Sài Gòn street food: 13 dishes to try, and when to eat them

Sài Gòn eats all day. There is something cooking on every corner from before sunrise until long after midnight, and southern food is known for being a little sweeter than the north’s, with a big plate of herbs on the side. Here are thirteen dishes to look for, sorted by when to eat them.

Morning

• Cơm tấm: broken rice with a pork chop straight off the charcoal, shredded pork skin and a fried egg. Breakfast is prime time, but you can find it at any hour. Our cơm tấm guide has the details.
• Bánh mì: the crackly baguette with pâté, cold cuts, pickles and chilli, made at a cart in under a minute. See our bánh mì guide.
• Hủ tiếu: rice noodles in a clear, sweet pork broth with slices of pork, minced pork and shrimp. Ask for it nước (in the soup) or khô (dry, with the broth on the side). Hủ tiếu Nam Vang, “Phnom Penh style”, is the famous version.

Midday

• Bánh canh cua: thick, chewy noodles in a thick, orange crab broth, with crab meat on top. Rich, and very filling.
• Gỏi cuốn: fresh spring rolls. Rice paper wrapped around shrimp, pork, rice vermicelli and herbs, dipped in a thick peanut sauce. Nothing fried, so good on a hot day.

Afternoon: the snack hours

• Bánh tráng trộn: “mixed rice paper”. Strips of rice paper tossed in a bag with quail eggs, dried beef, green mango, herbs, peanuts and chilli. A student favourite.
• Bột chiên: cubes of rice-flour cake fried crisp in a wide pan with egg, served with pickled green papaya and a soy and vinegar sauce. A snack with Chinese roots.
• Phá lấu: offal stewed in a five-spice broth rich with coconut, eaten with bread for dipping. Also Chinese in origin, and better than it sounds.

Evening

• Bánh xèo: the big, crisp, turmeric-yellow pancake you tear up and wrap in mustard leaves. Here is how to eat bánh xèo.
• Bò lá lốt: minced beef wrapped in wild betel leaves (lá lốt) and grilled over charcoal. Roll it up with herbs and rice vermicelli, and dip it in fish sauce, or in the stronger mắm nêm if you are feeling brave.
• Ốc: snails, clams and scallops with garlic, butter, chilli and cold beer, at loud pavement joints. Our guide to ốc tells you what to order.

Late at night, listen for the clack of two sticks knocked together. That is hủ tiếu gõ, “knocking” noodle soup, sold from a cart that announces itself as it goes.

Sweet and cold, any time

• Chè: sweet soups and puddings of beans, jellies, fruit and coconut milk, warm or over ice. See our guide to chè.
• Sinh tố: fruit blended with ice and condensed milk. Try avocado (sinh tố bơ): it sounds odd and tastes like a milkshake.

How to eat your way through

• Share. Order one of everything between two or three of you, and you can try four or five dishes in an evening.
• Match the dish to the hour. A stall cooking at its busy time is a stall worth sitting at.
• Carry small notes and tissues, and learn “không cay” (not spicy) and “ngon quá!” (so good!).

Eat Sài Gòn with us

Our Back-of-the-Bike Food Night has you riding pillion with a local driver through District 4 and District 5: six stops, six stools, from bánh xèo to snails to chè. Or start at the market: our Market-to-Wok Cooking Class shops Bến Thành’s back lanes with a market auntie, then cooks four southern dishes in her home kitchen.