Apart from breakfast, I had just one opportunity to enjoy a meal during my initial stay on this trip to Ho Chi Minh City and it was to be a lunch in the Bến Thành Market. In one section of the huge and busy covered market is an eatery section with a fair number of stalls featuring noodle and rice dishes with side dish choices as well as fresh fruit juice stands and cold drinks shops. They all call out to you to stop by as you try to walk past them with their menus in hand.
I settled on a noodle bar run by a few ladies where I saw locals dining.
Looking up at the shop from where I was sitting, at a low table.
At my table waiting for my food and looking across to the next table.
My very red lunch arrives. This was strongly recommended. Vietnamese “udon” they said but the noodle is transparent and shorter as if intentionally chopped up into little pieces though the shape is exactly like our udon. Not spicy but ketchup-like taste. This was the “seafood” version with shrimp, fish cake, maybe squid, and other small fish.
The view from above.
The menu. My lunch was 40,000 VDN, about US$1.75 or ¥210.
The ladies at the behind-the-counter kitchen.
Locals eating around the counter.
A blog by Ayako Mathies 