#StreetFood
#TravelTheWorld
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#StreetFoodAdventure
#TravelTheWorld
#FoodTravel
#FoodieTravel
#StreetFoodAdventure
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Short filmTranscript
00:00Hey besties, right now we're shooting a street food video in Ho Chi Minh City.
00:03But before we begin this video, I want to say a huge thank you to our sponsor, BetterHelp.
00:07Right here, something very close to my heart, Vietnamese food.
00:10Something else that's close to my heart though, is therapy.
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01:07To get started, just head over to betterhelp.com slash BEFRS.
01:10Now, on to the show.
01:12In this video, I'll be trying out Saigon's brand new,
01:16this is a preparation I've never seen or heard of before in Vietnam,
01:18Michelin street food restaurants.
01:20This restaurant behind me is proudly boasting two different signs
01:23showing that they've made it on the Michelin Guide.
01:25Right here, we have it, our first Michelin quality meal on the streets of Saigon.
01:29It looks so delicious.
01:32The Michelin company is famous for their rating system.
01:35Actually, Michelin started as a tire company
01:37and they wanted to rate and recommend restaurants
01:39so people would drive more, wear out their tires, and buy more tires.
01:43They started originally in France, but they've rated food all over Europe,
01:46and recently they've come to Asia.
01:48First, they went to Singapore and Thailand,
01:49but finally, they came here to Vietnam,
01:52a place that definitely deserves some culinary acknowledgement.
01:55Today, we're going to go to three of the restaurants
01:57the Michelin folks say are among the best
01:59when it comes to street food in Ho Chi Minh City.
02:01But this list is a bit controversial,
02:03and not everyone agrees.
02:05Wow, look at that guy.
02:06What a strong dude.
02:07Today, I'm going to suss out myself through my own experience
02:09whether or not these restaurants really deserve
02:11the accolades they've been given.
02:13Let's go.
02:13We've come to our first location.
02:17It's behind me right now.
02:18This place is called Gumtang Bagging.
02:20Here's what the Michelin folks have to say about it.
02:22Since the 1990s, this unassuming stall
02:25has been serving what many locals consider
02:26to be the best gumtang, or broken rice, dish in town.
02:30Their most popular version is steamed broken rice
02:32topped with pork chop,
02:33marinated in a secret sauce,
02:35and perfectly grilled over charcoal.
02:37Let me tell you, I've been to this place before,
02:38and they have pork chops bigger than your head.
02:40Let's go take a look.
02:41Oh, a table guy.
02:42They came back.
02:43Oh, okay.
02:46After carefully crossing traffic and nearly dying,
02:48we are here.
02:49This is the main grill master right here.
02:51Sinjan.
02:52He is grilling up massive pork chops.
02:54The smells wafting up here are amazing.
02:56You can smell the charcoal.
02:57You can smell the fat hitting the charcoal
03:00and sizzling coming up.
03:01Take a look.
03:01Oh, it's a big beauty.
03:03I love it.
03:03If you come around on this side,
03:04this is where the pork chops start.
03:06They probably are marinating these overnight.
03:08I know they marinate it in fish sauce,
03:10but there are other ingredients too
03:11that they keep a secret.
03:12Let's talk more about the grilling system here.
03:14First of all, we have the flaming hot charcoal underneath the meat.
03:17What's keeping that going is the fan blowing air into the cinders,
03:21making them hotter and hotter by the moment.
03:23But is there any protective guard on the fan?
03:25Absolutely not.
03:26This woman is contending with many different elements.
03:28There is the extreme heat in front of her,
03:30and then on her left or right,
03:32if she makes the wrong move,
03:33boom, she's going to shave off an elbow with this fan.
03:35So this is the pork chop.
03:36But the word gum tom actually means broken rice.
03:39Let me show you that now.
03:40Right here, we have the famous broken rice.
03:42A long time ago in Vietnam,
03:44during rice harvesting,
03:45the broken grains of rice were separated from the rest of the rice.
03:48And actually, people didn't want it as much.
03:50But instead of wasting the rice,
03:51people made use of it.
03:52What's really special about it
03:53is it's really good at soaking up flavors.
03:56Once you combine fish sauce with some of that pork chop
03:58and some of this broken rice,
03:59it will send you to another dimension.
04:01Let's make a plate now and take a look.
04:02Step one, we have a big pile of broken rice.
04:05And then we come over here to where they have the sides.
04:07He's starting with scallion oil and fried pork fat.
04:10From here, one of the biggest pork chops I've ever seen in my life.
04:13It takes up pretty much the real estate of the whole plate.
04:16This is pork skin.
04:17Then we have another type of pork product.
04:19This is egg loaf or chay.
04:21And then right here, we have an egg,
04:23a Chinese sausage being cut into smaller pieces.
04:25Some cucumber, taikon, carrots.
04:27This right here is our fish sauce.
04:29That plate is complete.
04:30It looks magnificent.
04:31Let's go try it out.
04:35Guys, right here, we have it.
04:36Our first Michelin quality meal on the streets of Saigon.
04:39I can't believe it.
04:40It looks so delicious.
04:41Let's start with this.
04:42Glistening, delicious, fatty Chinese sausage.
04:47It's very dense.
04:48It's very sweet and fatty too.
04:49It's a nice omen of things to come.
04:51Next, this is an egg loaf.
04:53But you can see speckles inside.
04:54It's also filled with pork and woodier mushroom.
04:59Eggy, savory.
05:00You can taste the pork inside.
05:01And there's a little hint of mushroom flavor.
05:03It is so good.
05:03And this is pork skin.
05:06Mmm, salty.
05:07It tastes like they've rubbed it down with toasted rice powder.
05:09A little bit gummy in the texture.
05:11Very delicious flavor.
05:12So that is me trying my best to eat my way around this pork chop.
05:15Now, I'm going to try to lift it up without causing an earthquake or an avalanche.
05:19You can see a sheen.
05:20It's shining.
05:21It's both from the carnalization of the sugar and the fat together.
05:24Cheers.
05:30Wow.
05:30You have the flavor from the charcoal.
05:32You have the sweetness.
05:33You have the savoriness from the fish sauce that's inside of there.
05:35You have these little burnt bits here and there, which are technically carcinogens that could shorten
05:39your life, but increase your mood, which is what I care about right now.
05:44So that's the pork chop.
05:45But the secret behind this dish is that all the elements are meant to be eaten together.
05:49I'm going to get a little bit of egg.
05:50Here we have the scallion oil and the pork fat.
05:52And then this, the fish sauce.
05:53They've added a lot of sugar and they've added a lot of chilies, too.
05:56It's what brings all these different elements together.
05:58Throw on some pork chop.
06:00That is the bite of the century right there.
06:03Wait.
06:05Every time I take a bite, the camera gets closer.
06:09Has it always been like that?
06:12All right.
06:13I'm going to try to ignore that.
06:14So I'm going to put this in and then shovel in the rice.
06:19Wow.
06:20It is a hurricane of flavor.
06:21It's sweet.
06:22It's savory.
06:23It's indulgent.
06:24It's rich.
06:24And it could not be any better.
06:25The question now is, does this restaurant deserve to be on the Michelin Guide from Vietnam?
06:29For me, unequivocally, the answer is 100% yes.
06:32I've had gum tom quite a few times throughout the city.
06:35And this is better not by a little bit, not by 10%.
06:37And by a multitude of math better.
06:41So this is location one.
06:42They knocked it out of the park.
06:43But next, we're going to a place that's much more controversial because we're covering Vietnamese pho.
06:48Let's take a look.
06:49This selection is a bit controversial among Vietnamese people and it's easy to understand why.
06:56There are hundreds of pho restaurants in this city.
06:59And everybody thinks that the one that they grew up with is the best pho place.
07:03So it is nearly impossible to suss out what is the best pho in this city.
07:06But a bunch of dudes from France did that job for us.
07:10So we don't have to worry about it.
07:11Here's what the Michelin Guide says about this place.
07:13Like most pho shops, you can order the house special to sample different beef cuts with the ubiquitous noodle soup.
07:21But the most popular ingredient here is hoxtail.
07:24Braised for 40 hours until the meat is tender and the skin gelatinous.
07:28Right now, it is my duty to see if they actually did a proper job of choosing one of the best pho locations in this country.
07:34Let's go inside and take a look.
07:35We've just sat down at the restaurant and I've got the menu right here in my hand.
07:38First of all, there are two main types of pho restaurants.
07:41Chicken or beef.
07:42This place is a beef place and man, do they have a lot of beef options.
07:45They even have this bean testicle.
07:47I'm not in a big hurry to get testicles in my pho today.
07:50But what I will do is get what they call pho dak bieh.
07:53What that means is shul pho.
07:54They're going to put a load of different types of meat inside.
07:57Come take a look with me.
07:58Right here, we have all these hard-working ladies surrounding.
08:01The most vital, important part of the dish right here, this is the broth.
08:04A big, bubbling, boiling cauldron of deliciousness.
08:07What time did that start boiling today?
08:13Oh my god, they're so precious here.
08:15I just asked a simple question and the owner is like trying to put herself together, get her hair together back there.
08:19Lady, you look perfect.
08:21Don't worry about it.
08:21I'm curious, how long has this broth been boiling today?
08:30So here's how it works.
08:32They start boiling the bones and the spices, all that together from 9 a.m.
08:37And I know what you're thinking, but 9 a.m. to 12, that's only like 3 hours.
08:40No, 9 a.m. the previous day.
08:42That's wild.
08:43That's a really long time.
08:44Harboil begins with oxtail and beef balls, both tossed in the hot broth.
08:49Next, a quick flange of pho noodles with some bean sprouts.
08:52What is it that makes your pho different from anywhere else in Saigon?
08:59She's saying she has very fresh ingredients, which we're about to see, and that she uses a lot of bones to make the broth.
09:04Now for those fresh cuts of meat, beef brisket, a medium fatty beef cut, an even fattier piece of beef, beef tendon, and a surprise entry.
09:12This right here is called cartilage, and I've never tried that in a bowl of pho before.
09:16To finish the bowl, raw beef, some beef balls, and finally, that oxtail.
09:20This is a meat feast, but now it's time for the most special part, the broth.
09:24She grabs the perfect scoop and then just sinks the whole thing in this beautiful broth.
09:28From here, onions and some herbs, some salt and pepper on top of that.
09:32And that right there is a big, beautiful bowl of beef pho.
09:35Let's try it out.
09:35Boom.
09:36We have our dish right here.
09:37I'm going to start with a little bit of lime.
09:38I don't like to put a lot of stuff into it before I actually consume it.
09:44Wow.
09:44That does not taste overrated.
09:45That is a delicious combination of savory and sweet.
09:49Let's get into the rest of it.
09:50This is that raw beef that's mostly cooked because of the hot broth.
09:55Oh, that is delicious.
09:57Oh, this is gnarly.
09:58This is a cartilage.
10:00Let's try it out.
10:02It's fatty.
10:05It's so much solid.
10:06It kind of crumbles and falls apart as you chew through it.
10:08It has a little bit of a plastic consistency.
10:11It's definitely a unique acquired taste.
10:13Oh, right here we have some of that really fatty beef.
10:17I need to share that with some noodles.
10:21The amount of fat is intense, but if you mix it with some noodles, it balances out a little bit.
10:25This is part of the cow tail.
10:27You can literally see that was the cow skin.
10:29That could have been made into a leather boot.
10:31Cheers.
10:32It's just like a delicious, rich, tender roast beef.
10:38And then the texture of that skin is a little bit chewy and leathery.
10:41This is brisket.
10:42When you mix it with the broth and the noodles, it's perfect.
10:46This is a beef tendon.
10:47When you put it in that delicious broth and you boil it for hours, it becomes kind of gummy and soft.
10:54Very good.
10:54Right here, we have a quarter of a ball.
10:56Bouncy and very peppery.
10:59This pool right here costs $4.62.
11:02You could get a cheaper bowl if you got just beef or just one ingredient.
11:06A great value for a little bit over $4.
11:08Tons of palate.
11:09Tons of palate.
11:09After trying this for the first time, do I think they actually are deserving of that Michelin guide status?
11:15I think yes.
11:16Beyond that, the folks here are very chill, very nice, and that's really nice to see.
11:19We have one more on our list that I'm not sure if I can recommend.
11:21I'm going to have to go there first to find out.
11:23Welcome to our third and final Michelin location right behind me.
11:30This place is called Bakolokob, right?
11:34Alright.
11:34This is an out restaurant.
11:36The word out means snail.
11:37This type of restaurant is famous throughout Saigon here.
11:39They're not just serving snails, but also clams, mussels, shrimp, pretty much every seafood you can imagine.
11:44Here's what Michelin has to say about this restaurant.
11:46With a reputation for premium seafood and a great selection of snails cooked in various ways,
11:51shellfish lovers won't be disappointed.
11:53The snails in coconut soup, curry, and steamed with fresh peppercorn are superb.
11:57This place is a little bit of a sleeper.
11:58I've never heard of it, and it doesn't match the vibe or the ambiance of the other locations we've gone to.
12:02Those places have been more loud and street food oriented, while this place looks much more modern.
12:07I'm going to go inside, take a look at the menu, and order up some delicious.
12:12I've just sat down, and they have the menu right here via the old iPads.
12:16Now, will you know what the words mean?
12:19No.
12:19That's what the pictures are for.
12:20I've been told they have a few different signature items, including this right here.
12:24This is alphum.
12:25Here, you can have them prepared in five different ways.
12:27I think I'm going to go with the salted egg.
12:29This is another signature snail.
12:30I'm going to get that.
12:31And this right here, alphum.
12:32They're big, and they can make it with bacon.
12:34We're going to go upstairs now and find out.
12:36Let's see how they prepare this food.
12:37I feel a little bad for the servers who work here.
12:39Oh my god, they're going up another flight of stairs.
12:41Can you imagine, going up and down these stairs 200 times a night, someone's like,
12:45oh, can I get some extra ranch?
12:46Yeah, one second.
12:47Let me just climb three flights of stairs.
12:49Oh, here we are.
12:50Hello.
12:50Xin chĆ o.
12:51We are in the kitchen now, and they're preparing something that we're not going to be trying,
12:54but it is worth mentioning because it's very interesting.
12:56These right here, I thought they were some kind of a shell noodle at first.
13:00These are, in fact, squid teeth.
13:01This is kind of the muscle that holds a squid beak.
13:04They pull it out.
13:05There's many delicious ways to cook it, but we're not here for that.
13:07Let's get to our first course.
13:08Step one, boil the snails in hot water.
13:11Those come out after about 10 seconds, and then they're quickly cooled.
13:14From here, the snails have been given to this gentleman who has a sauce already full of
13:19salted egg yolk.
13:20Wow, that is a big sauce.
13:22There's such a unique smell coming off this pan right now.
13:24Just like that, our salted egg snails are complete next food.
13:28Right here, they've weighed out the snails for our second snail dish.
13:31Put the snails on the cutting board and give them a little bit of a chop.
13:34Wow, take a look at that knife.
13:35Very reflective.
13:36And this butter sauce is all ready to go in the wok, and that smells incredible.
13:40Hits it with a little bit of water.
13:41He puts in sugar, and then he puts in a little bit of fish sauce.
13:44Right here, combination of concentrated passion fruit, chilies, and chili sauce.
13:49So many flavors in one dish.
13:51Right here, special ingredient, pork skin.
13:53Once fried already, but getting fried up once again in this wok amongst all that butter.
13:58And that is complete.
13:59I wish you could smell the way it smells in here.
14:01It smells so good.
14:02Boom.
14:03Third and final course, right here.
14:05First, bacon-wrapped snail.
14:06They look scrumptious.
14:08They look sweet.
14:08They look crispy.
14:09Oh, it's just like double-wrapped for safety.
14:12Try it out.
14:14Oh, Lord.
14:15The bacon is bacon.
14:16Delicious.
14:17There's a delicious, tangy flavor on there.
14:20The snail is slightly chewy, but slightly soft.
14:22So as you're biting it, you're losing track of what is bacon and what is snail.
14:26They both become combined into this one amazing entity.
14:28My people in the Midwest, next time you go to a picnic, no deviled eggs.
14:31Bring this.
14:32Next, right here, we have salted egg snails.
14:34You can see an insanely thick, tasty, salted egg sauce on here.
14:41Not bad.
14:41Good flavor.
14:42A little dry.
14:43I think if you mix the snail with a bit of the seafood sauce, that is going to be the
14:46perfect way to amplify its yumminess factor.
14:49Cheers.
14:51That did it.
14:52Oh, this sauce is so good.
14:53You can taste the lemongrass, lime, salt, pepper.
14:56It's so fresh.
14:57Right here, these are snails cooked in butter.
14:59It's probably one of the most unhealthy things in the world.
15:01Oh, it's kind of tender.
15:05It reminds me of a squid cooked rare.
15:06I got some of that pork fat in this one.
15:10And what they want you to do is grab some banh mi, and you can dip that in there too if
15:13you'd like.
15:14And you can even throw some meat on top too.
15:15I'm definitely gaining five pounds today.
15:17Cheers.
15:26That's my review.
15:27Before our final food, let's talk about the price.
15:29Everything you see on the table plus one beer is $46, a little bit more than that.
15:33So if you're eating seafood in Saigon, especially at a little bit nicer establishment like this,
15:36it's going to cost a little bit more money.
15:38But when it comes to cost, I think it's definitely worth it for this last dish because this is
15:42something I've never seen before.
15:43This is meat from a pen shell, and this is the shell that it came in.
15:47And this will soon become the dish it's served in as well.
15:50Step one, get the fire hot.
15:51Step two, pile that meat onto a grilling basket.
15:54Those things are thick.
15:55Now the shells go back over the fire.
15:57Then we have this mixture of quail eggs and cheese.
16:00Wow, you can see the egg cooking immediately right next to the seafood there.
16:03That looks fascinating.
16:04Finally, the egg has finished cooking, and we have kind of a snail omelet going on here.
16:08I'm going to hit that with a little bit of fish sauce and try it out.
16:11Let's go for it.
16:17Mmm.
16:18It's eggy and slightly fishy, or seafood-y at the same time.
16:21A slight hint of brininess from the snail mixed with this very sweet fish sauce and very fluffy egg.
16:26That is a fascinating combination.
16:29I'm coming around.
16:30I think I like it overall.
16:31This meal is complete, but I still haven't figured out if this place is worthy of being on the
16:35Michelin guide list.
16:38Alas, we've gone to three Michelin guide restaurants in Saigon and had three fun food experiences.
16:45The final restaurant, I found the food to be delicious, the quality was nice, and it
16:48was fun to see new innovative takes on shellfish that I've never seen before.
16:52That being said, for an elf restaurant, I picture something outside on a low-slung
16:56stool with traffic nearby and the heat.
16:59All the special things that make Vietnam unique.
17:01You don't really feel it inside the restaurant.
17:03In general today, my absolute favorite is the gum tam.
17:05Those giant pork chops.
17:06My second favorite, the pho.
17:08And my last favorite, but still very nice, was the Alp.
17:10I enjoyed it, and I would recommend any of these places when you come to Ho Chi Minh City
17:14next.
17:14Otherwise, guys, thank you so much for watching.
17:16That is it for this one.
17:17I will see you next time.
17:18Hey, next time you need to know where to eat in Asia, ask a bunch of French guys who just
17:23came here for a weekend or something.
17:24How did they even pick these places?
17:26Otherwise, that is it for this one.
17:27Oh, yeah, I said that already.
17:28My piece.
17:30I mean, a piece.
17:30Ah.
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17:36Rock out in our threads, feel the thrill of culinary adventures, and celebrate with us
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