- Coming up for all you
food rangers out there,
we're going deep into the
street food scene of Saigon.
This Vietnamese street food video
is packed with delicacies
you're gonna love,
and some you might not,
but you're definitely
gonna want to see them,
like coconut worms, quill
egg balut, and more.
Let's go.
Alright, so check it out.
It's Trevor James, I just
got into Saigon, Vietnam.
I'm so pumped because today we're going
for a full-on street food tour.
Let's check it out.
(upbeat music)
This is it.
Saigon.
The home of southern Vietnamese
street food delicacies.
As you travel from Hanoi down
south to Saigon overland,
you can find different
street foods in each city,
and we came to search for the
best street food in Vietnam.
So, our final stop was in Saigon.
Sometimes, you just gotta hit the street,
and eat at the random hole-in-the-walls
to get a true feel for the
local street food scene,
and that's exactly what we did.
So, make sure to watch
all the way until the end,
because we found a ton of unique
southern Vietnamese street food delicacies
that you're not gonna wanna miss.
Let's eat.
Alright, so we just got in to Saigon
and the streets are packed.
There's so much food
around and I'm hungry.
Bright and early.
We're gonna go see what we can find.
First up, we found a huge
bustling alleyway morning market
offering everything you can imagine.
Here, we were searching
for something delicious,
and after a quick walk,
found some back alley
pho that blew our minds.
It is so busy in here.
This is the morning rush.
You can see everyone is going to work.
All these motorbikes.
It's like a sea of motorbikes.
Wow.
Look at this.
It's all here.
Now, this is usually where
you find the good stuff.
All the action.
Whoa, look at those squid.
Oh, yeah.
Cleaning the fish.
This lady's got a nice of
bowl of soup with her chicken.
Wow.
It is busy.
Let's go see if we can
get anything to eat.
So, we're gonna go even
deeper into an alleyway,
see what we can get back in
the deep tunnels of Saigon.
Wow, here we go guys.
(speaking Vietnamese)
Pho?
- Pho.
- Pho.
(speaking Vietnamese)
- This is where you find
the soul of street food,
deep in the alleyways.
And this is where you
can find the real flavors
of the countries you visit.
And here, deep in the Saigon streets,
you can taste your first bowl of pho
and be blown away with the flavor.
The broth.
(Speaking Vietnamese)
Ooh, I think that's a little oyster sauce,
some chili.
(speaking Vietnamese)
Wow, look at this.
Deep in the back alleys of Saigon
we just found a random pho joint.
Oh yeah, she put in some hoisin,
a little chili,
lots of vermicelli rice noodles.
Oh, some pretty rare beef.
Oh, wow!
Look at that.
That is gonna start the day off right.
Wow.
(speaking Vietnamese)
Whoa.
(speaking Vietnamese)
That is just worth the trip here.
That broth is quite peppery
and really, really rich,
complex and nutritious.
Oh, that beef flavor.
Oh, pho.
Oh, that is real street pho, here.
This is what it's all about,
going deep into the street scene.
And after that incredibly flavorsome pho,
we continued back to the market
to see what else we can find
and couldn't help but stop for a durian,
the incredibly pungent and stinky fruit
that's banned from many places in Asia
for it's distinct stench.
Oh, look at these.
(laughing)
Oh.
Wow.
(speaking Vietnamese)
There it is.
My first Vietnamese durian.
(woman speaking Vietnamese)
Okay. Let's try it out.
Okay.
Wow.
(speaking Vietnamese)
Okay.
Vietnamese durian.
Wow.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah. Look at that.
Oh, that is a tender one.
That is soft.
I prefer soft durian,
so let's try it out.
Oh.
(speaking Vietnamese)
Oh, that is actually really good.
It is so soft,
creamy, custard-y,
and sweet.
So sweet.
I love it when it's this soft mushiness.
That is the best.
(speaking Vietnamese)
Bye.
Amazing.
After that potent, custard-y durian,
we continued exploring the market
and found another classic dish.
The bun rieu.
A super smooth tomato and crab broth
rice noodle soup that's
absolutely to die for.
It's found over the
street corners of Saigon
and you'll love it on your first sip.
She's just making one after
the other of bun rieu.
There's the vermicelli.
There it is.
I think that's like a crab cake
or a pork cake with some herbs in it,
wrapped around a banana leaf.
And then, tofu puffs,
tomatoes, blood cubes,
and I think that broth is a pork broth.
Or sorry. I think that
broth is a crab broth
with a little bit of ground pork
and freshwater crab.
Oh, blood cubes.
(speaking Vietnamese)
Nice.
Wow.
Oh, and then here's the herbs.
Nice.
(speaking Vietnamese)
Oh, yeah.
This--
I've been looking forward
to trying this for so long.
We have the bun rieu.
Oh, wow.
This is a classic dish.
(speaking Vietnamese)
Fish sauce?
(speaking Vietnamese)
Okay.
Oh, that's like a fermented fish sauce.
Oh, just a little.
You gotta be careful with that.
And then, I'm gonna add some basil, mint,
I think there's banana
blossom, bean sprouts.
Oh, wow.
And this is like a
freshwater crab base broth.
Mix it up.
Oh, you can just smell the crab.
That crab broth is just
infiltrating the nostrils.
Mmm.
That broth.
It's like a light crab broth
with a bit of tomato-infused
flavor in there.
It's good.
- Really?
- Yeah. I like that.
Really nice.
- Yes.
- Oh, the crab flavor is good.
Vietnam has blown my mind.
Dish after dish of pure joy.
This is what it's about.
After that delicious street food stall,
we made our way for
another street food lunch.
Only one meal later,
we'll be meeting up
with our friend, Sonny,
who took us to eat some of
Saigon's craziest street snacks.
But first, we dine on the street
enjoying a classic Saigon dish,
the Com Tam broken rice specialty,
where broken rice grains are
served alongside lemongrass
and garlic marinated pork and chicken.
You'll fall in love.
It's just dish after dish
of joy here in Saigon.
And when there's smoke,
you know it's gonna be good.
Let's go see what we've got up here.
I think this is Com Tam,
south Vietnamese broken rice specialty.
Oh, yeah. Let's go try it out.
(speaking Vietnamese)
Com Tam.
- Com Tam?
- Com Tam.
(speaking Vietnamese)
Wow. Look at this.
(speaking Vietnamese)
Oh, yeah. Look at all
this chicken on the grill.
Oh, wow.
Con Tam.
(speaking Vietnamese)
Wow.
(speaking Vietnamese)
Oh, yeah.
(speaking Vietnamese)
Okay.
Awesome.
Con Tam on the street in Saigon.
So, this is the broken rice.
We just stumbled on this one
in the back streets, here.
I'm not sure if this is gonna
be excellent or average,
but this is the broken rice.
The rice, actually, is like split in half.
It comes with this
grilled chicken and pork
and some green onions,
a fried egg,
some pickled carrot,
radish, and cucumber.
(speaking Vietnamese)
Pour some nuoc cham.
(speaking Vietnamese)
Okay. Just a little.
Let's try it out.
Mmm.
The nuoc cham is quite sweet.
Oh, and you can see what
they marinated in here.
It's like a really--
It's like a slightly sweet
and garlicky marinade.
Mmm.
This pork is a little dry,
I gotta be honest,
but that flavor!
Oh, look at this with the egg.
That is a filling Saigon specialty.
Now, we're getting into
the serious business.
I met up with my friend, Sonny,
who took me to try some of the craziest
street food that you
can imagine in Saigon.
You won't believe what
you're about to see.
- All right, my friend.
Welcome to the rainy season in Saigon.
- Rainy. It's wet.
I'm loving it.
So, we've got a bunch
of food to try today?
- Absolutely.
The theme for today is
looks strange, tastes good.
- Okay.
- So, you've had a ton of
food in Vietnam so far.
- Yeah.
- All of it looked really delicious.
- Yep.
- And you're gonna see a
couple of unusual things today.
- I'm excited.
- Hopefully some stuff
you haven't tried yet.
- Yes.
Let's check it out.
- Check it out.
- We're going for something live?
- Yes. It's gonna be alive
until you chew it to death.
- Okay.
- Oh, my god.
That looks disgusting.
- [Sonny] Bro. You can't say that.
This is another person's culture.
- What is this?
- I think a good thing to do
while you're staring it down
is to pour your beer
and really contemplate what
you're doing with your life.
- Yes.
- Okay. So, this is the point
I want to make about this.
You've been all over Vietnam already.
- Yeah.
- Of course,
we all know Vietnam has amazing food.
But they also have some unusual food.
- They're squirming.
They're squirming.
- And so, this is the coconut worm.
It's eaten most often while drinking.
- Okay.
- So, it's not super common.
It's not like people are noshing on these
during their lunch break.
But it is something that people
eat while they're drinking.
- Man. It's just wriggling.
- And it's very lively.
- It's just wriggling.
- Now, your first challenge here
is to pick on up.
- Okay.
- Yeah, let's see those chopsticks.
- So, these are coconut worms.
Is this in a fish sauce--
- Some fish sauce.
- With chilis.
- Yep.
- Oh, man.
- So, it's gonna
be nice and spicy, too.
- [Trevor] Oh, wow.
And you just chew on this--
Oh, you can feel it.
- [Sonny] Do you wanna pick
it up with your fingers?
- [Trevor] You can feel it wriggling.
I think chopsticks are just good enough.
So, there nothing to it?
You just eat it and--
- I'll show you how.
So there is a technique to it.
- Man, that is not making me hungry.
- Yeah.
This is probably one of those foods,
it doesn't look tasty.
I'll be honest,
the first time, it does not look tasty,
but the taste, it's not bad.
It's really not bad.
- Okay.
- Okay.
- So, are we just gonna do this right now?
- So, I'm gonna show you how it's done.
Here in front,
they actually have a mandible.
- Yeah.
- A pretty strong mouth, there.
- [Trevor] A mandible?
- Technically, it could bite you.
- Oh, my.
- If you put the whole
thing in your mouth.
So, what the pros do--
- [Trevor] The pros!
- And I'm gonna put
myself in that category.
They choke up on the neck.
Well, it is kinda like one long neck.
They choke up on the neck.
- [Trevor] Yeah.
- You put your teeth here to bite in.
- So you just bite
everything but the mandible?
- And then you pull it
off with your finger.
- Is there a risk of
getting injured, here?
- You're gonna put it in,
clamp your teeth here.
And then, use your fingers--
- And then, just pull.
- To pull it off.
- Oh.
- You're not gonna
have enough leverage
with just the chopsticks
to pull the head off.
- Man, this looks disgusting.
Okay. Let's just do it.
- Okay. Here we go.
- Cheers.
- Cheers.
- I got the mandible.
Oh, yeah.
- Cheers.
How's it taste?
- Cheers.
Oh, its--
it's got a bit of an odor to it.
- Yeah.
- But with the fish sauce and the chili--
- It really drowns out almost everything.
- Yeah.
Yeah, it definitely has a small explosion.
- Yeah.
- [Trevor] But there is a
definite slight odor in there.
But it's covered with most
of the chili and fish sauce.
- [Sonny] Well, you
gotta have another one,
so you can really nail
down that flavor profile.
You know what I'm say?
- Yeah.
(laughing)
- [Sonny] But, you nailed it. I think.
You actually-
Oh, dude. Look at this.
It's still moving.
- [Trevor] Oh, wow.
It definitely is very spicy.
There is a lip-burning to this.
It's like a salty, lip-burn
with a slight stench.
Maybe like an ocean-y stench.
Where are these from?
Freshwater?
- These are from the
Mekong delta, I believe.
- Oh, so there is a bit of a watery
soily--
- Like, earthy.
- Earthy stench to that.
- Yeah.
- That's what it is.
And I'm gonna take the last one.
- [Sonny] Oh, I'm jealous.
Enjoy.
Enjoy it for both of us.
- Oh.
That's just--
I wouldn't say that's delicious.
(laughing)
- But, it's an experience.
- Yep.
- Cheers.
- Nice first
intro meal, here.
After those intensely spicy coconut worms,
Sonny brought me to try
another extreme snack.
Operated out of the back of a motorbike,
in a back alley.
You don't get anymore local than that.
- We are in luck.
Okay. Here we have the bap xao man.
(speaking Vietnamese)
- What do we have here?
- So, we have all kinds of goodies, here.
Usually this guy rolls around on his cart,
he's got some audio playing
that's explaining the menu to everybody.
- Okay.
- And he's got a few different dishes.
Obviously, the dried
squid you can see here.
- Yep.
- He's got a corn dish he makes
from this corn called bap xao.
- Okay.
- But what we want is
right inside of here.
- In here?
- And it's called trung cut lon.
- Chung trung cut lon.
This right in here?
- That's where the treasure is hidden.
- Okay. Let's see.
Oh. What is that?
- Okay, so we have a few
different kinds of eggs in here,
but what we want
is right inside this one.
- [Trevor] Are these quail eggs?
- These are quail eggs.
But what's special about them is,
you've heard of balut, right?
- [Trevor] Yes.
- Well, this is essentially
the balut of quail eggs.
- Okay.
So, like an unhatched
quail egg?
- Right.
A developed, fertilized quail egg.
- Oh, man.
- And so, you can grab one.
- Oh, it's hot.
- It's hot.
They keep it super hot in here.
It's steaming.
- Okay.
- And you can just kinda
unwrap it like a Tootsie Roll.
And what's inside is even sweeter.
- [Trevor] Oh, man.
You're just bringing me to
all the pumpin' stuff, here.
Oh!
Oh, it's got juice bursting out of it.
- Now, you are technically supposed to--
We'll have to try a couple of these.
You're suppose to sip the soup
as you open it.
- Oh, I did it wrong.
Oh, man. That just looks nasty.
Look at that.
- [Sonny] But you've
never had balut before?
- [Trevor] No, I actually haven't.
- [Sonny] Or any kind of developed egg.
- [Trevor] Oh, wow.
That is definitely not pretty.
- Like I said,
looks unusual, tastes good.
But we wouldn't eat these
just plain like this.
We would eat them with some--
He's got this small tray, here.
He's gonna put salt, pepper,
some chili--
- [Trevor] And this is on
the back of a motorbike.
- [Sonny] And kumquat juice.
- [Trevor] Okay.
Salt, pepper, chili, and kumquat.
Nice.
And that'll give this quail egg balut
some flavor.
- Some nice flavors.
- Man.
- There we go.
(speaking Vietnamese)
We can't just eat it plain.
- Okay.
- Okay. Then, he also
gives you these herbs.
These are laksa leaves, I believe.
- Okay.
- [Sonny] Can we put it here?
Okay.
- [Trevor] Okay, so we're just gonna
dip this into the salt,
pepper, chili, and kumquat.
- Yep.
- Let's do it.
And then chase it with some herbs.
- [Sonny] Exactly.
- [Trevor] Okay.
Oh, man.
What are you bringing me to today?
- Cheers.
It's really good, right?
- Oh, yeah.
Oh, wow. That is actually
really flavorful.
And hit it with some herbs.
Nice.
Wow.
Those quail balut are
actually really flavorful.
- Yeah.
- They're like super flavored eggs.
- And it has a nice texture.
- A nice texture,
a bit of a chewiness.
- So, it's like you're
taking a spoon full of soup,
like a really savory soup.
- I could go for another.
After those incredibly
surprisingly delicious quail eggs,
Sonny brought me to try the
final meal of the night,
another local specialty that you'll miss
after you leave Saigon.
This is one of the most delicious
things you can eat here,
snails and seafood.
(speaking Vietnamese)
- Wow.
- The last item
- It is all here.
Wow. This is a feast, man.
- This looks awesome.
- Wow.
- So, we've got our crab, here.
- [Trevor] Crab with chili.
- [Sonny] Yep.
- [Trevor] Awesome.
- [Sonny] Scallops with peanuts.
- [Trevor] Nice.
- [Sonny] Here, we have the
snails in tamarind sauce.
- [Trevor] Oh, wow. This is just abundant.
What is this?
- [Sonny] These are squid teeth.
- Squid teeth?
- Yep.
I'm gonna show you those in a second.
- [Trevor] Okay.
- [Sonny] Here, we have some giant snails.
That's the scientific name.
Giant snails.
- Okay.
Oh, man.
- [Sonny] These are--
This is so Vietnamese-style.
Giant oysters with some
processed cheese on top.
- [Trevor] Nice!
- [Sonny] And then, lastly,
here we have the sucking
snails in coconut milk.
- Oh, yeah.
With chili and herb on top.
Man, this is abundant.
And then, I noticed
they gave us some herbs
with salt and pepper, chili, and lime.
- Yep.
So, you can dip anything here.
- And then, some baguette.
- And some baguette.
- And what do we do with the baguette?
Look at this.
Oh, wow.
- Anything here that looks
syrup-y that you wanna sop up,
you can sop up.
- You just dip it in.
- But we'll mainly use it
for the squid teeth, here.
- Okay. Let's go right
in for those squid teeth.
- Okay.
- Squid teeth.
- Cheers.
- Oh, wow.
- It's really good, right?
- Quite soft and chewy.
And sweet.
And garlicky.
- Really sweet sauce.
And so, what you do--
- Oh, that is delicious.
Oh, yeah. This is magic.
- [Sonny] You can scoop up
some of those squid teeth
and you wanna get that oil all over that.
- [Trevor] Man, that is delicious.
- [Sonny] And that is how it's done.
- [Trevor] That sauce
is unbelievably sweet,
slightly spicy,
and those squid teeth are soft and chewy.
- Yep.
- I really wanna try--
- Try these?
- These sucking snails.
- Yep.
- And coconut, right?
- [Sonny] Sucking snails in coconut milk.
- [Trevor] Oh, yeah. With herbs on top.
- [Sonny] You want it to be
just super saturated in the coconut milk.
- [Trevor] And you said
these were laksa leaves?
- [Sonny] Yep.
And all you do is
you scoop up the whole thing
and you wash it off in your mouth.
- Okay.
Oh, yeah.
Slightly sweet.
- And then, you suck it out.
Super sweet.
- And coconut-y.
- Sweet, salty, delicious
coconut milk flavor.
- That coconut is so creamy and sweet.
This was one of the best
meals we ate in Vietnam.
So many different flavors
all on one table
and to share it with
Sonny was such a blast.
If you wanna try any of these,
the addresses are in
the description below.
And don't forget to click
that subscribe button and bell button
for both my channel and Sonny's channel
so you won't miss any notifications
for these deep street food tours.
Thanks a lot for bringing me
to those deep street joints, man.
- My pleasure, bro.
- That was a crazy night.
Those worms!
Wow!
(laughing)
Sonny's got a really cool YouTube channel.
You can check it out.
The best ever food review show.
I'm gonna put a link in the description
or you can just click right here.
Thanks a lot, buddy.
- Cheers.
- That was a lot of fun.
