Michael Sieburg

Food blogs are extremely helpful in navigating the food of Saigon. The first time I came across Noodlepie, I read it for two straight hours. It was my guide to Saigon’s restaurants when I lived here previously. EatingAsia was briefly based in Saigon but here long enough to point me to a delicious Bánh Cuốn restaurant last week. Next in Vietnam food blogs came Stickyrice, who does a great job covering Hanoi’s streets and restaurants. Then, when Noodlepie packed off to France, Gastronomy filled the Saigon food blog void. Unfortunately Gastronomony has since returned to the states but before leaving, she helpfully compiled a Saigon Top 10 list.

Tonight, I took her recommendation and went straight for the top: Cua Lột, or soft shell crab, served at 94 Đinh Tiên Hoàng, Q1. The soft shell crab with tamarind sauce was delicious. I snapped a photo and posted it below. Take a look at the first photo I posted though. The restaurant’s name is “Quán 94 Cũ”. Quán is restaurant. 94 is the street number. And cũ is old. My guess is that the restaurant was originally just “Quán 94″ but then someone saw how well it was doing and opened up a copycat restaurant nearby. Quán 94 then, to distinguish itself, put the “cũ” in the title so that people knew for sure where to go for the real deal.