After our visit from the Reunification Palace and the Fine Arts Museum, we walked back to our hotel as the Fine Arts Museum located very near to the Benh Tham Market and it is walking distance from where we stayed.
We passed by the streets and noticed that, there were a lot of Vespa motorcycles parking along the pedestrian walkways. Then only I got to know, those motorcycles can be hired for a full day or half day.
The motorcyclists can bring you to tour around the Saigon city to visit places of attractions or food trip. It would not be economical for us as we are family of 4 and need 4 motorcycles instead. Anyhow, it must be a great experience and explore the city in the bikes!
Both Issac and Annabelle took rest back in the hotel, whereby both Alvin and I walked into the alleys again to look for more.
To experience the best of Saigon, there is no better place to do this than in the tangled network of narrow alleyways that fill in the gaps between the city’s major roads.
Saigon’s thousands of alleyways – sometimes no more than a few feet wide – are where the majority of Vietnamese live, and it is here that you will find the ‘real’ Saigon.
What is more, the alleyways offer far more charm and interest than the central area of District 1, where most travellers spend their time.
Getting lost on foot in the web of alleyways brings you into contact with friendly local people, great street food, intriguing architecture, and, best of all, local life. And this particular ‘attraction’ is free!
One of the best places to eat delicious food in Vietnam is down alleys or deep into markets. We were again walking down a side street, and exploring all sorts of tasty foods.
We just satisfying with the Bun Thit Nuong and Com Suon for our late lunch! We bought and took away Annabelle and Issac late lunch back to hotel.
It was almost 6.00pm evening after all of us have a good nap in the afternoon. We decided to go back to the Asiana Food Town in the Sense Market Shopping Center for our dinner.
There were still some of the food that we have yet to try out. And Bot Chien is one of those. Bot Chien is the Vietnamese version of fried rice flour cakes. It is similar to the carrot cake or the Singapore or Malaysian of Chai Tow Kway.
The rice cakes are made from rice flour and tapioca starch, and Malaysian or Singapore Chinese and some other southeast Asian versions include daikon radish in the cakes, but I think they are normally just rice in Vietnam.
The cakes are sliced into bite sized pieces, then fried, normally on a hot skillet in lots of lard, along with some light seasonings, until crispy and golden brown on the edges. Once cooked, the rice cakes are topped with an egg and a handful of green onions before being served.
The result of Bot Chien are little bite sized nuggets of crispy sticky rice flour, but smooth and creamy on the inside, and slightly sticky. The egg, coated each nugget of rice cakes, and with a nice smoky flavour that I could really taste the green onions, and the fresh green papaya on top.
The Bot Chien was served on a plate, along with a side sauce which I think was a mostly soy sauce and vinegar that had a sweet tinge to it. The dark sauce was very mellow, not too strong, but just slightly sweet, salty, and sour, all three flavors almost even and balanced.
If you are looking for something tasty and comforting when you are in Vietnam, stop at the next stall you see serving Bot Chien.
Another type of Vietnamese snacks which we found is called Banh Trang Tron, which Banh Trang is the thin rice paper.
Banh Trang Tron is a snack of shredded rice paper, seasoned with a chili sauce, and filled with herbs like Vietnamese coriander and basil and supplemented with pieces of squid, salty fish, and quail eggs. There are probably about ten more ingredients I am forgetting to mention in the mix as well.
It is basically a snack or junk food, and often available at parks and public places, and nearly always served in a plastic bag. Just this time around, we found it in the Asiana Food Town. It is quite nice and I can just munch and munch the whole bag of this!
Well, finally we managed to eat all the famous street foods that in our bucket lists on the last night in Saigon and we were quite happy about it!
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