Style: August 02, 2019

96 STYLE | food
A TASTE OF VIETNAM
From Saigon to Hanoi, the street food is extraordinary. However, you
don’t have to brave the street stalls either, with many napkin and cutlery
equipped restaurants leaving you sated at $20 per head.
Words Kate Preece
- EAT -
‘BEEF PATTIES WITH CITRONELLA’ AT
NGOC CHAU GARDEN, SAIGON
Beef cooked on lemongrass skewers, served
with a peanut sauce, pineapple, Vietnamese
mint, cucumber, green capsicum, daikon and
some greens. Create your own rice paper
parcel with the aforementioned ingredients for
a flavour hit.
PHO ON THE STREETS
You’ve got to do it. Find a place that smells
delicious and looks busy (our choice was Pho
Ga Nguyet in Hanoi). Then, grab a seat and
go for pho – it’s noodle soup, with meat, in
a flavoursome broth that always comes in a
generous bowl and can be amplified in taste
with various condiments on the table. A splash
of lime and a couple of drops of a mystery chilli
sauce seemed to do the trick.
BANH XEO TOM THIT AT QUAN AN
GON, HANOI
Our guide directed us to this place, and
thankfully even picked our dishes, because
this might not have made the list otherwise.
Shrimp, pork and noodles were within a
crispy Vietnamese pancake, that was just
one ingredient to again layer into rice paper
with assorted leaves for the ultimate flavour
combination.
FRIED STICKY RICE BALL
There’s sticky rice and then there’s this, the
street food version. It will arrive as a large
brown balloon, which is then squished flat and
cut into pieces using a pair of scissors. It’s sweet
and very tasty.
BANH MI
They say there are a couple of things the
Vietnamese remain thankful to the French for,
and the baguette is No 1. A very popular meal
is one such bread stick filled with a mix of meat
and salad ingredients, and often paté, that, no
matter how simple, puts any sandwich place we
have in New Zealand to serious shame.
Beef patties
with Citronella
Banh mi
Fried sticky
rice ball
Banh xeo tom thit
Pho (noodle soup)