Ho Chi Minh City
I had planned to travel to Vietnam in the springtime of 2020. But before I was able to buy an airplane ticket, the world shut down. Flights to Vietnam were all but impossible. Only in March 2022 Vietnam ended Covid quarantine for international travellers. In the autumn of that year I was finally flying to Vietnam, partly for work, to visit Đại Tín, the factory where our products are made, and partly for my first and only holiday of 2022. The Air France Boeing 777 landed in the morning at Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport (SGN). When I arrived in Hồ Chí Minh City, the owner of Đại Tín, Mr. Ho Trung Tin, picked me up at the airport.
The metropolitan area of Hồ Chí Minh City contains more than 21 million people, the city itself about 9 million. I don’t think this city ever sleeps. I checked into Kim Hương Hotel, which is the favourite hotel of my employer since many years, right opposite the famous Bến Thành Market. In the end, I didn’t spend much time in the market: too many tourists.
I negotiated a short rest in the hotel to avoid the worst jet lag, and in the afternoon Tin picked me up with his motorcycle to visit some land marks. First stop was Ngọc Hoàng Điện, Jade Emperor Pagoda, a Taoist pagoda, founded by a Chinese merchant. The inner sanctuary had both Buddhist as Taoist elements.
On the way to the factory we stopped to eat one of the best Phở of HCMC in restaurant Phở Hiền 1985, address 68/9A Đ. Trần Quang Khải, Phường Tân Định, Quận 1, Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam.
Tin considered the collagen the most beneficial part of the animal.
After the Phở we visited the tomb of Lê Văn Duyệt (1763–1831), who helped Nguyễn Ánh unify Vietnam in 1802. The tomb was built in the 19th century and is also a place of worship for other high ranking officials of the Nguyễn dynasty.
Just like in Korean folklore - the Korean mountain god san-shin is represented as a tiger - in Vietnam the tiger is worshipped as an animal of strength. While the tomb of Lê Văn Duyệt is located outside then main building, inside there are many altars depicting the most fantastic creatures, and this tiger.
Ice cold sugarcane juice in Phú Nhuận district.
When we finally arrived at Đại Tín it felt like I completed a long quest. For many years my only contact with Tin and the people working at Dai Tin was solely by e-mail. Now, I was about to set foot in the inner sanctuary of Đại Tín. The factory is located between the International airport and district 1 in Phú Nhuận district. It is a convenient location and I liked the district. It is far from the high rise buildings in district 1 and has a relaxed atmosphere.
I don’t think Tin’s orange Von Dutch T-shirt was a coincidence.
Phú Nhuận district.
The first night I was invited to a restaurant with the owners of Dai Tin. This is a separate post in the Recipes category: One night in Saigon.
If you don’t have a car, motorbike or a scooter, the best way to get around Hồ Chí Minh is to grab a Grab taxi. You can choose between a car and a motor cycle. The Grab app is the Vietnamese version of Uber and it works like a charm. Waiting times can be as low as a couple of minutes. The app will show you the brand of the car, color and license plate.
10 November 2022
“No Plazas in the East, No Streets in the West”
The next day I browsed around the city by myself to get my bearings. What city is former Sài Gòn? It is very much a business city. It also feels like a young city, although by 1950 the number of inhabitants already exceeded one million. In 1975 Saigon was renamed Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh. Nobody walks in Hồ Chí Minh, motor bikes are the most convenient, and abundant, means of transportation. To learn the city, I walked and I walked.
The Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa wrote in his 1997 book Each One a Hero -The Philosophy of Symbiosis: “I became fascinated with the comparison of space in Asian and Western cities and I proposed the hypothesis that Oriental cities have no squares or plazas while Western cities possess no streets, in the sense that I will explain below. In other words, I argued that although Asian cities may have no public squares, their streets carry out the function of these open spaces. On the other hand, Western cities have squares or plazas while their streets are little more than thoroughfares.”
Life is lived on the streets, unlike in European cities. To escape the heat in the day time you will find a coffee shop in almost every street. Cà Phê Đen Đá, black coffee, iced, became an instant favourite of mine.
“The homes and shops of these street-oriented communities featured lattice-work facades, bench-like porches (agedana), low fences and other structural techniques which exploit the openness of wooden architecture and create continuity with the street outside. Street space became an ambivalent space -- a medium in which individual living space and the metropolis converge.” - Kisho Kurokawa.
With Tin as my guide I was fortunate enough to taste amazing food. The place below is so popular, the waiting time can be hours after ordering. Tin got ahead of the line by arguing he had a foreign guest. What you get is a plastic container with a very fine rice pudding, topped with fried onion and a plastic bag with fish sauce. This tiny places sources the best ingredients, and became extremely popular.
When it comes to food, Hồ Chí Minh, and Vietnam in general, is a paradise. Due to the warm climate restaurants have an open facade, which makes eating out, almost by definition, informal. You don’t separate yourself from the busy streets. Tin took me to a favourite restaurant of his, a goat meat restaurant: “Goat meat is both delicious food and a traditional medicine.” I am now quoting the big sign, which was placed above the checkout explaining the benefits of goat meat. “Meat, bones, organs. Everything can make a medication”.
In Vietnam food is not merely food, but can be seen as a daily medicine for the body. It is governed by the principle of Wuxing, a taoist principle. In practice this is translated into foods, which are considered warming or cooling. When eating, you balance both elements. Goat meat is considered warming, fresh leaves are considered cooling. Therefore a plate of goat meat will be served with a generous quantity of fresh herbs to balance the warming effect of the meat.
The first dish was steamed goat meat, including the fatty skin parts, with lemon grass, assorted fresh leaves and okra. Everything is served raw and the steaming process is done right on the table. While waiting for the meat to be tender, you drink beer with big chunks of ice in the glass.
Key to Vietnamese cuisine are the dipping sauces. In restaurants you often have to assembly your own dipping sauce according to individual taste. Since I was a novice, I let Tin mix the dipping sauces. The sauce below is made from fermented bean curd mixed with a restaurant made sauce in the same color. Fermented bean curd, chao in Vietnamese, has a very powerful smell and taste. It is a great dipping sauce for goat meat.
“Goat bone: Sweet, warm, has the function of nourishing the kidney, strengthening the tendons and bones, curing rheumatism, emaciation due to labor, dizziness, blurred vision, chronic back pain.”
Stuffed goat intestines. Fresh herbs to balance the warming effect of the meat.
Quán ăn gia đình Bạn Tôi 5 (the name of the restaurant on Google Maps), address 70 Đ. Trần Quốc Toản, Phường 8, Quận 3, Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam.
11 November 2022
On the third day I visited the tunnels of Củ Chi. When I got back in Hồ Chí Minh I walked by Saigon's presidential palace, where in 1975, famously, Tank 390 crashed through the gates. The Chinese-made T59 is now a monument. A few years ago our company produced exactly this tank as a 1/87 scale model. It was a one-off production because demand wasn’t too high.
I figured dinner would be quite late and since I skipped lunch, I needed to eat something in the late afternoon. In the same street as my hotel, there were many street vendors. I will never cease to be amazed how these old, and not so old, ladies can offer the most amazing noodles soups right on the pavement. Why is the food in The Netherlands so poor compared to about any place in Asia?
By the look of the tomato this looks like a bún riêu with a nice slice of huyết (congealed pig's blood). Note the dipping sauce with small shellfish and fresh chili pepper.
“Trời đánh tránh bữa ăn – even the Heavenly Lord knows better not to strike at mealtime”
That evening Tin invited me to a sea food, and snail, restaurant. We ordered four different dishes. First a soup with tiny sea snails, braised in coconut milk, was served. Those snails were something else. You have to suck the snail out of its shell. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t do it.
Then came a plate of fried fish, rice and cucumber. These fish are air dried for one day, not too long, otherwise they will become too dry. Then they are fried. Oh my, they taste excellent. Ice cold beer is the perfect drink to pair with those fish.
Tin ordered a plate with barbecued scallops, sprinkled with spring onion oil (mỡ hành) and crushed peanuts. Before slurping the scallops you add a dash of good quality fish sauce. This is one of the most tasty side dishes I ever had.
The dish below are eggs combined with clusters of developing egg yolks in the hen ovary. You are basically eating the ovary and tiny egg yolks. The white of an egg is only developed in the next stage, in the magnum of the hen. The ovary doesn’t taste like chicken meat, it is much more meat-like and salty. The vegetable is a wax gourd (bí đao) I believe.
Where do you park your motorcycle? Well, inside the restaurant of course! The restaurant is located at the intersection of Nguyễn Văn Đậu and Hẻm 49 Nguyễn Văn Đậu (alley number 49), Phường 6, Bình Thạnh, Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh.
On 12 November I took a 10 AM flight to Hanoi on a Vietnam Airlines Airbus A350-900. Flight time 2 hours and 10 minutes.