Meet Nguyen Thi Thanh, or better identified in these components as the “lunch lady.” Due to the relentless coverage of tv (Bourdain visited her final year on No Reservations) and the blogosphere, Saigon’s personal Nguyen Thi Thanh has turn out to be the David Chang of Ho Chi Minh, generating legions of foodie followers and elevating her little street corner stall to Momofuku-like stature with her rotating cast of soups, from Monday’s bun Thai to Sunday’s smorgasbord of bun thit nuong, bun nem nuong and bun cha gio. Today, a meal by the lunch lady is a needed “to-do” for all visitors to Saigon.
Situated near 23 Hoang Sa Street (down the alley on the appropriate side), this little stall run by Thanh and her household is typically mobbed by patrons, and it is not unheard of for a line to form as she begins serving at 11:00 a.m. This is due to the fact that all her ingredients are bought fresh that morning from the industry, and when she’s out of meals she’s done for the day. As Gastronomy Weblog reports (this is the blog that turned the planet onto her), Thanh has kept her prices under 13,000 VND, regardless of rising charges, and refuses to raise them out of loyalty to the neighborhood workers who frequent her.
Eatdrinknbmerry.com was fortunate enough to visit Thanh on a Friday when she was serving up piping hot bowls of bun bo hue, produced of a broth the color of “fiery red, a sign of dense chili sauce and in all probability annatto seeds,” and filled with beef and cha, or pork sausage patties. Topped off with congealed pork blood (huyet) and noodles, this soup has been identified to make travelers, in just a matter of minutes, reconsider ever leaving. Something tells me, Thanh would be just fine with that.
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