The food here is very fresh. It is so often cooked there and then, on the pavement, over a little clay barbecue, on a hand cart or in a temporary kitchen. In Ho Chi Minh City - Saigon as was - we ate in street restaurants that were assembled every day at 5.30pm, from scratch, outside the market hall once it closed. Metal frames, water containers for the live fish, the live eels, and the live frogs, cooking tables, gas burners, tables chairs, ice containers and cool bags of drinks - they all appear and are put together for about 20 different places along 2 streets. At 10pm or so, they are taken down, packed away and trundled off by hand to some back workshop or storage in another shop. It is very hard work for the staff but you can be sure everything you eat is fresh - especially if you want to eat frog!
In Tuy Hoa the favourite place is turning out to be the 'Make your own Spring Rolls' joint. Very plain and simple, indoors not outside on the pavement, and run by a woman who, rumour has it, has just served 10 years for debt. She is making a living now, I think, as this place is very popular, very cheap (as everywhere) and the GVN gang love going there. It is an idea that you could do at home. The key ingredient is the rice wrappers, very large long ones that they sell in huge bundles here. Michele, our Swiss housemate, is going to take some home and treat all her friends to this meal. I think we should be able to get them in Chinese supermarkets.
This meal also illustrates another key factor of Vietnamese meals - there is nearly always a large quantity of fresh green herbs and lettuce to add to your soup or with your noodles - Thai basil, chives, mint, coriander and long lettuce like cos. And in this case also a couple of other things that will be hard to find but could be replaced with other things.
Spring Rolls a la Tuy Hoa
In Tuy Hoa the favourite place is turning out to be the 'Make your own Spring Rolls' joint. Very plain and simple, indoors not outside on the pavement, and run by a woman who, rumour has it, has just served 10 years for debt. She is making a living now, I think, as this place is very popular, very cheap (as everywhere) and the GVN gang love going there. It is an idea that you could do at home. The key ingredient is the rice wrappers, very large long ones that they sell in huge bundles here. Michele, our Swiss housemate, is going to take some home and treat all her friends to this meal. I think we should be able to get them in Chinese supermarkets.
This meal also illustrates another key factor of Vietnamese meals - there is nearly always a large quantity of fresh green herbs and lettuce to add to your soup or with your noodles - Thai basil, chives, mint, coriander and long lettuce like cos. And in this case also a couple of other things that will be hard to find but could be replaced with other things.
Spring Rolls a la Tuy Hoa
- A pile of rice wrappers and a bowl of water to dip them into
- A plate of grilled pork steaks in strips, very thin and tender
- Some crispy fried rice paper shreds (perhaps potato crisps would work but scrunched up deep fried rice paper is crunchy than any crisp I have ever eaten)
- A huge plate of the greens which also has long pieces of cucumber and 2 other things we might not be able to replicate exactly - grated green mango and grated tiny green banana - both fairly horrible on their own but adding piquancy to the rolls ( perhaps green apple and courgette)
- A light salad of finely grated carrot and onion with rice vinegar dressing
- Two sorts of chilli sauce, hot and sweet.
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