The Lunch Lady of Saigon - Famous Street Food in Vietnam!

Okay, it's Mark Wiens. I am in Saigon, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and I am at probably the most well-known food vendor, the legendary Lunch Lady in the city. And many of you recommend I check this restaurant out, made famous by Anthony Bourdain. And this is, yeah, she serves a different noodle dish every single day of the week. But I thought it would be very interesting to come on Monday, because she is serving a Vietnamese dish called Bun Thai, which is a Vietnamese noodle dish with a Thai influence. So I thought it would be really cool to experience sort of the Vietnamese and fusion of Thai soup in this dish. But it's a very popular restaurant, very popular spot, a lot of people are eating and hanging out. And actually, we're right here at lunchtime, so yeah, it's packed. But luckily, we got a table right with a view of her actually assembling the noodles. So I am like actually peering into the glass, watching her make the noodles, which is pretty awesome. It's like front row seats. So the noodles have come, the Bun Thai, and I gotta say from appearance, it is a very beautiful bowl of noodles. There is some beef at the top, looks like a meatball, I think there's some squid in here too. There's some squid, and then two beautiful orange prawns. And then it's, the noodles are at the bottom, and then on top looks like some chopped up maybe Vietnamese coriander. Before doctoring it up with some chili and lime, I'm just gonna taste the soup. Oh yeah, that's pretty good. It definitely has a little bit of a tom yum flavor to it, so it is a little bit sweet, a little bit sour, and has some good broth stock flavor to it. But I could definitely add some chili to that. Looks like some roasted chili oil, and with chili, and then it looks like there's some toasted garlic in here maybe too. So yeah, I could definitely use some of this, add some of that. I'm going to squeeze in some lime as well, to give it that citrusy lime flavor, which is always a great thing when it comes to eating soup noodles. Stir that into the broth, and you can see the noodles below. I'm ready to start slurping. I'm gonna check out a piece of that beef with some of the noodles first. That's pretty good. Yeah, that's wonderful actually. It definitely has a Thai hot and sour flavor to it. And then the noodles are kind of like spaghetti noodles, but a little bit softer, and a little more bouncy. I think I'm going to add some chili sauce to this prawn, and then just eat up that prawn. Oh yeah, that prawn is awesome. So meaty, very fresh, and then with that roasted dry chili sauce, that's awesome. And it's not overcooked. I think they must be like, just cooked to perfection, and then she doesn't overcook them in the soup. She just kind of puts them into the soup, so they remain juicy and just really fresh, not overcooked, and that is delicious. That's a great prawn. I'm going to add some of the vegetables, and this is banana flower, and then on the bottom, I think it's water mimosa. Yeah, this is water mimosa, as well as maybe some morning glory as well. Anyway, let me add some vegetables to it. All right, and then go ahead and slurp down some more noodles. Mmm. Another very famous thing here is the coi cuon, the Vietnamese summer rolls, the fresh Vietnamese summer rolls, and yeah, these are one of the greatest treasures of Vietnamese cuisine. Okay, let me dip it into the sauce, and they're also very famous to eat here, along with your noodles. Mmm. Yeah. You can never go wrong with summer rolls in Vietnam. They're just so wonderful, so fresh, so herbaceous, and I really like the sauce here. It's not too sweet, and it's more of a, you can really taste that hoisin, that dark hoisin, the nutty flavor, and I think she added some crispy shallots to that as well. That's great sauce, great sauce here. Mmm. So I am finishing up my bowl of noodles. Yeah, so it's definitely a delicious, well-balanced bowl of noodles. The soup is a little bit sweet, a little bit sour, and then with adding that chili kind of oil, it did make it spicy, so yeah, it really, it really almost has a Thai tom yum flavor to it, and the soup is very good, but then with, those are very Vietnamese noodles, so you would, I've never seen that type of noodle in Thailand, so it's really kind of a cross between a Thai dish with Vietnamese ingredients and flavors. It's definitely famous for a good reason, because the food is very good, at least the day that I'm coming, the noodles are very good, the lunch lady is a legend, and she is extremely nice as well, very friendly, and very kind, and then yeah, just the environment under the tree, the atmosphere, the cool breeze, at least there was a breeze before, now I'm sweating it out, but yeah, this is definitely a place to come when you are in Saigon. Huge thank you to all of you for your recommendation, and all of you for watching my videos, I really appreciate it, please remember to give this video a thumbs up, leave a comment below, make sure you subscribe if you haven't already subscribed, and I'll see you guys all on the next video. I am with the lunch lady right now, a very kind woman and an amazing cook. Kamon, kamon, kamon.