I know I've had very few things to say about the food, so it's about time I wrote down my thoughts! In no particular order, stream of consciousness style.
A month of Thai food never really got boring for me. It's very diverse, and the flavour profile fresh and bright. Curries for breakfast and/or lunch, noodles at least once a day, and lots of bright tangy soups.
While Vietnamese food is lovely, I have a hunch it will start to get tiresome at some point for me. Don't get me wrong, I do love it - but I think Thai is more varied and there are way more vegetables in everything. The curries in Thailand always have a couple different eggplant varietals, green beans, a few fresh tomato wedges, sometimes cauliflower. Vietnamese is really a protein and starch with a minimal veg content, and tons of bright fresh herbs.
I became addicted to extremely spicy food in Thailand. With Thai food you have such a range of flavours in balance, that the chiles sit atop a solid foundation of flavours and are supported by them, it's not just a blast of extreme capsicum heat by itself. I came to the point where I felt like I was often being served food with the farang level of chile, and began ordering "Thai spicy please, not farang spicy" to which servers would invariably snicker and look skeptical, and then rather impressed when I was happy and handling it well. Chiles when paired with sour (from lime juice) and salt (from fish sauce) is a lot easier to tolerate than on their own. Ordering from street vendors I could get a smile out of the most surly, tourist-fatigued cook when I'd encourage them to give me the real deal.
I came to LOVE a perfect Tom Yam Kai, with a silky chicken broth, tons of aromatics (lemongrass, galangal, keffir lime leaf, chili) and lots of veggies. I never felt this way in Canada, I'd had it before but didn't go nuts, but eating it here I think it may be my Favorite Soup Ever. The difference is how much of those aromatic herbs are actually in your bowl of soup. It's normal that you have a rather large heap of inedible woody herbs left at the bottom of your bowl when you're done, there is a LOT. It's a very loud soup, because of the chiles, but there is still a delicate balance in a good Tom Yam. The harmony of all 5 flavours: sour, sweet, bitter, salty, umami.
I used to feel this rhapsodic about Vietnamese Pho, however, now that I'm having them both regularly in their place of origin I think I love the Tom Yam more.
The Thai street food is amazing. From the getgo we ate a lot of street food. It costs next to nothing and is prepared in 2-3 minutes in front of you and the casual spontaneity of it is lovely. People tend to just sell one thing and do it well... fried noodles, fruit shake carts loaded with fruit, spring rolls, noodle soup, fried chicken, grilled meat on skewers. What made the grilled meat so fantastic is in part because they're cooked over these incredibly compact, efficient little charcoal barbecues.
When I had the occasional craving for sweets I'd track down Muslim rotee, very common in the north but a little hard to find in Bangkok. Amazing thin sweet crepes fried in ghee on a big circular cast iron griddle with various choices of sweet fillings- Jon and I were really hooked on banana-egg, but you can get jam, or nutella, raisins, condensed milk.
Som Tam is a very firey green papaya salad that I love. Grated papaya is thrown in a mortar and pestle with green beans, tiny tomatoes, green onions, fresh garlic, roasted peanuts, dried shrimp and a pinch of sugar, a LOT of lime juice, fish sauce, and chiles. They usually ask how many chiles you want. Farang (foreigners) usually want half or one whole chile per portion, but I came to like two. The key is that it's all bruised together in the mortar and pestle for a while, the raw green beans break down a little and crack, the sourish tiny tomatoes and little pink dry shrimp begin disintegrating, the gritty sugar starts to macerate the raw garlic and it just all comes together. This salad is hot, refreshing, and I became nearly obsessed in my pursuit. A Northeastern Thai variation that I was unable to brave replaces the little shrimp with a couple whole little black freshwater crabs, which have been preserved in salt. They're usually just torn in half and thrown into the mix. I just couldn't do it.
Vietnamese street food is a little less varied, and there is simply fewer vendors, too. We seem to need to search for them when we want a snack, whereas in Thailand they were everywhere.
What we had come to miss and were overjoyed to have again is good bread, and exquisite coffee. The iced coffee in Thailand is very good, but even better in Vietnam. I love what sweetened condensed milk does for espresso.
The occupation by France left a legacy of excellent bread knowledge and execution. There are vendor carts selling very respectable croissants and danish, financiers, baguettes and other nice pastries. Fantastic bakeries are everywhere here in Saigon. I will be the size of a walrus in no time if I continue to eat pastries every day.
Last night we bought a bagload of fruit from a vendor and went at it with my swiss army knife while watching the National Geographic channel in our room - it's the first time we've had a tv the whole trip. We had a few mangosteens, a sapodilla, a rose apple and a bunch of rambutans. The mangosteens and rambutans were amazing. We chose the sapodilla and rose apple because we wanted to demystify them but we were a little disappointed. We didn't love them. For some reason we're both still balking at the stink of durian - we're oddly wimpy about trying it. It smells horrendous. I love that people are forbidden from bringing durian on airplanes.
The most common Vietnamese vendor in Saigon is Banh Mi, the bizarre but amazing Vietnamese submarine sandwich. An armload of crunchy baguettes sits on the top shelf of the cart, and across the other shelves the mise en place includes: sliced meats like BBQ pork, sandwich meats of mysterious origin, a weird but not unpleasant take on pate, and a basket of eggs which they will cook up in a tiny wok over a little butane burner into omelette format. Also mayo, chiles, a pickle mix which usually consists of daikon and carrot, a plate of sliced cucumbers, tomato, onion, a big bowl of glistening cilantro sprigs, lettuce. There is also stacked boxes of Laughing Cow cheese. My favorite breakfast of the moment, which I had today from a Banh Mi vendor, was beautiful - she assembled it in about 3 minutes, with no direction from me at all: baguette, plain omelette drizzled with soy sauce and chile sauce, cilantro, cucumber, tomato. It cost less than a dollar. The key was that the eggs were perfectly cooked..lightly beaten and just set, so there were still pockets of runny yolk and creaminess. So good.
While I find myself missing the food in Thailand, I will be in Vietnam for month and I know I will be blown away soon. The Pho we had last night was one of the best I've ever had, which is fantastic since the first two we had here were so underwhelming, and actually didn't even stand up to many of Vancouver's offerings. Last nights bowl compensated by far.
Where were headed in a few days, Nha Trang, (after we spend a few days in Dalat) is known for its seafood.
To be continued!
A month of Thai food never really got boring for me. It's very diverse, and the flavour profile fresh and bright. Curries for breakfast and/or lunch, noodles at least once a day, and lots of bright tangy soups.
While Vietnamese food is lovely, I have a hunch it will start to get tiresome at some point for me. Don't get me wrong, I do love it - but I think Thai is more varied and there are way more vegetables in everything. The curries in Thailand always have a couple different eggplant varietals, green beans, a few fresh tomato wedges, sometimes cauliflower. Vietnamese is really a protein and starch with a minimal veg content, and tons of bright fresh herbs.
I became addicted to extremely spicy food in Thailand. With Thai food you have such a range of flavours in balance, that the chiles sit atop a solid foundation of flavours and are supported by them, it's not just a blast of extreme capsicum heat by itself. I came to the point where I felt like I was often being served food with the farang level of chile, and began ordering "Thai spicy please, not farang spicy" to which servers would invariably snicker and look skeptical, and then rather impressed when I was happy and handling it well. Chiles when paired with sour (from lime juice) and salt (from fish sauce) is a lot easier to tolerate than on their own. Ordering from street vendors I could get a smile out of the most surly, tourist-fatigued cook when I'd encourage them to give me the real deal.
I came to LOVE a perfect Tom Yam Kai, with a silky chicken broth, tons of aromatics (lemongrass, galangal, keffir lime leaf, chili) and lots of veggies. I never felt this way in Canada, I'd had it before but didn't go nuts, but eating it here I think it may be my Favorite Soup Ever. The difference is how much of those aromatic herbs are actually in your bowl of soup. It's normal that you have a rather large heap of inedible woody herbs left at the bottom of your bowl when you're done, there is a LOT. It's a very loud soup, because of the chiles, but there is still a delicate balance in a good Tom Yam. The harmony of all 5 flavours: sour, sweet, bitter, salty, umami.
I used to feel this rhapsodic about Vietnamese Pho, however, now that I'm having them both regularly in their place of origin I think I love the Tom Yam more.
The Thai street food is amazing. From the getgo we ate a lot of street food. It costs next to nothing and is prepared in 2-3 minutes in front of you and the casual spontaneity of it is lovely. People tend to just sell one thing and do it well... fried noodles, fruit shake carts loaded with fruit, spring rolls, noodle soup, fried chicken, grilled meat on skewers. What made the grilled meat so fantastic is in part because they're cooked over these incredibly compact, efficient little charcoal barbecues.
When I had the occasional craving for sweets I'd track down Muslim rotee, very common in the north but a little hard to find in Bangkok. Amazing thin sweet crepes fried in ghee on a big circular cast iron griddle with various choices of sweet fillings- Jon and I were really hooked on banana-egg, but you can get jam, or nutella, raisins, condensed milk.
Som Tam is a very firey green papaya salad that I love. Grated papaya is thrown in a mortar and pestle with green beans, tiny tomatoes, green onions, fresh garlic, roasted peanuts, dried shrimp and a pinch of sugar, a LOT of lime juice, fish sauce, and chiles. They usually ask how many chiles you want. Farang (foreigners) usually want half or one whole chile per portion, but I came to like two. The key is that it's all bruised together in the mortar and pestle for a while, the raw green beans break down a little and crack, the sourish tiny tomatoes and little pink dry shrimp begin disintegrating, the gritty sugar starts to macerate the raw garlic and it just all comes together. This salad is hot, refreshing, and I became nearly obsessed in my pursuit. A Northeastern Thai variation that I was unable to brave replaces the little shrimp with a couple whole little black freshwater crabs, which have been preserved in salt. They're usually just torn in half and thrown into the mix. I just couldn't do it.
Vietnamese street food is a little less varied, and there is simply fewer vendors, too. We seem to need to search for them when we want a snack, whereas in Thailand they were everywhere.
What we had come to miss and were overjoyed to have again is good bread, and exquisite coffee. The iced coffee in Thailand is very good, but even better in Vietnam. I love what sweetened condensed milk does for espresso.
The occupation by France left a legacy of excellent bread knowledge and execution. There are vendor carts selling very respectable croissants and danish, financiers, baguettes and other nice pastries. Fantastic bakeries are everywhere here in Saigon. I will be the size of a walrus in no time if I continue to eat pastries every day.
Last night we bought a bagload of fruit from a vendor and went at it with my swiss army knife while watching the National Geographic channel in our room - it's the first time we've had a tv the whole trip. We had a few mangosteens, a sapodilla, a rose apple and a bunch of rambutans. The mangosteens and rambutans were amazing. We chose the sapodilla and rose apple because we wanted to demystify them but we were a little disappointed. We didn't love them. For some reason we're both still balking at the stink of durian - we're oddly wimpy about trying it. It smells horrendous. I love that people are forbidden from bringing durian on airplanes.
The most common Vietnamese vendor in Saigon is Banh Mi, the bizarre but amazing Vietnamese submarine sandwich. An armload of crunchy baguettes sits on the top shelf of the cart, and across the other shelves the mise en place includes: sliced meats like BBQ pork, sandwich meats of mysterious origin, a weird but not unpleasant take on pate, and a basket of eggs which they will cook up in a tiny wok over a little butane burner into omelette format. Also mayo, chiles, a pickle mix which usually consists of daikon and carrot, a plate of sliced cucumbers, tomato, onion, a big bowl of glistening cilantro sprigs, lettuce. There is also stacked boxes of Laughing Cow cheese. My favorite breakfast of the moment, which I had today from a Banh Mi vendor, was beautiful - she assembled it in about 3 minutes, with no direction from me at all: baguette, plain omelette drizzled with soy sauce and chile sauce, cilantro, cucumber, tomato. It cost less than a dollar. The key was that the eggs were perfectly cooked..lightly beaten and just set, so there were still pockets of runny yolk and creaminess. So good.
While I find myself missing the food in Thailand, I will be in Vietnam for month and I know I will be blown away soon. The Pho we had last night was one of the best I've ever had, which is fantastic since the first two we had here were so underwhelming, and actually didn't even stand up to many of Vancouver's offerings. Last nights bowl compensated by far.
Where were headed in a few days, Nha Trang, (after we spend a few days in Dalat) is known for its seafood.
To be continued!
2 comments:
Hey, I didn't see this posting before, but it's dated before your posting from Pai, so maybe the date wasn't set right on computer you were working with?
Anyway, delicious descriptions Jess - literally mouth-watering!
yeah, that's cause it was a draft in progress for a few days. it dated itself to the day I started writing it. and it was sadly under-proofread, i just noticed. Yikes. so sloppy.
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