Comments on: Saigon Street Food http://lickmyspoon.com/travel/saigon-street-food/ A Food Blog about Delicious Recipes, Restaurant Reviews, Food Photography, and Food News Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:57:53 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Johnyhttp://lickmyspoon.com/travel/saigon-street-food/comment-page-1/#comment-34213 Johny Tue, 19 Apr 2011 18:49:27 +0000 http://lickmyspoon.com/?p=3923#comment-34213 Sure, sure, Stephanie. YES, WE CAN (excerpt from mr big O.). A little chat w/ you about the cheap street food. We student/pupils of schools used to have some little change of money from parents when go to school and we've got to spend all of the money in order to get more the next day (Same concept anywhere in the grown-up worlds nowaday - You have to spend all your alotted money in order to ask for more in the budget next year... Isn't that true?). So the mission of the street vendors was to invent/come up with snacks that tasted darn good and super cheap to rip us up to the last dime of our money change. And they did. And they did good, real good. With passions... Hmmm... Yummy... Benefit to everybody... Pickled Guava, Phyllanthus Acidus fruit cook in caramel (Don't know what the English name for this one- Googled and came up w/ this scientific name), fresh Ambarella cover with salt and chilli mixed... "Chuối chiên" (Deep Fried Bananna), "Bánh rế", "Bò bía", Che (Sweet - Oh mine, the Sweets)... We only have short time between recesses and after school end. Food had to be: Good, cheap and most important, easy to hide, too. So the foods got to attack all your tastes with immense authority at once, Bing Bala Bang! Oh that was good! Or the mission will fail. Taste it! Just like the movie: Love At The First Bite... Salty, Spicy, Sugary... To Spend Or Not To Spend? Hardly any argument here. Spending every last dime to street foods, sometimes have to make line or even fighting for, we were happily broke everyday... Well, no worry, there was always tomorrow. The Sun Will Also Rise. You just couldn't escape all the traps. No money today? No problem, just "sign the book" (Eat now, pay later - aka IOU)... Some came up w/ mottos and poetries written on the stall to make you feel good... "Eat the grain, Good for brain, Keep you sane, Under the rain... " Some of the food stalls even have gambling games for food. Here, play the game, cut the thread with one slice of plastic knife. You win, eat double, you lose, no problem, still eat, but just the regular portion... The food stalls went along with the technology world too. They have loud Karaoke or showing movies clips to attract us the victims. Some distributed pictures of Superman (for boys) and Snow Whites (for girls), some even performed street amateur magics... The food haven in front of VN schools (and I guess most of Asia the same) was phenomenon... If you were a student, you know what it was like. Only happened in Asia with the view of students overrun the food stalls when recess time or when the school out bell ring. I still can see vividly the scene of bell ring, the students pouring out as ants and over there the food owners were ready with big grins, look at the students running toward the stalls like a stampede: Come to mama and papa, my children! And eat! A pleasure that only VN/Asian students enjoyed. Perfect places and time to gather one last time before schoolday ends, to eat and gossip about others and teachers... I learned my "Bot Chien" from there, 4th grade. Learned to running quicker than others to the stall. Why? To get the first Bot Chien batch and to be able to request the blacken ones. If you're late, has to wait for the owner to fried another batch and trust me, it never tasted as good. See? We were trained. Food trained, since very little. To spend all your money in food was your duty and it was righteous. To eat means to live. Eat anything, anything has legs, (well, except furniture). Trained to compete for the best food available. And trained not to waste any food at all. Hey, look! I found a fly in my cake. The stall owner will say: "Well, what was the big deal? Just took him out and eat the rest". "Oh, OK, if you say so. Wow, that was hectic". I know I know, I talked too much. When come to food, I can go on for hours... Let me tell another one and I will shut up. Added to the background of why so many snacks and dished in VN was the Nguyen king, who ruled a united Vietnam from Hue in the 19th century. This king was a food gourmet legendary. Instead of concentrate in ruling the country, he devoted his whole life in... eating. He refused to eat the same meal twice in a year, so you can easily guess who had the super-hot seat job in town: The royal kitchen. Be creative or be beheaded, not only the cooks, but their whole family and relatives... What a job, what a world! So they scrambled everyday to create new foods/snacks and not just any make up ones, it had to look good and taste good too, to make the big boss happy. OMG, The pressure, "the" ultimate pressure!." The king of course didn't eat one dish at meal time, he got to have at least 3 or 4 dished at meal, plus desserts. You do the math. The royal kitchen had to came up with 1,440 different dishes in one year and 720 different desserts (Thank Buhda at that time we still used Lunar year, only about 360 days per year, saving the royal kitchen couple days worth of food) - Couldn't keep up with the "demand, the royal kitchen enlisted a whole army of their families and relatives to go everywhere to study, to dig, to invent and perfecting the new dishes... Be inventing or be dead, litterally. The list of new dishes was formed quickly and lengthy, even that mean had to "borrow" some of the neighbord's countries ones, the BANH CAY, BANH RE definitely had India influence in those) Et voila: When the big boss finally not eating (and breathing) anymore, his legacy left VN an immense variety choices of food. Thank you, King. You are always my hero... I will shut up for now... Thank you for reading... (They mentioned about the famous king in here: http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/ultimate-food-guide-to-vietnam/3 )... Sure, sure, Stephanie. YES, WE CAN (excerpt from mr big O.). A little chat w/ you about the cheap street food. We student/pupils of schools used to have some little change of money from parents when go to school and we’ve got to spend all of the money in order to get more the next day (Same concept anywhere in the grown-up worlds nowaday – You have to spend all your alotted money in order to ask for more in the budget next year… Isn’t that true?). So the mission of the street vendors was to invent/come up with snacks that tasted darn good and super cheap to rip us up to the last dime of our money change. And they did. And they did good, real good. With passions… Hmmm… Yummy… Benefit to everybody… Pickled Guava, Phyllanthus Acidus fruit cook in caramel (Don’t know what the English name for this one- Googled and came up w/ this scientific name), fresh Ambarella cover with salt and chilli mixed… “Chuối chiên” (Deep Fried Bananna), “Bánh rế”, “Bò bía”, Che (Sweet – Oh mine, the Sweets)… We only have short time between recesses and after school end. Food had to be: Good, cheap and most important, easy to hide, too. So the foods got to attack all your tastes with immense authority at once, Bing Bala Bang! Oh that was good! Or the mission will fail. Taste it! Just like the movie: Love At The First Bite… Salty, Spicy, Sugary… To Spend Or Not To Spend? Hardly any argument here. Spending every last dime to street foods, sometimes have to make line or even fighting for, we were happily broke everyday… Well, no worry, there was always tomorrow. The Sun Will Also Rise. You just couldn’t escape all the traps. No money today? No problem, just “sign the book” (Eat now, pay later – aka IOU)… Some came up w/ mottos and poetries written on the stall to make you feel good… “Eat the grain, Good for brain, Keep you sane, Under the rain… ” Some of the food stalls even have gambling games for food. Here, play the game, cut the thread with one slice of plastic knife. You win, eat double, you lose, no problem, still eat, but just the regular portion… The food stalls went along with the technology world too. They have loud Karaoke or showing movies clips to attract us the victims. Some distributed pictures of Superman (for boys) and Snow Whites (for girls), some even performed street amateur magics… The food haven in front of VN schools (and I guess most of Asia the same) was phenomenon… If you were a student, you know what it was like. Only happened in Asia with the view of students overrun the food stalls when recess time or when the school out bell ring. I still can see vividly the scene of bell ring, the students pouring out as ants and over there the food owners were ready with big grins, look at the students running toward the stalls like a stampede: Come to mama and papa, my children! And eat! A pleasure that only VN/Asian students enjoyed. Perfect places and time to gather one last time before schoolday ends, to eat and gossip about others and teachers… I learned my “Bot Chien” from there, 4th grade. Learned to running quicker than others to the stall. Why? To get the first Bot Chien batch and to be able to request the blacken ones. If you’re late, has to wait for the owner to fried another batch and trust me, it never tasted as good. See? We were trained. Food trained, since very little. To spend all your money in food was your duty and it was righteous. To eat means to live. Eat anything, anything has legs, (well, except furniture). Trained to compete for the best food available. And trained not to waste any food at all. Hey, look! I found a fly in my cake. The stall owner will say: “Well, what was the big deal? Just took him out and eat the rest”. “Oh, OK, if you say so. Wow, that was hectic”. I know I know, I talked too much. When come to food, I can go on for hours… Let me tell another one and I will shut up. Added to the background of why so many snacks and dished in VN was the Nguyen king, who ruled a united Vietnam from Hue in the 19th century. This king was a food gourmet legendary. Instead of concentrate in ruling the country, he devoted his whole life in… eating. He refused to eat the same meal twice in a year, so you can easily guess who had the super-hot seat job in town: The royal kitchen. Be creative or be beheaded, not only the cooks, but their whole family and relatives… What a job, what a world! So they scrambled everyday to create new foods/snacks and not just any make up ones, it had to look good and taste good too, to make the big boss happy. OMG, The pressure, “the” ultimate pressure!.” The king of course didn’t eat one dish at meal time, he got to have at least 3 or 4 dished at meal, plus desserts. You do the math. The royal kitchen had to came up with 1,440 different dishes in one year and 720 different desserts (Thank Buhda at that time we still used Lunar year, only about 360 days per year, saving the royal kitchen couple days worth of food) – Couldn’t keep up with the “demand, the royal kitchen enlisted a whole army of their families and relatives to go everywhere to study, to dig, to invent and perfecting the new dishes… Be inventing or be dead, litterally. The list of new dishes was formed quickly and lengthy, even that mean had to “borrow” some of the neighbord’s countries ones, the BANH CAY, BANH RE definitely had India influence in those) Et voila: When the big boss finally not eating (and breathing) anymore, his legacy left VN an immense variety choices of food. Thank you, King. You are always my hero… I will shut up for now… Thank you for reading… (They mentioned about the famous king in here: http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/ultimate-food-guide-to-vietnam/3 )…

]]> By: Stephaniehttp://lickmyspoon.com/travel/saigon-street-food/comment-page-1/#comment-34103 Stephanie Mon, 18 Apr 2011 22:24:24 +0000 http://lickmyspoon.com/?p=3923#comment-34103 ooh Banh Cay looks good!  deep fried, spiced deliciousness!  thanks for the insider's tip :) maybe we can go on a little street food adventure next time I'm in VN!   ooh Banh Cay looks good!  deep fried, spiced deliciousness!  thanks for the insider’s tip :) maybe we can go on a little street food adventure next time I’m in VN!  

]]> By: Johnyhttp://lickmyspoon.com/travel/saigon-street-food/comment-page-1/#comment-34073 Johny Mon, 18 Apr 2011 15:56:04 +0000 http://lickmyspoon.com/?p=3923#comment-34073 Thank you, Stephanie. Share with you a secret. Many of VNese street food was posted everywhere but I rarely read about BANH CAY. BANH CAY (Curried Cake) was a cheap famous street food only known by locals and never made to "news". Google BANH CAY and you will see most of the sites in VNese. If you tried "Bot Chien", you 've to try that one the next time you there... There still many not-make-to-news street foods that only locals knew about such as: Xoi Chien Phong, Xoi Man (sticky rice with Chinese sausage), Banh Gan (Liver Cake - Trust me, there's not an ounce of any liver in there, just the name), Banh Cong... Well, there's a statistic I read somewhere said VN has about 1,600 street food/snack. I believe it caused I was there... Thank you, Stephanie. Share with you a secret. Many of VNese street food was posted everywhere but I rarely read about BANH CAY. BANH CAY (Curried Cake) was a cheap famous street food only known by locals and never made to “news”. Google BANH CAY and you will see most of the sites in VNese. If you tried “Bot Chien”, you ‘ve to try that one the next time you there… There still many not-make-to-news street foods that only locals knew about such as: Xoi Chien Phong, Xoi Man (sticky rice with Chinese sausage), Banh Gan (Liver Cake – Trust me, there’s not an ounce of any liver in there, just the name), Banh Cong… Well, there’s a statistic I read somewhere said VN has about 1,600 street food/snack. I believe it caused I was there…

]]> By: Stephaniehttp://lickmyspoon.com/travel/saigon-street-food/comment-page-1/#comment-33877 Stephanie Fri, 15 Apr 2011 21:18:00 +0000 http://lickmyspoon.com/?p=3923#comment-33877 Hi Johny, Thanks for the translation help! I knew that wasn't the name of the vendor...but wanted to include the sign to help people find the cart. And, yes! Bot Chien, that looks and sounds right...I wonder why my Cantonese speaking family was calling it Cha Gue... Hi Johny,

Thanks for the translation help! I knew that wasn’t the name of the vendor…but wanted to include the sign to help people find the cart. And, yes! Bot Chien, that looks and sounds right…I wonder why my Cantonese speaking family was calling it Cha Gue…

]]> By: Johnyhttp://lickmyspoon.com/travel/saigon-street-food/comment-page-1/#comment-33860 Johny Fri, 15 Apr 2011 18:11:35 +0000 http://lickmyspoon.com/?p=3923#comment-33860 Hi LickMySpoon (LMS). I am VNese and I was scratching my head when read of your restaurant name Nen-Nha-Dat. Of course some of the restaurants picked and chose their unique name to stand out and/or trying to give impression to customer such as Cuc Gach Quan (Brick restaurant), but Nen-Nha-Dat was pretty weird by itself. Then when I saw your picture of "Nen-Nha-Dat" I couldn't stop laughing. Sorry, I was not laughing at you of course but at the sign. LMS, IT WAS A REAL ESTATE SERVICE COMMERCIAL SIGN of someone. Nen=Foundation, Nha=House, Dat=Ground/Zone, Mua=Buying, Ban=Selling, Ky Goi=Liening.... The sign loosely transalted at: REAL ESTATE SERVICE - SERVICE OF BUY - SELL - LIEN and then the phone# and address. And what you been eating, judging from the picture and your description, I thinh that was BOT CHIEN, a street nack (not real meal) very popular in VN's street. Google the word "BOT CHIEN" and you will see for yourself... Thank you for sharing w/ us your eating experience. Hope that you were enjoying the food. Happy Eating. Hi LickMySpoon (LMS). I am VNese and I was scratching my head when read of your restaurant name Nen-Nha-Dat. Of course some of the restaurants picked and chose their unique name to stand out and/or trying to give impression to customer such as Cuc Gach Quan (Brick restaurant), but Nen-Nha-Dat was pretty weird by itself. Then when I saw your picture of “Nen-Nha-Dat” I couldn’t stop laughing. Sorry, I was not laughing at you of course but at the sign.
LMS, IT WAS A REAL ESTATE SERVICE COMMERCIAL SIGN of someone. Nen=Foundation, Nha=House, Dat=Ground/Zone, Mua=Buying, Ban=Selling, Ky Goi=Liening…. The sign loosely transalted at:
REAL ESTATE SERVICE – SERVICE OF BUY – SELL – LIEN and then the phone# and address. And what you been eating, judging from the picture and your description, I thinh that was BOT CHIEN, a street nack (not real meal) very popular in VN’s street. Google the word “BOT CHIEN” and you will see for yourself… Thank you for sharing w/ us your eating experience. Hope that you were enjoying the food. Happy Eating.

]]> By: Lick My Spoon » Friday Freebie: Derry Church Chocolates Giveawayhttp://lickmyspoon.com/travel/saigon-street-food/comment-page-1/#comment-29861 Lick My Spoon » Friday Freebie: Derry Church Chocolates Giveaway Fri, 18 Feb 2011 19:44:19 +0000 http://lickmyspoon.com/?p=3923#comment-29861 [...] Chocolates, leave a comment here telling me about one of your favorite food/travel experiences. (Street food in Vietnam? Blueberry-picking in Maine? Spam masubi in Hawaii? I want to hear about food and place! [...] [...] Chocolates, leave a comment here telling me about one of your favorite food/travel experiences. (Street food in Vietnam? Blueberry-picking in Maine? Spam masubi in Hawaii? I want to hear about food and place! [...]

]]> By: Stephaniehttp://lickmyspoon.com/travel/saigon-street-food/comment-page-1/#comment-10963 Stephanie Sun, 06 Dec 2009 01:41:27 +0000 http://lickmyspoon.com/?p=3923#comment-10963 hahaha thanks! and yeah...eating balut was quite the adventure for me. maybe one day i'll be able to crack it open and suck it down without a second thought ;) aspirations. hahaha thanks! and yeah…eating balut was quite the adventure for me. maybe one day i’ll be able to crack it open and suck it down without a second thought ;) aspirations.

]]> By: Stephaniehttp://lickmyspoon.com/travel/saigon-street-food/comment-page-1/#comment-10962 Stephanie Sun, 06 Dec 2009 01:31:51 +0000 http://lickmyspoon.com/?p=3923#comment-10962 seeing vietnam by motorbike is definitely awesome! heart-palpitating, life-threatening at times, but nevertheless, awesome. seeing vietnam by motorbike is definitely awesome! heart-palpitating, life-threatening at times, but nevertheless, awesome.

]]> By: Stephaniehttp://lickmyspoon.com/travel/saigon-street-food/comment-page-1/#comment-10960 Stephanie Sun, 06 Dec 2009 01:24:32 +0000 http://lickmyspoon.com/?p=3923#comment-10960 yeah...are you referring to "Law Bok Go"? i LOVE that stuff. my grandma used to make a mean law bok go. The chau gue we had was more of a cross between law bok go and pan fried cheung fun. back to the LBG though...do you know how to make it!?! omg...i sense a cooking party coming... yeah…are you referring to “Law Bok Go”? i LOVE that stuff. my grandma used to make a mean law bok go. The chau gue we had was more of a cross between law bok go and pan fried cheung fun.

back to the LBG though…do you know how to make it!?! omg…i sense a cooking party coming…

]]> By: Stephaniehttp://lickmyspoon.com/travel/saigon-street-food/comment-page-1/#comment-10959 Stephanie Sun, 06 Dec 2009 01:21:53 +0000 http://lickmyspoon.com/?p=3923#comment-10959 Hello there! It was great meeting you too! thanks for the education -- i really need to learn some vietnamese :) interesting though, i wonder if the difference in what we called it was because we were referring to it in Cantonese? Any ideas? Hello there! It was great meeting you too! thanks for the education — i really need to learn some vietnamese :) interesting though, i wonder if the difference in what we called it was because we were referring to it in Cantonese? Any ideas?

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