Saigon is a city of contrasts. Rickety plastic stools perch on every street corner as locals slurp noodle soup, while high rise sky scrapers and international designer brands cluster in the city centre. The motor bike traffic  is a thick tide of constant blaring horns, and though no road rules or street signs are obeyed, pedestrians are safe walking confidently (though cautiously!) across the road, eyeing up drivers that swerve to avoid them. Though ruled by a communist government that shuts down Facebook and makes parking illegal on days where protests might occur, the economy seems as capitalist as anywhere, and although the Vietnam (or American, as it is called there) War ended only 40 years ago, the people as a whole are as friendly towards Westerners as anywhere in the world.

The best food we experienced in Saigon was not those rated on tripadvisor, or expensive restaurants with extensive menus – it was the outdoor, streetfood vendors and tucked away restaurants specialising in a particular dish, usually packed with locals and priced at $1-3 a head, that were the real finds and lasting memories. If I was to spend just 36 hours experiencing the food of Saigon, this would be my itinerary:

First day:

• Amid the regular tourist activities of the War Remnants Museum, the Reunification Palace, and the Cathedral of Notre Dame, head to The Lunch Lady to refuel. Wildly popular and always packed, she serves up a different bowl of noodle soup for each day of the week, along with spring rolls, fried prawns, and rice paper rolls at a next door stall. Ours was the bun thai, the best bowl of soup of the trip – a sweet and sour broth filled with noodles, morning glory, beef mince and sliced beef, juicy prawns and chilli – and just the thing to slurp down while dripping with sweat in the humid outdoors.
  • 23 Hoang Sa St, District 1, Phường Đa Kao.

• Head to L’usine for a pick-me-up Vietnamese coffee (or a flat white, if you aren’t feeling the condensed milk, ice and strong brewed coffee concoction – though you must try it at least once!) and a sweet treat. In two locations in District 1, L’usine is a boutique cafe and retail escape from the overwhelming sights, smells and sounds of the city. And it is air conditioned.
  • 70 Lê Lợi, Bến Thành, District 1
  • 151/1 Dong Khoi St., 1st Floor, District 1

• In the evening, follow your nose to Banh Mi 37, our favourite of the recommended banh mi sellers in the city. Here, pork patties are coated in a secret barbecue sauce and grilled over coals, then stuffed in warm, crusty Vietnamese baguettes with herbs, pickled vegetables, pate – and more of that epic sauce. A tiny vendor situated in an alley in the Ben Thanh area, watch motorbikes pull up all evening for locals to get their banh mi fix. At less than $1 per banh mi, go crazy and get yourself a couple to feast on. Open from 430pm until they sell out (probably around 7pm).
  • 37 Nguyen Trai, District 1

Second day:

• To breakfast like a local, head to Pho Le for what is apparently one of the best bowls of pho in the city. A steaming bowl of noodles, beef, and spring onion – what could be better?
  • 413-414 Nguyen Trai Street P.7, District 5

• After looking around the Saigon City Hall and Opera House, leg it to the nearby Morning Cafe for your morning coffee fix. Hidden on the second floor of an apartment building and not all that well signed from the street, mark it on your maps before heading out for the morning. Lounge on couches and enjoy the free wifi with that icy Vietnamese coffee – or a decadent cream-topped frappe.
  • 36 Lê Lợi, 2nd Floor, District 1

• For any photographers or boutique shoppers out there, wander down to 14 Ton Dat Dam near the river. A tucked away, abandoned looking apartment building full of tiny shops, cafes and crazy views, it is a less touristy insight into the city and a plain cool place to visit. Just don’t fall down that empty elevator shaft.
  • 14 Ton That Dam, District 1

• Come lunch time, you must try bun thit nuong at Chi Tuyen – one of my favourite dishes of the trip. A heaving bowl of rice noodles, herbs, crispy pork spring rolls, barbecued pork skewers, pickled vegetables, crushed peanuts and fish sauce-lime dressing at just $2 – each mouthful delivers a new level of flavour and texture.
  • Bun Thit Nuong Chi Tuyen – 195 Co Giang St, District 1 

• For a street food dinner entree, head to a vendor located opposite 259 Hai Ba Trung, serving up plates of the best green papaya salad around. Served up with chilli sauce, herbs, beef liver jerky, prawn crisps, and dressing, it is a mix-your-own affair, and best eaten with a Vietnamese coffee on a tiny red stool on the side of the park, watching the traffic rush by. Under $1 per bowl.

• Take a taxi (car or motorbike) to Ốc Quang Anh, a packed seafood restaurant in District 10. Try the snails braised in coconut milk, the grilled scallops with peanuts and spring onions, the barbecue prawns, the clams in lemongrass, and even a fertilized duck egg if you are really keen. Extremely fresh and high quality seafood yet far from breaking the bank – and don’t knock those snails till you’ve tried them!
  • Ốc Quang Anh – 189 Tô Hiến Thành, District 10

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Thai Fish Burgers with Green Mango & Papaya Slaw. Homemade fluffy brioche buns, fresh lime-fish sauce green papaya slaw, grilled fish & creamy sriracha aioli.  Jump to Recipe 

Meet my favourite burger ever.

Say hello to that warm, crispy edged, fluffy brioche bun. Enriched with just a hint of butter and egg, and much lighter than a true brioche, its slight sweetness and tender crumb are the ultimate counterpoint to the sharp sweet-sour contrast of the thai green mango & papaya salad. The classic lime, fish sauce and chilli dressing is bright and fresh, supplemented with liberal handfuls of thai basil and coriander, peanuts for crunch. An aioli-sriracha sauce delivers a creamy heat, and chunks of flaking grilled fish finish it off.

You have to try it.

I can sell it some more, if you want. It is healthy – unusual in the world of burgers – packed with fresh fish and without the cheese, processed meat and fats of takeaways. It is fast – you can make the slaw as far ahead as the day before, the fish takes a max of 5-10 minutes to cook, and you can make the buns ahead too (or buy them, even). The sriracha aioli is literally a mix of sriracha and aioli. It is like the best thai/vietnamese salad encased in soft, warm brioche bun and in finger food form.

My efforts to cut down on phone usage and reliance have been proved wrong, unfortunately. Though I still remain convinced that peering at a swiftly scrolling instagram or facebook feed multiple times a day isn’t conducive to efficiency and productivity, I will no longer drive somewhere without my phone.

Last week I went to a gym class only a few kilometres away, phone-less – it was almost flat, so I left it to charge. Notifications and emails could wait, right? After the class, I got in the car to go home, and had the immediate sense that sometime wasn’t quite right. I couldn’t put my finger on it. The harsh bumping sensation and slight tilt of the dashboard as I tried to pull out quickly answered the question – it was a flat tyre. Absolutely pancake flat, in fact.

Now, I don’t know much about cars. I know it is apparently a life skill, but I have never seen a tyre changed in my life. The next realisation was that lacking my phone, I couldn’t contact anybody. At all. I managed to get back to the gym and call the roadside service, but they were at least another hour away. In the meantime, I was meant to be meeting a friend to go to uni, my lectures started in 45 minutes, and my phone sat helplessly on my desk, utterly useless to me and buzzing frequently with missed calls and texts from my housemates. I realised I didn’t even know their phone numbers or emails – they were all stored on my phone too. Being so completely stuck is not a familiar feeling!

It reminded me of how we are constantly connected to each other and the world in a way that no other generation has been before. I just can’t imagine going to look up a question in the encyclopedia, or not being able to get instantaneous directions to wherever I’m going. Being phoneless or wifi-less almost inspires a vague sense of panic, the disorientating sensation that something is not quite right whenever that device is not in the near vicinity. It is by most of our sides 24/7, scrolled through before bed and on waking up, and picked up at any moment of slight boredom or procrastination. I know I’m not the only one – in a Time Magazine survey of 5000 people, 84% said they could not go a single day without their cellphones.

Crazy, right?

In the meantime, use your phones to get the recipe for these Thai fish burgers with green mango & papaya slaw. They’re worth it.

Cooks Notes:

• The salad can be made up to 1 day ahead, and should ideally be made at least 4 hours ahead of time to allow the flavours to combine. Just whiz up the dressing, julienne the mango & papaya, toss it together and store covered in the fridge.
• The brioche buns are worth a try and not hard (but if you are short on time, feel free to buy some!).   Any extras can easily be wrapped in plastic wrap and frozen for another burger night. Make them when you have an afternoon at home – the timetable is:
  • Make dough, knead (15 min)
  • Rest for 1-2 hours in bowl
  • Divide, shape into balls (10 minutes)
  • Rest for 1 hour
  • Bake 15-20 minutes.

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No-churn passionfruit raspberry pavlova ice cream – creamy vanilla ice cream layered with tangy raspberry coulis, passionfruit swirls & meringue shards.  Jump to Recipe 

Life changing.

I cannot believe I have never tried no-churn ice cream before. I had been a little ‘above’ it, assuming churned gelato was obviously superior, that pasteurising and aging and specific temperatures were all aspects worth consideration – and consequently never made it. The prohibitive time and effort meant a trip to Gelato Messina was far easier!

I think it was the sweetened condensed milk involved that put me off for a while longer – like, how could something with sweetened condensed milk be a real ice cream?

My new answer is IT CAN. IT SO SO SO CAN.

Because this passionfruit raspberry pavlova ice cream is one of the best I have ever tasted. Creamy, sweet vanilla ice cream base is layered with tangy raspberry coulis, passionfruit swirls and crispy edged-fluffy inner crushed meringue shards. It takes all of 10 minutes to make once the meringue and raspberry coulis are done, and then 6 hours freezing time later, you have a batch of ice cream that rivals anything storebought. The meringue and coulis recipe actually make enough for 2-3 batches of ice cream, so you will have leftovers to use in something else (meringue, berries and cream jars?) or just to make more ice cream with.

The possible flavour combinations that could be used with this ice cream base are endless- I’m thinking espresso chocolate with brownie chunks, roasted pear and rhubarb, apple crumble, lemon curd and blueberry swirls, caramel with sticky date pudding chunks…

AND Christmas is only ONE week away now. If your city/town/area is anything like Auckland right now, everyone (and everything) is going insane. The traffic is awful, the shops are packed, the stress is practically palpable, the radio is crammed with Christmas advertising, work is crazy busy (like, why does everyone suddenly want doughnuts the week before Christmas?) and most of the joy and family focus of Christmas seems swamped with a tide of commercialism.

For my part, I am incredibly unprepared thanks to those 9-12 hour doughnut shifts – Christmas dessert for 25 people is on me (!) and planning and Christmas shopping have yet to happen. If this is you as well, this ice cream is perfect. Make it a couple of days ahead (a couple of batches if you are feeding lots of people), and scoop it in the sun after Christmas dinner. Pavlova is an iconic dessert here in the Australia and NZ, but can be challenging in humid weather when you are trying to use the oven for 1000x other things in the days before Christmas. This way you can incorporate an easier meringue (made ahead, or even store-bought), into an easy but impressive ice cream to relieve dessert pressure on the day.

It could also be a worthwhile addition if your main dessert is something like Christmas pudding or trifle, which can be a little divisive (especially among the under-20s!) – have it on hand for those who aren’t fans of the traditional brandy-soaked puds. Even if you aren’t as disorganised as I am, you could still serve it at a relaxed dinner on Boxing Day, or around New Years celebrations – summer is all about beaches and barbecues, right?

If you are one of those Northern hemisphere people enjoying a white Christmas, feel free to experiment with more wintery flavours – chocolate, caramel, roast apples & pears, sticky date….

This recipe is part of a virtual Christmas lunch party with other Australian (and NZ) food bloggers, all serving up amazing recipes that you could use on the day. A big thank you to Bec at Dancing Through Sunday for organising it! Check out the other dishes here:

• Dancing Through Sunday – Vegetarian Stuffing Balls
• Champagne and Chips – Ice Cream Terrine
• The Alimental Sage – Festive Summer Salad 
• 84th and 3rd – Nectarine Almond Streusel French Toast 
• Whats for Eats – Sugar Crunch Cookies

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Pork meatball banh mi – filled with a smear of pate, chili aioli, liberal handfuls of sweet-sour pickled carrots & herbs, and topped with caramelised meatballs Jump to Recipe 

So, I know I have done more than a few Vietnamese recipes on this blog so far, but these Pork Meatball Banh Mi were just too good to hold back.

In those former posts I talked about how much I love Vietnamese food – the freshness, healthiness and sharp flavours of lime, fish sauce, herbs, lemongrass, chilli, palm sugar & coconut, the contrasting heat, sweetness, saltiness and sour notes – there is nothing boring or stodgy about it. I won’t go on more, but see this Vietnamese Green Mango Salad, these Vietnamese Chicken Burgers and this post on Cha Ca, or Turmeric Fish if you haven’t already!

These banh mi are no exception. A light, crusty edged baguette is filled with a smear of pate, a drizzle of hot chili aioli, liberal handfuls of sweet-sour pickled carrots, coriander and mint, a few slices of fresh chilli, and topped with these caramelized, tender and herby spiced meatballs. All the components meld together into a hands-on feast of flavours and textures, the perfect make-your-own dinner for a crowd or just to finish a busy day on a high. They are no ordinary sandwiches.

Seriously, you need to try them.

However, I haven’t mentioned the other huge influence on Vietnamese cuisine vital to these banh mi  – the French. Vietnam’s history seems largely made up of successive colonisations and subsequent rebellions, from many Chinese expansions and invasions to French colonial rule starting in the 1800s, the rise of communism and the Indochina Wars following World War II – after which the US became involved in the 1960s and 70s under what we know as the Vietnam War (although, in Vietnam, they call it the American War). The seventy odd years that the French occupied Vietnam had a major influence on their food: baguettes (which the Vietnamese adapted to use rice flour), the introduction of vegetables like potatoes, carrots and onions, the use of butter, wine and beef in dishes like Vietnamese Beef Stew (Bo Kno), and even coffee. It means that finding small patisseries and bakeries around Vietnam selling chocolate-croissants is not unusual, and although the banh mi is a little different than the French baguette coupled with wine, cheese and cured meats, it is just as delicious (if not more, really) and far healthier!

Although traditional Vietnamese baguettes are a bit softer and airier, have a paper-thin crust and are made with rice flour, most of the recipes on the internet seem very complicated and are riddled with failed attempts (as most Vietnamese would just walk outside and buy baguettes, not muck around making their own!). One day I will master it…but that day is not today, unfortunately.

Instead, I have used a recipe for homemade baguettes by Peter Reinhart via Not Without Salt a number of times now with success – I do not feel quite competent or knowledgable about baguette making to include a recipe in this post, but here is a link to Not Without Salt, who has very easy to follow instructions and pictures if you would like to try making your own. If you have time, it is worth it. The crusty, warm bread you will produce is so much better than that from a store, not only in taste and texture but in the sense of achievement that you made your own bread! If you are short on time, as we all often are, just pick up some baguettes from your local bakery or supermarket and heat them just before serving in a fan oven at about 150° for around 5 minutes until hot and a little crunchy on the outside.

I used pate bought from a gourmet food store because the idea of making my own pate is a little freaky for now – though I am sure that one day it will happen (also time – not enough of it). The recipe makes enough for six hungry people or eight less hungry people – it does make a lot of meatballs, and as long as you buy enough baguettes to feed everyone with lots of fresh herbs, carrots and spreads on hand you should be fine! Or in the opposite scenario, feel free to halve the meatball recipe if there are only a few of you tucking in.

Now go forth and make banh mi. Really. Not optional.

PS. When making these for a crowd (which is pretty much all the time, with three hungry brothers in the house), I often make this green mango salad as well as a side to bulk everything up. Just an option.

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Chả Cá: grilled white fish, fragrant with tumeric, fish sauce, ginger and garlic, is tossed together with dill, spring onion and roasted peanuts.  Jump to Recipe 

Typing up this recipe takes my mind back to two separate occasions – one dusting off cobwebs in the far reaches of my memory, and another far more distinct afternoon just a couple of weeks ago. The former sparked my love of Vietnamese food. At age 13 (so yes, not aaallll that long ago but long enough that memories have begun to fray around the edges and merge with the many photos Mum took of us all), we went on a whirlwind two week trip to Vietnam, spending time in Hanoi, Hue, Hoi An, the Mekong Delta and Saigon. It was my first introduction to proper Vietnamese: the freshness, the abundance of herbs, the existence of Vietnamese mint, the nuances of sweet, sour, and salty that are so fundamental to the cuisine, the love of fish sauce, the daily markets in every town spilling over with piles of greenery and other produce, the sheer variety of dishes over the country….you get the picture.

Although I cannot remember eating Chả Cá Thăng Long (also known as Chả Cá Lã Vọng and Chả Cá Hà Nội, or just Chả Cá) during our time their, it is infamous in Hanoi. Grilled white fish, crispy edged and fragrant with tumeric, fish sauce, ginger and garlic, is tossed together with handfuls of dill, spring onion and roasted peanuts and served on a bed of rice vermicelli noodles. Herbs are scattered on last: mint, vietnamese mint and coriander, along with a decent splash of nuoc cham – a Vietnamese dipping sauce that brings the dish to life with its subtle notes of fish sauce, lime juice, sugar and a bit of heat from red chili.

The second occasion was in the holidays just been. One of my favourite days spent at home in the kitchen, I had started off the morning with lofty goals of what I wanted to create: first on the list was dessert. I had been battling with a rhubarb, raspberry and almond frangipane tart recipe off and on during the last 3 or 4 times I had made it and was determined that this was the day I would get it right – the pastry, the cooking time, the filling, everything. It was a Thursday so I was also in charge of dinner – stuck for ideas but wanting something light, quick, and healthy that everyone in the family would eat (I can’t get over that my brothers still don’t appreciate the amazingness of salmon or eggplant), I opted for this Chả Cá, deciding at the last minute to photograph it as well. Trying to make and photograph two dishes at once does not always end well (very rarely, in my case!) so it was with a bit of stress that I headed to the supermarket to get all final ingredients for dinner. By this point it was only a few hours away from the light fading enough to make photographs impossible (thanks to the NZ winter and 5pm sunset!).

Luck was on my side. It turned out to be one of those long afternoons where the minutes seem to stretch into hours, the sun pouring into through the window in amongst days of clouds and rain, keeping the light right for just that little bit longer. Nothing went wrong (probably a first, for me), and by the time the boys were all home from various tennis and swimming training sessions and Mum and Dad got home from work, the rhubarb tart had worked perfectly (no burnt pastry here, thank you very much!), I had trialled and photographed a small batch of chả cá during the afternoon which had turned out even better than I hoped, and I seemed to have overcome the evening weariness that often appears after a full-on day in the kitchen.

The rest of the chả cá was devoured that evening. Even the two youngest, who are can be iffy with fish, cleared their plates and asked for more. One of the best things about this dish is that it is super easy: marinate the fish ahead of time or just before you make, make the dipping sauce in five minutes, cook your noodles, sauté the fish, and you are ready to go. It doesn’t have to look perfect (my photos certainly don’t), you just throw it all together in a bowl and consume. AND it tastes amazing. Just try it.

A few notes regarding the recipe: 

• Chả Cá is traditionally made with snakehead fish, but now more commonly made with catfish or another firm white fish. Here I used tarakihi, a white, mild fish which is very easy to cook. It is also relatively abundant in New Zealand waters so viewed as a reasonably sustainable fish to buy, particularly compared to other popular fish such as snapper which are in danger of being overfished both in New Zealand and Australia.

• Although traditionally served with Vietnamese shrimp paste sauce, in this rendition I have used the popular alternative of nuoc cham dipping sauce, simply because I was not convinced that my brothers (or anyone, for that matter) would handle the pungency of the former.

• To make the entire meal a little healthier, or just to round it off, you can serve it with some extra vegetables on the side – we used sauteed morning glory (also called water spinach) as it is used everywhere in Vietnam, but beans and broccoli would work just as well.

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