Before going to Saigon for traveling, I think that you should have a look at suggestion. As a Saigonese for 22 years up to now, I’m confident to say that here are the best dishes collection that I suggest for foreigners before you have a chance to go to Sai Gon. Within my selective compact menu, I hope you can taste, enjoy, and have some wonderful moments in Sai Gon.
Table of Contents
Chicken Sticky Rice (Xôi Gà)
Xôi Gà is a common dish in Sai Gon because you can take away while enjoy discovering Saigon. This dish has many variables such as Steam chicken sticky rice, Roasted chicken sticky rice or even Sticky rice covered a whole chicken with deep-fried. The sticky rice in Saigon is quite different from other cities in Vietnam. Furthermore, chefs will add the coconut milk that will make the flavor of the sticky rice become special. The chicken also depends on your personal preferred that they have 2 kinds of chicken. The types of chicken will be cut into smaller parts or smithereens the meat. Another type is that chefs will leave the whole leg for you to eat because some of the people that they prefer to prehensile the leg.
Crab Soup (Súp Cua)
This super powerful dish is a street food dish in Saigon. Though it seems to be street food, there is a lot of ingredients and nutrition that you eat a bowl, you could have like a full meal. Chefs will stir the water with the corn powder and boil it up. there are other ingredients such as crab meat, chicken bones, pig brain, quail eggs, stirring eggs, herbs, etc. If you have a chance to taste it, you will have a nice food trip in Saigon.
Mixed Rice Paper (Bánh Tráng Trộn)
This is as a junk food of Saigonese teenagers and even people from the Northside of Vietnam when they come and visit Saigon, they also love this dish. You could find this junk food anywhere in Saigon. There are many food stalls and street vendors are selling this because it is like a soul of Saigon. The recipes of Banh Trang Tron is the combination of quail eggs, red tiny shrimps, green mango, herbs, oil scallion, roasted peanut, and the main ingredient which is rice paper that cut into smaller pieces. After that, chefs will mix it up with the sauce also. The sauce is made by soy sauce, garlic, satay sauce, sugar, etc.
Small Crab with Yellow Snail Noodles (Bún Riêu Cua Ốc)
Like you can search on the internet, Vietnam is a country that most cuisine in here comes from noodles. To make the soup properly, chefs combine the stock crab base and tomatoes so that when you consume the broth, it tastes like a little sour but also contain seafood tasting. The noodles are the rice noodles and it shapes like a spaghetti. Topping to eat along with the soup is meatball, tomatoes, yellow snail, crab paste, fried tofu, and herbs. For the sauce, there are 2 kinds of sauce for your choices, the fish sauce, and fermented shrimps sauce. For students and officers in Saigon, they sometimes eat a bowl of crab noodles soup instead for a fulfilling meal because the nutrition of crab soup is equal with a whole meal properly.
Silkworm Cake (Bánh Tằm Bì)
Silkworm cake for some people, they believe it is like a dessert but for me, I think it could be eaten as a lunch also. The base ingredient which is thick short rice noodles, you can eat with meatball, herbs, chili, and shredded pork skin. Some people said this dish is similar to a dessert because there is coconut milk as the main sauce. Thus, it will taste like you can feel sweet and buttery from the coconut milk. If you are a coconut-aholic, you have to try this one.
Conclusion
Generally, there are lots of dishes in Saigon that need you to explore besides which I mentioned above. If you have visited in Saigon, you should join a food trip around this city to discovering the cuisine here. I believe that you will have a memorable food trip in Saigon if you have a chance to join.
