In the back of Ben Thanh Market, a legendary Ho Chi Minh City swap meet that dates to 1912, replacing a business called Les Halles Centrales that the French built in 1870, you’ll find food stalls featuring a wide variety of South Vietnamese specialties.
Since so many of the foods were new to me, I ignored the pleading of hawkers and made a full tour of the offerings before landing a direct hit: Tri Tam Banh Vot Nong. Banh Vot Nong are pan-fried rice cakes, cut in half, filled with ground pork and wood-ear mushrooms and slathered with a pink sauce. It was the kind of thing you’d find under a dollop of spicy tuna at almost any sushi bar in Los Angeles, only crispier, chewier, better tasting, and a whole lot cheaper (3 for 3000 Dong, about 15 cents U.S.).
All three dishes I ordered from O Be were disappointing. The salad roll filled with lettuce, onions and BBQ pork (2500 Dong) was fine until I dipped it in an oily peanut sauce. A little pork pattie topped with an orange-red chili sauce (1000 Dong) was cold and mushy. There was also a glutinous rice pancake with shell-on shrimp, not good.
At the Nuoc Mia booth, I ordered my sugar cane juice “Khong Da,” without ice. Ordering the juice without ice costs 2000 Dong extra.
The mug of sweet green nectar was delicious.
I finished my blitz at Bun Mama Bun Beu Cua-Oc for the R.W. Apple, Jr.-recommended dish, Bun Thit Nuong. In recommending the dish; Apple neglected to say where in the market he and wife Betsey ate it. Regardless, after a few bites, it was clear I selected a good stall.
Bun Thit Nuong turned out to be a bowl of rice vermicelli, sprouts, shredded lettuce, marinated, crinkle-cut green papaya and carrots, ground peanuts, scallions, and scissor-cuts of caramelized, BBQ pork. It was delicious, and only 10000 Dong.
I wish I had more time to explore the market’s aisles. Another trip.
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