Part 2, let the eating commence

Sin picked me up for a back of the bike food tour after a brief break in my hotbox hotel room.

We started out at a park in district 1 with a dish from a street vendor made famous by Luke Nyugen, Goi Du Du Bo. This dish is a green papaya salad doused liberally with fish sauce of course and topped with dried beef liver. Sin explained it was very good for my liver, think I might need a few bowls…

Next stop, Banh Khot cooked by a shirtless sweaty man leaning over a shallow tray full of oil for deep frying. Not sure the no shirt idea was a great plan, in the few minutes I watched him pour the Ban Khot batter into the moulds he managed to splash hot oil on his stomach more than once. They were a taste sensation, small crispy coconut rice cakes topped with prawn and squid which we wrapped in lettuce and herbs. 

   

 

This is also the place where I had to face my first food challenge,15 day old fertilised duck egg. Drinking the “soup” from the egg shell first was bad enough, the smell and colour of the inside – bleergh. One tiny spoonful of the egg yolk was all I could handle, Sin found this Hilarious of course.

Our feast continued on to a local restaurant famous for its live ocean crab in low water baths by the entrance. I was a bit trepidatious as I have never been a fan of crab but the meat was exquisite, so light and fresh without that strong crab taste and smell which turns  me off. The freshly cooked crab was accompanied by a delicious coconut broth, rice noodles and deep fried pork rind. 

  

Surely I can’t fit anymore in? But we had to try the best Banh Mi in Saigon. A large baguette filled with pate, 9 types of pork (who knew there could be this many?) fresh and pickled vegetables so good! Only points off were for the bread which was a little too heavy going. My mission from here on is to try the best Banh Mi in each town, it’s a Banh Mi off.

  

Finally full to bursting point I rolled onto my overnight train, Hoi An here I come.