Street Food $1 MENU in China Town!! (Vietnam)

In this video, we've come to Saigon, Vietnam, to take on their street food dollar menu here in Chinatown. Saigon is known for having many districts. Right now, I'm in district five, the district that has Chinatown. Food in Chinatown is really very different from anywhere else in the city or anywhere else in the country. You're getting the best fusion, the best mix of Chinese and Viennese slammed together. Right now, we're not just in the largest Chinatown in Vietnam, it's also one of the largest in the world. Today, I'm not only on a mission to show you the very unique food you can find in this area, but also food that is very inexpensive. Some of it is under a dollar, most of it is under two. So what can you get for just a buck or two here in Chinatown? Let's go find out. We have come to our first stop on these busy, bustling streets of Saigon and our first food stall right here. Here, they're selling street-side dim sum, probably the cheapest dim sum you're gonna find anywhere in the city. As you pass by, you can look into their display case and see a little bit of what they have to offer. We have that, hot. Yes, these are, in fact, chicken feet with black mushroom. Right here, that's a dim sum. That's another dim sum. Right up here, that's also dim sum. We're gonna go inside, because that's where the real magic happens. This is the dim sum that's uncooked. From here, everything moves over there to the steaming section. You can see this is a guy's back. What do you have here, sir? We have a siu mai, it's wrapped. This type of wrap, shrimp and pork. Sir, what is your favorite? I don't like, no. I think you said he doesn't like dim sum. I get it. You're surrounded by dim sum constantly. How can you really, truly appreciate dim sum? New dim sum just dropped. So right here, we have some mob crab, pork, and fish. All of it wrapped up right here. I've been told to be careful. It is very slippery here. This has just finished. He gives each of the dim sums a little pinch on their butt and he knows they're absolutely done. He moves it away. This one is ready to go. Boom, throws that on the steamer. A secondary one. He prepares that. That goes on the steamer as well. Cover it up, crank up the heat, and that is ready to steam. All right, folks, we have our first meal of the day right here. First of all, let's talk about price. This right here is the most expensive, coming in at $1.60. That is our shrimp shumai. Then the other three are all $1.47. So a little bit over our $1 budget. What are you gonna do? Inflation, man. At least what they're not doing here is shrinking the size of their dim sum. I wanna start with the two kind of classic dim sum foods. Those are hagao and shumai. The hagao right here, they are delicate, translucent shrimp dumplings typically made with a thin, almost see-through wrapper of wheat starch dough. That's amazing. I cannot lie. That is very good. Big chunks of shrimp, it's bouncy, a nice, chewy kind of wrapper on the outside, and it's full of garlic. I really enjoyed that. Give it a little bit of a bath in the soy sauce. For $1.47, this is worth it. The fact that you're coming off the street, you don't have to deal with any hassle, getting menus, getting a drink order. You just point to the food that you want, and within minutes, you're in this situation like I am eating delicious dim sum. Right here, we have shumai. These shumai are gigantic. They're massive. I've never seen any this big. This is a type of open-top dumpling popular in Cantonese cuisine. Unlike many that are closed, this one is open. If you look inside, you can clearly see a giant, bouncy shrimp and just a load of pork. I've never seen shumai like this that is a double-biter. You cannot get this in one bite. Let's go for it. Oh, my Lord. I am moving to Chinatown. The shrimp is bouncy and succulent, and the pork inside, take a look, guys. It's kind of half soft, half hard, like a gooey, porky meatball full of fish sauce, so it's partially sweet, partially savory, and 100% delicious. So these are the two classics. They're amazing. And then we have some I've not really seen before, maybe some of their own inventions right here, some mock crab, a bunch of pork, and then I'm told seaweed wrapped around the outside. Now, I know I got the soy sauce, but these are all so flavorful, it doesn't require any extra salt or seasoning. Let's go for it. The same porky goodness from the shumai, but then you've got a long stick of mock crab in there, like a powerful eye-peem in one of the Twin Towers. I shouldn't say that. Finally, we have this right here. Now, this is something peculiar because this is also called shumai in Vietnam. It's essentially a pork meatball. Let's give it a shot. Warm, succulent, dripping with animal fats. For this food experience, it's all about that burst of animal flavor coming out of each bite, and this exemplifies that perfectly. This is round one. We have a lot more to see, and we have a lot more, not much money to spend because it's gonna be pretty cheap overall today, is the point. Let's move. All right, folks, we have come to our second location right behind me, Banh Cuon. Hoang Dong. Hoang Dong is Cantonese. Banh Cuon is a famous food in Vietnam. This is a steamed rice roll, and here, they put fun things inside of it. The fun part about this place is they make it before your very eyes. When you order it, that's when they start making it. Right here, you can see all the fresh ingredients. These will be kind of the stuffing options for your Banh Cuon. But before you see how the Banh Cuon is made, I wanna tell you why you never have to buy another SIM card again. A big thank you to Saili for sponsoring this video. All right, besties, let's go on a visual journey. 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And listen, whether you're on an iPhone or an Android, no judgment, Saili has your back. And if by chance your phone is not compatible, full refund, they are that confident. Even more confident than me when I try to pull off a turtleneck. So scan the QR code or click the link in the description and use our code MBEFRS to get 15% off your Saili data plan. Make your future trips easier. Download Saili and stay connected. Now, back to the show. The most fun part about this place is this right here. It's a drawer for steaming. So now let's get into seeing how the roll is made. First he puts on a layer of oil, and then this right here from that red bucket is some rice batter. The batter goes on the drawer shelf. First he puts on a little bit of scallion, hits the egg with the spoon. He drops it on top. He smooshes it and pushes it around the tray. And then he has to pull out another drawer while putting that one inside. So we're just gonna wait a little while for that to steam all the way through. Boom, ours just came out of the drawer just like that. The rice batter has cooked, it's become translucent. And now he splits it down the middle. It gives it a little bit of a roll. He puts each piece side by side, and then he transfers it to its final destination. Oh, and then he moves it out of the shot. And then he moves it over to here. And then he gives it to this lady. And then the steam messes up the shot. And then this lady grabs it. And then she tries to hand it to me. Okay, I think that went pretty smoothly. Boom, we've got our first course right here. Come and take a look. What I like about this one is that it costs 99 cents. So people are gonna say, ooh, street food dollar menu. Sonny, everything was over a dollar. Nay, this one was not. Oh my! Good and bad. The problem is this is a flavor vehicle, but it's not flavor in itself. So you have to add the flavor to it. I'm gonna hit it with a little bit of soy sauce. And I wanna hit it with the sauteed dude to see what happens. Bingo, sauteed, spicy, greasy, hot, oily. Then you got some nice salt coming from the soy sauce too. This is good. It's very pleasant. This is a delightful combination of Vietnamese and Chinese. It's also amazing just to see it made before your very eyes. And also, what could be cooler than a drawer that steams food? I've got drawers at home. They hold underwear. I wish they cooked underwear. Cool. So that is our very affordable 99 cent egg banh cuon. But I'm told they have one here that has everything. Let's check it out. All right, folks, we're heading back for round two. He dumps the rice batter out over the whole shelf. Time for green scallion. A little bit of a hit of an egg. A couple of shrimpies come next. This here is a bit of beef. Then he's moving on to the minced pork. Right here we have the char siu. This thing is fully loaded with meat. Take a look at that. Time to put it into the steaming drawer. Time has passed and it's time to come out. Right here are meat lovers rolled up. Take a look at all that meaty glory. He splits it in half. Then he rolls this one up. He puts them together like twins in the womb. From here it all heads to our plates and that is ready to eat. Come on. This is like Vietnam's version of a meat lover's pizza. It's got everything in there. We've got stuff from the sea, from the land, from the air. Nothing from the air unless this cow went skydiving. Which I like to imagine, but there's no way that could end well. When you look at it, it looks kind of like the last one. It doesn't seduce you with the visual. That's kind of why you need to see it being made before your eyes. Because I know that sneaking deep down is delicious protein. Like this right here. A big beautiful piece of shrimp sitting atop that steamed rice. Hit it with a little bit of soy sauce. Now let's throw it back. This is so much better. And also the meat they put in there, the beef, the pork, it's marinated. There's kind of sweetness that's penetrated the entire roll everywhere. Here's the chasu or sasu, depending on which country you're in. It looks like we've got some beef there too. Oh my God. A whole new experience. Very beefy, but super oily too. I don't like it as much as pork, but it's nice to switch it up. It's good to have something a little bit different. Each bite is a different flavor experience. You never know what you're going to get until you put it in your mouth. Like going into the bathroom and staring at a grill. What? This is our second location, but we have a lot more to see today and a lot more money to not spend because everything is very cheap. Let's keep moving. We have gone to our third destination, moving from steamed delights to something fried. Right here, a food called pan tiu. This is going to be one of our most affordable foods today. You get four for $1. But what is it? It's kind of like a donut, but what they're putting inside, they're dropping in pieces of the stinkiest fruit in all of Asia. Let's see how it's made. First of all, the ingredients. This is the wheat wrapper on the outside. And this is the heart or the meat of the durian that's been blended up so it can be scooped with a spoon. Step one, she takes a PVC pipe and she rolls out a piece of that dough. From there, she takes a scoop of the durian and she puts it inside. Just a nice little stinky dollop. She crimps the edge, but just barely and puts that on the side. All right, folks, it's time. We have our dough. It's stuffed with the durian. He takes each one. He crimps them even more by hand. And then he slips them right into that sizzling hot oil. From here, you can see the color begin to change over time. They go from this pale, sickly looking color to a gorgeous golden brown. After only about two to three minutes of frying, they are ready. He takes them out. He puts them in the strainer so they can drip some of the oil out. Nom nom. I'm good at Vietnamese. Let's eat. All right, folks, I am very excited to try this out. A moment ago, when I saw the dough, the sesame seeds were imperceptible, but now they are popping against that golden brown backdrop. I want to rip it open for us to see it together. Boom, there it is. Steamy. You can see the fibers of the durian and kind of the steamy thickness of that bread. Uh-oh, I cheated. I took a bite already. A little bit of a bite. I just got a mini taste. Let's give it a shot for real. Mm, that is so good. Now I know why this food is an absolute hit. First of all, durian. Let's talk about it. I've seen foreigners eating durian on the internet and they're literally throwing it up. They can't handle it. And then there's me and most of Vietnam, folks who absolutely love durian. It's fresh, it smells like overripe melons, and it adds just a perfect hint of fruity flavor to a delicious fried bread. And listen, stinky's not always bad. That's what I tell my wife when we wake up in the morning. And we meet, of course, we sleep in different rooms. Should we be in the same room by now? We've been married like three years. Come to think of it, how'd she get pregnant? She's gonna kill me. All right, just kidding, wife. For 25 cents, absolutely delicious. I'm gonna get four more for the road and we are gonna head to our next destination. Let's keep moving. Boom, we've come to our fourth location. Right behind me is something very special. A similar cart in that it's very small, condensed, and it's got wheels. If this lady needs to make a break for it, she can. All you gotta do is hook up a donkey to this thing and you are outta here. I've not seen any donkeys though. Actually, how does she move this? This food is something very special and something I've not seen before. This is called banh to chai. Chai means vegetarian. It's like pounded sticky rice that's become kind of a glue. That goes into a wok with oil. Right here, you can see the wok. In here, this is a giant, massive blob of sticky rice with oil on the bottom and she keeps flipping it every time somebody orders so that the new, freshly cut section becomes golden and crispy. Piece by piece, she is cutting thin layers of this crispy, sticky rice. Then she drags it through a combination of sugar and crushed peanuts. Finally, the last step right here, she puts on some crushed peanuts and then a little sprinkle of black sesame and that, my friends, is complete. All right, guys, there is so much that I love about this food right here. First of all, the price. It costs only 60 cents, much less than $1. The second thing, I lived in Vietnam for coming on nine years and I've never seen any kind of food-making technique like this. It's all about the texture. It's all about those edges and layers of crunchiness. What do I love after that? The best thing you can pair with sticky rice is sugar and crushed peanuts. That's so satisfying. It is a combination of textures and that's what I appreciate about Vietnamese food. They don't just pay attention to the flavor profile or balance between sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. They also pay attention to texture. Here you're getting that mochi on one side. It's a little bit more gooey and soft. On the other side, crispy, but you're getting them both together at the same time. The sugar is heated up by the hot mochi that's been frying and it almost melts on your tongue the moment you take a bite. Amazing. So that is the pounded rice before it's been fried up at all. This rice, are you pounding it or do you buy it already pounded? Oh, it's not pounded? Guys, breaking story. This is not even pounded rice. What she's done here is she's taken a rice batter made from rice flour and she's steamed it. So much like two locations ago where they had the big sheets. So much like too late. She's like, you can do it. So much like two locations ago where they were taking steamed rice and putting it into big sheets, she is doing that on a thick steamed rice scale. On to our next food here in Chinatown. I'm Sonny reporting live from five weeks ago. Our next location is right behind me. Now the last two places were a little bit cheaper because they didn't have any animal products, but this place solves that problem. Here they have a bird that costs a little bit more than $1. It's called an egg-hugging quail. We're gonna go inside and see how they are prepared in the kitchen. First of all, everyone's wearing pajamas. I'm not sure why. They're not actually quite open yet. So right here, we have the quail. It is bubbling with delicious Vietnamese seasonings and flavors. Once the quails come out of that, they remove all the eggs, cut them up, then they refry the quails and they take different eggs and mix them with these quails. All right, here we go, guys. We have our birds right here. We're gonna have four done at one time. I'm told this is a butter sauce or perhaps an oil. And the first thing she does is actually cut the birds. Now the quails are inside frying in that butter. All this while she answers calls from a call center. It's amazing, the multitasking. At last, the food has finished frying. Now piece by piece, she separates the random cut portions of quail and puts them onto a tray. From here, she grabs different sizes of unlaid eggs and then those hit the margarine as well. She gives them a little bit of a dip, heats them up, and they join the bird and some of them join the ground. At last, that is ready to eat. Our food is right here. Let's get into it. This is four different quails plus a random assortment of eggs. Now what's wild about these eggs is we have everything from like a pea-sized egg all the way to something like this, an egg that is still literally stuck in the intestine. Now, if you didn't know, when it comes to birds like this, there's not a separate egg hole. It comes right out the butt. Everything that was in its digestive tract, it is here, and I'm gonna be eating that soon. But first, let's try some quail meat. I'm gonna try peeling the meat off with my teeth. Let's go for it. It's very small. Prices go up substantially when you're eating things that used to be alive. Ooh, yeah, this is some hip meat. Meaty, the skin almost busts open when you bite it, like biting into a good German sausage. It's a oily, fat meat. I like it. If you're Peter Dinklage and you're bodybuilding four quails a day, you're good on protein. So right here, we have that pea-sized egg. Now, I've had something like this before with a chicken, but never with a quail, and it's delicious. I absolutely love it. Now, moving on to this, an unlayed quail egg. You can see some thin part of the egg has poked through. The rest are intestines all around it, and when I push it like this, I can actually feel the shell inside breaking into a thousand pieces. Cheers. Oh, wow, I can't believe how much I love it. It busted open like a soft-boiled egg. It was still kind of liquidy in the middle. It's not cooked all the way through. The intestine has a nice taste to it. It's a little bit livery, but otherwise fatty and nice to chew on, and then that shell on the outside kind of disintegrates in your mouth. For a little bit more than a dollar, you are not just getting food, you're getting an iconic culinary experience that few others around the world have ever had, or, let's be honest, would ever want to have. So this is location five, but we still have more food to see and more money to save. Let's keep moving. All right, we have come to our next food destination. Right here is something special that I've never seen before. It's called Manhey. That translates to something like chive cake. Here they have a few different types of cakes. If you take a look in here, this big, beautiful bowl, this is a steamed rice batter on the outside creating a wrapper around the filling on the inside. All right, so right now he's already got some on the flat top, and he's giving me one of each right here. One full of chive, one full of taro, and one full of cassava. Listen, this is not diet food. This is a fun, yummy snack to get at the end of the workday or after school. That's what this is meant to do. It's meant to fill that lonely hole in your body and your stomach. As he continues to cook, that steamed rice batter wrapper is really getting crispy on the outside. Now it's time for an egg. Is there anything better than seeing an egg broken in way too much oil? He takes all three of those hockey pucks, he puts it on top of the egg. He gives it a little bit of a flip, and he transfers it over here to a plate. Come on, hun. And he says nothing back. My Vietnamese is really getting good. Really, it's good to connect with the locals. All right, folks, this is what's so fun about going around Chinatown, because I and my camera guy, who is a legitimate Vietnamese person, have never seen this before. This is a food of the Hakka people in China, not to be confused with the Hak Tua people of the USA. Hak Tua. There's not a ton of flavor here, so they give you a couple of options. One, a load of super fresh ground up chilies, and then this right here, some sweet fish sauce. Ooh, this looks like very sugary. Listen, I'm not afraid of a little bit of spice. Some call me Mark Wiens times two. Come on, let's load this up. So of the three flavors, this is the most popular kind of classic one. This one is full of chives. We've got some egg underneath. Let's give it a shot. Oh yeah, chives, truly classic. You cannot go wrong with that. Is there any meat here? No, that's why it's so affordable. Oh wait, I guess an egg. Is egg meat? Next one right here. This looks like the cassava. You can see the egg here. You can see the stuffing on the inside here. Let's give it a shot. Oh, very different experience. I do like the chive more. That's not bad. It's very starchy. It doesn't have a ton of flavor to it. I would say if you're going anywhere outside of the chive territory, you've got to add some other flavors. Maybe you've got to dump even more chilies on there if you can handle it. Oh, she's taking my chili. Careful. This last one right here, this is taro. Oh yeah, there you go. Kind of purplish, beautiful egg on this side. When Chinese people aren't putting taro in dessert, they're putting it in this, I guess. Let's try it out. Oh, that's really good. So I'm told that beyond taro, it just has dry shrimp. So I guess that's enough to give it some animal flavor and to give it that depth of umaminess. I can't believe how good that is. It's a wonderful trifecta and it's nice because with every bite, you get to try something new. Incredible. Let's keep moving. All right, folks, it is 4.42 p.m. It is rush hour, as you can see from all the ruckus around me. But behind me, a restaurant with a story. Just a couple of weeks ago, I was in Japan where I was eating one of the most coveted parts of the cow, the cow tongue. Well, behind me, they're also serving tongue, but not from a cow. It's a pig tongue. This is a wok frying restaurant. We're gonna head there now and see how they fry up this beautiful ingredient. Oh, it all starts with a little bit of oil. Then he throws in an egg yolk and then he's got the fried rice here with some seasoning powder already on top. So, oh my God, the rice is done. All right, so right here, we have our beautiful pork tongue. It all starts with oil. He hits it with a little bit of garlic. And then right here, we have vegetables going in, including pickles and onion. The tongue is finally waiting for its turn to shine. Boom, it goes in. The smells here are amazing. It's very spicy. He hits it with a little bit of broth. Into his giant spoon here, he puts some soy sauce and the holy trinity of flavor, salt, sugar, and MSG. Boom, that is complete. And then our tongue heads to our plate. Time to go try it out. All right, folks, I don't even know which location we're at anymore, but this looks incredible. We've got succulent, glistening meat. We've got fried rice. And the best part of all of this is that it costs only a little bit over $2. That is so insanely affordable. Now, the big question on everybody's mind is, the tongue, is it yummy? I'm gonna find out. Let's eat the rice. What I was told is that the rice was colored with food dye. Is that true? It was already yellow before he put it into the wok. What would Uncle Roger think about that? Pre-dyed fried rice? Haiyaa. But that doesn't mean it can't be delicious, right? Try it out. It's simple, but it's delicious. It's heavy. It's got that smoky wok hay. And it's got next to it, the perfect partner in crime, pork tongue. When we saw the tongue, it had already been boiled for some time. The tongue from the pig, not exactly the most revered piece of tongue in the world, but we're gonna give it a shot anyways and see how it tastes. Let's go for it. That's a good tongue. The one I had in Japan, that was a Wagyu tongue. It was a thick cut and it had a nice dense texture to it. This here is something a little bit different. You definitely taste the pork. I wouldn't call this a super clean flavor, but I don't mind a little bit of porky gaminess. Plus, you can always wash it down with one of these, an adult beverage. From here, I'm gonna throw this in my backpack and I'm gonna head to a different location where I'm gonna get a seafood that costs only a couple of dollars. Let's move to our final meal. We are in the kitchen of our next location, our final location, and right here, we have a special treat starting with egg. Right here, we have a pile of oysters being scooped into the egg. He hits it with some green onions and some pepper. Finally, we've got our concoction, our mixture right here, and that is gonna go on the hot plate and it is gonna sizzle away. So what's amazing about this is the sheer number of oysters inside of this omelet. There's gotta be 30 to 40 oysters. From there, he has kind of an egg slurry that he puts on top of it. It looks to be a combination of eggs and also rice batter. Epic flip. This side looking nice and tan. He cuts it in half, hits it with even more oil. He flips it once again and now more egg slurry going on top. At last, the omelet is complete. Let's go try it out. All right, folks, this is our final affordable meal of the day, but our most expensive one, breaking the bank at just under $3. But look at what you get for that. I mean, this is an amazing seafood dish. Oh, look at this greasy beauty. It is so heavy. Oh, you can see oysters peeking out right there. We're gonna hit it in some fish sauce and throw back that giant bite. Delicious. I love it. A little bit on the rare side, if I'm honest. These oysters are so cute. They are absolutely the right size for an oyster omelet pancake. This is a wonderful dish and the perfect way to either end your day or start your evening. So far today, we've gone to eight locations, but I wanna tell you which one I thought was absolutely the most worth it for the low, low price. Let's go do that now. Boom, today was all about the most affordable street food you can find here in Chinatown in Vietnam. If I had to choose one food to eat again, it would absolutely be that dim sum, baby. I think that might be some of the best dim sum I've ever had in my life. I can't believe how good it was. It was flavorful. It was poppin'. It had pork. It had fat. It had everything going for it. I'm gonna go back there now, buy about 20 more, and take them home to eat with my wife. Anyways, let me know if you wanna see another video like this. I hope you enjoyed this street food dollar menu. Otherwise, that is it for this video. Thank you so much for watching. I'll see you next time. Peace. All right, let's walk into traffic. Ah, ah, ah. Damn it, I lived. Now what?