One night in Saigon

This was my first evening in Ho Chi Minh City. The owners of Dai Tin invited me for dinner. I was so busy deconstructing the food, and downing many cans of Saigon beer, I forgot to note down the name of the restaurant. I even forgot to take photos of everybody invited to this dinner!

First plate contained thinly sliced boiled pork with many fresh leaf vegetables, pine apple, star fruit and cóc. For sure there is húng guế (Thai basil) on the plate.

You either dip a piece of meat in the dipping sauce and eat it like it is, or take a thin sheet of rice paper called bánh tráng and make a wrap with some of the leaves and meat. You dip the rolled wrap into the dipping sauce.

The key to a Vietnamese table are nước chấm, dipping sauces. You are free to mix your own dipping sauce according to your preferences with what is available on the table. You can squeeze lime in a dipping sauce or add fresh chilli. Dipping sauces can be based on fish sauce, soy sauce, fermented shrimp sauce, fermented soy beans (tương) or simply salt, black pepper mixed with lime juice for a more neutral taste. The basic ingredients can be mixed with (rice) vinegar and sugar.

Second dish was a bowl of fried shrimp, vegetables and fruit. The shrimp are so small you eat them whole. A large rice cracker with black sesame seeds was served, which you can use as a scoop for the shrimp mixture. The rice cracker is called Bánh tráng mè or Bánh đa vừng in North Vietnam.

I think this egg was either a goose or a duck egg. Served in fish sauce. You break up the egg and add some Vietnamese luffa or sponge gourd. Mix and eat. Lovely.

Next up was fried fish. These fish are typically dried for just one day, so that they retain some moist, and then deep fried. Again served with fresh leaves. I think I recognise Xà Lách (Vietnamese Lettuce). For the fish a soy based dipping sauce is appropriate.

This vegetable stir-fry was the prelude to the final dish. The stir-fry contained the heart and offal meat of the helmeted guineafowl. This bird is native to Africa.

The final dish was the shredded helmeted guineafowl. The rich dipping sauce contained BBQued garlic and pepper corns. By then I was sure I had 20 cans of beer, poured over a large block of ice.