Chinese, CambodianOr Vietnamese?

A tasty dish will go around the world, but in Saigon the world comes to you, delivering three versions of that one dish

Hu tiu, the Chinese rice noodle soup, was imported to Saigon and southern Vietnam by Chinese immigrants centuries ago.

Ask for hu tiu at any Chinese restaurant that serves dim sum (breakfast), and you’ll have a hot bowl of white noodles whose flavor will make your mouth water. On top of the noodles are slices of pork, and on top of the slices are lettuce leaves. Chinese cooks often add small cubes of fried fat to make their hu tiu more delicious.

Use your chopsticks and spoon to take some of the noodles, lettuce and pork each time. As the bowl is served hot, diners have to blow on their first spoonfuls to be able to eat. But that’s the way diners often do with their hu tiu, be they Vietnamese or Chinese.

Saigonese have adopted not only Chinese noodles but also “Cambodian hu tiu.” Called hu tiu Nam Vang (literally Phnom Penh noodles), it may be a variant of the Chinese original. In addition to sliced pork, this kind of hu tiu also has shrimp and sometimes quail eggs. But what makes the Phnom Penh version different from the Chinese are garlic and a special sauce. A lot of fried chopped garlic is used. The distinctive flavor of this version of hu tiu is created by adding a special sour sauce when the hu tiu is served “dry,” which means the broth is put in a separate bowl instead of being poured into the same bowl of noodles.


Like many exotic dishes, hu tiu has been “Vietnamized.” Therefore, apart from Chinese and Phnom Penh hu tiu, Saigonese have their own as well. There are slightly different versions of Vietnamese hu tiu in the provinces of the Mekong Delta. But the most famous of them comes from My Tho, 70km south of HCM City. This version uses stronger noodles as in Phnom Penh hu tiu, but it doesn’t use garlic or sour sauce.

So, what makes one version and one restaurant of hu tiu different from another? Ingredients like pork, shrimp and eggs, count to a certain extent, but not too much. The two key elements are the broth and the noodles. Broth is created mainly from pig bones and a dozen spices. Noodles are made of rice, everyone knows. But only a handful of hu tiu restaurants can offer diners with the quality that pleases every customer’s taste. If you know those secrets, set up a hu tiu restaurant. You’ll be rich in Saigon.

Now you’re asking where to eat hu tiu in town. Well, Saigon Stories once reported that hu tiu has lost its position as Saigonese top breakfast dish. However, there are still several addresses worth trying.

First, Nhan Quan, or Nhan Restaurant. Nhan Quan offers only hu tiu. It’s on Nguyen Trai Street in District 1, near Cong Quynh roundabout.

Lien Hua on Vo Van Tan Street, District 3, is another good place. The ambience is better, and the restaurant is cleaner, though prices are dearer, as you would expect.
Hu Tiu Banh Bao Ong Ca Can on Nguyen Tri Phuong, District 5, is a place tourists on a tight budget should try.

Again, Nhan Quan. But this is different from the one above. Of the same chain, the second Nhan Quan is on Nguyen Thuong Hien Street in District 3. The restaurant is open from 3 p.m. to 5 a.m. the next day. So, if other restaurants serve hu tiu as a breakfast dish, this one is for diners who love to eat hu tiu at night.

So, which one will you choose, Chinese, Cambodian or Vietnamese hu tiu? If you’re hesitating with your choice, you should take this advice: try them all. And, Saigon Stories can assure you, you won’t regret it!

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The Shame Of Saigon’s Traffic Chaos

Traffic jams in HCM City are worsening as a result of the growing number of vehicles and of infrastructure projects. But people’s disregard of traffic rules is the biggest reason.

My working week started with angry words from a colleague in the editorial staff about the battle he had getting to work because of traffic jams.
Traffic jams have become a well-worn topic in this city, which is said to be resident or temporary home to seven million people and three million motorbikes. Despite the development of its road system since 1975, given the fact that the city’s population has more than doubled, the road improvements are paltry.

My colleague also noted that traffic was congested even on Le Loi Boulevard, a vast space considering the size of most streets in HCM City.
Traffic jams in Saigon are inevitable, as predicted years ago when the country embraced elements of a market-oriented economy. But there are several new reasons for the matter to become worse recently.
Many big infrastructure projects are under way in HCM City and they are making traffic congestion worse. Take the project to improve the water quality and environment, a mammoth US$190-million project financed by the World Bank. To save space for construction, many sections of streets essential to traffic have been narrowed and become bottlenecks, making travel a nightmare. Similarly, temporary bridges built after the blocking of Calmette, Chu Y and Cha Va bridges have failed to ensure a smooth traffic flow during peak hours.
Even a project that aims to reduce traffic jams is making the situation worse at the moment: the expansion of the Nguyen Van Troi-Nam Ky Khoi Nghia route linking Tan Son Nhat Airport with the downtown.
Another reason for the worsening traffic congestion, many argue, is the rapidly rising number of new motorbikes after the restriction on motorbikes was lifted last year.
Vietnam imposed such a restriction in 2003 to curb the growing fleet of motorbikes. But the ban was removed after lawmakers said it went against the will of the people and it was against law as it stands.
The authorities have embarked on a campaign to replace motorbikes with buses. During the last three years, HCM City has introduced about 1,000 buses to raise the total number to almost 3,300. Yet during the same period, nearly 780,000 new motorbikes rolled out on to the streets, the municipal Committee for Traffic Safety reports. Statistics from the city’s traffic police show that each day 700 new motorbikes are registered.
Coupled with the expanding motorbike fleet is the mounting number of automobiles. In 2001, 11,000 cars of different kinds were registered in HCM City. But during the last three years, more than 100,000 automobiles joined the city’s car fleet, which numbers more than 300,000 now! And the figure is predicted to be bigger year by year.
Despite the growing number of vehicles, some domestic and foreign observers say traffic jams are getting worse mostly due to the lack of awareness of good behavior of people in the streets.
People disregard traffic laws and forget that courtesy also applies to fellow drivers. Second, there is poor enforcement of traffic regulations. These are the real culprits behind the worsening situation in HCM City as well as in Vietnam’s big cities, the observers say.
Ask a foreigner in Vietnam, a resident or a tourist, about the biggest problems Vietnam is facing, and one of the answers will be the traffic chaos! Some even say the disregard of traffic rules should be the cause of shame among all Vietnamese.
Hardly had my colleague finished his complaining about traffic jams than another said she was hit by a careless motorcyclist at the gate of our office. “The man was driving his motorbike on the sidewalk. I was hurt but fortunately not badly.”
We have heard too enough complaints on traffic jams, but what have we done to curb them? So, when taking to the streets, ask yourself the same question.

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The History Of Me Linh Square

The tides of history are reflected in the use of a park in the center of HCM City

The term Me Linh reminds Vietnamese of two national heroines, the sisters Trung Trac and Trung Nhi. The sisters led a revolt against the domination of the Han Emperor from China. Trung Trac’s husband, General Thi Sach, was killed by the Han rulers because he did not submit to them. In the year 42 A.D., Trung Trac and her younger sister, Trung Nhi, started a resistance movement against the Han rulers and quickly drove them out of Vietnam.


She then proclaimed herself empress and settled in Me Linh, making it the capital of Vietnam. Three years later, the Han emperor assigned famous general Ma Vien to Vietnam to suppress the revolt and reinstate the Han rule. The two sisters could not stand against Ma Vien’s strong army and were pushed to a critical situation in Cam Khe. They drowned themselves in the river rather than surrender. Their feats and spirit have been warmly remembered by Vietnamese.

In HCM City, Me Linh Square is on Ton Duc Thang Street facing the Saigon River. The square stands near the Me Linh Point Tower and the Renaissance Riverside Hotel. Hai Ba Trung and Thi Sach streets, names linked to the sisters, also start there.

Under French rule, the square bore the name Rigault de Genouilly, after a commander of the French navy in the Far East. De Genouilly’s navy, together with British troops, attacked and seized Guangzhou in China in February 1857. In August of the same year, De Genouilly moved his navy southward and attacked Danang as a show of French strength and to protest the Nguyen Dynasty’s ban on Christianity in Vietnam. In February 1859, Vice Admiral De Genouilly commanded the French troops in an attack to seize Gia Dinh, the protective citadel of Saigon, marking the beginning of the French takeover of Vietnam. De Genouilly then returned to France and won a seat in the French parliament in 1860. In 1864, he became minister of the navy and the French colonies. He died in 1873. In 1879, a bronze statue of De Genouilly was erected at the present site of Me Linh Square. During the August Revolution in 1945, Vietnamese patriots took the statue away and the French rulers could not regain it.

At the Me Linh Square today is the statue of Marshall Tran Hung Dao, a Vietnamese general under the Tran Dynasty in the 13th century. Tran Hung Dao defeated the strong Mongol troops three times during their invasion into Vietnam. He has been recognized worldwide as a top military strategist and is someone Vietnamese are very proud of.

One big issue about the square is whether, as its name suggests, it should have the statues of the Trung sisters instead of Marshall Tran Hung Dao. In fact, the statues of the Trung sisters were erected there in the early 1960s under the regime of President Ngo Dinh Diem. The Saigonese at that time thought that the face of Trung Trac looked like Madam Tran Le Xuan, wife of advisor Ngo Dinh Nhu and sister-in-law of President Diem. The Diem regime, which was criticized for nepotism, collapsed in 1963. Diem and Nhu were killed. At that time Tran Le Xuan was not in Vietnam. She had to live abroad until the end of her life. The statues of the Trung sisters were destroyed, and the statue of Marshall Tran Hung Dao was erected at the square instead.

In HCM City now there is a solemn temple dedicated to the Trung sisters. The temple, on Hoang Hoa Tham Street in Binh Thanh District, has a pair of white elephants. The sisters used to ride elephants into battle with the Han troops.
By SGT

In the center of Me Linh Square today is a beautiful park with colorful flowers. Many Saigonese go there for physical exercise in the early morning or to enjoy the fresh breeze from the river in the hot afternoon.

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Small “Pyramid” Cakes

Tết Đoan Ngọ, or Doan Ngo festival, is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. This year, the festival is on June 19.

By Thong Nhat and staff writers

Tet Doan Ngo originates from a big festival in China where it is called the Dragon Boat Festival or the Festival of the Double Fifth.

There are several legends surrounding the origin of the festival. In Vietnam, the best known version tells the story of Qu Yuan, a celebrity in the Chinese history. A statesman and poet, Qu Yuan lived in his state of Chu in southern China in the Warring States period (481-221 BC).

At the time, Qin, a state in the north, proposed a peace treaty and asked the king of Chu to sign it. Knowing that Qin had no intention to honor the agreement, Qu Yuan advised his king to refuse the treaty. Not only did the king sign the treaty but he also sent Qu Yuan into exile.

Later the unprepared Chu was easily defeated by Qin. Learning of the news, on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month of 278 BC, Qu Yuan drowned himself.

In Vietnam, the story is not very popular, but Tet Doan Ngo is a popular event. As a tradition, Vietnamese people consider the festival an occasion to symbolically kill crop-damaging insects.

At dawn of the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, children are treated with a variety of foods, and pink pigment is applied to their heads, chests and navels. It is believed that these practices can help kill insects.


At noon, people go out to pick leaves of the fifth day. That time of the day is believed to be the best throughout the year for leaf picking as leaves in this period have the best effect in disease treatment.

Some people try to find mugwort leaves to weave them into the shape of the animals of the year. These miniature animals are hung in front of the main door as people believe they can chase away bad spirits.

However, Tet Doan Ngo in Vietnam is characterized by a special food—bánh ú tro, a kind of cake made of glutinous rice soaked in water with wood ash. The way to prepare the water gives the cake its name. To make delicious bánh ú tro, rain water and ash of mangrove firewood must be used. After a month, water with ash is used to soak glutinous rice. Due to this kind of specially treated water, the outer coat of the cake is translucent.
Two kinds of bánh ú tro can be distinguished: those with and those without green bean core. Both have a pyramid shape, which makes them different from other cakes.

During the week of the festival, bánh ú tro is available in the streets of HCM City. With a wire basket full of bánh ú tro on the back of their bicycles, these vendors stop in front of market gates or ride around town to sell their homemade products.
by SGT

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Lingering Sidewalk Snacks

Saigon has its own snacks which are favorites of students. These childhood food favorites often last with Saigonese throughout their lifetime.

Last week, during our chat about the best foods in town, one of my colleagues asserted, “No places in HCM City offer foods better than sidewalk food stalls do.”

This 52-year-old gentleman is widely respected in the office for his straighforwardness and pointed remarks. Therefore, although he is not a native of Saigon, his comments gave me some careful thoughts.


I think he may be right, at least when it comes to Saigonese snacks.

Like other places around the globe, the city has its own snacks. Some of them actually originated from elsewhere, but they have been all localized to fit the local taste.

Take bò bía, spring roll of chopped jicama, carrot and small fried shrimp served with bean dipping sauce. This snack is a particular favorite of schoolgirls. Yet many ladies still keep this school-age preference. Or gi khô bò, green papaya salad with chopped cow lung. This favorite snack for Saigonese, especially students, is a preference of boys to a certain extent.

Another snack that is typical of Saigon is bt chiên. Originating from Chinese immigrants, bt chiên is prepared by cutting thickened flour batter into half-inch cubes. The cubes are fried with eggs and served with soy sauce and vinegar. If bò bía is somewhat more preferred by schoolgirls and gi khô bò by schoolboys, bt chiên is a favorite of both boys and girls, especially young couples.

The latest “invention” and, I believe, it is purely Saigonese: bánh tráng trn. It is a mixture of extra-thin rice paper, chopped young papaya and mango, fried tiny shrimp, cow lung, and soy sauce and vinegar. bánh tráng trn is currently so popular with schoolgirls and young female shopkeepers.

The way to eat these snacks is also a characteristic of the Saigonese lifestyle. As snacks are sold on the sidewalk, everything must be neat and mobile. Sometimes, customers have to eat their food while standing.

A good place to witness how Saigonese enjoy snacks is Le Van Tam Park on Hai Ba Trung Street in District 1. Snack eaters simply sit on the curbstone in front of the main gate of the park.

In other cases, tables and chairs have compact sizes and are low. The small sizes allow owners to deploy or remove their foldable tables and chairs in a few minutes.

“Tableware” is compact, too. For instance, gi khô bò is contained in round aluminum dishes as they are so light that a hundred of them can be carried by one person.

These snacks are favorites of students for several reasons. First, students like to eat snacks. Second, sidewalk snacks are often cheap, suiting students’ budget.

Ask any Saigonese and you will have the same answer: They won’t forget their childhood snacks.

Nobody better illustrate the above argument than Viet kieu of the first generation who used to live in Saigon. Many overseas Vietnamese of this category are nostalgic for sidewalk snacks and tasting them is often on their itineraries for a visit to the hometown.
Some recall what they term “the most memorable moments of school age in Saigon.” That was when after class they went together to eat snacks on the sidewalk of the corner of Pasteur and Le Loi streets. Finishing the snacks, and then emptying a glass of sugarcane juice offered by Vien Dong (Far East), then the best shop in town, was unforgettable memories of the time when they were young.
By SGT

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Dragon House, Harks Back To French

The former office of a French shipping company, Nha Rong or Dragon House,is one of the well-recognized historical sites of HCM City

On September 3, 1979, 10 years after President Ho Chi Minh passed away, HCM City authorities decided to establish a place to commemorate him. The selected spot was a waterfront building called Nha Rong. It was at this wharf that 21-year-old Nguyen Tat Thanh boarded a ship for France in 1911 and then lived in many other countries. Thirty years later, he returned to Vietnam with the name Ho Chi Minh to be a leader of the national liberation movement.

Nha Rong is the name that Vietnamese used to call the office of France’s Messageries Maritimes Company. This magnificent building was built in 1863, four years after the French seized Saigon. It has original and strange architecture. Its roof has the elegant beauty of the roof of a Chinese pagoda with two dragons competing for a fireball. As there are two dragons on the roof, Vietnamese call the building Nha Rong.

Nha Rong is located at the three-way intersection of the Saigon River and Ben Nghe Canal. On the far side of the canal, there was a rice field on a high area. At that time, there was no bridge over the canal, so people went to Nha Rong by boat. More than 20 years later, the Messageries iron bridge was built to connect Adran Street, now Ho Tung Mau Street, with the far side of the canal.

Messageries Maritimes was a big sea transport company and was established in 1851. It was headquartered in Marseilles and had shipping routes to America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Many ships of the company were named after Vietnam’s geographical places such as Annam, Tourane, Sontay, and Haiphong. Nha Rong Port was the stopover for ships going from Marseilles to Hong Kong and Yokohama.

Many postcards were printed with the images of ships and ports used by Messageries Maritimes and there were paintings of the company’s ships in storms. Nha Rong appeared in many postcards for decades. Later it was printed on the Vietnamese 50,000-dong banknote. Together with Ben Thanh Market, Nha Rong is one of the two symbols of HCM City.

After Vietnam was reunified in 1975, Nha Rong was repaired to serve as a house of commemoration, then as the Ho Chi Minh Museum in the south. After Nha Rong was restored, the two dragons on the roof no longer faced each other: one looked east and the other looked west. On the roofs of palaces or pagodas, dragons sometimes confront each other, look outside or look back. Vietnam has been in the situation of two dragons fighting each other several times. Most dramatically, it was when the Trinh and Nguyen fought each other and the period after the Geneva Accords of 1954.

Trinh and Nguyen Lords competed for power, so Vietnam was divided into the North and the South, with the Gianh River in Quang Binh Province as the border. Once, after the signing of Geneva Accords in 1954, Vietnam was divided at Latitude 17. Ngo Dinh Diem’s Government in the south, supported by the U.S., refused to hold a general election to reunify the country. The 20-year war that followed caused much human misery and slowed the building of the country.

On the bank of Ben Nghe Canal opposite Nha Rong, the French erected a mast to signal the travel of ships and boats. Vietnamese called it Thu Ngu Flag Pole, which remains. Nearby is La Pointe des Blagueurs for people who were fond of joking. This was an ideal place to sit and chat and watch the ships travel on the Saigon River, enter and leave Ben Nghe Canal, or berth at Nha Rong Port.

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