Eating Viet Nam: Dispatches from a Blue Plastic Table

by Graham Holliday

The Hẻm Hoà Hưng market scythed a path down one concrete alleyway, midway along Hoà Hưng. In all, the market was little more than one hundred yards long. At the entry point were fruit sellers, vegetable stands, and butchers spread out to the main street, because there wasn’t enough space along the alley itself, especially at the weekend when the chợ (market) would double in size. If you want to really discover Việt Nam, it’s here in the dungeons, crannies, and sewer pipes of alleyway markets, like that on Hẻm Hoà Hưng, that you’ll find it. Not in the big brash markets of Sài Gòn, like Bến Thành. Nor in backpacker-land around Phạm Ngũ Lão Street, filled with dreadlocked travelers eating banana pancakes, trying hard to find themselves in budget accommodations. Nor will you find it on the slick and snazzy Đồng Khoi Street, nor on any number of central Sài Gòn thoroughfares. If I could ever say I discovered Việt Nam, it was on the Hẻm, specifically Hẻm 83 Hoà Hưng, where I really got to know the food makers of Sài Gòn. Hẻm 83 was a normal market, one of a slew in Sài Gòn, but it was our market, close to home.