A taste of Hai Phong – near Saigon’s airport

A taste of Hai Phong  – near  Saigon’s airport

On June 20th, I told you about my euphoria when Hai and I stumbled upon two of my favorite “Hanoi dishes” at Xoi Mai in the Tán Bình District here in Saigon.  Xôi xéo and bún mọc, two dishes that won my heart, as well as my tummy, during the years I lived in Hanoi.  They still lure me back for a visit to Hanoi’s Ancient Quarter.

But now, at least I have a local source to enjoy those two dishes.  OR SO I THOUGHT!

A few nights ago, we headed to Xôi Mai after a particularly vigorous workout at California Wow (our health club).

We rounded the corner onto Hồng Hà Street and … my heart sank.

“Hết rồi”, Hai announced! They were closed. Their security gate was pulled shut. There was no way in to enjoy my wonderful xôi xéo and bún mọc 🙁 .  Life can be cruel.

Hai didn’t share my pain.  In fact, he seemed quite excited about the opportunity now to try one of his favorite dishes down the street (perhaps time to re-evaluate our relationship, I thought).

OK – face reality.  We rode two minutes down Hồng Hà Street to Thuy Linh Hai Phong.  They seemed to be featuring their bún chả cá dish (noodles and ground fish cakes).  But what Hai had been craving was a bowl of bánh đá cua đồng.  Bánh đá cua đồng is a noodle soup originating from the northern Vietnam city of Hai Phong.

The noodles were the most unique and interesting part of the dish.  A rice noodle often bbq’d into a large and crispy, frisbee-shaped rice-cracker, here the noodles were sliced into strips and boiled in a rich crab-flavored broth. The noodle bowl was filled with various other ingedients, including balls of ground fish, fried chả cá (ground fish cake), greens and bò lá lốt (ground meat wrapped in a local vegetable leaf, then grilled).

It was good. But, mostly, it wasn’t my xôi xéo or bún mọc.  

There was a brief moment, however, when I thought the evening could be salvaged.  Since this was a “northern” Vietnamese restaurant, I asked (in mild desperation) whether they served my bún mọc.

The server said YES!

I asked, Does your bún mọc have bamboo in it? (I love bamboo shoots in my bún mọc – just the way they served it in Hanoi.)

Again, she said YES!

Ối Trời Ơi – maybe the gods were looking after me tonight!

Not the case – SHE LIED!

There was no bamboo in the bún mọc. She claimed to have misunderstood my question.  Ha!

And worse yet, the bún mọc meat balls were like eating small spheres of pork-flavored candle wax. 🙁

After that, I just drank my troubles away ~ sưa bắp nếp (corn milk drink).

Let’s go home.

Now, it’s hard to say whether it was my saddened funk state about no xôi xéo and the misrepresented bún mọc that made that meal “not memorable” for me or whether the bowl of bánh đá cua đồng was really just “so-so”.  But, in any case, it will be quite some time before I return.  Hai seemed satisfied.

P.S.   We think Xôi Mai was closed to observe a monthly Buddhist day of retreat. Maybe tonight we’ll try again to return to satisfy my Hanoi food cravings???

I rate Thuy Linh Hai Phong as Ho Hum here on Eating Saigon!’s Yum Meter. (Hai gave it a single Yum.)

Thuy Linh Hai Phong
Hồng Hà Street
(about #14 – there’s a Techcom Bank ATM just to the right of the restaurant)
Tán Bình District

View Thuy Kinh Hai Phong in a larger map