Coconut candy or kẹo dừa, one of the most popular candies in Vietnam, esp. in the South, along with banana candy! Both of them are purely traditional candies from Mekong Delta. Coconut candies are mostly from Bến Tre, the coconut's homeland!

          In small workshop in Cái Bè (Tiền Giang), the workers demonstrate how to make the candy!  

Kẹo dừa is simple but very tasty! Mainly with original coconut flavor, sweet, soft...sometime mixed with durian or pandan leave flavor or roasted peanut. I enjoy durian, but I don't like coconut candy with durian flavor, I prefer a combination of coconut and peanut! Long in the past I didn't like how to unwrap the paper from the candy as they sticked together : the paper and candy! Nowadays we have double wrapping: inside with edible rice paper and outside oil paper! The problem solved!   

             Coconut candy made of coconut cream mixed with malt sirup...

Coconut candies are very affordable, so affordable that's why kids in Saigon rarely request these candies as gift from anyone, but people from Mekong Delta keep buying it as presents to their relatives living in big cities like Saigon, Hanoi...and everyone always enjoy regardless of their value.

Eating coconut candy, I prefer taking not only one but two pieces...at once, in order to feel the rich and tasty coconut flavor, but at the same time my mouth can do exercise...because the coconut candy is not that soft, always pretty chewy!

              It could be added with durian flavor or roasted peanut to enrich the taste! 

The production line for coconut candies is quite simple, but to make a good quality candies is far from ease! We need to select a right coconut with super fresh flesh, then grate them, press them to extract the coconut cream and milk! The next step is how to mix with the good quality malt sirup...and this is the maker's secret how much to add the sirup or probably some other ingredients...we never know!

           Ready-to-pack candies! 

The coconut candies have been exported to some markets as US, Canada or Europe, to be sold in some grocery stores for overseas Vietnamese or other Asians who loves the flavor of this special candies, there was a time or maybe still now, the legal fight between a famous Vietnamese coconut candies manufacturer with Thai or Chinese ones as they produce candies somewhere else in China or Thailand, different flavor, different quality, but always label as "Product of Vietnam"!

          The final packaging with the maker's label! 

I regret that no one in Vietnam can build up a good brand for coconut candies from the Land of Coconut - "Bến Tre", with super quality, in rich collection, with eye-catching packaging so we can be proud of it as the Swiss - with their chocolate! Let's hope for one beautiful day! 

Talking about the Mid Autumn Festival, about the moon cake, we should not forget the lantern. Together with moon cake, the image of the colourful lantern is another sweet memory for every of us. I really can't remember when I had my first lantern, and it was either a butterfly or golden fish? And those colourful tiny candles for the lantern. A sweet childhood memory gone with the years.

            The lantern attracts not only children but also adult...

I'm sure many people still remember the self-made lantern with two condensed milk cans. One at the bottom as a wheel and another one on top - with the candle inside - rotates when we push the can-wheel...it was a big fun: the shrill sound from the cans, the noise from the kid's crowd running after the lantern. Today it's hard to see this kind of thing - the lantern made of cans. Out of date?

          Butterfly is one of most popular glass paper lantern, together with golden fish. 

It's good to have the traditional lantern back because just few years ago, everywhere was full of those ugly plastic lantern imported from China and the thought that the glass paper lantern may be gone forever scared me... so I'm happy to see it back and it seems that the youth loves it...hope it's not a  sudden temporary come-back. The lantern street in district 5 was so crowded last night, that I was almost stuck in the middle for almost half an hour.  Back to the old days I remember we even had a parade where hundred of kids holding the lantern, walking around the downtown of Saigon. It was very nice.

          The anger bird also becomes a lantern...very up-to-date tradition. 

           The plastic lantern still in display, but they no longer attracts the youth...

There is one thing more, it would be good if we could see it again in the future: small figurines made of clay or flour, very colourful, sometime they were decorated with feathers. They were mostly animals from the myth like the unicorn, the phoenix, the dragon...when I was a little kid, my mom took me a small shop, right at the corner, my eyes stared at these little animals, how much I wished to touch, to hold them in my hands. We called them "con giống". Nowadays I can't find it anywhere.

          Lương Nhữ Học street in district 5, turned into a lantern market, so crowded at night. 

           The young couples are looking for their favourite traditional fold type lantern... 

           A little girl seems get lost among these lanterns and the crowd...

              The famous lantern with moving figures inside - đèn kéo quân

One of my dream lantern was "đèn kéo quân", not because it looks gorgeous but because those rotating figures inside the lantern, I kept wondering why the horse running, why the human moving inside that red box...and that the only thing caught my attention and my desire to have one. As far as I remember there was only one time in my many-year life I got that đèn kéo quân.   

           another shop in Tran Hung Dao street...the sale suddenly getting busy in the last days...

The mid Autumn festival is very often accompanied by the rains as August is the peak of the raining season, it happened many times that we couldn't go out with friends, to light up our lanterns, waiting hopelessly for the rain stop...So, let's hope no rain  tomorrow, everyone can enjoy the lantern parade either in the neighbourhood or down to the Saigon centre, where I'm sure all the festival activities will cause the traffic. For me, I better stay at home to enjoy our homemade moon cake or the special moon cake that I bought for my nephew in occasion of his shop opening - a pig with her piglets, a symbol of prosperity.

          My homemade moon cake filled with mung bean, melon seeds and green tea flavor...

            or you may like the pig's family - a gift to my nephew. 

I actually don't like the words "sweet soup".
To me,  soup is always associated with something savoury!?
Sweet soup. Dessert soup. Or sweet dessert soup!
Anyway, chè is our traditional sweets!

Chè display at Bến Thành market! 

Very popular. One of the most "visible" street foods. Especially hawkers with sweet tofu.

Nowadays instead of traditional only two baskets hung at two ends of the long bamboo stick (i.e only two or three kinds of chè to carry, as maximum), street vendors have more "comfortable"vehicle.
The push cart with at least 4 or 5 shining stock pots with different chè!

We have chè for dessert! 
We prepare chè for special occasions! 
Lunar New Year. Death Anniversary. First Birthday for kids. Family gathering. Party!
Or whenever we wish our life sweeter! We need chè!

            Favorite for children's first birthday celebration - chè trôi nước 

Chè offers a big variety of tastes, recipes.
Most popular. Most simple. Sweet dessert soup with beans. Almost all kinds of beans!
Green bean. Red bean. Black bean. White bean (black eye pea). Moon bean (đậu ngự).
Soya bean (for tofu). Indian bean (đậu ván)... 

Sweet soup dessert with moon beans (chè đậu ngự) 

Everyone can cook. But to make it perfect, we better leave it with pro!
I remember when I was kid, I tried to cook some beans sweet soup. Either too sweet.
Or adding sugar too early, the beans remain hard (bị sượng)!

By the way, before exams, students love to have chè made from beans.
Because "beans" in Vietnamese is homonym with word "pass the exam"(đậu)! Good luck! 

My favorite ? Green mung bean with tapioca pearls and seaweed (kelp - khổ tai). Sweet tofu.
And no coconut milk cream added!

First favorite, sweet tofu with brown sugar sirup, ginger! Most visible sweet street food.

My second favorite - green mung bean with tapioca pearl, seaweeds. No added coconut cream!  

We still have sweet soup with fruits, grains, glutinous rice...
Banana sweet soup (chuối chưng) is all-time favorite! So popular, but here coconut sauce is required during cooking!
Pomelo (cooked with the pomelo's white inner skin - chè bưởi) 
Dried longan (chè nhãn nhục). Palmyra palm fruit (chè thốt nốt)

Sweet soup with dried longan and palmyra palm fruit vendor at Hòa Bình market! 

Lotus seed (chè hạt sen). Black sesame (chi ma fu), Peanut.
Sweet potato. Taro. Corn. Lotus tuber. Water chestnut. 

Pomelo sweet dessert soup - made of white inner skin of pomelo! Speciality from Huế! 

We have chè in Northern, Huế and Southern style.

Different recipes.
Some very unique (!) recipe in Central - sweet dessert soup with roasted pork! Never tried!
Or Cơm rượu, literally means rice alcohol. It's actually fermented cooked glutinous rice, served with green mung bean sticky rice (xôi vò). The sweet taste comes from rice during the fermentation process. Very special flavor, like sweet rice wine! Happened to me, I had a whole bowl, my face turned red and fell asleep! Don't eat too much, you can get drunk! 

Cơm rượu - fermented glutinous rice!  

Different names.
Some names very strange. Chè táo sọn. Chè thưng. I don't know why we call like this!
Some names remind the image. Chè trôi nước (floating in water). Chè hoa cau (areca palm's flower)

For to go.
Sweet dessert soup with banana (right) and chè táo sọn - areca palm's flower sweet soup (left) 

Talking about the name, I remember when I've been to Singapore for first time.
I went to the food court near to my hotel and saw "Bo Bo Cha Cha" sweet dessert soup in the menu!
The name itself is quite appealing! The colorful picture, above the counter, looks also nice! 
I ordered and to my great disappointment, it's just a sweet potato, taro cooked with coconut milk cream that we have exactly the same at home!
The only different thing is in Singapore it's served with ice!
Actually Chè can be served cold, with ice. Or hot!

We also have typical Chinese sweet dessert soup in Chinatown. I will have another post with more details about this sweets!

1. Beef noodles (Phở bò)
This could be the No 1 street food in Vietnam and most recognizable Vietnamese food outside of Vietnam. Originated from the North, but has found home in the South since long time, that's why we have "phở" in two different styles: northern and southern. According to some foodies, in Sài Gòn besides these two official northern and southern styles we still have some other "styles", but I would say it's more like taste. Good Phở should have all good three components: soup, beef and noodles! To me beef noodles should be a dish that inspires competitiveness and innovation in chefs, at that time everyone wants to claim the honor title "Beef noodles King"!   

                   Beef noodles at Phở Tàu bay 

2. Broken rice (Cơm tấm)
My all time favorite, but today "cơm tấm" is quite different and to be honest, I don't like it as before. Cơm tấm An Dương Vương or Kiều Giang are far from the best, too commercial! They make so many dishes to go with broken rice and by somehow it makes the broken rice lost the traditional taste as in the old days: broken rice with pork skin (cơm tấm bì) or egg cake (chả trứng)! But even saying so, I still can enjoy good cơm tấm at different places: simpler but more original! To me, most important for broken rice is the rice itself and fish sauce, flavorful rice and a little bit sweet, a little bit salty, a little bit spicy fish sauce and by the way don't forget to top broken rice with special minced green onion stirred in the oil (mở hành)!   

                Broken rice with roasted chicken, egg cake and pork skin at Ba Ghiền 

3. Sticky rice (Xôi) 
This is a great breakfast dish that give you a boost of added energy. Similar to beef noodles, sticky rice  also has two styles: northern and southern and they are quite different. Example, corn sticky rice (xôi bắp) in a northern style is very different from a southern and to me tastier! Sticky rice has sweet and salty. My favorite for sweet is a corn sticky rice in a northern style (xôi bắp), there is many things: softly cooked corn mixed with sticky rice, topped with green mung bean, tasty fried shallots, sugar. For salty one (xôi mặn), my choice could be a sticky rice with dried shrimp, chinese sausage, green onion stirred with oil, flavored with soy sauce.

              Sweet corn sticky rice in a northern style

               Sticky rice with chicken floss  

               Sweet sticky rice in a southern style

4. Saigon baguette (Bánh mỳ Sài Gòn)
Along with beef noodles, Saigon baguette (bánh mỳ Saigon) is the most famous dish outside of Vietnam, something that tourist rave and hype about. But in Sài Gòn to taste the best Bánh mỳ, you should know the place! Not every place! A good, warm and crunchy bread is filled with many things!   
It could be several kinds of Vietnamese pork ham, liver paste (pâté gan), veggies (cucumber, coriander, green onion, chili...) and sour things (đồ chua) which made from pickled shreds of carrot and white radish!

              Saigon baguette is filled with "everything" Bánh mỳ đủ thứ! 

5. Rice noodles (Bún) 
There is many dishes with rice noodles. Many! I tried to count but then gave up. Because living in Sài Gòn I may know only those popular dishes here, but in North or Central? Anyway to me most popular dish with rice noodles (bún) could be bún thịt nướng (rice noodles with grilled pork), bún riêu (rice noodles with sour crab soup), bún chả giò (rice noodles with deep fried spring rolls)! I personally select two to represent rice noodles: bún thịt nướng for rice noodles served without soup category and bún riêu for rice noodles served in soup category!   

             Rice noodles with grilled pork 

It would be a big miss if I don't mention a glorious dish from Huế, super popular in Saigon! Beef noodles in Huế style, same as traditional beef noodles that I list down on the top, we can have this bún bò Huế for breakfast, lunch or late dinner! The most distinctive is its flavor - thanks to the special Huế shrimp paste (ruốc Huế) and lemon grass added to the soup during cooking! 

           Beef noodles in Hue style - strong flavor and mildly spicy! 

             A popular rice noodles with sour soup, crab paste...bún riêu! 

6. Roll cake (Bánh cuốn) 
Again and again we have two different: roll cake in a northern style, filled with pork meat (bánh cuốn nhân thịt) and roll cake in a southern style - we call bánh ướt (wet cake!).  Both are made from rice, steamed and served with sweet, spicy fish sauce, ham and blanched bean sprouts, herbs. Both are most popular but wet cake (bánh ướt) could be more popular as street food in Sài Gòn as it's easy to sell from a moving cart! These days I saw many these carts on the street! 

             Roll cake in a southern style - we call "wet" cake (bánh ướt) 

             Roll cake filled with pork meat in a northern style at Thiên Hương

7. Papaya salad with pork liver (gỏi bò)
My childhood favorite snack and until now I'm happy to have it whenever I have a chance! Used to be one of the most popular snacks among the youth, esp. school teenagers. These days maybe the taste has been changed, we may not find this street stall selling this yummy papaya salad in front of many schools anymore but certain places are famous for this special salad. Made from shreds of young papaya, served in sour-sweet spicy sauce, topped with roasted peanut, Vietnamese basil, shrimp cracker and most important beef liver or lung (!?) that has been braised in secret aromatic dark sweet sauce with probably different spices!

              Green papaya salad topped with secret beef liver, peanut...

8. Big noodles (Bánh canh)
I love the big noodles or I always call it jokingly "udon" due to its jumbo size! Vietnamese udon or bánh canh! We have a quite large variation of bánh canh, depends on the area. In South we have bánh canh with pork knuckle (bánh canh giò heo), or with crab (bánh canh cua). Very popular. Then in Central we have bánh canh with crab in a Huế style or with snakehead (bánh canh cá lóc)...We even have sweet bánh canh in coconut soup, very tasty, the speciality from Mekong Delta! Bánh canh is good for breakfast or light meal before dinner! My all-time favorite is bánh canh with crab. The soup with crab meat, crab cake or some other stuffs, we need to add only some fresh chili, squeeze some drops of lime juice, all of it makes bánh canh heavenly good!   

            Vietnamese big noodles with crab (bánh canh cua)

         Big noodles with flower crab - another version from Central!

9. Yellow noodles  
Originated from China, but this noodles dish already found home in here, probably hundred years ago!
I did try yellow noodles in Beijing and in Hong Kong, I may prefer the Vietnamese version, probably I already used to the local taste here! Good for breakfast or late night meal! Yellow noodles can go with either seafood, chicken, pork or little of everything (mỳ đủ thứ). I love the noodles texture - should be a bit hard, not too soft! And, of course, the soup itself!   

              Yellow noodles with everything at Minh Ký Mì Gia! 

10. Fresh spring roll (Gỏi cuốn) 
If talking about the roll in Vietnam, it would take days...as we have so many things that we can roll in rice paper (bánh tráng)! The most popular among the rolls - deep fried spring rolls but as street food - by somehow fresh spring roll or we simply call "gỏi cuốn" - more popular!
Just a good rice paper, we roll with rice noodles, veggies and veggies, then cooked pork meat (thịt heo luộc) and cooked prawn! Dip sauce is sweet soy sauce mixed with chopped roasted peanut! 

               Summer roll as it's called on CNNGo - one of the world's 50 delicious foods! 

(*) The list still goes on! As we may end it up not with only 20 but 40! I don't know why 40! Could be 100? 100 street foods that we can't live without! It would be a good guidebook for any tourist in Vietnam!