Saigon Street Food: How the South Eats Differently

If you have eaten in Hanoi first, Saigon tastes noticeably different, and it is not a matter of quality.

Southern cooking is sweeter, uses more sugar and coconut, and puts a plate of raw herbs and vegetables on the table with almost everything. A southern pho arrives with a pile of basil, bean sprouts and lime that a Hanoi cook would consider an insult to the broth.

The city also eats later. Hanoi is an early-morning city; Saigon runs well into the night, and some of the best street eating happens after nine.

The other difference is variety. Saigon absorbed food from across the south, from the delta and from its large Chinese community in Cholon, and it shows.

Banh mi is the one to start with. A crisp light roll, pate, cold cuts or grilled pork, pickled carrot and daikon, coriander and chilli. The bread is the reason it works and the bread is better in the south.

Com tam is broken rice, grilled pork chop, shredded pork skin and a steamed egg loaf, eaten all day and most associated with Saigon.

Banh xeo is a large turmeric crepe you tear up, wrap in lettuce and herbs, and dip. It is messy and it is meant to be.

Finish with ca phe sua da, iced coffee with condensed milk, which is strong enough that one in the afternoon will keep you up.

Saigon is spread out and the good eating is not concentrated in one walkable quarter the way Hanoi's is. That is why the motorbike food tours took hold here.

You ride pillion behind a driver, usually a student, and cover four or five neighbourhoods in an evening you could not cross on foot. A helmet is provided.

It sounds alarming and is generally calmer than crossing the road yourself, because your driver knows the traffic. If you are nervous, say so at the start; the pace changes.

Walking tours work well too, but they cover one district rather than the city. Pick by how much ground you want, not by nerve.