Saigon 38 years later with some flashback stories

30th of April, 1975. 
Special day for all Vietnamese, especially for those who lived in Saigon at that historical moment. I was there, a young kid, without knowing about the war, I was packing, with joy, my favorite toys for "the escape". But it didn't happen, our family stayed and...tomorrow, 38 years later, we celebrate the date that many of us don't know how to call - either "Saigon liberation" or "Saigon fall".  
I don't want to go into the details what was good and what was bad for us, before and after that real turbulent date, it's too much political, I'm not into that. I was a very young kid before 1975, I hardly remember everything but there is always something that I never forget...in my city.

The 1st story
The classy Continental hotel, after 1975, has turned into a cheap "state cooperative eatery" (hợp tác xã ăn uống). The living conditions were very hard. One day my mom, as habit from the good old times, took us there to enjoy a Yang Chow fried rice (cơm chiên Dương Châu) with her tiny earnings after selling some dress from her wardrobe, my mother used to be a teacher so she got a big collection of áo dài, sometime she gave away her dress, sometime she just traded for an extra money. It happened only once, no second time. Now, it's good that the Continental regain the old look and I already know where is the better place for the fried rice.

              The Continental hotel - one of the luxury hotels managed by Saigon Tourist - a state company.  

PS: By the way, these days I saw they are selling the Yang Chow fried rice as a street food.

The 2nd story
Saigon was much more quiet, less people, less traffic before 1975. Our parents bought their first house long before I was born. It was very narrow, slightly more than 2 m wide but it was a shelter to many of our relatives who moved from Central to Saigon. The house has been renovated once and it was sold in 1970, after my parents got another one - much bigger.
I do remember the ice cream vendor, who always stopped in front of this house, he first played with kids and after that convinced them to buy his cheap sirup ice cream. One day I was sitting behind the balcony (as you see from the photo), I really loved to get some ice cream but no pocket money, so the young vendor tried to convince me to exchange something, I didn't know whose idea, but I finally exchanged it with a pack of french pretzels that I took from a very nice tin box. And that was a present from a friend to my mother.

           I grew up here, in my parents first house(center). It surprisingly remained the same as in the old days.   

Rolled cake Thanh Trì (bánh cuốn Thanh Trì)

When still in high school, I was told about some traditional dishes in the North of Vietnam, especially in our folklore. I actually didn't have a chance to taste anything at that time as I was living in Saigon, without knowing the flavor, but I never forget the names, they all sound nice. 

Bánh cuốn Thanh Trì, bánh giầy Quán Gánh, 

Bánh đúc làng Kẻ, bánh tẻ làng Diễn 

or 

Thanh Trì có bánh cuốn ngon, 

có gò Ngũ Nhạc có con sông Hồng.

One of those specialities that I heard all the time was rolled cake Thanh Trì. 

Where is Thanh Trì? Could be a place or  just an old village not very far from Hà Nội and surely famous for their rolled cake. My first time to try this cake was long ago, from a street vendor in Hanoi - a very old woman, right on the Hanoi's sidewalk. At that time I had no impressions, but I promised myself to taste it again at another time, because...the name of "bánh cuốn Thanh Trì" was engraved in my mind and sounds strangely seductive...to me.  

                      A tray of rolled cake Thanh Trì for only 20,000 VNĐ. 

Time really flies when my second chance came only two months ago, in Hanoi, after probably years and years. It was a cold morning, I woke up early, skipped my hotel breakfast, I decided to have a walk along Hanoi's street in the cold. And not far from my hotel, I met a street vendor of rolled cake Thanh Trì at the corner. 

                  I was not alone, some early bird customers in the wet and cold morning. 

I was not alone, there was another two customers in that early morning. One of them was a little woman in her mid 60s, suffering from dwarfism, a book, newspaper's seller in the night trains, her life was not easy, as the vendor told me after I took a photo of her, she seemed happy to pose for my camera together with her simple breakfast.

My hideaway in Saigon's summer heat

Over the past few weeks, the heat in Saigon is getting unbearable, the temperature reaches 37-38oC, TV keeps warning "don't let your children going out between 11am-3pm", and people start complaining - "freaking hot", "I'm dying of heat in Saigon". I'm seeking a cooler place at my swimming pool, but it's no longer a rescue or even a pleasure when the pool water is also heating up. Then my friends suggest to run away from Saigon, riding on bicycle, early in the morning, to Can Gio, our hideaway, where is full of the green and the waters.

             The ride on bicycle took 2 and half hours from Saigon to our "hideaway" in Cần Giờ. 

We always stop over, on the way to Cần Giờ, in a small family restaurant called "Ut Thao", by somehow it became our favorite gathering place in this unique district of Saigon. A simple countryside eatery with many hammocks where you can have a quick nap, they serve beef noodles for morning, family meal for lunch and if we order in advance, the owner can even prepare some delicacies.

                 Instead of chairs, hammocks - the favorite furniture in countryside stop-over. 

What could be Can Gio's delicacies? I have no exact clue but oyster, dried catfish (khô cá dứa - it's a kind of fish, very close to catfish, I was told it's very good having it with rice), water coconut, fermented shrimp...seems very popular here in this rural area.
This time we have two new senior members in our team, both in their 60s but looks strong, lively, one of them has even traveled alone on bicycle from Saigon up to very North of Vietnam few months ago...in just 45 days, incredibly amazing. Listening to his stories about the magnificent landscape in the North and along the famous Ho Chi Minh trail, how much we wish to do the same thing one day.

                 Grilled muscovy duck meat with okra, here duck has no fat at all, under their skin. 

Ok, back to what we always do at "Ut Thao", my friend has ordered in advance so when we arrived, it took us just half an hour to wait to be served. Lot of good foods.

                Muscovy duck cooked with lemon grass, served with veggies and noodles.

Street of sweets, street of sugar (Hàng Đường)

Street of sweets, street of sugar.
That's a name of one street among 36 streets in Hanoi's old quarter.
In my previous post about Hanoi, I did mention that I like the way Hanoi calls the streets after the name of the commodities selling there. That was likely hundred years ago, nowadays the names remained but the business dramatically changed. Except some! Hàng Đường (i.e street of sugar) is one of those "loyal"streets to what they sale until today - traditional sweets.

               One of dozens of shops in Hàng Đường, sweet and flavorful snacks business.

Hàng Đường is famous for those sweets that we can't buy anywhere in Vietnam. Only in Hanoi. And probably the best from this street. I saw a store that has been in this business since 1898. 115 years. Just wonder those sweets they used to sell before in 19th century are different from what we have today. The taste. The variety. The look. But I believe that our great-great grandparents never used  any preservative or sweeteners in their traditional stuff.

               From one side - sweet snacks in glass jar on display in a shop... 

              and from the other side...the variety can surprises many visitors from the South. 

In search of a top 3 of the best broken rice - cơm tấm Bà Hạt

One of my friends suggests me to review the top 3 (or even top 5) of the best street food in various categories such as top 3 of best "broken rice", best "Saigon bread", "beef noodles". And he's willing to do that for me. It's a good idea but - thousand people, thousand taste, so it could be challenging to select which one is the best. Anyway I just give it a try for a very first selection - "Top 3 of the best broken rice" - one of the most favorite street foods in Saigon. Early morning, late at night, everywhere - in a small quiet alley or right in the corner of busy streets, we always can find this fabulous dish. 

We have quite popular brands as Kiều Giang, Mộc, Cali, Thuận Kiều, An Dương Vương...but according to many foodies, including my friends, these brands already go too far with their fantasies by creating unusual things with broken rice, like rice burger at Cali or too much side dishes which, to me, destroyed the original flavor of "broken rice" at An Duong Vuong eatery. 

                    Grilled pork rib - one of most favorite side dishes to go with broken rice.

               Most traditional broken rice with "pork skin" and "egg cake", simply we call "bì chả" 

Fried rice cake in Chinatown (Bột chiên)

Two days ago, my friend suggested to have a late night meal in Chinatown, he actually has in mind to find a better place for "fried rice cake" as the popular one in Vo Van Tan street (Dat Thanh ?) seems far from good. I agreed with him and that explained why until now I don't have any review on this Chinese speciality which used to be one of my childhood favorites.

              A night "bột chiên" stall in market "Xa Tay" - Chinatown

Talking about "bột chiên" the image of an old Chinese street vendor with his black wooden cart in my neighborhood in the old days seems revived in my mind - the way he cut, he fried small, long cubes of rice cake in huge black pan, at that time there was no egg as I remember and I just wonder since when we started adding eggs into many dishes: from beef noodles, rolled cake...to fried rice cake.      

                    Rice cake mixed with taro waiting for their turn...