Restaurants for many years still keep recipes, decorations … that existed decades before the liberation of Saigon. Many senior diners see their childhood there.
Noodles Ky Dong
From a roadside chicken noodle truck developed, Ky Dong chicken noodle shop (District 3) is now the address that attracts thousands of Western visitors, because of its chewy taste and eye-catching yellow chicken skin color. .
Before 1975, the people of Saigon were too familiar with the chicken noodle truck roaming around District 3. When the business was good, the owner of the chicken noodle truck came to the 14 Ky Dong alley to build ground.A familiar scene at Ky Dong chicken noodle soup in a small alley in District 3, HCMC.This is a familiar address to many Saigonese for nearly 50 years and is also a name that is not unfamiliar to many international tourist groups. The kitchen counter to dish right in front of the guests with mixed hands, dividing the meat into a bowl is very attractive.Each bowl of vermicelli, pho or noodle soup has enough herbs, onions, dried onions and rich, rich water.The cake here is tough, not friable. The chef will dough the cake according to each customer’s requestIf the stomach is empty, diners can enjoy an extra serving of chicken salad with salt and lemon pepper
Spices blend together to create famous dishes in Saigon for nearly 50 years.
Hien Khanh tea
Hien Khanh Tea Shop was born in 1959 by two co-owners, Mr. Tran Nghe and Mr. Nguyen Quy Quyen. Later, the two men handed over the shop to Ms. Nguyen Thi Nguyet Minh (Mr. Quyen’s son) to take over.
Hien Khanh Tea Jelly opened its first shop in 1959 in Da Kao, near Cau Bong theater. The customers of the shop are mostly marketers.
After a while, because the old shop was too tight, Mr. Quyen opened another shop on Phan Dinh Phung Street (now Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street) from 1965 and has maintained until now. The Hien Khanh shop in Da Kao is no longer available.
The customers of the restaurant had more students from Gia Long and Petrus Ky schools coming to eat not only for tea but also because of the sentences created by the owner of the shop on the wall, matching students were given tea and cakes.
In the 70s of last century, the tea jelly dish was very simple and only had exactly three dishes: white shredded jelly, green bean tea and chilled tea. “Back then in Saigon, there was only one restaurant, Hien Khanh, selling this tea,” said Nguyen Lan, a customer from District 5. Hien Khanh tea today has ten different types of jelly, selling more ginseng, ginkgo biloba tea, yoghurt, and jelly but still retains its characteristics: Hanoi tea does not have coconut milk like Nam Bo tea. For guests, there is always a shaved ice cup attached.The restaurant now has more new dishes such as yogurt, jelly, and ginseng tea, but diners never miss the crispy white jelly served with a cup of shaved ice or a cup of fragrant and fragrant lotus tea. Green tea to the last spoon in the cup.This place is ideal for poetic souls
This is not only a gathering place for tea lovers, but also a meeting place for poetic souls.
Co Ut porridge
Among the countless porridge dishes gathered in Saigon, a bowl of Tieu porridge brought to Saigon by a Chinese family from Trieu Chau in the 1940s is always considered interesting.
Every day, the porridge truck is decorated well, staff are wearing uniforms The restaurant has an extensive menuFirst, depending on what you order, the cook will pick the ingredients such as pheo, heart, liver, kidney, squid … into a small bowl and then boil with a little white porridge, stir until fully cooked. new to add porridge and pour into the bowl. It is this unique cooking method that creates a characteristic flavor that is rarely found in any congee in Saigon.Eating this porridge is indispensable for porridge rolls, with a little chopped ginger, green onions to the whole stem, and then sprinkle with a little pepper. At first glance, it seems simple, but the more you eat it, the more delicious it is here that no other place can match. The difference between Tieu porridge and Vietnamese porridge is that the ingredients also include white porridge, porridge, heart, liver, kidney, minced meat … but not pre-boiled but left alone. There are also squid, mushrooms, scallions, and most especially a chicken egg we eat with. So in the past, people used to call “mixed porridge” because these ingredients were so rich.
According to the successor of the porridge shop, this dish was passed down to her father when he was still in Trieu Chau, then her father went to Vietnam to open for sale. Up to now, it has been more than 70 years.
The trick is to cook porridge only to bloom about 80% and then warm the pot of porridge to heat, when customers order, cook each bowl separately. Thanks to this separate cooking method, it brings a very specific flavor to the bowl of porridge, creating an incredible blend of hearts, puff, liver, kidney, squid, minced meat … with our chicken eggs spices to serve.
Saigon Noodles
Over the past 60 years, the restaurant with mixed noodles, also known as “noodles with noodles”, located at 64 Truong Dinh (Ben Thanh ward, district 1) is always crowded with customers every day. .
The shop is located in the center of District 1, but still stands out by the natural rustic feature that only real old shops can have. From the outside, the diners will immediately see the cooking area on the right side.The amount of noodles or noodles in the bowl is not much. But in return, the grain in the bowl is impressive large and long. When eaten, the toughness of the noodles and noodles, the fatty sweetness of the broth and the chewy texture of the kidneys blend.A portion of dried noodles is quite attractive
Pho Dau
Mr. Uong Van Binh, more than 70 years old, the son who has succeeded in selling pho Mrs. Dau for more than three decades, said his mother opened a noodle shop in Saigon in 1958, after emigrating from his hometown Nam Dinh here. .
Nam Dinh is one of the places where many people have a profession of pho cooking. According to documents from the Pho family practitioners in Van Cu, around 1925, Mr. Van was the first man in the village to go to Hanoi to open a restaurant on Hanh Street. Mr. Binh said that the current way of cooking pho still retains the same recipe as Mrs. Dau’s, that is, using only beef bones to cook pho.
Over sixty years in Saigon, Pho Dau is still loyal to the taste of Pho Bac from Nam Dinh, absolutely no vegetables but always crowded.The way to cook pho now still retains the same recipe as Mrs. Dau’s old, that is, using only beef bone to cook pho.
The North original noodle shops present in Saigon right after 1954 that still exist today are not many: Cao Van pho, Dau Pho, Tau Bay pho, Pho Minh … Each restaurant has its own loyal diners. These are very valuable heritages, contributing to the overall charm of Saigon cuisine.
