Food thoughts

I find it totally baffling that I have yet to write about this, one of my favourite topics.  For a skinny lass I can eat.  Anyone who knows me is amazed by my miraculous metabolism and the sheer volume of food I can pack away - particularly when it comes to anything covered in chocolate, caramel or ice cream (don’t bother with the crude comments – I’ll have thought of them all long before you can type them)!  Upon my arrival in Saigon I went out for a curry with a group of fellow new recruits, after ordering a portion of rice and garlic naan with my meal I was told, in no uncertain terms, by a rather cocky young lad that I obviously had eyes bigger than my belly and would definitely not be able to consume the entire lot.  My answer was simple: watch and learn.  Needless to say – the only thing he was eating were his words!

Saigon is full to bursting with food floggers: from street sellers to top notch restaurants and everything in between.  You would be hard pushed to starve here – even the pickiest of eaters seem to find somewhere that caters for their needs and budget.  From fried noodles or crepes at 60p a go, or high end French cuisine at western prices, it all hits the spot.

Smiling Saigonese street sellers

Having briefly mentioned (see ‘Vietnetta-namese: possible pronunciation problems’ post – Friday, 1 April 2011) noodle man, wonton woman, smoothie man, cake man and squid man, I now find myself on first name terms with smoothie man – Hoa, and his wife Thuy.  Conveniently located less than a minute’s walk from my front door, I visit them about four times a week.  They make THE best smoothies I have ever tasted.  What is their secret?  Is it the fresh produce bought that morning from the local market?  Put bluntly, no!  Although the fruit here is fresher and juicier than any other their secret is the condensed milk that goes in to their drinks.  It’s like catnip – people just can’t get enough of this sweet treat.

As well as every conceivable type of fruit (and vegetable) smoothie, Hoa and Thuy have recently branched out, making fresh ham and cheese crepes, complete with lashings of chilli sauce: the French colonial influence meets Asia head on.  Along with the usual free offering of trà đá (iced jasmine tea) the pair often offer up other freebies to look after one of their most valued customers.  Last week, upon finishing my crepe, a plate of fruit appeared, not being the font of knowledge when it comes to tropical fruit, I had no idea what they were.  Resembling small, hairy new potatoes I was a little apprehensive, but curious to try them.  Hoa’s English is reasonably good, but he only knew their Vietnamese name: bon bon (thanks to trusty Google for helping me find the English term: langsat).  These little fruits have a grapefruit flavour without the tartness and made a refreshing and healthy dessert.  Thanks to the mother of my ‘most improved’ Jumpstart pupil for bringing me a gift of more bon bons last weekend.  A very thoughtful and well received gesture.  I think they all feel the need to feed me up!

I now find myself eating vast quantities of unidentifiable foods or things I could previously barely tolerate.  A prime example of this is fish sauce.  Pungent and prevalent in nearly all dishes here, it’s hard to avoid.  When served as a side to main meals when I first arrived here I would leave well alone, but over time it’s grown to be an integral part of many meals and I have been known to return to my local street sellers to request a bag of the stuff when they’ve forgotten to add it to my order.

BBQ pork, spring rolls, mince, noodles, veg & fish sauce

Chilli is another food I could not previously tolerate as well as I can now.  I have never been a fan of bland food.  I like big, bold, punchy flavours with a bit of kick - the more garlic, ginger or lemongrass in my food the better.  But chilli, no no no – this was something to steer well clear of, unless it came in the form of the very moreish Blue Dragon sweet chilli sauce.  Inevitably in Asia, it’s hard to avoid the real deal.  Soy sauce is often served in small dishes to accompany boiled rice.  Floating within it come slices of red chilli, seeds and all to add an extra kick.  Chilli slices, chilli seeds in oil and the not so traditional MSG-filled squeezy chilli sauces all adorn the tables of street cafes: and I love it! 

Pull up a plastic pew - street food is best

MSG – now here’s the thing.  Monosodium glutamate: in the western world we are used to this being added to takeaways as a ‘flavour enhancer’.  As additives go, this is the big boy in these parts and I was most astonished to find an entire aisle dedicated to bags of it in the expat supermarket Lottemart.  Many street sellers actively encourage you to add the contents of their ‘salt cellar’ to your food.  At this point, and not being one to add salt to food anyway, my enlarged sceptic gland kicks in once again – it may look like salt, but you can bet your bottom dollar it isn’t mere NaCl.  My tolerance to it, or skill at avoiding it, appears to be quite good.  As far as I know I have had no ill effects from ingesting it, but you never quite know what you’re eating here, which just adds to fun.

Sometimes, you think you know exactly what you’re ordering, but second guess yourself when the flavours merge in your mouth. Tofu – not something I’d ever tasted before arriving in ‘Nam.  Having been raised on every conceivable type of game meat, tofu was far from a staple part of my childhood diet.  However, the vegetarian cuisine here is actually very good and I’ll head down to one of my two favourite veggie restaurants when I need a hit of chlorophyll cuisine.  Most of these places offer ‘fake meat’ versions of popular dishes, which are so good you often doubt it is ‘fake’.  Tofu, marinated in fish sauce and wrapped in seaweed is a very convincing alternative to sardines, with the texture of the tofu even flaking apart like the real deal.

So as far as savoury stuff goes I’m living like a king.  There’s just one problem – the chocolate and cakes here are, on the whole, terrible!  As a self confessed chocoholic with a chronic sweet tooth, I would like to personally praise Mars for being the only manufacturers to supply a chocolate bar tasting something like its English equivalent.  The dangerous discovery of caramel and coffee cheesecakes at Highlands Coffee (VN’s version of Starbucks) is also most welcomed after 6 months of unsatisfactory sweet stuff.  On the plus side, the local coffee stall near work makes amazing caramel coffee frappuccinos at 65p each – so it’s not all bad.

A dangerous discovery

Enough talk, more action – time for dinner now, hmmm what to have tonight?!

A xx