With only 48 hours, Australian tourists "run around" to eat all kinds of delicious food in Ho Chi Minh City

(Dan Tri) - With only about 48 hours to spare, an Australian male tourist tried every way to speed up his time to enjoy more delicious Vietnamese dishes in Ho Chi Minh City. Pho was the first thing he thought of.

Ben Groundwater, a writer and tourist from Australia, visited Vietnam not long ago. Before this trip, he learned a lot about the culture and cuisine of the S-shaped country.

"I only have about 48 hours, so I plan to try to enjoy it as quickly as possible, and try as many specialties in Ho Chi Minh City as possible. This is quite difficult because there are countless delicious dishes in this city, and the prices are affordable," Ben commented.

He enjoyed beef wrapped in betel leaves at a small restaurant (Photo: Ben).

After landing in the city and checking into a downtown accommodation, Ben immediately walked down the street to find a traditional rice restaurant in the city center.

It is a simple restaurant, but full of local character with a glowing charcoal grill, a glass cabinet displaying ingredients and small plastic tables and chairs placed close together.

The main dish here is grilled beef in betel leaves, with the main ingredient being minced beef marinated with spices, wrapped in betel leaves. The chef will grill it over charcoal. When enjoying, diners will eat raw vegetables, pickles and rice paper.

The flavors blended sour, sweet, salty and smoky, making it the perfect introduction to Vietnamese cuisine, yet light enough to leave Ben room for his second meal of the evening, banh mi.

Luckily, Huynh Hoa Banh Mi was just a few blocks away. The Australian customer ordered a traditional pork sandwich. The sandwich had pate, mayonnaise, cold cuts, pickled radish and carrots, and a special layer of pork floss. For him, it was the perfect ending to a dinner.

The next morning around 7am, when the cool morning air in Ho Chi Minh City woke Ben up, the first thing he thought of was pho.

Pho is Ben's favorite dish in Vietnam (Photo: Ben).

For him, there is nothing more satisfying than sitting among the bustling crowd in the early morning of a splendid city, with a steaming bowl of pho in front of him. He picked basil leaves and inhaled the rich aroma of the beef broth, overwhelming the smell of motorbike exhaust all around.

He admitted that he had enjoyed Vietnamese pho a lot. These bowls of pho have the common characteristics of soft and chewy rice noodles mixed with a sweet broth made from beef bones and herbs. A bowl of Southern-style pho cannot lack medium rare beef, crispy bean sprouts, thinly sliced ​​onions and fresh herbs.

"This is the best bowl of Vietnamese pho I've ever had," he confided.

The pho restaurant he visited was not the most luxurious or famous in the city, but the taste was excellent. The restaurant was simply furnished with tables and chairs made of thin metal or simple plastic chairs. However, the service was fast and professional.

For Ben, the pho here is cooked to the point of "sublimation", making him just want to sit still and enjoy every spoonful of hot broth.

Continuing his journey of discovering Vietnamese cuisine, he found a restaurant on Nguyen Canh Chan Street to enjoy Bun Rieu. He described the dish as "not for the faint-hearted" because it has a broth made from tomatoes and field crabs, served with thin rice noodles, crab cakes, shredded banana flowers, herbs and chunks of pig's blood.

Dinner for an Australian tourist was a new experience. He chose crab noodle soup with soft and chewy noodles and a thick, seafood-flavored broth at a shop in the city center.

The 48-hour fast-food journey also included shrimp and pork rolls. This was also Ben's last meal before leaving Ho Chi Minh City. He admitted that the taste of the food will stay with him for a long time.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/du-lich/chi-co-48-tieng-khach-australia-chay-so-an-du-mon-ngon-o-tphcm-20251005002852534.htm