Breakfast in Saigon

I love breakfast in Vietnam. One of my first thoughts everyday I wake up here is that I'm so lucky to be awake in the morning in Vietnam -- I can eat breakfast!

I jump out of bed, throw some water on my face, brush my teeth, and leap out the door, downstairs into the already hectic streets. It's maybe 8am and the city is already alive, to put it mildly. Motorbikes zip to and fro, this way and that, and as a pedestrian I have to constantly do my best to avoid an unpleasant run-in.

But I'm not going far. Just down the street from my District 3 apartment is a lady with a street food cart selling delectable bánh mì sandwiches. She's only there until she runs out of baguettes, which seems to generally be between 8:30 and 9:00, so I do my best to make it before then.

I order up my sandwich -- either ốp la (with fried eggs) or thịt (with meat). My sandwich lady then springs into action, slicing open the baguette (a remnant, I assume, from the French occupation of the earlier half of last century -- I've heard that the phrase "ốp la" comes from the French, oeufs "au plat" (what we call sunny-side up eggs in English) as well, though I haven't seen any definite verification of this story), adding bits of this and that and the other. Usual ingredients include vinegared cucumber and carrot slivers, margarine, liver pâté, cilantro, homemade mayonnaise, chili peppers, soy sauce, and fish oil. All in addition to either those fried eggs or a selection of sliced cold cuts.

What I finally receive looks something like this:

Freaking delicious. And for this I pay around 15,000 Vietnamese dong -- or $0.75.

I usually munch on my breakfast while having a little walk around the neighborhood -- narrowly evading motorbikes, listening to the sounds of a city already wide awake, and savoring the bold combination of flavors in my mouth.

But I'm not quite done. Before continuing onward with my day there's one more necessity: coffee. And lucky am I to be in a city that must be among the highest in coffee shops per capita. Walk down any little side street in Saigon and you'll see three, four, five coffee shops, sometimes in quick succession. Café culture is alive and well here, and it's easy for someone like me to get his daily caffeine fix.

I'll duck into a nearby shop and order my morning cà phê sữa đá, or iced coffee with sweetened condensed milk.

Coffee in Vietnam, uses primarily Robusta beans grown in the highlands in the south of the country near Dalat, and is therefore strong and distinctive. There's little of the slight sour you get from Arabica beans, but rather a sort of chocolatey-ness, super strong and super bitter. Traditionally it's brewed using a cute little metal drip filter called a phin which sits atop your glass. Because the coffee is so strong and bitter, it's often combined with sweetened condensed milk, and because Saigon is so hot it's usually served over ice.

Another welcome addition is that most shops will offer you a free bottomless glass of Vietnamese iced green tea to go along with your coffee. The tea is refreshing and slightly bitter. I like it because I can gulp down a cup of tea to quench my thirst before more slowly appreciating the coffee.

Finally, having finished my breakfast, it's time to get on with my day. By now it may be 9:00 or later and the sun is already beating down on the city. Perhaps relief from the heat will come in the form of a rain shower in the afternoon, or perhaps we'll have to wait until the sun sets for the temperatures to recede. Either way, I'm already looking forward to lunch, dinner, and of course, tomorrow's breakfast.