More Saigon Celebrating

This is our great aunt and she turned 72 on our last night in Saigon. 72! She does not look 72! When we first arrived back in Saigon we immediately called her and invited everyone out to have banh xeo with us, but everyone was too busy getting ready for her birthday party that night. Instead we made plans to join the festivities later that evening.

The birthday dinner party was being held on the rooftop terrace and as the sun went down and the city lights turned on we feasted on behalf of our great aunt with friends and family.

The feast started with shrimps cooked in coconut milk - succulent, delicious. Then moved onto fresh eggrolls rolled in a threaded rice paper (we have yet to find the threaded rice paper back in the US), a rich tomatoey ragu eaten with baguettes and, of course fried rice.

And before we headed to the airport for our long flight home we each had a piece of cake. Sweets made in Asia, strike that, everywhere other than the United States aren't as sweet and have a much more complex and pleasing taste than just sugary sweetness. We were just happy to be able to share in our great aunt's birthday celebrations!

Coffee Culture

Spending an afternoon sipping iced coffee and chatting the day away is nothing new in Saigon. It's almost a daily required event for some Saigonese. It also may explain why the French were so enthralled with Vietnam for so long. But ever since Vietnam opened its economic borders a plethora of coffee companies have invaded Vietnam and not a Starbucks among them - YAY!

Nothing against Starbucks, but their coffee has got to be one of the worst around and why would you spend your hard earned cash there when local chains, independent coffee houses (Mojo), small mom/pop cafes set up in the front of their homes (everywhere just look) and international coffee chains and even fancyAsian chains are everywhere.

We spent our last day in Saigon revisiting some of our favorite shops and squeezing in a little more sight seeing.

Between all of this we decided to stop in Highlands Coffee for a refreshing coffee pick-me-up. These westernized coffee cafes can be found in most of the tourist areas and has tourist prices to match, about equal to what we pay at home. But we're on vacation and can afford to splurge on a $5 fancy coffee drink, especially if they are this good. The layered green tea latte and mocha tasted as good as they looked.

The ice green tea also came layered!

Blended coffee drinks are big here also. In 90 degree weather they definitely hit the spot.

Memorable Meals: Saigon

Banh Xeo or Vietnamese crepes is a must-do dining experience in Viet Nam. Nothing compares to getting a hot-off-the-wok thin crispy tumeric banh xeo. They are such a beloved item that in Saigon there is an alleyway filled with banh xeo restaurants one after another selling these large savory crepes. We had eaten the central Vietnam version Banh Khoi back in Hoi An and we were looking forward to eating the larger southern version found in Saigon and all along the Mekong region.

But as we mentioned in an earlier post, Tet New Year finds many establishments closed for the holiday. And we soon found that the whole alleyway was a virtual ghost town, but not to fear our hip young taxi driver said he knew of an even better place and even joked that once we ate at this establishment we would forget about Banh Xeo Alleyway all together.

Since it was late afternoon the restaurant was emptying out and we quickly were given a table and we immediately began flipping through the extensive menu, which was even shaped like a folded banh xeo.

The menu was categorized by savory fillings and we quickly narrowed our selection of seafood and pork combos we wanted to try.

But what was this? Something new? Somethng called Banh Khot? We had never heard of it. The pictures on the menu looked good and we decided to try the shrimp and minced pork with creamy mung beans. Wow these were dynamite! Much denser than banh xeo. Made with a creamy mung bean that was the superstar ingredient in the banh xeo we had over a year ago in the Mekong Delta.

Made by pouring the batter into what looked like a large cast iron egg poacher over a high propane flame, the banh khot were hefty little pancakes that were creamy from the deep cast iron pan and soaked mung beans, with the salty flavor coming from the shrimp and pork.

Like with most Vietnamese meals, our order came with a large basket of greens, a prepared fish sauce for dipping and spicy red chilis for the perfect bite each time.

Just when we thought we had already too many must-eats in Saigon another one is added to the list.

Whirlwind Tour: Saigon Day 2

Day 2 and our last full day in Saigon before heading north to visit family. In a crazy city like Saigon with streets that look like the above image, mapping out your plan of attack is essential if you hope to see and do everything you want before the heat and chaos of the city hits you and all you want to do is sip iced coffee drinks in some hip coffee shop with air conditioning. A few things we mapped out for the day was to pickup our new prescription filled sunglasses.

Get some streetside grub.

Pick up some cheap fabric.

Get some fresh fruit.

Visit the vendors at Ben Thanh Market.

Get a banh mi sandwich.

and something refreshing to drink.

Walk around admiring Saigon's mish mash architecture.

All the while trying not to look like tourists while looking for deals on liquor to present as gifts to our many uncles.

Evenutally we succumbed to the heat and constant noise and decided to pull up to some folding lounge chairs for a much needed beer break.

That night we met up with a crazy group of spontaneous Le Clan for some of the City's finest Chinese food.It should be noted when a hungry group of 15 are seated around a table fitted with a large lazy susan in the middle, not many pictures of food will be taken. I did manage to capture this crab puff image, only after I looked up and the plate was empty along with the two steamer tray of dim sum items and stir fried noodles. Man, that was some serious pork shu mai and shrimp har gao.

Saigon's Tet Flower Markets

We haven't ever celebrated Tet Lunar New Year in Vietnam and it's been over 35 years since my family has also, so we decided to make this year the first year we're back home for the largest celebration in Vietnam.

Much like how Europe is empty the month of August due to everyone taking advantage of the 6-8 weeks average vacation time, Saigon is pretty empty, but mostly it's empty of people. The shops and restaurants are still open, which isn't really the case in the other cities or more rural areas in Vietnam, where people will wait for a lucky or auspicious day to begin conducting business again in the new year. The Vietnamese believe the first of anything in the new year will be significant in how the rest of the year will be. What the first sale is like and what the first person to set foot in your home is like. So everyone's homes we visited had large blooming flowers set right at the front of their houses. New Blooms = New Energy.Since we were in Saigon just before actual new year's eve/day every park area was filled with blooming flowers.We heard families save all year for the flower markets. Flowers do breath in new life and every year Ba would play the game of cutting down bare branches in the dead of winter and force them to bloom in hopes they open up right on New Year's Day.

Unlike the crazy bedazzled spectacle of over-the-top Christmas displays and decorations Saigon seems to love, Tet decorations were much tamer, almost artful.

There's also a little bit of tacky.