When heading out for a seafood feast in Ho Chi Minh City Cathy Danh reckons it’s a case of the more the merrier, so make sure you bring your friends!
Be Oc is a bumpin’ sidewalk seafood joint in District 4 that I discovered a few weeks back while taking a xe om home from work. I returned last Saturday night for dinner with four friends in tow. Sidewalk seafood eateries in Saigon usually begin setting up shop at around 5pm. Menus tend to be heavy on the protein, light on the carbohydrates and cheap in the beer department. Talk about the perfect formula for getting extremely wasted!
The restaurant’s main clientele are chain smoking, beer guzzling middle-aged guys looking to relax after a hard day’s work. There’s also a spattering of families and women, and the occasional expatriate. I have found that it is really difficult in Vietnam to get waiters and waitresses’ opinions on the best dishes of the house. I’ve pretty much stopped asking because their response most of the time is “everything is good,” which isn’t the least bit helpful.
Directionless, my friends and I decided to order a slew of shellfish and crustaceans prepared in a variety of ways. We also ordered a large bowl of clam porridge to share and a couple hot vit lon (fetal duck eggs) for good measure.
Everyone thought that the snails sautéed in tamarind were stellar. In fact, one of my friends even proclaimed them to be the best thing he’s tasted in the country! The spicy, sweet and sour flavors hit all the right notes, and the little bits of rendered pork fat and garlic paired tastily with the tender snails.
Another highlight was the grilled mussels with scallion oil and crushed peanuts. The mussels were lightly cooked and smoky, while the peanuts and scallions provided depth and texture to the dish. It’s incredible how such simple ingredients can yield deliciously intricate flavours!
One of the most interesting dishes of the evening was the duck fetal eggs (hot vit lon), which is usually eaten fresh out of the shell with herbs, salt and pepper, but was dressed to the nines at Be Oc. The tamarind, fried shallots, peanuts and basil completely overpowered the defenseless duckling, which was actually not a bad thing because without adornments, the fetus looks like unappetising gray matter.
We finished off our seafood feast with piping hot clam porridge, which had an abundance of clams and subtle ginger and cilantro undertones. While hot porridge doesn’t usually appeal to me in the intense Saigon heat, the cool breeze blowing through District 4 this evening made it quite palatable. Be Oc is good times. Bring a posse of friends and order up a storm.
Be Oc, 58/53 Vinh Khanh street, D4, Ho Chi Minh City. You can read more about Cathy’s culinary adventures at gastronomy.wordpress.com
