Tip's Food and Travel

I came to Saigon a year ago but this time I had more time to explore the city. We stayed at Saigon Mini Hotel5. The room was pretty small for 2 people but clean and reasonably priced. They gave us breakfast vouchers with 3 options of food and many options for drink. The hotel is in Bui Vien, District 1. It’s more like Kao Sarn road in Bangkok.

Bui Vien

I went out for lunch with 3 world travelers; Kevin, Jodi, and James. We had lunch at Dac San near the Bantan market. You sit on a small plastic chair on the footpath.

Dac San

With 3 amazing world travelers

We ate Banh Canh Cua. It was a noodle soup, made from thick, soft, and round rice noodles. It had crab meat and 1 shrimp. The price is 50,000 Dong per bowl.

Banh Canh Cua

Another kind of noodle soup was Bun Mam, which is made from pickled/fermented anchovy and shrimp paste. It’s fishy, smelly, and sweet. It has one piece of fish, two shrimps, a piece of squid, 1 piece of fish ball, and eggplant. You can add more vegetables that they put in a little basket on your table. The noodles are firmer than Banh Canh Cua. It costs 60,000 Dong.

Bun Mam

Fresh spring roll was good too. It costs 10,000 Dong per roll. It had rice noodles (similar to Kanom Jeen in Thailand), vegetable leaves, a piece of chicken, and shrimp. You dip it in a brown sauce. Some sugar cane juice mixed with strawberry was a nice refreshing drink after sweating from the hot soup. The price for one glass was 15,000 Dong.

My food tour is not over yet. After a few hours at a coffee shop, we went to Co Ba Vung Tau at District 3, 2588 Nam Ky Khoi Nghia.

Co Ba Vung Tau

A lady who prepares vegetable dish to every customer.

Inside the restaurant

This restaurant is very popular with locals for Banh Khot, which is mini rice pancake topped with ground pork or shrimp. It is crispy outside but soft inside. You use a big leaf of lettuce and put other kinds of vegetables such as basil and then finally the Banh Khot. Fold it and dip it in a light fish sauce.

Lettuce and mustard leaf

Our vegetable choices

Banh Khot

We also ordered Banh Xeo. You can read from my 1^st Saigon blog 🙂

Banh Xeo

Food gone so fast!