Ho Chi Minh, a city famous with food, all you can do here is eat eat and eat, not much place to visit for tour. Will post about the place I visit on the next post, anyway I posted a tour to mekong delta earlier, do check it out.
Vietnam is famous with their pho (noodles) and banh mi (bread). My friend introduce me to eat com tam (broken rice) but I had difficulty in ordering this dish hence didn't get to try. The food consist lots of beef and pork dishes so it will be tough for those who don't eat either because as for me I couldn't know what I ordered until the food reached me. I can't read nor understand Vietnam words. They are very healthy too in the terms of food as they are having a lot of vegetables for almost every dishes. Of course they are physically healthy too, you can see park at most of the street with facilities and jogging lane.
This is my first bowl of Vietnam food after I checked in my hotel. It's located at the corner of the row of shop houses. This restaurant provide menu with english wording as its located near by 30 over hotels mostly occupied by foreign tourist.
 |
| Pho Bo Vien - Noodle with beef meatball (VND 60000) |
Was very tiring with the walking as we walked from the hotel all the way to the Ben Thanh Market and then a few shop houses lastly to the Notre Dame Cathedral and Saigon post office. We were finding cool drinks as the weather is very hot and we are half drained. So this come to us, we convinced ourselves that ice cream will do too as long as its cold.
This ice cream is weird in the way that the ice cream is filled into the cup and the cone is poke outward. I just take out the cone and crunch the biscuit and after that slowly enjoy the cooling ice cream. The ice cream is more to coconut milk although there's several color which symbolize varies flavor being white, green, chocolate and purple or pink. They add coconut milk to most of their drinks! But you'll find its a lovely combination lately ♡♡
 |
| Ice cream (VND 20000) |
This stall is located just in front of the Notre Dame Cathedral. There will be lots of small stall set up around evening at the little park in front. People there living a relax live, heard that the student there study in school for 4 hours per day only. You'll get to know how they enjoy their life if you ever had chance to go Vietnam. Their park is always full with people, lots of activities is carried. Most famous being the da cau (shuttlecock or featherball). They need to keep the shuttlecock in the air by using their bodies apart from the hand mainly leg. You can always see group of people forming circle playing it even the foreign tourist learned and played with the local people at the street of my hotel. Next being the roller skate, badminton, football and etc.
Back to the topic, hah! There will be a lot of stall like these set up every where around the street. This stall can be easily set up, they just need a basket which can support all those tiny ingredients and a tong to burn charcoal as the photo below but it's good stuff! I had another one on the last night of my trip before I leave.
This snack consist of rice paper which is this popiah glass like wrap, dried small shrimps, floss, quail egg, spring onion and butter. The taste is definitely good when it's burn on the charcoal. It's a must try!
 |
| Banh trang nuong VND 10000 |
This is sell at a street beside Ben Thanh night market. It's a whole lot of food variety selling at the street all being served at small bench. We end up having our meal in this stall particularly we are super hungry and this is the best set up stall with table and chair although it's a mini ones we found. The day is getting dark and rain fall after we ordered our food. The night market will be set up later around 6pm as they need to close down the road.
The food turn out to be nice! It's vietnamese noodle, different from banh pho I tried previously. Banh pho is slightly like the chinese kuay tiew while this bun mam is sort like the udon noodle texture. The red like chili broth is actually sweet and thick. This bowl of noodles consist of eggplant, barbeque pork and a collection of seafood such as shrimp and fish (not sure if I miss out anything cause it's a whole lot of ingredient). Not to miss out that every bowl of noodle serve here will come with a combination of raw vegetables.
 |
| Banh mam VND 65000 |
Next will be my hotel breakfast, it's free by the way. It's serve with watermelon, banana, juice and coffee or tea with a main dish choosing from bread or instant noodle. I tried 4 out of their 8 choices. Their best dishes being the one shown below, bread with scramble egg. Vietname bread is the best, it's crispy at the outer and fluffy in the inside. I love my hotel egg which come along with tomato and onion, so fresh and sweet. Tried also the bread with poached egg, noodles with fried egg and noodles with pork.
In Ben thanh market, there's not only stalls which sell stuff but food too! We will talk about just edible food in this post. Just tried these one somewhere at the middle selling all sort of shell. There's menu with english reading. And we are recommended this, the shell with coconut sauce by the tourist sitting beside us from Canada. It's serve with the shell on, to eat the meat you require sucking skill, haha! It's fun to try as it's my first time sucking meat from the shell. The meat color however frighten me a bit with a mixture of yellow, green and blue.
 |
| Oc len xao dua VND 50000 |
Ordered a cup of avocado blend too from the stall beside and it turns out pretty good. It's our first cup of avocado juice in Vietnam. We had avocado juice almost everyday after that, because their avocado is big and fresh! It's their local fruit, that's what we get from asking the fruit hawker, she said it's based from Vietnam :)
 |
| Ice blended avocado VND 30000 |
Thee coffee house, a cafe I visited twice. Good environment with good service (I'm totally attracted by the staff) and the wifi connection is pretty good, I studied some articles there while relaxing enjoying the air condition in the cafe looking out at the busy street with motorcycle busy riding through the street at the cross junction. For our first visit, we pick the Vietnamese coffee one with milk for my aunt and another ones without for myself. As I'm not any kind of drinking coffee expert nor I often drink coffee just sometimes during gathering with friends or 3 in 1 in the morning at home so I have rather no knowledge about coffee except for their name. The coffee served without milk is rather like espresso so bitter and sour in the case, the staff is rather sweet enough to serve me with a small jar of sugar syrup where I pour half of it to my drink. It turn out to be so much nicer :)
I ordered a cup of iced mocha and my aunt ordered their special drink, peach tea mania on our second visit. The reason for our second visit mainly just because of their good service.
During our first visit, we brought our fresh bought avocado in and they provide us two small tiny spoon to eat with. The avocado is bought in the Ben Thanh market. You can ask them to choose the ripe ones so you can consume it immediately after buying. They will also ask if you want to buy back home choosing the 2 days ripe or 3-4 days ripe ones for you. Walking to District 5 Vietnam to their morning market, you'll get a slightly cheaper price for 70000VND per kg but the disadvantage part being they don't understand English so there's no bargain for price and the only communication is with pen and paper (remember to bring along a pen and notebook with you in your bag wherever you go, it's rather useful) where they write down the figure and it's kind of explain to you how many kg you bought, how much per kg and the total price for your purchase.
On our second visit, we brought in banh mi thit nuong we bought from the street we pass by before reaching this cafe. The banh mi thit nuong is actually bread with grilled pork. Didn't take photo of it because it's a casual walk at the street and didn't expect it to taste this good. The pork is charcoal grilled in small pieces by flipping with a pair of chopstick. The sandwich included 6 to 7 pieces of pork patties which is so juicy and tender. The sauce is just nice with a bit of barbeque taste with the exact amount of vegetables. This sandwich cost only 17000VND which definitely worth a go!
In conclusion, is a nice experience spending our time here while waiting for the night to come.
 |
| Vietnamese coffee VND 29000 |
 |
| Avocado VND 90000 per kg bought in Ben Thanh Market, price varies for different stall |
The spring roll my aunt favor which is served with their sweet sauce and nuts. Found this on a street near Ben thanh market selling by an old lady on a thrishaw. This ones I bought is slightly expensive as she sold me with tourist price. I found a cheaper ones later at another stall. The reason of my aunt liking is because it's all vegetables serve with a piece of prawn or a slice of meat and so much of herb smell. |
| Goi cuon VND 20000 |
This restaurant is located somewhere near new world park hotel. We just walk in for food, as the whole street down sell more on western food and we wanted to try more vietnam food. This restaurant sell only beef from the soup to their meat. There's few type of beef parts being served where I can't name it as I don't really eat beef and intestine back in Malaysia. Owh, some parts of it are served raw with the soup pour into the bowl. I actually soaked the raw meat to the hot soup so it's cooked, haha! They don't speak english here rather and you might find yourself as the only non-resident dining.
 |
| Pho thai son VND 50000 |
Some food tried at the Ben thanh night market. I went to these particular stall two days straight. There's a long list of menu of food, so much like the chinese food we had in our country just that it's more beef, pork and fish. Ordered their noodle with beef meatball at the first night and the fish porridge at the second night. Their porridge served here is very watery and it's being cooked in wok. The fish meat served is without bone and the quantity is quite a lot.
 |
| Noodles with beef meatball VND 50000 |
 |
| Fish porridge VND 50000 |
Tried the Saigon special beer for my last night in Vietnam with the remaining money I had bought from the shop lot opposite my hotel. The taste? Awful.
 |
| Saigon special beer VND 15000 |
My last cup of fruit juice before I leave Vietnam. Had at least a cup of blended juice everyday during my trip. The best juice I get is the one neat to my hotel, a stall name iFresh which is located near Bui Vien street. It's serve in big cup and you get to mixed and combine the fruit you want to blend. The price is reasonable which varies from VND 15000 to 30000 based on the variety of fruit and the number of fruit you mixed. My first cup being the avocado and banana while last cup being the strawberry with mango/carrot.
 |
| Smooties with combination of two fruits VND 25000 |
Having my last meal in Tan Son Nhat International Airport. Chose domino over other small cafe which sell expensive bread. We ordered the Saigon Supreme with thin crust and a side order of chicken popcorn. The pizza is the Vietnam specialty which consist of quail egg, onion, hot sauce, mayonnaise, mozzarella cheese and floss. An interesting combination indeed can only be found in Vietnam.
 |
| Saigon Supreme personal thin crust VND 55000 |
 |
| 4 Mieng ga VND 55000 |
I tried a few more street fried food without snapping photo, too lazy to take out my camera for the last few days. Ho Chi Minh is definitely a food heaven! There is so so many food to try out if you dare to just order without caring about the language barrier and of course the price. Good luck guys! :)
