QUOTE (Nam Quoc Son Ha @ Sep 5 2004, 09:07 PM)
What do you think?
My fav is Bo Kho (beef stew noodle) and I'm not sure where it's from
Bo kho is a Southern dish. I like Taiwanese Bo Kho better.
I went to VN several times with Doctors Without Border to fix facial deformed kids. Eating lot of foods in Vietnam, I found food in VN wasn't that good. After every trip, I was so glad to come back to the US. I like to eat pho, bun bo Hue, bun oc, bun rieu, bun mam, banh canh, banh xeo, banh bot loc, banh cong, etc, And these foods taste so much better here in US and Canada.
In Northern Vietnam, Pho bo and bia hoi is a good combination. While I was in Ha Noi, I sat in sidewalk eating Pho Bo, beef soup, drinking bia hoi, local beer, with some of my colleagues. That night I've got diarrhea. On the last night we were there, they took us to a great restaurant. We had ca chien, canh bong he, doi, bo mang tay cuon, cua hap, tom nuong and several more dishes. I had no problem. So, my advise for you is: Don’t ever eat in sidewalk, it's extremely dirty.
I like banh bot loc very much. That's one of Hue dishes when we were at Hue. It's a clear rice dough cake with shrimp and green bean inside. Just be very careful when you eat banh bot loc. They leave the whole shrimp with head and shell and all inside, therefore the shell got stuck in my throat. Our guide, a beautiful girl, kept tapping my back trying to get it out. This girl is a good looking girl with big chest and very sexy figure. I told her I need a Heimlich maneuver, not tapping. But she didn’t seem to understand. While we were at Hue, we went to a famous restaurant. We walked thru streets with mud up to our ankles and ate bun bo Hue, banh nam, and com hen. Com hen is a bowl filled with rice, rau muong che, and chopped banana pups, lots of tiny clams, shrimp paste, and clams broth. I didn’t really like com hen that much because there were lot of sands in it. If you chew on one piece of sand accidentally, your teeth would chip.
I found Qui Nhon has better bun bo Hue than Hue. Good place to eat bun bo Hue is a place in Tang Bat Ho street next to Que Huong restaurant. While I enjoy a good bowl of bun bo Hue, a dog licked my leg. Ha-ha… it’s so cute. I ended up bought him a bowl and got yell at from the owner.
Last February I went back to Ho Chi Minh City. I like Ca loc nuong tre, bbq fish on bamboo, in Ngoc Suong restaurant. I’ve tried Sinh To Khoai Mon at ABC. It’s the best. Pho in VN is not that good. But if you’re there and crave for it, try Pho Le Lai. That’s only decent Pho restaurant I’ve known. Believe it or not, Chinese foods in VN are the best. I had Mi kho Trieu Chau, com tam Thuan Kieu, com chien ca man, hu tieu Nam Vang, mi hoanh thanh, etc… In one of the mi dish, they gave us a banh bao. I put lot of chopped garlic on mine. Wow, I love these foods. There are several great Japanese restaurants in Hai Ba Trung street. I found many sushi dishes in Vietnam taste better than in US, and Taiwan. However, these foods are expensive here. A good portion of sushi would go as much as 50USD (800,000VND.)
We also went to Can Tho. Foods here were good and inexpensive. I like Bun mam Can Tho, Vit nau chao, cua nuong, and tom cang nuong. Pho is better here than HCMC. I like Can Tho che hot sen a lot.
One best dish in HCMC is bia om… It's the great taste & feel. Ha-ha, just kidding.