Hu Tieu

Pho may be Vietnam’s national dish, but out on the streets of Saigon, the soup that I see being enthusiastically slurped most often is Hu Tieu. I’ve heard it said that this pork based noodle soup has Chinese origins, so it’s a good idea to try it in Chinatown, though I think you’d find a fine example on almost any street here.

Sometimes it’s sold from old style wooden wagons, though more commonly the set up looks like this. This vendor sells near our house. I’ve been going here for breakfast on the weekend recently. She makes a very satisfying bowl of soup. The pork broth has just enough sweetness. And I like that you get extra greens on the side to add to your bowl; the curly leafed celery tasting one goes especially well.

The contents of the soup will vary from place to place. There will always be pork meat, but it may be fine slices, or minced, or a hunk of flesh still attached to the bone. The noodles may be wheat or rice, fresh or dried. A prawn is usually placed on top as a final flourish. At this place she also adds one fishball, the white orb you can see bobbing on the surface.

 The only problem is this little soup stand is quite popular, so we always seem to end up at the table in not such a great position, next to the man cleaning motorbike parts with some chemical cocktail. The smell of sweet pork broth and celery competes with toxic fumes. There is a solution though, keep your head close to the bowl, and slurp those noodles down as fast as you can. If you asked a Vietnamese person, they would probably say this is the only way to eat a bowl of soup anyhow.