A restaurant of Vietnam’s country life

On the way from Nha Trang to HCMC, travelers can easily find a small signboard at Km5 telling the way via a small street to Thon Viet Restaurant. Literally, the meaning of the restaurant’s name is simply Vietnamese Village, implying a place that promises guests the quiet and peaceful atmosphere of the country life of Vietnam.

Without the signboard, guests could hardly find the way to the restaurant nestled under the lines of betel trees, the green fields and trees. Passing a garden, guests will see the restaurant that was opened only a couple of months ago with waitresses in ao ba ba, the traditional dress of southern women in the village.

Construction of the village-style restaurant was closely supervised to every decoration detail by the owner, farm engineer Nguyen Trung Binh. Either side of the pathway in the restaurant is decorated with flowers and grass. Here and there in the restaurant are the water wells, small bridges across small canals, the Lunar New Year Poles and long-handle buckets.

Typical images of the Vietnamese village seem to be well depicted in Thon Viet Restaurant where guests could find a flock of chicken walking around the area to look for rice, the banana and bamboo trees, the eartherned jars to hold water with the dippers made of coconut shell.

Diners can choose many outdoor corners in the restaurant to have their meal such as behind the banana trees, by the bamboo bridge or the small pond, feeling like they are dining in a village.

Thon Viet serves many kinds of traditional rural dishes, each of them being displayed in baskets or panniers or wrapped in banana leaves and guests will be served with fresh vegetables, which are grown around the restaurant, according to Binh.

Diners will find it enjoyable tasting the fresh, piping hot dishes such as fresh grilled anabas and amaranth soup and rice in clay pot in the natural setting of the Vietnamese village, which could bring guests an authentic Vietnamese dinning experience.

Thon Viet Restaurant is located at Km5 on 23-10 Road, Vinh Diem Thuong, Vinh Hiep Commmune, Nha Trang City, tel: (058) 892 340, fax: (058) 871 185.

By SGT

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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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