Trying Vietnamese Food in Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City. The largest city in Vietnam, formerly known as Saigon. A skyline of towering buildings and streets filled with constant noise and endless movement. The very reason I was both intrigued and somewhat afraid it would simply feel too overwhelming. But with a reputation for having one of the best food scenes in Vietnam, we decided to spend three nights here and explore it for ourselves. In this video I'll share my honest experience of Ho Chi Minh City and its food, including highlights, disappointments and some of the reflections we were left with along the way. So we just arrived at our hotel in Ho Chi Minh. The service was great. They welcomed us with like some beverage and snacks when we came. And the room is very beautiful. A gigantic bed. I don't know if you can tell. Our plan is to go upstairs to the rooftop bar and yeah have something to drink and figure out where we're gonna have some dinner. Yeah, that's about it. It's so hard to speak English. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. And they're showing a game. It's a small bar and like a pool. And right now it's a Friday night and it's cold and nice. We felt a bit of a funky smell and realized that they're selling durian behind us. Okay, so this is just the broth. Also, the buffet is just incredible. Really good. I took a little chili and a little lime juice as well. Okay, maybe I haven't tried my chili yet. Nice. Once the heat from the chili settled, I could continue enjoying what turned out to be an impressive first meal in Vietnam before calling it a day. The next day started with a walk to the Central Post Office, one of the oldest post offices still operating in Southeast Asia. Built during the French colonial period and known for its striking architecture. Inside, you can send postcards and letters or pick up a souvenir. Right next to it is the Book Street, which, as the name suggests, offers a wide selection of books, but also art, decorations and cozy cafes. Just as we started getting thirsty and tired from walking around, we happened to come across this well-known chain, famous for its chocolate made from locally sourced cacao. It's their signature chocolate. I took the one with the ice. They also have a hot one and it was 105 000 dong. Very rich, like chocolate flavors. Very good. For lunch, we ended up at Cao Ba Quan by Chef Nicky Tran, a place featured in several Netflix food shows. Corn croquette. This is really good. It's very fresh. Like an apple. Corn croquette. Yeah, it's good. It smells so good. I don't know how I'm going to handle all of this. How about you? Just that one was really good. I feel like I can't eat the whole thing. I guess I'll just eat it with my hands. It's pretty hot. Should I just grab it like this? It's just hot. You should be able to do this. I'm gonna dip it in the sauce. Oh my god. It's like a bit sweet and spicy. Yeah, really good. It's a bit tricky. Wow, really good sauce. Try it. Take some pineapple and I think this is... Is this corn croquette? Yeah, it's really good. Okay, so the happy salad. It's sweet and like citrusy. Is it like lemongrass or something maybe? I think this is lemongrass, corn croquette, pineapple. I don't know what this is. So this is fried tofu with century egg. It's eggs in soy and they're being fermented. They're like old and fermented, yeah. Something like that. Should I take it like the whole? It's hot. It's hot? You can put it outside. I was about to burn myself. No one saw maybe. Okay, you shouldn't take a whole one. They're really hot. God, I'm disgusting. The century egg was good. I think it's like dried and shredded fish on top and then the century egg and maybe some fish sauce. Despite the city's otherwise hectic pace there are small pockets of calm scattered throughout Ho Chi Minh City. Places like this pagoda. And of course, no shortage of cafes to stop at along the way for a break. I learned that Vietnam is one of the world's largest coffee producers and coffee culture here goes far beyond the traditional cup with countless local variations to try. We've been walking a lot and it's really hot outside. I think it's like 35 degrees Celsius at least. So I'm very sweaty and warm as you can see. Now we're gonna have some salted coffee and this is iced coffee with the condensed milk and this is the salted coffee. This is what I needed right now. I think this is better. Better than normal coffee. I like this a lot. Better than normal coffee. You wanna try the other one? Better. Yeah, I thought so too. This was my first time trying salted coffee. A Vietnamese coffee drink topped with a creamy salted foam that somehow works surprisingly well. I have to admit, for me having the rooftop bar and the pool to return to almost felt necessary. A place where the sounds of the city softened for a while to spend the last hours of sunlight in the pool with a refreshing drink looking out over the city from above letting the impressions of the day slowly sink in while recharging before heading back out again. So you take a little bit of everything I think and wrap it up and then dip it. Yeah, that looked really good. It looks like you've done this before. Is it really good? Yeah. Let me see. What did you think it was? I thought it was good. Okay, I'm going to try to wrap it up. Yeah, that's pretty good. It looks like a little peach. That one was really good. Yeah, it was really good. But I think maybe you need to dip it for a while so the rice paper gets cooked. But it's really fresh. It's like something you want to eat on a hot day. It's good. Chili sauce. It's not too spicy. What's in it? Mustard. That one was pretty spicy. It's really good. I can't describe the taste but it's like the peanut butter, the peanuts. Yeah, they were really good. A little bit of pickled vegetables at least. Here we have some good Thai basil. This one wasn't so good. This one was the most messy. After a satisfying dinner it was time to try some Vietnamese dessert at an iconic spot that has been serving traditional sweets for decades. This is number 23 and this is number 3. This is number 23. I'm not even gonna try to pronounce it. And I have no idea what this is. It's some sort of dessert soup. It's refreshing. But when we think of desserts it's like very very sweet. This is not very sweet but yeah, refreshing. This is number 3. It's a bit sweet and the consistency is like almost like silk tofu. But it was good. Also refreshing. It's cold, it's like this is an ice. It was finally time to try our first banh mi in Vietnam and we decided to do so at one of the city's most hyped up places which unfortunately turned out to be a disappointment. So we had a large banh mi, the traditional one. You get herbs and pickles in plastic bags. I guess I should put on my gloves and start assembling it. I don't know if I can open it. Oh my god. I can't open it. It's impossible. It's so sweaty. I think this is shredded pork. It would be more convenient if it was finished when you got it. So this is like pickled radish and carrot I think. Okay. The last one. The herbs. Herbs. A few moments later I mostly got the bread now. But it was good. So I think it's like spam. I don't know if it's cheese. It's good but the spam isn't my favorite. I don't think it's cheese. It's probably like animal fat or something. It doesn't taste very much. It's just the consistency I have a hard time with. This wasn't my favorite. It wasn't? I think it's spam. That's not spam. Really? What is it then? Spam doesn't have cheese. You know what I thought when I was there? That this doesn't look that good. I know you said that but I'm not that into that. And he was totally amazed. There is like some pate. What is that even? It's like some sausage. We haven't had any banh mi, any other places here yet. But you can probably get better. That isn't as hyped up. I think the herbs and the pickles are good. There's just something that I'm not the biggest fan of. To make up for it we played it safe and went searching for more coffee instead. This time at a well hidden cafe tucked behind a garage full of scooters and up some stairs. That was weird. It was really weird. I felt it. It was weird. It tasted like lemon. I don't know. It wasn't that good. It was refreshing. This looks like a dessert. Should I drink it or leave it on the table? It's good. It's like orange chocolate. This was really good. It was really good. The afternoon was spent relaxing at the rooftop before heading out one last time to end our final evening in Ho Chi Minh city with some northern style pho. That was really good. That was quick. Thank you so much. Thank you. That was quick. This looks really good. Can we start? Don't you want to eat after lunch? It was good. It's nice that the meat is pre-cooked. It's garlic. I don't know if you're supposed to have some additional sauce. Yeah, I think you should try. It was good. The first one was better but it was really good. Thank you. Thank you so much. You should've filled it with some chili sauce. I don't know what chili sauce is. Is it the one that looked like this? Should I film it? I'll hold the stick. Really? Looks good. I feel like a real rookie. Something like this maybe? Good? Wow. This is like... Crunchy. What should I say? It was good. It wasn't that good. It wasn't that easy. Bye. That was good. Yeah. That was all from our first days in Vietnam with a lot more to come from our three week journey through the country. Thank you so much for watching and take care.