Tag: Ho Chi Minh City

Evening Dinner, Saigon

This small restaurant, typical of hundreds of thousands of low end eateries in Saigon and elsewhere in Vietnam, appears to serve up rice with deep fried chicken (about $1.70) and five spices chicken noodles (about $1.90). I would not be surprised to find that these two meals and some beverages are all that is on the menu. Vietnamese fried chicken, by the way, is not dipped in batter before frying. The chicken pieces are simply rubbed in salt and pepper, then deep fried. Yes, the chicken is generally parboiled before frying.

This photo was taken when Minh and I visited Saigon in November, 2022.

Home Sweet Home, Saigon

An attached house in a small, densely populated neighborhood, part of Saigon’s urban core. Actually, I’m not sure what the correct term is for this kind of residential unit. This home is part of a row of similar units, and there is another row directly on top of this one. Across a narrow lane, there are two more rows of units, one on top of the other. (See the preceding photo post to get the idea.) The families living in this neighborhood almost certainly own their homes, though calling these condos would be misleading at best. Words like apartment or flat suggest rentals, so I settled on attached house, for better or worse. There may be a Vietnamese word that describes this kind of housing, but I don’t know what it might be.

Street Side Breakfast, Saigon

The sign says the proprietor has on offer rice noodles in soup I presume, fried noodles, rice porridge with herbs, wonton, and some kind of cake or sweet bread – I was not familiar with the Vietnamese and Google’s English translation did not enlighten. Being a big fan of all kinds of rice porridge from Vietnamese porridge with duck to Hong Kong style porridge with preserved egg and pork, I am curious about rice porridge with herbs. Too bad I did not pay more attention to the sign when I walked by.