EATING UP SAIGON.

Slurp, crunch, wrap, roll, repeat. Some good places to eat, and a new recipe for chicken liver pate WITH FISH SAUCE.

So many herbs. So much broth; some light and fragrant, some dark and bloody. Slippery rice noodles. Fresh lime that makes everything jump. Tiny, tiny shrimp. Heavenly rice. Hot sun. Iced coffee. So much nuoc cham. Oh, and… pho cocktails!

I had only a few days in Saigon last week, but I need to share.

Here also is the promised quick recipe for a simple chicken liver pate to spread on fresh baguette, with a spoonful of nuoc cham (that punchy, sharp, hot dressing that gives an electric charge to anything it touches). It cleverly triggers everything you love about Vietnamese banh mi rolls, without all the hard work.  And the pate has just a hint of fish sauce in it, to make it sing.

See below for recipe, but first, I’m going to make you hungry. Sorry.

SAIGON: A FEW DINING TIPS.

Man Moi (Thao Dien). In spite of a very beautiful and atmospheric setting, Man Moi calls its cooking ‘homey food’; home-made, and it really feels like it. They make it easy, with a picture menu and helpful staff, but you really get a sense there’s a great kitchen out the back (you can smell the smoke) and a lot of care goes into everything – including the cones of fresh leaves that cover the cutlery jars on your table.  The owners are present, and it really shows.

Weekend menus are devoted to traditional dishes of ‘broken rice’ but it’s worth spending twenty minutes exploring the menu, it’s so broad. You’ll find stuff that satisfies and intrigues; like a dark and dirty bowl of rice noodles with pork, and tiny wild shrimp tossed into a sharp, bitey salad of flowering herbs. Their banh mi is benchmark. 

Anan Saigon. In the middle of one of the last remaining ‘wet markets’ in Ho Chi Minh City, a skinny four-story building (known locally as a tube house) rises like a tower. On the ground floor, a small bar and elegant seating for Anan Saigon, the first restaurant in town to get a Michelin star, then Nhau Nhau cocktail bar, then Pot au Pho, devoted to pho, and then a rooftop bar. Few people can elevate street food with the humour and craft of Peter Cuong Franklin.

It’s tiny, so it’s hard to get in, you can only book by email and it’s hard to work out if there is a la carte as well as degustation, but go if you can, because there is nothing else at all like it, in the world.

Yes, there are foie gras spring rolls and fish sauce ice-cream, but the menu is full of ideas (Da Lat street-style pizza, banh xeo taco), and the whole place is cheeky and proud, hard-working and zeitgeist-changing.

Akuna. Aussie boy-done-good Sam Aisbett is doing great things at Akuna, in the lovely riverside Le Meridien Saigon. It’s sophisticated degustation dining with high service levels, yet there’s such respect paid to the fact that he is in Vietnam, and such a friendly Australian attitude, that it never feels you’re in a fancy or foreign restaurant. A totally charming high-end but relaxed experience with great wine service.

NOTE: Sam inspired my trip to Saigon, by winning a Michelin star for Akuna in June. He and his team invited me to a celebratory dinner with a very special guest star, and it was indeed special. Can’t say any more now, but watch out for the full story in the Australian Financial Review’s Life & Leisure section on August 16.

Pot au Pho. This modern noodle bar is just one level of the four levels of gastroplex that is Anan Saigon, and it’s a little beauty. The Pho Cocktail, made with Lady Trieu gin, pho herbs and spices, left me speechless - a rare enough event. Chef Peter Cuong Franklin and his young team are having fun, and it shows, in the pate chaud puff pastry appetiser enriched with foie gras, and the ‘molecular pho’; a fun one-bite take starring truffle and wagyu beef in a sphere of pho broth.  The bone marrow pho has a purity and fragrance that elevates it and yet makes it the pho you want every day, with its slow-cooked short rib, tongue, tendon and beef tenderloin.

Pho Hung. Well-known local pho soup and noodle joint. Go early (like, really early). Famous for their pho bo (beef) but I love the lilting sweetness of their pho ga (chicken). 243 Nguyen Trai, Nguyen Cu Trinh, District 1, Saigon.

Quan Bui. (Above) It’s one of a restaurant group, but a good one, and can do dishes from north to central to south Vietnam equally well. Hustle-bustle service, charming décor; good value, mountains of herbs, and a bit of a haven if you’re not up to another meal on the street. Good soups, cha gio, banh xeo, and grilled meats. Again, there’s a real sense of pride in their food and culture. Various addresses.

Hoa Tuc (above). A charming old-time dining room, big wooden chairs, sparse bar, memorabilia, and a please-everyone menu of Vietnamese favourites. I think it might be the choice for busloads of tour groups at night, but it was serene by day, and situated in a sweet little courtyard alongside a cooking school and banh mi truck owned by the same restaurant company. Just to the side of the beautiful Park Hyatt. 

Vietnam House. Another beautiful room, this time grand and classy, in the swanky Opera District, very popular with Euro expats. Sydney chef and one of the most personable chefs on food television Luke Nguyen is behind Vietnam House, and doesn’t stray far from the staples – but surrounds them with the luxuries of service, wine lists and air-conditioning. Stick to simple things such as barbecued chicken with a fab wild pepper sauce, and you’ll do well.

AND YOU’LL BE NEEDING COFFEE: Bosgaurus Coffee Roasters

The Vietnamese coffee here is unbelievably good – dark and rich and smoky, tinkling with ice. Unlike Vietnam’s historical association with robusta beans, Bosgaurus deals with arabica, ever since founder Nguyen Canh Hung visited Europe as an engineer on a business trip, and had his first experience of specialty coffee.  The air-conditioning is fierce (thank the lord) but there’s a lovely terrace outside for cooler days at the Opera House venue, and another cafe on the Saigon river. Great bottled coffees to go.

OR STAY HOME AND HAVE EVEN MORE FUN WITH THIS.

A touch of fish sauce makes this chicken liver pate sing. It doesn’t smell or taste fishy at all, but gives it just a gentle Vietnamese nudge. 

Add a crunchy baguette and loads of herbs – coriander, mint, basil, holy basil, sawtooth or shiso, or all of the above – and a bowl of nuoc cham.

Then spread the baguette with pate, spoon a little nuoc cham on top, and pick off a couple of herbs to add. Wham, you’re in Saigon.

CHICKEN LIVER PATÉ WITH FISH SAUCE

• 500 g chicken livers

• 1 cup milk

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil

• 1 garlic clove, finely sliced

• 2 red shallots or half red onion, finely sliced

• 1 tbsp Chinese rice wine, cognac or brandy

• 1 tbsp fish sauce

• 1 tbsp butter (or more if you like it richer)

• Sea salt and white pepper

Trim the chicken livers, removing any skin or sinew, ending up with about 400 g.

Soak them in milk for a couple of hours or overnight.

Drain, rinse, pat dry, and chop into roughly 3cm pieces.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a frying pan and cook the garlic and onion over low heat for 5 minutes until softened.

Remove to a small bowl, and heat the remaining oil in the pan.

Add the chicken livers and brown on one side, leaving them undisturbed, for 2 minutes.

Turn with tongs and fry the other side; you want them cooked outside but still gently pink inside.

Return the shallot and garlic to the pan, add the fish sauce, then add the rice wine or cognac (carefully, it may flame), and allow to bubble away for 30 seconds.

Add the butter to the pan, leave to melt for 10 seconds, then tip the contents of the pan into a food processor.

Add salt and white pepper, and whiz until smooth. If it’s still a bit gritty, whiz again.

Transfer to a bowl, cool and cover with plastic wrap.

Serve with a crunchy baguette, loads of fresh herbs and nuoc cham. Serves 4 as starter.

Handy link to nuoc cham recipe if you need it. Or slather it into a crisp bread roll with herbs as per Man Moi:

Thanks for dropping by! And as always, thanks for your comments and suggestions. Special thanks to Terry for cleaning the chicken livers for me; very kind of you.

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I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands and waters upon which I work, live, cook and play; the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, and pay my respects to Elders past and present, and to the continuing strength and resilience of First Nations people, communities and cultures.