Street Food in Vietnam

American's have an undeserved aversion to street food. They think it unclean, unfit, unsafe. The rest of the world understands what delicious food a little old lady can serve out of a street cart. She does it every day, she does it well, and if people got sick they sure wouldn't be coming back day after day for it.

Vietnam is a great place to go and eat by pointing. Its cheap, safe and friendly to westerners. And surprisingly, many of the young Vietnamese spoke better English than the French people I met.

 

In Ha Noi I started a cool morning with a little baggy of still warm donuts; a little bit sweet, a lot bit sticky. Damn good snack for half a buck.

 

Bahn mi.If you are going to be under imperial rule by a country, you could do a lot worse than the being ruled by the French. Ok, they suck at the government stuff, but they leave behind damn good food.  The Bahn mi sandwich starts with a French baguette, smeared with pate, then loaded up with grilled meats and pickled vegetables. The bahn mi I have found in the States are poor imitations of this bready goodness I came to love in Ha Noi.

 

Vietnam has a wide variety of soups, Pho being probably the best known in the US, but there is much more to experience than that. 

Bun is the thin rice noodles, and then many words follow that I have no clue what they mean.When the little woman with a ladle points to something that looks good, nod and she will put it in the bowl. As best I can tell this was a chicken broth with shaved pork, chicken meat balls and fried tofu. Then sprinkle on some green stuff and a little hot sauce.  Grab chop sticks and a spoon and dig in.

 

 Sticky rice, filled with something.....  and wrapped in a banana leaf.  Tastes like rice.

 

 

Bahn Mi, this one not as exciting as the others, but for $1 US you can't complain.

This Bahn Mi from the Bahn Mi lady in Hoi An. She is apparently quite famous on Travel Adviser, with signs up telling you to go online and rate her.  I believe this sandwich is in the style of 'pile a ton of stuff on bread, cover in hot sauce'.

 Grilled mystery meat. A little old lady with a little old charcoal grill sitting on the streets of Hoi An, selling skewers of meat for $0.25 US.   Tasted.... grilly....

Grilled corn. The one bite missing is all I ate of this, it was absolutely horrible. The corn was not sweet at all, tasting like half dry field corn. It appears the Mexicans have cornered the market on proper grilled corn.

More noodle soup. It is The thing to do for breakfast.  This one I believe was made with a chicken broth, and there was no shortage of other delicious bits to fill the bowl. Starting at 1 o'clock going clockwise; blood cake, shaved raw beef, chicken meat ball, 'innards'.

The innards is in quotes because I was unable to determine what part of the beast it actually was.  I showed the above picture to my tour guide in Hoi An asking him what it was, he pointed to his belly and said 'inside'. It tasted good, whatever it was!

The  careful reader may have notices this post devoid of Pho. That heavenly dish is deserving of its own dedicated post that will be coming shortly.