Project Street Food

The roar of gas, the scrape of metal on metal, the sizzle of oil, the smell of lemongrass, garlic, fish sauce and seafood, loud voices, motorbikes whizzing past, knees bumping against a less-than-knee high table, a blind busker wailing into a microphone, raucous laughter, the clink of beer bottles and shouts of MOT-HAI-BA-YO, the traditional Vietnamese cheers chant.

This is Vietnam’s street food scene.

Every night, the world’s best street food is delivered to small child-sized tables on footpaths all over Vietnam.

These tables will be crowded with an assortment of grilled and barbecued meat, vegetables, salads, soups, wraps, rolls, pancakes and rice. The dishes will be seasoned with salt, pepper, lime, lemongrass, fish sauce, basil, garlic, spring onion and dried baby shrimp. Wandering vendors will push mobile kitchens through the throng, offering to supplement the non-moving vendors’ offerings with quail eggs, corn, dried octopus, fish paper, dried banana, sweet potato, giant rice crackers and green mango.

The diversity of Vietnamese food continues to astound me, seven years after I first settled my butt gingerly onto a baby-sized stool at a Vietnamese street food stall.

I have set myself an enormous goal: to learn as much about Vietnam’s street food as possible. The ultimate aim of Project Street Food is to write a book about Vietnam’s best street food and the people who make it.

Stay tuned for more food news and pictures from the streets of Saigon, the Mekong, Hai Phong and other Vietnamese towns with names that don’t rhyme.

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