Tuesday, February 21, 2006

My Holiday Breakfasts

This is a common sight if you wander around in the south of Vietnam, a few small tables with very simple table setting with big plates of herbs and vegetables. Noodle soup is being sold here, Do not worry, come and sit down, order a bowl of noodles.

For many foreigners, eating noodles or sticky rice for breakfast instead of eggs, toast or cereal is normal because they are in Viet Nam now.

The most common noodle from the south is called Hu tieu, a yellow noodle with sliced pork, dried onion, pork crackling, tomatoes, japanese vegetable and minced pork in the stock. This is my favorite dish that I ate almost everyday on my recent holiday.

Noodles with beef also very popular in Saigon. In some places they served the biggest quay(bread) that I've ever seen before in my life.

Some other places serve Chinese noodles which look like other noodles but they have wontons and different vegetables and the pork is sliced longways.

Bun bo Hue is a really special noodle style from Hue which is served with lots of different veggies, pigs feet and cooked beef. It's a delicious dish but needs lots of chili added to it.

This is yet another different noodle dish with a slice of spare rip on the top, cooked pork, some chopped carrots and some cooked bean shoots and coriander.
The last dish is sticky rice. There are so many different kinds of sticky rice, some with minced pork, some with sweet potatoes, and some are a mixture of black bean, green bean and just plain white stickyrice. To be served on top, people usually choose some more meat or some grilled or steamed sausages or sliced cooked chicken...The special thing about sticky rice is the seller will add some peanuts, dried onion and some sauce to add extra flavour.

19 comments:

drifter1dc said...

Question for you Godknows, When I was in Vietnam during the "American War" I was served a soup on many occasions, it was a chicken soup with Korean kim chi in it with bits of chicken and many herbs on top. I was served this in all parts of Vietnam from Pleiku to Saigon. It was simply called "Chinese Soup". Is it still being served or was it just for the GI's?

slurp! said...

wow! another coincidence! i just blogged about Bun Bo Hue also hahaha LOLz

the dough stick placed on bowl of noodles, we called it "you tiao" (in mandarin) here :D

Winn said...

ur pix makes me feel hungry. i havent taken my dinner yet.

so those are vietnamese street hawker food i assume huh?

Kochukandhari said...

your food always looks so good!

Anonymous said...

"The most common noodle from the south is called Hu tieu, a yellow noodle with sliced pork..." Hu Tieu is served with white noodle not yellow. The soup that has yellow noodle is called Mi`. And there is Hu Tieu Mi` which has mixture of both.

Tim Rice said...

It all looks good, except I'm not so sure about the pig's feet. Where I live in Souderton, Pennsylvania, there is a Vietnamese restaurant. Maybe I should try it sometime though I might look out of place. Whenever I have gone by it, it seems to be only frequented by Vietnamese people. I would like to see people of all heritages mixing together.

Jimmy Tran said...

what's goin on vietnamese god. big fan of your blog man. keep that good stuff comin.

krisTi said...

MMMMM LOOKS SO GOOD!!!

FooDcrazEE said...

now i need to plan for HCMC to rid my hunger pang.

drifter1dc - cant really tells you what it was. Unless we can see the herbs, etc.

FRIDAY'S CHILD said...

Your display of dishes makes my mouth water....

Vagabonder said...

Luv bun bo hue, pho, and different sort of sticky rice in the morning...MMM my mouth really waters now

ghetufool said...

godknows,
i must admit, your photos are amazing. i get hungry when i see those.
are these photos yours?

Buddhist with an attitude said...

drifter1dc, I have the feeling that the soup you describe was a local invention. All soups in VN contains rice noodles or wheat noodles and various meat, and wouldn't be just broth with bits of meat. Unless there was wheat (yellow) noodles which you didn't mention and the «Korean kimchi» was actually «cai bap thao» which is a sort of pickled cabbage, in which case your Chinese soup was simply «mì gà».

drifter1dc said...

Buddhist Dude,

yes it did have noodles kinda like ramen noodles, but what was odd was when I went to Pleiku from down south in CamRahn I just said "Chinese soup " and I was brought the very same thing. It was delicious none the same and I wanted to try it again on my return but have yet to find anyone who knows what it is. Thanks for the help!

Van Cong Tu said...

Hi all, thanks for your comments again :)
Ghetufool, Yes, they are mine and I took them on my holiday. Do you know how many photos I took in 3 weeks? about 600 pics :)
drifter1dc, I dont really know even though I have asked my friends from the south- sorry.
slurp! I will check your out later but I am sure that you have a better idea mate :)
Winn, yes, some are and some aren't.
ThinkingVN, yes, you are tight.
Tim Rice, you will love it Tim, and it may make you change your mind about kissing women's feet instead of pig's feet haha
thong, thanks for your encouragement!
Buddhist with an attitude and fooDcrazEE, thanks for your help.

black feline said...

I dont want to sound patronising..but u are the best ambassador for Vietnam...the food, the culture,the people, the scenic places..etc u are doing a great job for your country!

Van Cong Tu said...

Thanks black feline, I just try to show people as much as possible both bad and good things about Viet nam. Thanks for your encouragement

Jade L Blackwater said...

I always get so hungry when I read your blog!!!

Vietnam tours said...

Wow, delious...