D's breakfast in Ho Chi Minh

Nothing beats waking up to the aroma of lemon grass porkchops sizzling on a streetside charcoal grill.

The chef allowed D to have a go as well. Since I was grilling the porkchops, how could I not step into this eating house (opposite Ben Thanh Market) to sample my own efforts?

Oc nhan thit (stuffed snails) for the appetizer. These consisted of the crunchy snail flesh mixed with tender minced pork supporting a lemon grass stalk as a handle. Very aromatic and tasty.

This is bot lom, it's essentially a steamed rice cake with a topping of savory mung bean paste. It's eaten with nem (fermented raw pork sausage) and sweet fish sauce.

This is a variation of banh cuon and basically contains tom (prawn). Like the banh cuon and bot lom, it's eaten with nem and sweet fish sauce as well. Both the bot lom and the banh cuon tom are eaten as snacks or starters as well.

Goi du du tom thit or raw paw paw salad with pork and prawn. It definitely tasted different from the Thai variation but was satisfyingly tangy enough to perk up my appetite for the rest of the meal.

Banh canh is a soup dish made with prawns and crab meat. This included two huge crab claws which were already shelled, so you could hold one in your hand and eat it like a drumstick.

Whatever happened to the grilled lemon grass pork chops? Here we go, it appeared on my plate of com tam or more commonly known as "broken rice". This came with the standard pâté, pork skin and vermicelli salad, semi-cooked sunny side-up egg, pickled carrots and radish and of course a freshly charcoal grilled lemon grass pork chop. Seems quite abit for breakfast doesn't it? But it is the most important meal of the day haha!

D