This week our honourable external affairs minister headed to Vietnam to further bilateral relations between our two countries. We being the upstanding citizens that we are, decided to build on her efforts and we headed to Little Saigon. A Vietnamese eatery so small it needs to expand to qualify for a hole in the wall status. In order to strengthen our delegation we also invited two special guests to join in our Jam Session, or maybe we did it so we could order more food :).
Little Saigon has been around for over 2 years but has somehow escaped my attention even though I would have crossed it several times at the Hauz Khas market. Started by the head chef at Blue Ginger, Hana Ho, it offers a small selection of Vietnamese food. Manav being a regular, insisted we try this place and I am glad we gave in and other than him it was a first for the rest of us. The place itself is a small, 12 seater eatery built for function not for offering a weary traveller a comfortable place to rest, the place is built for eating. Its not for the faint hearted, non adventurous eater or a vegetarian, if the look of the place won’t drive them away, the smell will. And then carnivores like us have a run of the place because other than the smell, what comes out of the teeny tiny kitchen is simply outstanding food.
We put ourselves in the chef’s hands and told her to just bring out all the food she wants us to try, with a special focus on Pork, and she went away into the kitchen rubbing her hands in glee. She also took care to keep the shellfish away from some of the food so Amit who is allergic would not need to worry.
The food onslaught began pretty quickly and when she said they are well known for their pork, she wasn’t kidding. The pork dishes were superb and all of us were in prefect agreement about the food. EVERYTHING except one item was stellar and hit the mark of the stand out dish which would take us back.
My absolutely favourite item was the pork belly, marinated and roasted beautifully resulting in a non stop porky experience. And the pork came with its own skin in the game :) so if that puts you off then thats just too bad. This did not stay in the dish for too long and we had to order a repeat of this soft succulent delicacy. Just writing about it now makes me want to rush back there and eat some more.
The most surprising item for me was the roast chicken. Now chicken is something we normally don’t order but since we were trying things we ordered the Mekong Roast Chicken from her specials. It came looking beautiful with a vibrant red sauce on top, which is her own creation. Its the texture and flavour of the chicken that took me by surprise, very meaty and with a smoky look on the pieces it tasted great with the accompanying pancake which looked very much like string hoppers.
The other things that stood out from a group of food that was already standing out, the Braised Pork in Clay Pot, the Grilled Fish and the Steamed Rice Cake stuffed with Chicken.
The food service is very fast so when I say we were there for more than 2 hours, you have to believe there was a lot of food. We only left because the chef dropped some not so subtle hints for us to get out LOL.
Little Saigon is a perfect example of what a chef run eatery is like. It also shows what a chef is capable of when unshackled from the corporate regulations and scrutiny. Here she makes food she likes, the way she likes. It was like visiting her home, she is very friendly and hospitable. Word of warning, she knows some Hindi ;).
This is a must visit for anyone looking for great Vietnamese food that is not far from a street eatery in Saigon.
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