Asia Weekly

Asian and Chinese Food Culture

The culinary heart of Saigon

Generous in presentation and "bold on the palate," canh chua ca, or sour fish soup, is the "culinary embodiment" of the "outsize boomtown spirit" of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), writes Robyn Eckhardt in The Wall Street Journal Asia. The "wild and woolly" dish, beloved by the city's residents, is packed with large chunks of deep red tomato, golden pineapple, "crunchy" bean sprouts, tender okra and bac ha, or taro stem, which "absorbs the tamarind-tart, fish-sauce flavours of the salty broth." With its fried garlic nubs and vivid green herbs, canh chua ca "is a colourful jumble of contrasting tastes and textures that is as eye-catching as it is tasty." The dish reflects the abundance of the region: fish is a major part of the diet in southern Vietnam, where the "Mekong's distributaries teem with wild and farmed specimens." Hearty and nutritious, canh chua ca "graced southern Vietnamese tables" even during the lean years between the end of the Vietnam War and the economic reforms initiated by the government in 1986. "Even poor farmers could eat it," said My Tran, a Saigon businesswoman, "because they could go to their rice paddy and catch a fish, pull herbs from around the paddy, pick pineapple that grows on their land and find the taro wild." The dish is usually made with snakehead fish, though some prefer catfish.  "It's home food, not street food," said cookbook author, chef and restaurateur Nguyen Dzoan Cam Van. It should be sour, but "not puckeringly so," added  food writer Andrea Nguyen.

Where to find it:

Dzoan Cam Van, 34 Nguyen Thi Dieu Street, District 3 (84 8) 9306-120

Hoang Yen, 148 Hai Ba Trung Street, District 1, 8234-564

Nam Son, 135 Nguyen Thien Thuat Street, District 3, 8399-901

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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