Saigon Street Food Countdown

Just twelve more meals here in northern California before I return to Ho Chi Minh City to once again savor amazing Saigon Street Food! That’s three meals each day for the next 4 days before I board Cathay Pacific’s midnight flight from San Francisco to Saigon. But who’s counting?

That would be ME!

Now, don’t get me wrong. For the past 8 weeks, I’ve greatly appreciated the highest quality medical expertise and attention involved in my rotator cuff surgery and follow up physical therapy. And I have been blessed with the most wonderful personal assistance, care and support that has been lovingly heaped on me by my life-long friends and family here in California. Thank you Jan and Antonio, Pat, Tung and Tom ! I acknowledge that it’s been a breath of fresh air – literally – to fill my lungs with the Bay Area’s air, purified across 6000 miles (10,000 kilometers) of open Pacific Ocean. (Mmmn? Where did those Vietnam-, Chinese-generated air pollutants go?) And I’m still amazed as I step off the curb onto any street here in California that the traffic instantly freezes and “patiently” waits while I casually cross to the other side. I smile to myself. If they only knew that on the other side of the world, on any Ho Chi Minh City street or alley, those stopped vehicles would be free to run me down. The burden would be on me to look out for my own life as I struggled to the other side of the street through a torrent of trucks and buses indifferent to my presence and a thousand motorbikes operated one-handed by adolescents texting their friends (see “Crossing Saigon Streets”). Yes, it’s wonderful here in northern California.

But, I’m still counting the days! It’s the food – the Saigon Street Food!

Of course, there is indeed an amazing collection of cuisines to enjoy here in the Bay Area. Italian, Japanese, Morrocan, Ethiopian, Thai, German, Brazilian … and on and on.

And of course, at any Costco here, one can hoard enormous quantities of tempting, mostly-affordable food items.

And, the health inspections, the OSHA requirements, the lawyers, and the cultural norms, allow everything to be consumed without concern for safety – usually.

But at what price do we enjoy this endless shower of international foods — $25 per person? $35? $65? How many hours must we slavishly work to afford the luxury of it all? And at what loss of culinary authenticity do we hoard at Costco? (Just how do they get those super-extended shelf-lives anyway?) Then there’s the increasing “incorporization” of grilled cheese sandwiches and bowls of vegetable soup? But, I digress.

 

BUT, YES – I’m still counting the days! It’s the food – the Saigon Street Food

One recent night, I did think that perhaps here in the Bay Area I could have my Vietnamese cake and eat it too. A group of us enjoyed a wonderful night together and headed over to San Jose’s Vung Tau Restaurant. We shared four dishes. They all looked beautiful!

(Well, sometimes beauty is only skin deep.)

The beef wrapped around raw onion and grilled in very nice seasoning (dĩa bò nướng) was a yummy appetizer. As a Vietnamese food purist apprentice, however, I was bothered by the fact I had never seen this food item on the streets of Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City. This is an area for further research upon my return to Saigon next week.

The stir-fried Long Beans (đậu đũa)again looked beautiful. But, they were not good at all. Surprisingly, they simply lacked flavor, either from the spices or from the beans themselves.

Now the Canh Chua Tôm caught my attention. Sweet, yet tart. Crispy and fresh vegetables and firm prawns. This soup dish would have a respectable showing on the Streets of Saigon.

Finally, all my eating partners at the table enjoyed the Cá Tuyết Kho Tộ (sea bass steak in a caramelized sauce) . Clearly they haven’t tried Hai’s version of this dish. The dish was pretty and certainly qualified as a Yum on the Eating Saigon! Yum Meter. But that’s 2 Yum’s below Hai’s at Dong Hoa Xuan. Am I spoiled? Jaded? Maybe.

The cost of our dinner at Vung Tau Restaurant – $25 each. Certainly a reasonable price here in the Bay Area. And good Vietnamese food (for here).

BUT, YES – I’m still counting the days! It’s the food – the Saigon Street Food – IN Saigon!

Yes, to stroll down that narrow Saigon alley, to sit on that red plastic stool beside that old Vietnamese woman stationed at her giant kettle of boiling broth. To call out to her “xin cho anh mot to pho tai – va mot le tra da.” (please, one bowl of rare beef noodle soup and a glass of iced tea) Then to enjoy the beef broth that had simmered with beef bones for 10 hours and the freshly made noodles that were dropped into the boiling water just as I sat on my stool, and to myself pick the leaves off the stems of that herbal plant that was brought into the city from the countryside farm at 2 am last night. To savor it all, to love it all, to enjoy it all, and then to pay 30,000 vnd ($1.50 usd).

Yes – I’m counting the days until I return to my Saigon Street Food!

But, finally, I must admit to one troubling inner conflict. You see, as I pack my bags preparing for my imminent departure back to Saigon, this image (driven by my inner sweet tooth) keeps flashing through my mind.