Street Vendors-Soups

Saigon has no shortage of street food but the city’s selections of soups are where you will find some particularly impressive dishes. Here are a few soups that you should give a try while trawling the streets of the city.

Pho-a classic dish

The most famous of Saigon’s street soups is easily pho, and the vendors on the city’s streets have turned their craft into a fine art. Pho seems simple enough; made with flat rice noodles, some meat and a healthy helping of greens thrown in however, it turns out it is anything but. Most vendors start preparing their stock the day before it will be served, each concocting a slightly different version of the soup. Going to different pho kitchens can lead you to experience completely different soups; some are sweeter, some heartier. Usually, you will have a few choices of meat, ranging from thinly sliced beef to meatballs, but at larger pho restaurants you can have dozens of options. Pho isn’t at all hard to find and, while street carts do sell it, the best pho spots are typically the more permanent, established locations. Expect a bowl on the street to cost around 20,000 to 30,000 VND.

Bun Bo hue

Although it has a different Vietnamese town in its name, some say the best bun bo hue is found in Saigon. Bun bo hue is a more straightforward soup than pho, with fewer options when it comes to meats and extras. It starts with a pork or beef broth spiked with lemongrass then combined with noodles and sliced beef. A traditionally spicier soup, bun bo hue is usually topped off with Chinese sausage, some greens and a plate of bean sprouts. Its round, spaghetti-like noodles can become slippery for even masters of the art of chopstickery when combined with the broth -- losing a big bite can cause a bit of slash back during your meal. Avoid wearing white! A very popular soup, its simplicity makes it one of the more common carts you’ll see on the street -- don’t expect carts to be huge in size or to have a huge variety of ingredients on display. A bowl usually runs 20,000 to 30,000 VND.

Hu Tieu

While other soups in Saigon have some options when it comes to what you put into them, generally at least some things, like the noodles, are a constant. Hu tieu is a must-try because there are simply so many varieties. The basic dish consists of a light pork broth with slices of pork, Chinese sausage, bean sprouts, green onion and a healthy dose of thin white rice noodles but as you get more comfortable with the dish you can get more creative. Don’t like the noodles? You can try thin or thick, yellow egg noodles or a brick of ramen. Want different meat? You can add shrimp, quail eggs or small wontons. You can order your broth on the side and prepare the soup in your own special way. This is a popular soup and easily found on most of the city’s streets; you can usually spot it as one of the only street carts with multiple noodles on display. Hu tieu is also cheap, with bowls as low as 10,000 VND and rarely over 20,000 VND.

Canh Bun

If you’re really itching to try something new, is one of the more unique soupsyou’ll find on the streets of Saigon. It's a brightly coloured dish, usually made with vibrant orange rice noodles much thicker than what you’ll find in other soups, and topped off with freshly blanched morning glory. The colour isn’t however what makes canh bun stand out -- it's the minced crab added to the bowl, which looks like a ground pork or beef. Topped off with tofu, Chinese sausage, cubes of congealed blood and a healthy dose of chilli paste, a bowl of canh bun is quite a meal. Findingcanh bun is a little harder than some of the more famous soups, as you rarely see it sold on its own; your best bet is to head to a market and find a stall.  Expect a bowl to cost 20,000 to 35,000 VND.

On the streets of Saigon you won’t have to look far to find someone selling food from a cart. From noodle dishes to sandwiches, you can find almost anything but you may find that soups dominate the landscape of HCMC’s street food. This might not be much of a surprise since pho is the most well known Vietnamese dish but there are seriously a ton of soups on the street. Most are noodle based but one soup has no noodles whatsoever and is a staple of local cuisine: the ever-popular soup called chao.

Can you spot the congealed blood?

Called congee in the Western world, chao is basically a type of rice porridge; rice is cooked in a large pot of water until it softens into a creamy soup. Usually, you’ll seechao coupled with a meat, which is cooked with the rice in the pot. The most popular versions are chao long, porridge with pork entrails and congealed blood, andchao ga, porridge with chicken and ginger. Luckily in Saigon, because of its close proximity to the water, you can also find a few seafood varieties of the soup; including chao ca, porridge with fish, or chao muc, porridge with squid.

Porridge aka Chao

Since the meat is usually cooked with the porridge a street cart seldom has more than one version of chao. This means a market that has street food stalls could have a few chao stalls all selling a different version of the soup. Ordering a bowl is pretty straightforward as most of the dish is already prepared in the pot however you will have the option of adding bean sprouts, chillies and chunks of fried bread. Chao is popular throughout the country as a breakfast food, however it can be eaten all day. Many locals consider chao to be a cure for the common cold, like their version of chicken soup.

That's a fancy sign for a street cart.

Since one cart will only have a single version of chao they tend to be some of the better marked street foods in the city. If you see an unmarked cart a few indications that it sells chao will be the large pot, an absence of displayed meats, and a stack of fried break sticks. You’ll be able to find it almost anywhere in the city: mobile carts selling chao ga or chao long are regular sights, but if you’re looking for a seafood flavour head to a market or another area where street food congregates.

Chao is an inexpensive dish even by Saigon street food standards. A bowl is usually around the 10,000 VND mark and even seafood versions rarely run more than 20,000 VND. Plus, since the soup is on the thicker side, it is maybe a little more filling than the other soups on the street. Give chao a try and see what you’ve been missing; you don’t even have to be sick to enjoy it.