bugger is fried to a golden crisp and made to stand upright on lots of greens and spring onions s.haped like flowers. That's not all though, a waitress with really deft hands will tear pieces of the fish out with chopsticks and wrapped the flaky flesh inside a delicate rice paper with lots of basil, mint and vemicelli.

This treat cost about USD6 and thanks to the new Japanese friends I made during the trip, I had a free taste. Best roll I've ever tried!

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Comparison: about average

Directions: Out of the beaten path, contact your tour agent! I'll put sinh's cafe's contact as they were excellent.

Price: less than US$10

Rating: 4

Theme: Local

Fried Spring Rolls: Street Food in Vietnam Eat & Drink like the locals Review

Other than Goi Cuon, the commonly seen cold spring rolls, you could also try Cha Gio Chay , the fried version. I had mine in the Mekong Delta region, along with the famed Delta rice which is supposedly very flavourful because of the good flood waters...

Favorite Dish: This spring roll is fried to a golden crisp and stuffed w/ tofu, cellophane noodles, black mushrooms, carrots, served w/ lettuce, mint, etc.

To see more delicious picture of Vietnamese food, click on b'packer's hcmc page

Comparison: least expensive

Price: less than US$10

Rating: 5

Theme: Local