Serving bánh cuốn for over 10 years at Kim Nga
Hai’s nephew, Thai, invited Hai and I to join him and his girlfriend, Phuong Anh, (she was very beautiful & spoke English well 🙂 ) to enjoy some bánh cuốn for dinner last evening.
Now I always enjoy bánh cuốn. But, typically I view bánh cuốn as a small breakfast or evening snack – not a full meal for dinner. Last night was different!
What a treasure trove of delicious food items we found hidden in the mountain of edible goodies served up at Kim Nga.
Bánh cuốn in the making!
Glancing at the stack of assorted foods piled on my plate, at first, I couldn’t even find the bánh cuốn. But wait, it would be worth the hunt.
Our plate of bánh cuốn at Kim Nga
Nem Chua at Kim Nga
Sitting atop the pile of chopped veges – bean sprouts, cucumbers, cabbages – were two slices of chả lụa (ground pork loaf); and a nem chua (kind of a Vietnamese salami – sweet, spicy, slightly fermented & tangy, and garlicy), all sprinkled with crispy-fried shallots. I drenched them all in the special nước mắm dipping sauce – sweet, with a twist of qúa quất (kumquat) and a dash of chili (I did add yet another dash) – and consumed them with passion. Very yummy!
With the chả lụa, nem chua, and some of the veges out of the way, the bánh cuốn came into sight! A very delicate, flat steamed fermented rice noodle wrapped around a generous portion of ground pork, chopped black wood ear mushrooms, and lots o’ flavorful spices. Very delicious!
And then the surprise of the meal. What was this item? I’m still not sure I can give it a name?? It reminded me somewhat of one of my favorite Vietnamese foods from many years ago in Hanoi – bánh gối.
What is this? Similar to bánh gối. Very yummy!
A deep-fried “turnover”, filled with rice, shrimp, mung beans, and other yet-to-be determined ingredients. (I apologize to my readers. I was in mixed company -foodies and non-foodies – and wasn’t prepared last night to perform a thorough diagnostic inspection and analysis of the ingredients.) But, the crunching, chewy, deep-fried xôi exterior skin of the “turnover” was đặc biệt (very special), yummy, and memorable!
The bánh cuốn plate was just 25,000 vnd ($1.20). We washed down our respective dinners with glasses of rong biển (seaweed drink).
Now, I want to go back for more!
Simple setting, great bánh cuốn
Serving up a very special plate of bánh cuốn for over 10 years, Kim Nga easily earns a YUM YUM YUM here on Eating Saigon!’s Yum Meter.
Open 6:00 – 11:00 am, and again 2:00 – 11:00 pm
Kim Nga
[DUE TO CONSTRUCTION, THEY’VE MOVED DIRECTLY ACROSS THE STREET AS OF JUNE 14, 2013. NEW ADDRESS 243 Bà Hạt Street]
268 Bà Hạt street
District 10
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The mysterious item there is my favorite item when eating banh cuon. It is called banh tom kho (dry shrimp cake or at least my generation use to call it that). It is prepared similar to banh cong that you eat with lettuce wrap. However, dry shrimp is used instead of fresh shrimp. Banh cuon should not be consume without this item ever in my opinion 🙂 I like this item sooooo much that I’d order just that.
PS. that “deep xoi chien” chewy is not rice but rather rice flour mixed with water to make a sort of bread. that item is actually like bread but deep fried instead.