The Yummy Road Ahead

Of all the streets and alley ways amongst the vast open road of Ho Chi Minh City, my favorite one of all is Duong (the word “street” in Vietnamese) Phan Xich Long in Phu Nhuan district.

The crowded streets of HCMC are often uneven, dusty and barely a batch of weed that should stem from the dirt beneath it. I could drive for miles after miles and still be in stuck trying to balance myself amongst traffic and making sure I don’t run into another ditch or crack on the road that might send me on another crash and burn. But Phan Xich Long amongst all is different. It is one of the cleanest open roads that I’ve seen in HCMC. It is actually the first street that I temporarily resided even before I made the switch to Vietnam. Just about a mile or two of double sided traffic, each road parallel to one another (instead of jammed into), palm trees, grass and flowers are beautifully landscaped in the middle of the road. The vendors flood the street after about 6pm with adults, children, dogs & cats alike, intertwined. It’s as if every night is an open carnival. Cafe’s fully lit and tall and narrow mansions rise profoundly! If I could capture this image in words, it’d be like the a mini New York Paradise (except with stinky rivers along side a vast stretch of road).

And on that wonderful Phan Xich Long road, right across the street from a beautiful grey pagoda, lies the late night vendor of a lady with a sign that reads “Chao Trang La Dua” which literally translates to white porridge/congee in pandan leaves and tastes amazingly wonderful! My heaven! If heaven were made of food, i’d like to fly around the smell on pandan leaves and soak in it all day! Pandan leaves are typically extracted for its juice (which smells like buttered coconut oil dipped in heaven) and people usually add them into sweets like che and this …

or sticky rice, etc. Oddly enough, taxi drivers around town even batch these leaves up and leave them underneath their seats as a form of air freshener, go figure! Well back to my delicious bowl of pandan love (which I will take a photo of and update you all in the near future). She pours a bowl of fresh congee already mixed in pandan extract, you’re asked to chose from the selection of side dishes which include salted eggs, an array of salted fish, and ca phao (preserved Thai eggplant). I usually go with the salted egg and ca phao, yum! The soup is rather bland but steaming with pandan freshness so that’s why you’d pair it with more saltier side dishes.

I’d visited her so many times, she’s sure to remember me. I usually visit with my aunt since she lives near by, but today I went alone. I sat for a bit then decided to pair my meal with a sinh to sa po che (sapodilla smoothie)

This is the sapodilla fruit, it’s a tropical fruit of Vietnam. It actually derived from South America and brought to South East Asia through the Philippines during the Spanish rule. It, to me, just taste like chocolate if chocolate were a tropical fruit

I decided today that I was going to stir a conversation with the vendor lady. She’s quite cute, alway greets with a smile even when her glasses are foggy from the steam because she’d sit so close to the pot of congee. I assumed she must’ve had stories for days! She is 62 years old and has four kids, four grand kids and she lives with her younger daughter and son-in-law. Her husband passed away 37 years ago during the war and her family had been in the house behind her for over 60 years and she had been in business for about 45 years since her first daughter was born. Once her neighbor had to sneak her out of the house in the middle of the night with an oil lantern to the nearest hospital to give birth due to the complexity of the war. On the other side of Phan Xich Long, towards Tan Binh district and Go Vap, there use to be rapid gun fire battles and dead bodies dropped like flies and it would take days until they were picked up for proper burial, if any. She told me that Phan Xich Long for as long as she could remember was always a decent street, whatever bad happened on the other side of the road stayed on the other side of the road. As I sat there listening to her story, every chance I got I peered into the road and imagined as if I were to actually see these events happen in front of me. A light flashed before me and I could vividly see her husband scurry around the road in the midst of the war. Amazing.

With a wonderful meal and a heartfelt story, I lay asleep dreaming of tomorrow! Good night everyone.

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