Hu Tieu Nam Vang - Popular Street Food Noodles in Vietnam

It's Mark Wiens, I am in Saigon, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and I'm sitting down for a dish called Kho Tieu Nam Nhang. And I think it's kind of a Cambodian-Chinese noodle soup, and I just got the regular bowl. Looks like there's a pile of rice noodles on the bottom, and then a huge mixture of random pig parts and one shrimp mixed in as well, and then served with a nice dish of fresh vegetables, and I think the first step is definitely to garnish it. I'm seeing everyone heavily garnishing their dish, so I'm gonna grab chopsticks first and then get to the garnishing. Chopsticks, first I'm gonna go in with some lime. Okay, this looks like the money chili sauce. Some of that. Looks like some people are even adding ketchup to their noodles, but I don't think I'm gonna go for that. But garlic. Looks like pickled garlic. Give that a whirl. Okay, I'm gonna start with just some of the noodles first. Oh yeah, that chili sauce is marvelous. And then the garlic, the noodles are really soft, almost like pho noodles, but thinner. And that's a nice pork-based soup. That's very good. I'm not sure if this is lungs or liver. Oh yeah, that's good. It's actually really soft and tender. Oh yeah, those are good chilies, very good chilies. I'm gonna add in some vegetables, maybe eat that along with the noodles. I love it with the garnish of vegetables. Makes it so fresh and crisp. And I think there's lettuce, oh and green onions as well. Oh chives, I think they're chives. And almost everyone here is also washing it down with a fresh cup of sugarcane juice. Oh, well that is sweet, but it is very refreshing. It is piping hot in Saigon, I'm sweating it out, especially eating the noodles, the humidity is intense. That sugarcane juice is great. These noodles are very good, very good. A simple, tastes like a simple pork noodles. I guess what I really like is the chili sauce is really good, as well as the herbs, the fresh vegetable garnish. Looks like a little piece of intestine. And I think this is a quail egg even, even a quail egg in here. There was almost an accident, right as I was picking up that quail egg. So I looked away and it fell out of my chopsticks and fell onto the ground, sad moment in my life. I finished my bowl of noodles and actually had to finish up pretty fast and then leave the table because people were already waiting to sit down where we were eating. So this is a very busy place, but also it's right at lunch hour, so it's the lunch hour rush in Saigon. It was simple and just kind of like a soothing, comforting broth, pork-based. And then, oh, I loved all those little, I loved the intestines, the liver, the lungs, all those glorious organs were delicious. And that was a great lunch. I am sweating profusely right now though after eating that bowl of hot soup with chili and along with the humidity. I love it, I love it. The street food atmosphere here in Saigon is wonderful.