Enjoy West Lake Shrimp fried pancake

To mention Hanoi street food, it is a big miss to skip Bánh tôm (shrimp fried pancake). It is popular not only in Hanoi but in other areas. However, Banh Tom seems to be the best at Nhà hàng Hồ Tây (Hồ Tây Restaurant) on the bank of Trúc B

While diners await the arrival of the hot fried shrimp pastry, they can enjoy the picturesque lake and landscapes offered by the vast expanse of water from West Lake and the tree-lined Thanh Niên Road.

The cake preparing process includes wheat flour mixed with potato fibres, placing on shape with shrimps upper, then fried with oil. The cake is brittle,

soft, sweet-smelling, and served with vegetable pickles and sweet and sour fish sauce for best taste. The dish should be eaten as soon as it arrives at the table.

The fried pastry is topped with red shrimps and is eaten together with dishes of spicy vegetables mixed with sweet and sour sauce.

To remind you of the local shrimping business, waiters will often tell you that the shrimps that you have ordered for your meal have just been netted in nearby West Lake. This will be a memorable meal that will ensure that you remember your stay in Hà Nội. The shrimp fried pancake of West Lake now still keeps its traditional flavor and taste: hot, cracker cake dipped in skillfully made sauce which is sweet, sour and spicy.

Enjoy West Lake Shrimp fried pancake

Find out about Gay Places in Saigon

Only a handful of establishments in Saigon are truly “gay places” in the internationally-recognized sense.  Instead, gays tend to gather together in “mixed” establishments with their own group of personal friends.

Based on Eating Saigon! & Utopia.com experience, this is a current overview of Gay Places in Saigon (mixed, unless noted otherwise)

Another gay-friendly street venue serves up yummy sinh tô (fruit shakes)

COFFEE – DRINKS – FOOD

Sinh Tô on the Street
Opposite to 211-213 Vo Van Tan Street, District 1

An evening street venue serving great sinh to (fruit shakes). Gay-friendly, gay-owned and frequented by gay customer

Dong Hoa Xuan

49 Long Trang Long
Binh Thanh District

Hai – Our very own chef!

Eating Saigon!’s #1 recommended eatery (Hai’s place!!).  Gay-owned, gay friendly, local neighborhood eatery with authentic Vietnamese dishes.  Open 7:00 am – 3:00pm.  Come by 11:30 am for best selection of foods.  Rated highly on Trip Adviser!

Quán Thúy Linh
239/66A/66B Trần Văn Đang Street, P.11, District 3

#0906 432589,  #0933 683719
Open 3:00 p.m until 1:00 a.m.

Mixed-sex couples enjoy their hot pot dinner meal. Apparently-lesbian couples, arm-in-arm, laugh with friends over their drinks. Transgender workers swish (literally) across the floor (hips first), taking orders, delivering food, cleaning tables, and exchanging coy smiles with customers. A table of construction workers (gay? who knows?) laugh together with their Trans waitresses. The server, with dangling earrings, sings confidently as he/she refills the trà đá (ice tea) glasses. Very fun!

 

Beer and Seafood on the Street
Pasteur Street, District 1
Go to Sherwood Residence and walk 50 meter backward of Pasteur Street
Located about 50 meter from the opposite side of Sherwood Residence at Pasteur Street

This eatery place is normally crowded from 8pm till late. Snails, crabs and fried noodles among the food available here. Many gay customers.

* * *

Saigon River Boutique Hotel Rooftop Cafe

58 Mac Thi Buoi street

District 1

+84 (0) 1 666 888 138

 

A small, but lovely rooftop cafe atop this downtown boutique hotel. Gay-owned and operated with gay-friendly staff. Coffee and food menu with a pocket-view of the Saigon River.

* * *

Papa Café
Cong Truong Quoc Te 
#083-601-5629

Some lunch food & coffee. See BARS, next.

BARS

Papa Café
Cong Truong Quoc Te 
#083-601-5629

Enter down a long alleyway packed with motorcycles on busy nights, just off the large traffic circle aroundHồ Con Rùa (“Turtle Lake”).  This two story mostly gay club that gets packed on weekends. Enjoy the Karaoke bar downstairs as the gay clientel sing their hearts out.   2nd floor is a chill-out lounge with couch seating, large screen TV and French pop music at a conversation-friendly level.

* * *

Godmother Saigon Bar
129 Cong Quynh St, Dist 1, #3832-4589

Gay-friendly bar located in the backpacker area of Saigon. Meet up with your friends and hang out. They serve inexpensive, international comfort food. Busiest before 10pm. Ask to chat with the friendly owner and tell him you saw his place on Utopia and Eating Saigon! He’ll give you a very warm welcome.

* * *

Centro Bar
11 – 13 Lam Son Square, District 1
Mobile: +84.8.3827 5946 Facebook: Centrolounge

People come here in groups and seem to know each other.  Centro Bar is located next to the Caravelle Hotel and Lion Brahaus.

* * *

61 Club 
61 Nam Kai Khoi Nghia St, Dist 1

Gay-popular dance club. Heaving on Sat nights. Half the space is a dance floor with wall-to-wall LED computer graphics display.  The other half is tables around which people drink and dance. Muscular security is everywhere to prevent tables from tipping over and embraces from getting too sloppy. Sound system will make your hairs stand on end, literally. The DJs play a relentless, looping drone beat and mix dance songs into it, occasionally punctuated by a police siren. Many groups of gay friends in evidence. Crowd is 20s and 30s.

GUEST ROOMS – HOTELS

Saigon River Boutique Hotel

58 Mac Thi Buoi street

District 1

www.saigonriverhotel.vn

+84 (0) 1 666 888 138

A conveniently located downtown Saigon boutique hotel.  Tastefully appointed rooms at good prices. Gay-owned and operated with gay-friendly staff.

SPAS – MASSAGE – SAUNAS

NaDam Spa
12/29/1 Quốc Lộ 13
Hiệp Bình Chánh

Thủ Đức- HCM

(848) 37268028

0903 974 955

World class gay men’s facility. Friendly staff and deluxe gay sauna facilities. Massage room are luxurious with wet treatment areas as well as massage beds. Spa and massage services including body scrub, body care, hair dresser, facials, etc. Very popular, often crowded.

* * *

TD Spa (Thanh Dao)
372/25 Cach Mang Thang Tam St 
(small alley opposite the large “Bakery” shop), Dist 3
#32248-6371

This small neighborhood gay sauna is a little gem. Nicely decorated in a colorful, Moroccan style. The patrons are fit and friendly. Ground floor has reception area and lockers (be sure to wear the rubber slippers provided because the stairs and landings are otherwise treacherously slippery). 2nd and 3rd have massage rooms, bathrooms and a resting nook. 4th has dry sauna, steam room, and a relaxing lounge. That’s it – hot men, warm sauna. Go all the way down to the end of the alley and look for the small TD sign.

* * *

Binh Minh Sauna
L19 Hoang Hoa Tham St
Ward 3
Binh Thanh District
(Enter on 2/F. Cross Hoang Hoa Tham bridge going north and the sauna is a block and a half on the left with a large sign and attendant out front.)

OPEN 9AM – 11PM ;  Entry Fee about $3 USD

Easy to find, friendly neighborhood gay sauna. Locker room on 3/F and the attendant will help you get settled. There are showers in the bathrooms on all levels and also on the top floor. 4/F has a small TV lounge. 5/F has a dim mix room with lounge chairs and in the evening this room gets busy. Top floor has a nice smelling steam room (lemongrass) and a jacuzzi. Men here are friendly and unpretentious working class guys.  Not much privacy, but connections get made. Crowd is mixed ages and it’s more active towards the evening. They also offer massage.

***

Nam Spa
FF8, Ba Vi Street, Bac Hai, Ward 15, District 10
+84.8.6264 9430
 www.namspa.net

If you are looking for places to pamper yourself with good quality spa services, Nam Spa is really worth a try. This place is better than some.

SWIMMING POOLS

Younger gays and those less well-off, who perhaps cannot afford the cost of bars and high-end coffee shops, often socialize at Saigon’s public swimming pools.  Most often after work/school and on weekends.  Hours of operation are mildly unpredictable, with closures at holidays, lunch hours and after 7 pm.  Bring your own bathing suit, towel, and bag for checking garments and valuables.  Among the pools most often noted as gay meeting sites are:

One of Ho Chi Minh City’s gay-friendly public swimming pools

Hồ Bơi Lao Động
6 Huyền Trân Công Chúa

District 1

(about 3.5 blocks behind Cho Ben Thanh)

08 3930 9778

* * *

Lanh Anh Swimming Club

291 Cach Mang Thang Tam Street

District 10

+84.8.3862 7144

* * *

Hồ Bơi Nguyễn Tri Phương

8A Cư Xá Bắc Hải

District 10

08.39705614

Find out about Gay Places in Saigon

Special Stew Beef In Saigon (Bò kho)

Bò Kho

Yes, it was also the 38th anniversary of the Communist Party victory over South Vietnam.  Yes, it was time for May Day celebrations around the globe.  Yes, it was the week I was to learn much about visiting a local hospital here in Saigon for an eye injury at the gym (another days’ blog for that).

But, most importantly, Hai and I visited 2 new bò kho eateries here in Ho Chi Minh City.  Bò Kho Út Nhung and Bình Thạnh Street Bò Kho.  Both were great!

Bò Kho Út Nhung

Bò Kho Út Nhung

Everyone working here at this local eatery was having a great time when Hai and I pulled into the small alleyway.  A happy staff, a laughing cook, a cheery owner – all signs of a food establishment that has their act together.  And often, as a result, might offer good food, good service and a fun eating adventure.  Bò Kho Út Nhungfit the bill perfectly!  And, they added some lively Vietnamese disco tunes as background dinner music.

When the ông tây (old white guy) – that’s me – jumped off the motorbike, there was a flurry of chatter, laughing, furtive glances and finger-pointing.  It seems my appearance created an opportunity for the staff to question one of their gay employees about his possible interest in the foreigner.  It’s not clear if there was or wasn’t interest, but clearly all involved were having great fun with the concept.

Hoa, the owner/cook, welcomed us to the only outside table.  There were a half-dozen tables inside the covered alleyway restaurant.  But, as always, Hai wanted to be near the cook and near the brewing pots.

I order bánh mì bò kho (bò kho with a baguette) while Hai order bún bò kho (bò kho with bún noodles.  In both cases, the bò kho, basically good old-fashioned beef stew, was incredibly meaty – a great quantity of beef.  A few carrots, chopped scallions topped off the brew.  And for me, there was a crunchybánh mì (small Vietnamese baguette) to soak up the yummy stew broth.

Lots of reasonably tender meat and a rich, flavorful sauce made for a we-must-come-back-here-again-soonmeal and won a Yum Yum on Eating Saigon!’s Yum Meter. Hoa was happy we loved her bò kho, but was adamant that we MUST return to try her personal signature dish, phở bò (beef noodle soup) served only in the mornings.  We agreed.  We’ll report back later on her phở. Both the bò kho and the phở are 35,000 vnd ($1.68) or delivered out for 40,000 vnd ($1.91). Sorry, it’s not clear how distant they’ll deliver.

Open for bò kho from 1:00 – 10:00 pm

Open for phở from 6:00 – 11:00 am

Bò Kho Út Nhung tucked in a small alley

Bò Kho Út Nhung

109/7 Nguyễn Thiện Thuật

District 3

01869828668 – phone for delivery

0908734997

Bình Thạnh Street Bò Kho

This morning, on our way back from my eye-opening experience (pun intended) at the Optometry Ward of a local hospital here in Bình Thạnh district (another day’s blog, I promise), Hai and I stopped for lunch on the street.  Directly across the street from kietpetsSHOPfeaturing shampoos for your poodle and haircuts for your terrier, a pleasant-looking woman sat beside her giant pot of simmering beef stew.  Her children took turns scurrying around wiping tables, pulling each other’s hair, and staring at the foreigner (me) ordering lunch.

Carrots!  So many large, delicious, brightly orange fresh carrots.  A bit less beef than at Bò Kho Út Nhung, above. But, delicious tender beef stew, yummy carrots (ask for extra carrots), an assortment of green herbs to drop into the stew, and a fresh crunchy baguette to soak up the broth. Major yum!

Immediately beside the bò kho station was a small sữa đậu nành vendor offering very tasty, freshly brewed soy milk (add a dash of green bean or even cafe to spice up your soy drink here).

Not good on a rainy day – no shelter here.  But, on a clear sunny day, in the shade of the surrounding buildings, on this quiet street, a very nice eating experience, for sure.

Another Yum Yum winning street eating adventure here at Eating Saigon! And lots of tree-shaded cafes right around the corner to enjoy after your meal.

Open from 6:30 – 11:00 am (or a bit earlier if the food hits bottom).

Bình Thạnh Street Bò Kho
Vũ Huy Tấn street

(across from #16M Vũ Huy Tấn street)

Bình Thạnh District

Special Stew Beef In Saigon (Bò kho)

The Saigon Cháo Lady (Porridge Lady)

As everyone in Vietnam knows, when your tummy is a bit under the weather, or you have any kind of cold or flu symptoms, it’s time for some good CHÁO (Porridge)

Our dinner at The Saigon Cháo Lady

Yesterday, I was feeling a bit out of sorts, so ….. cháo it was! Luckily, one of our favorite places for cháo is not far from our apartment.  Hai volunteered to go retrieve some hot porridge for me while I laid around the house looking pathetic and seeking some sympathy 

In fact, feeling ill or not, we often visit The Cháo Lady(as we have affectionately dubbed her) for a simple, yet very delicious dinner treat near our home.

The cháo’s porridge stock base is deeply flavored with bbq’d dried squid.  The mildly “toasted-squidy” flavor permeates the dish.  Yet, it doesn’t overpower the delicious flavor burst that come with each spoonful of other ingredients – shredded fresh ginger, large chunks of tender and flavorful pork meat (in the cháo sườn), occasional crispy bits of fried pork skin, crunchy bean sprouts, and huyết cubes (congealed & steamed pork blood). The chopped scallions and twist of lime juice add the final flavor bursts. Actually, dip the pork meat in a small condiment bowl of fish sauce and chili and you’ve gone to heaven!

The Saigon Cháo Lady – love her shoes, her pants, and love her cháo

Tucked away in an alley in District 10, The Cháo Ladyhas actually been offering more than just delicious, soothing and healing cháo for the past 12 years.  Recently, I tried her súp cua (crab soup). It’s now become a regular appetizer before my requisite bowl of cháo here!

Súp cua at The Saigon Cháo Lady

The súp cua consists of a thick broth filled with crab meat, a quail egg, bits of deep-fried pork skin, mushrooms, whipped eggs and parsley.  Major delicious!

Hai peeking over the shoulder of The Saigon Cháo Lady as she prepares our dinner

Easily meeting Eating Saigon!’s criteria for a great Saigon eating adventure – excellent Vietnamese food, inexpensive prices, an authentic setting (small family restaurant tucked in an alley with simple tables and chairs) and warm and friendly staff  - The CháoLady rates a clear YUM YUM YUM on Eating Saigon!’s Yum Meter.

Open each day from 2:00 pm until midnight.

The Cháo Lady

285/137 CMT8, 10 District

The Saigon Cháo Lady (Porridge Lady)

Experiences on Saigon"s Best Banh My (bread with mixed filling)

Word on the Street is Robyn Eckhardt’s column for Scene on Asian street food

As pho is to Hanoi, so banh mi is to Ho Chi Minh City. The French-inspired sandwich – a split baguette spread with mayonnaise and sometimes pate, filled with meat, cheese or canned fish, and garnished with daikon-and-carrot pickle, a few sprigs of cilantro, and often spicy Sriracha and umami-rich Maggi sauce – was born in northern Vietnam but moved south with bread bakers after 1954, when France’s colonial rule ended and the nation was divided in two. Nowadays you’re rarely more than a couple of blocks from a banh mi shop or street vendor in Saigon (as the city is still called by southern Vietnamese), yet a mediocre version marred by flabby bread and insipid fillings is more the rule than the exception.

 

 

Last month I set out to identify a few banh mi worth travelling for, and enlisted the help of Saigon-born food writer and banh mi expert Andrea Nguyen, who baked daily for three months to perfect the baguette recipe for her forthcoming cookbook “The Banh Mi Handbook,” out in the U.S. in July. Our first stop: a wheeled cart operated by Thanh Mai Hoang, a relative newcomer who’s been in the business for only two or three years.

“When she slid open the door and I saw the egg cooking over charcoal… my banh mi radar went off,” said Ms. Nguyen. She was referring to Ms. Hoang’s ingenious kitchen-on-wheels, a stainless-steel trolley with a low compartment housing a brazier and a heated warming cabinet in which loaves crisp on a slatted wooden rack.

With the exception of gio heo, Vietnam’s steamed mortadella-like pork sausage, Ms. Hoang makes each of the ingredients herself in her banh mi dac biet – a meat-laden “special” banh mi with pate, pork three ways (barbecued, roasted and gio heo), and carrot-and-daikon pickle. She’s so keen on quality that fresh baguettes are delivered to her several times over each three- to four-hour workday, during which she sells about 100 sandwiches.

“Kheo,” a Vietnamese word for doing something with thought and care, is how Ms. Nguyen described Ms. Hoang’s operation. The observation was confirmed with my first bite of warm banh mi, which sent shards of golden crust flying and littered my shirt with crumbs. An optimal ratio of bread to filling meant ingredients stayed put as I worked my way down the loaf, with each bite marked by the fresh tang of crunchy pickle and the richness of mayonnaise, pate and an optional runny-yolked egg.

Patrons dig in to op la (eggs fried with sausage in single serving pans) and banh mi at an alley table at Hoa Ma

From Ms. Hoang’s cart we taxied to Hoa Ma, a little corner shop that serves banh mi and op la (eggs and sausage fried in a single-serving pan) at tables parked in the alley that runs alongside the shop. Here, proprietor Thi Hanh Le carries on the business founded by her grandfather in 1960. “He sold banh mi so that he could finish work in the morning and devote his afternoons to writing poetry,” Ms. Le told us, standing beside the big metal box set atop the charcoal brazier in which Hoa Ma’s baguettes are kept warm.

Ms. Nguyen was intrigued by the distinctively short, plump baguette, with its unusually dense ruoc (“innards” or crumb), featured in Hoa Ma’s banh mi, which is stuffed with extra-thick slices of meat and sausage. “You don’t need the long loaf unless you’re going on a trip, and our customers prefer less bread and more meat,” said Ms. Le. I was especially enamored of Hoa Ma’s pickles – thick cross-slices of carrot, daikon and cucumber rather than the standard strips of daikon and carrot – and pate as smooth as crushed velvet.

On my own the next morning, I was lured by the scent of grilled pork to So 1, a shallow corner unit selling banh mi, noodles and lunchtime rice plates. Owner Tran Linh Son worked for a decade in hotel kitchens before opening his shop in 2008, and his innovative style shows in the trio of condiments – oil-softened scallion greens, fish sauce, toasted crushed peanuts – that replace the usual mayonnaise, Sriracha and Maggi sauce on his banh mi. A more subtle foil for the smoke of barbecued meat, it made for a sandwich for the banh mi purist, stripped-down and satisfying.

Where to Eat Banh Mi in Saigon

Mornings only, until noon or supply runs out:

Thanh Mai Hoang’s banh mi cart is next to a coffee shop in the middle of the block. Truong Dinh between Ngo Thoi Nhiem and Nguyen Dinh Chieu. VND 15,000.

Hoa Ma Quan, 53 Cao Thang, District 3. VND 30,000.

So 1, 1 Nguyen Thuong Hien (at Nguyen Thi Minh Kai), Phuong 5, District 3. VND 15,000.

Experiences on Saigon"s Best Banh My (bread with mixed filling)

Hanoi Bun Cha Nuong: A Revelation

 

Bun Cha Hanoi

To a dish that is literally in the air in this city. When I breathe in its blue meaty smoke, I start to salivate. Bún chả is a barbeque dish unsurpassed on the street food terroir of Hanoi, available up and down its wide boulevards and in its maze of alleys. Orange hot coals spitting with pork fat, griller ladies covered for battle in heavy duty blue-collar wear and face masks, and that wafting drift cloud of protein. These are the signs to seek out from late morning till about one o’clock.

Lunch time in Hanoi is bún chả o’clock, as it cannot be had for dinner. Two pre-requisites for eating this dish are come early and come hungry.Adjust the body clock, eat a paltry breakfast and walk briskly to avoid disappointment. I like to be amongst the first customers. In fact, I have a small confession to make. I sometimes have bún chả for breakfast.

 

Yesterday at 10.15, I was ‘testing’ a new vendor for the second time. I’m not yet prepared to forsake my default bún chả vendor but I am of the theory that one cannot have too many good quality bún chả purveyors. I have my go-to phở houses around town and it defies logic that I wouldn’t do the same for bún chả. Let me state surreptitiously that, while many are enamoured of phở and the bánh mì as Vietnam’s major culinary contributions to world cuisine, I vote for bún chả.

 

 

And it is largely because I am in a deep love affair with pork belly. My hungry arrival at this vendor’s plot of footpath was like re-consummating our relationship. Naked and greasy, glistening in raw splendour, little strips of my love are arranged into wire grillers after an hour or so of marination. “Do you think I’m going to give my secret away?”, huffed the vendor when I asked her about the ingredients in her marinade. “Many more than that”, when I suggested the typical mix of fish sauce, sugar and shallots. She was equally evasive when I showed interest in the rice paper she was using to wrap her spring rolls (nem rán, a traditional accompaniment to bún chả in Hanoi ), which has a coarser, crispier mouthfeel that is distinctive. “Thửa” (meaning that is something special I found myself) was her retort. Short of assuring her that I (tall whitie foreigner) will not be setting up a rival stall in the gutter beside hers, winning this woman’s favour will require a few return visits.

When all is said and done, though, the answer is ultimately in the eating. My blue plastic table is cluttered with bún chả’s components; an over-abundance of Vietnam’s herbal green, including lettuce, sawtooth coriander, coriander, Asian basil, lemon balm and perilla leaf, a fluoro-white mound of fresh vermicelli rice noodles (the bún in bún chả), a plate of smacked up garlic and sliced chili, crisp spring rolls scissored into bite size chunks and the bowl of salty, sweet, sour, spicy nước chấm containing the crispy black-edged pork belly and minced pork patties.

 

I’m going to lay my culinary soul bare for a moment. I’ve been considering coming out with it for a while. Bún chả done well, as it is here, is near (if not at) the very top of my list of eating experiences.

Nem - Bún Chả

13 Hàng Bún St (cnr. of Phạm Hồng Thái St)
Ba Đình District

Hanoi

Hanoi Bun Cha Nuong: A Revelation

Nem Nuong (Grilled Sour Meatball) - A culinary story from the South

Nem nuong 

Let me purge myself of these sinful southern dishes, let me cleanse my palate, light a stick of incense and re-commit to the cuisine of the north, to Hanoi capital, comrades! Acquiesce to my whims for just a few more posts, dear readers. Allow my sticky-partner-in-crime to fulfill our northern pledge for now. Dare I say it but this spread from southern climes ranks very near the top of my list of all time favourite dishes! Controversial, I know. When inNha Trang, I’m a serial offender at restaurants plying this dish, known as nem nuong (or more exactly nem ninh hoa, after the small town north of NT where it originated). It’s a perfect bloody meal: one – it’s colourful, two – it’s healthy diet pyramid friendly and three – it’s participatory.

Colourful in that the various hues of green are represented by lettuce, mint and other herbs, cucumber, young banana and mango and starfruit, along with the innocent looking green, though truly white-hot chilis. Pink comes in the form of pickled shallots, serrated sticks of carrot and the dipping sauce radiate orange. Under the lid of a condiment pot, a brilliant glossy, bloody red chili sauce emanates.

Healthy diet pyramid friendly in that there’s a heaped plate of green leafy stuff and the daily recommended portions of fruit. Carbs come in the form of semi-circular cuts of rice paper, the canvas upon which above-mentioned bits of rainbow are placed and rolled. The not so healthy end of the triangle is, of course, represented by the best bits, meat from pigs and deep fried crunchy things. The pork is minced to form a paste, paddled around a skewer and grilled before being cut off in halves and banged on a plate next to crunchy rolls of deep fried rice paper with tiny shrimps embedded in them.

Participatory in that, as you’ve no doubt deduced, we are talking roll-your-own spring rolls. Yes, one of those experiences where the waiters dump the ingredients on the table and leave one to flounder about tearing rice paper to shreds, flinging bits of greenery about the shop, drinking the dipping sauce and then, finally perfecting the rolling technique only to realise one’s finger is handily wrapped inside!

Fear not! I’m a dab hand, having already graduated the ‘school of hard rolls’. I’ve slyly observed the locals and the technique is as follows: place rice paper on plate or flat surface or hand (for smart arses only), slap on the lettuce and herbs, followed by thin slices of the fruit, then the meat and crunchy bit, roll tightly and quickly before everything falls out and rude words are uttered. Dip in sauce, shove in cakehole!

Bottom Line

One serve of nem noung, one bottle of southern lager - 20,000VND (USD$1.25, AUD$1.70)

There’s quite a few of these spring roll joints in Nha Trang, a couple of which are situated on the corner of Le Loi and Lan Ong Streets.

Nem Nuong (Grilled Sour Meatball) - A culinary story from the South