The furthest thing from fine dining

No white tablecloths? No waiter service? . . . at Ben Thanh Market’s version of a food court would get stained and dirty within minutes of exposure to the market.

A bustling ambiance in Ben Thanh Market’s food court. — Photo: Jessica Nguyen

Once you step within a few feet of the food court, you will be hassled by women who are all competing for you to eat at their carts. Don’t be alarmed when two or three grab your arm and try to pull you to their carts or start shouting inches from your face, “Banh Cuon? Pho? Noodles?” They think that once they have you sitting, they’ve won. The key to resisting is to avoid eye contact. It’s pretty easy to do that once your eyes catch a glimpse of some of the products that the vendors choose to show in their display windows: intestines, chicken feet, etc. My advice is to decide what you want to eat or have a general idea of the type of food you feel like having before venturing anywhere near this area because indecision will get you pushed down on a stool, eating something that you did not want in the first place.

The ladies with carts on the outer perimeter of the food court have prime real estate because they have first dibs on catching the hungry. Don’t settle for what you see at first but penetrate the outer barrier to get yourself into the mass of carts. You will find almost every typical Vietnamese dish in this area. Most are in small portions but for the price of one dish, getting two or three to satisfy your hunger won’t even begin to make a dent in your pocket.

Looking sideways to your dining partner due to the positioning of the seats is not optimal for conversation, but gives you a unique perspective as your food gets cooked. Hey, you’ve been talking to your companion for the better part of your trip, haven’t you? Time for a little break from your travel buddy to focus on how the food is prepared (and maybe the sanitation as well) with a front seat to the show on your metal stool.

After you’ve gone shopping in Ben Thanh Market, don’t take your exhaustion from bargaining to a nice restaurant with chairs that feel like clouds and the perfect temperature set by air conditioning. Instead, complete the Ben Thanh experience with a stop at HCMC’s food court.

VietNamNet/SGT

By Jessica Nguyen

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Tags: Food Court

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