Lẩu (Hot Pot)

Cô Khàn Đêm
57-59 Hàm Nghi Street
District 1

*****

Some weeks back, when our friend, Hai (not my Hai, but Hai’s friend, Hai) (that’s clear, right?) invited us to enjoy some lẩu (Vietnamese hot pot), of course we said dĩ nhiên (of course).

Hai (the other one) is also a connoisseur of excellent, authentic, yummy Saigon street food. So when he invited us to join him for dinner, we were pretty sure it would be a pretty sure bet to accept his invite.

To what remote corner of Saigon would he be dragging us? In what narrow dark alley would we rendezvous with some old Vietnamese woman who had been brewing her kettle of delicious broth for the past 40 years?

WAIT! What are we doing riding down Hàm Nghi Street? In the middle of Saigon’s District 1 tourist center! Had Hai (the other one) lost his senses? How likely were we to find authentic Saigon street food anywhere near here?

Well, surprise surprise!

Replace that anticipated narrow dark alley with a great view Vietnam’s tallest skyscraper. And replace that old Vietnamese woman who had been tending her kettle for the past 40 years with one of  today’s most popular  Vietnamese models.

Okay, okay, so it’s very nice to marvel from our little red plastic chairs at the splendor of the soaring Bitexco Financial Tower piercing the Saigon night sky with its 68 stories of bright lights. And it was great fun chit-chatting with Ms. Trang Trần, our celebrity Vietnamese restauranteer and hostess for the evening about how she found her staff on Facebook and runs a family-like business on Saigon’s streets. BUT, what about our lẩu (Vietnamese hot pot)???

Well, Hai (the other one) was right. The lẩu was unique and delicious. An authentic “northern flavor” (as with authentic Hanoi-style lẩu). Not sweet, but mildly sour. A “quiet” nước lèo (soup broth).

And, as with any great  lẩu , lots of goodies to drop into the hot broth to cook at our table … bún (rice noodles), giò hủ (peppery and delicious Vietnamese pork sausage), rau muống (morning glory) and lots of other fresh Vietnamese vegetable and herbs. We ordered a generous pile of tender thịt bò (beef), as well.

And then, there was a hột vịt lộn ̣(fertilized-duck-eggs) to add to the broth, one for each of us. I loved it, very delicious!

BUT, a bit of advice here: I suggest that you ask your waiter to please do the honors of actually opening the fertilized duck eggs and dropping them into the steaming broth pot in the center of your table. (You actually might want to look away at that point since the sight of the not-yet-fully-cooked-fertilized-duck-eggs dropping into the broth can be a tad “bloody.” ) But, don’t think a lot about that. It’s an amazingly delicious meal.

Opened less than a year ago, Cô Khàn Đêm is already very popular spot to enjoy Saigon street food in the center of town.

A tad pricey by local Viet standards (certainly not by tourists price standards – we paid about 348,000 vnd ($16 USD for the 3 of us), this eatery is a perfect place to try authentic Hanoi-style hot pot, without ever leaving Saigon … or even traveling very far from most Saigon District 1 hotels.

OPEN 10:00 am – 2:00 am

[Confirmed as MOVED! We’ll track down the new location & let you know where! JANUARY 2016]

Cô Khàn Đêm
57-59 Hàm Nghi Street
District 1
0926.667.179

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