The city looks more familiar today. We had the chance to go shopping after our focus groups. We hit the Saigon Tax Trade Centre at around 5.30 pm. Nothing very much here; most of the things are tourist-oriented so we moved on to Ben Thanh market. Picked up a coconut ice-cream on the way. Sounds exotic right? Before you think it is rich as the curry or laksa, let me tell you that it is deliciously light. Yet, the taste of coconut is not lost. Indeed, it is characteristic of the Vietnamese diet of light, healthy food.
On the way to the Ben Thanh market, I found myself in familiar territory. We walked past the KimDo Royal City Hotel where we stayed back in 2002. I took a quick peek at the lobby to see if that log of a chair was still there (that structure reminded us of an evil character from the movie Little Otik about a childless couple who adopted a tree stump as their child, and it came alive just like Pinocchio, and ate everyone). It was not.
There are also fewer street vendors. I guess living standards are getting better for everyone. There used to be many hawkers hawking the phở (rice noodle soup) from giant cooking pots holstered on both ends of a bamboo pole which balanced precariously on the shoulders of hawkers who moved from place to place selling the noodles from the sidewalks of HCMC. Now, many of these hawkers have been replaced by the highly popular Phở 24 chain where the phở is sold in a cleaner environment.
When we got to Ben Thanh Market about 7 pm, alas, many of the shops were already closed. So we had dinner at this little hidden treasure of HCMC called Nam Giau Restaurant. It is found at the end of a dark alley that a regular tourist would have been unlikely to venture into. We had noodle soup and shared a combination platter which served up delectable bites reminiscent of the 水晶包 and stuffed 猪场粉 back home. The final total bill for three - VND106,000 (SGD10.60)!
It is very affordable to eat well (in the sense of health too!) in Vietnam. For lunch, we had a more sumptuous 8-course meal which cost USD10 per head (SGD15) which would have cost way beyond that price back home. I can totally live in Vietnam, especially in Huế, which is the country's equivalent of China's Sichuan (especially 成都 where I'll find myself completely at home with the hot and spicy food, laidback lifestyle, Chinese tea all day long and pandas for neighbours :). Huế serves up spicy stuff too; food from this region is what Nam Giao specialises in. Yummy yummy.
