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MAGAZINE / LIVING / A Chef's Guide
Friday 09 Sep, 2011LIVING
A Chef's Guide
Australian-Vietnamese chef Bien Nguyen gives us tasty tips on the city’s top eatsBien Nguyen, the chef and owner of much-praised Xu Restaurant & Lounge, has no shortcuts when it comes to finding a city’s best eateries. “You spend time just going to spots,” he says. “There are no real telltale signs. It’s more about the first experience. Regardless of what the place looks like, if you have great experience, then you know it’s good.”
Born in Perth to Vietnamese parents, Bien has worked in the restaurant industry since he left school at age 15. He has travelled, lived and worked throughout Southeast Asia and Eastern Australia, and managed the prestigious Opera Bar on Sydney Harbour before alighting in Ho Chi Minh City in 2006 to open Xu.
We enlisted Bien to be our foodie guide to Saigon, getting his recommendations on everything from street food to the best late night bites.
My favourite plastic-stool street eat:
At Ben Thanh market, the banh cuon place, by where they sell all the cane baskets. It’s the best banh cuon. It was actually a recommendation from my mum; on her birthday she used to make my siblings take her there.
Recently I've been eating at:
La Cusine, they use great produce in their dishes, I also like to support small businesses.
(48 Le Thanh Ton Street D1)
The best value deal at the moment in town:
Cocktails in general are all under five bucks. If they’re over that, people start complaining. We’re spoiled here!
My go-to spot for fresh ingredients:
Ben Thanh market. I used to go out there to check out the fresh seafood. For veggies, Dalat now has some organic vegetables… and all the mulberries and strawberries. Definitely fresh veggies and fruit from Dalat.
Gourmet ingredients?
Veggy's (29A Le Thanh Ton, D1)
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For drinks with friends I go to:
Amber Room or Xu
When I want late night food:
Room service! Sometimes we try and force ourselves into a hotel, and argue that if they’re serving room service, they can serve us something. Otherwise, I haven’t been for a long time, but that Chinese restaurant on Nguyen Trai that everyone goes to [Tan Hai Van, 162 Nguyen Trai].
My favorite place for breakfast:
I don’t eat breakfast. Lunch is my first meal of the day.
The best meal I’ve had recently that cost over 100 bucks:
Where can you even spend more than 100 dollars in Ho Chi Minh? It’s tough! We were at a restaurant in Paris called Citron. I think that was about 400 euros per person, including wine. It was food beautiful – the food style of that chef is my style. All the citrus… I love acidic things naturally. The produce was so beautiful over there.
When friends are in town, I take them to:
The Park Hyatt, or Xu.
The first time you go to Xu, you should order:
Some of our signature dishes. The tuna spring roll with tuna tartar, flash fried. The seasoning is citrus-y with pepper sauce, and orange soy dipping sauce.
Also, our pork belly, which is braised in coconut juice. It’s very Vietnamese. And our chicken roulade, which is Vietnamese herbs, garlic, ginger, lemongrass all ground into a paste. We put it in the middle and roll it up, roast it in a pan and finish it in the oven.
What HCMC restaurants generally struggle with:
The attention to detail in operations is not quite there yet in Vietnam in general. We need more operational champions to lead the way, and to put together solid training programs to take food and beverage service to the next level.
For instance, at Xu, we blindfold our staff and drop knives, forks and spoons to get them to train their ears for that kind of thing. We have them guess whether it was a fork or a spoon, or whatever. We also retrain our staff to walk – to lift their feet, not do the Vietnamese shuffle. Details like that.
Whats missing from the HCMC food scene?
Greek Food.
Food trend prediction for 2012?
Globally I think we'll be seeing simple food at affordable prices, moving away from the concept of 150USD plates.
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