My Saigon: The Local Guide to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam by Elly Thuy Nguyen

Author:Elly Thuy Nguyen [Nguyen, Elly Thuy]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2013-04-22T04:00:00+00:00

suon, grilled pork chop (everyone gets this, but the waitresses will assume foreigners are weird, so you may need to specifically tell them that you want this)

ga, chicken, usually chicken wing

lap xuong, sausage

op la, sunny-side-up egg

bi, shredded pork skin

cha lua, a bologna-like thing

Real South Vietnamese food at Ben Thanh Market

You're probably staying somewhere near Ben Thanh Market. And you will probably visit Ben Thanh Market at least a few times during your stay. There are lots of small food stalls in a few rows inside Ben Thanh Market. Unfortunately, most of them serve pretty bad food. Ten years ago, Ben Thanh Market was a popular place for Vietnamese office workers to eat lunch downtown. Now, some office workers do still go there, but they are heavily outnumbered by tourists. And, as everyone knows, tourists are only in town for a short while, so there's really no reason to attract tourists' repeat business.

So most of the restaurant stalls at Ben Thanh Market serve food that's best mediocre. Please don't get your idea about Vietnamese food from the stalls at Ben Thanh! Especially avoid the stalls at Ben Thanh selling prepackaged food and coffee or tea, because that stuff is really absolutely terrible, and is overpriced sometimes by a factor of 10 (meaning, 1000%). The sellers know that tourists won't open their packages of coffee and tea until they're back home, and by then, the vendor already has your money, and you can't complain to anyone (and you don't even know which vendor you bought that terrible stuff from). (By the way, for good prepackaged food, coffee, and tea, I suggest you go to the basement of An Dong Market, Cho An Dong, in Q5, and especially look for a stall called Thuy Truc! You can tell them Elly sent you, and they'll have no idea who I am, but regardless, they'll treat you well and won't cheat you.)

But there's good news about eating at Ben Thanh. There's one food stall inside Ben Thanh Market that is famous with local Saigon people. And this stall serves real South Vietnamese food. Actually, the food they serve is from Central Southern Vietnam (that's not South Central LA!!! Hey I listen to hip hop too!), near Da Nang, not quite Saigon food, but anyway, it's great stuff, and it's popular in Saigon. I don't have any business or family connection to this stall, but I try to eat there any time I'm near Ben Thanh Market – only because the food is great.

The stall is called Phuong Van. It's # 1092 at Ben Thanh Market. Look for the sign, as I'm showing you here. And

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