It is said that food is more than just sustenance, but it encapsulates within its nuances the feelings and memories associated with a particular dish. Like the memory of a place or a person.  Therefore, I am hungering for the food I had in Ho Chi Minh City.

On a beautiful night a couple of weeks ago, we had dinner in Quan An Ngon in the middle of District 1.  We had walked hand-in-hand in the Vietnam dusk from the sweet book street and the cathedral to this colonial building set back from the wide boulevards.img_4978

At Quan An Ngon, there are food stalls within this lovely building selling traditional Asian cuisine. You pick what you like, you can even watch the chefs make your food.  We wandered amongst the stalls, chatted to the staff, and ate the delicious food outdoors in this special place.

I wrote about Quan An Ngon here.

So here’s a simple Asian noodle dish:

  1. Blanch the yellow noodles in boiling water and then dunk it into cold water to stop the strands sticking together (we saw the noodle chef doing that);
  2. Flavour with lots of pepper, sesame oil, dark soy sauce and light soy sauce.
  3. Top with lightly blanched chou sum, roast pork (I served mine with braised aubergine slices) and wontons.
  4. Add a generous amount of spring onions and cut red chilli.

It does taste quite authentic, much to my surprise.

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